2024 Lexus RC F Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The 2024 Lexus RC F is offered in base trim, with the Premium Package, with the Carbon Package, or in Track Edition, which is what we drove. All four trims feature the large Lexus spindle grille which looks familiar on its own, maybe a little dated when viewed alongside other contemporary Lexus models. That’s because the RC F is still in its first generation and the 2019 facelift was rather subtle, making this a nearly-10-year-old design. It’s aged well, though.

As one might expect, the sportier RC F coupe is a bit lower and wider than the regular RC sedan. In fact, it varies by just .2 inches in each direction, but on our RC F Track Edition test car, the difference was much more noticeable than you’d expect from those ostensibly insignificant numbers. The coupe features all the sports-car styling cues that are classics for a reason: long hood, wide hips, short rear end. The Track Edition’s standard carbon fiber hood, roof, and rear wing certainly contribute to the overall impression of race-readiness. We liked that these components were less starkly obvious in Caviar, which is new to the performance variant, than they would be on a car painted, say, Ultra White.

Black 19-inch BBS wheels are standard on every 2024 RC F, but each trim gets its own wheel style. They include silver machined-finish accents with the Premium Package, while the Track Edition gets a spidery-looking ultra-lightweight version. Every RC F comes standard with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires.

Like its exterior, the RC F’s interior could be called “dated” or “nostalgic,” depending on your perspective. We tend to feel that the glass is half full when we’re piloting a sleek and powerful sports car, and we appreciated the serviceable cabin for its straightforward simplicity. There’s none of the bloat or gadgetry you find in most cars flying off the lots in 2024, and even the many blue “F” accents are dark enough to avoid outright flashiness. We found the front bucket seats to be nicely proportioned, with bolstering in all the right places. Of course, everyone’s built differently, and you’ll want to carefully assess your own comfort level in these seats if the RC F is on your shopping list. All that can be said about the back seats is that they are very tight, but we suspect they exist only as a concession to insurance rates anyway.

Open the hood of the 2024 RC F, and a luminous blue sheen will likely catch your eye: It’s the manifold peeking through from beneath the plastics. There lurks a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 engine. This is the same motor Lexus puts in its LC 500, as well as in hotter variants of the Lexus IS sedan. It’s powered the RC F since its debut for the 2015 model year, and it sets the RC F clearly apart from vehicles like the RC 350 F Sport and its V6 powertrain. Here, the mighty V8 makes 472 horsepower and 395 lb-ft of torque, allowing it to propel the Track Edition coupe from zero to 60 mph in fewer than four seconds, and it sounds spectacular while doing it–we only wish the car had a louder exhaust mode option to let us hear even more of that sweet symphony.

Every RC F is rear-wheel-drive (RWD), naturally, with a standard Torsen limited-slip differential, and gets high-performance Brembo brakes. Take it from us: The Track Edition’s upgraded carbon-ceramic brakes do not appreciate traffic jams, and they will protest loudly when they get cold. Every RC F variant also comes equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission. While there is no pure manual option, paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel do allow for driver input. However, we found the transmission surprisingly slow to respond, requiring us to request shifts earlier than we normally would. Ultimately, it wasn’t worth the hassle, but if we lived with this car full-time and planned to get it out on a track, we absolutely would put in the effort to adapt to its decision-making pace.

The RC F’s luxury coupe nature might sound like a liability for a sports car, but even in the Track Edition, we found it to be a boon. The ride is far more comfortable than we expected, and the standard F-Adaptive Variable Suspension handles bumps admirably. Steering is direct and responsive but stays this side of twitchy, and the cabin is surprisingly quiet. Overall, the RC F manages to offer both comfort and thrills, which is not something we’ve said often.

We’ve established that the RC F is a sports coupe. It therefore has just two doors, so whether you need rear-seat space for passengers or gear, you’ll have to fold the front seats forward to access the back. A simple strap with a magnetic closure keeps the front seatbelts aligned with the headrests. This makes it very easy to move them quickly out of the way, but we did find that the magnet can be a little too eager to give up for our liking, particularly if your driving position requires the seat to be further forward from the seatbelt’s anchor point on the B-pillar. With the seatbelt out of the way, we had only to pull the lever on the shoulder and tilt the seatback forward. This cues the powered seat to slide up to the front of the vehicle, opening space behind. When it’s time for the front seat to resume its position, the memory function replaces it so that no further manual adjustments are necessary.

We did note that the shape and position of the front passenger’s seat interfered with visibility over the driver’s right shoulder. We found this to be true regardless of where the driver’s and passenger’s seats were positioned relative to one another–and, of course, with total interior volume measuring just 79.4 cubic feet, there really isn’t a ton of space to maneuver. Trunk space is certainly nothing spectacular, but it’s also not terrible for this vehicle of this type and purpose. Total cargo volume measures 10.1 cubic feet, embarrassing next to the BMW M4’s 15.5 but acceptable compared to the Mercedes AMG C 63 coupe’s 10.5.

It’s clear that in the RC F, the “user interface” of priority is the one between the driver and the car itself. This is not to say that the tech wasn’t thoughtfully designed at some point, but it certainly has not kept pace with the platforms found in other Lexus vehicles in this third decade of the 21st century. Even the larger 10.3-inch touchscreen, which replaced the base 8-inch version in our test vehicle thanks to the Premium Audio package, proved to be dated in appearance and finicky to operate. Lexus has fortunately done away with the touchpad in most vehicles, but in the RC F (and the RC), it’s still right there in the center console, taking up space behind the shift lever and forcing you to reach for it any time you want to, for example, return to the main menu. We at CarGurus have been vocal supporters of physical controls, because so many people find buttons easier to operate. To be fair, the RC and RC F technically do rely on hard controls, but as it turns out, there’s a line, and it’s this touchpad. So here’s something we never expected to say: More touchscreen operations, please!

As far as infotainment system and technology features go, the sub-$70,000 RC F’s offerings match those of the over-$100,000 RC F Track Edition. Both come standard with two USB ports, a 10-speaker Lexus premium audio system, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, a Wi-Fi hotspot (subscription required), and the aforementioned 8-inch touchscreen, which does not offer navigation. Nav, dynamic voice command, a 17-speaker Mark Levinson sound system, and more are available–as extra-cost upgrades.

The Lexus Safety System+ 2.5 suite of advanced driver-assistance and safety features is newly standard on the RC F for 2024. This includes active technologies, like a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection and lane-departure alert with interventional steering assist, as well as passive features like intelligent high beams and road-sign assist. Adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability, known in Lexus parlance as enhanced all-speed dynamic radar cruise control, is also standard, as is enhanced lane-tracing assist, left-turn intersection assist, and more.

The 2024 Lexus RC performed well in crash-testing with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, earning the top score of “Good” in every category evaluated. It also earned the Top Safety Pick+ award several years in a row, though not since 2018. Neither the IIHS nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has put the higher-performance–and costlier–RC F through its paces, but it’s important to note that this is not at all unusual for cars in the RC F’s class or price range. In fact, competitors including the Audi RS 5, BMW M3 and M4, and Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 are in the exact same boat.

The Lexus RC F is fundamentally a GT (for “grand tourer”) coupe. Unfortunately, there just aren’t many of those left in a new-car market that skews heavily toward crossovers and SUVs. The BMW M4 fits the bill, as do the Audi RS 5, the Ford Mustang, and the Nissan Z. This list obviously establishes quite a broad pricing spectrum, and the same is true of the RC F lineup itself: The base 2024 Lexus RC F starts at $68,320, while the top-of-the-line RC F Track Edition starts at $101,195.

The Audi RS 5 starts at $79,600. The BMW M4 Coupe’s base MSRP is $79,100. The Ford Mustang Dark Horse starts at $64,630. And the Nissan Z Nismo starts at $66,890. Dollar for dollar, the RC F Track Edition looks awfully expensive–these other models certainly prove that it doesn’t have to cost that much to match or surpass the Lexus’s speed and power specs. But this black-and-white thinking ignores the very real emotional component of enthusiast purchases–and the future of the market, too.

Here’s the thing. While the RC F model is set to continue, the 2024 Track Edition will sadly be its last of only six years. For the competitors mentioned above, there’s no end in sight. It certainly takes a discerning eye and rare perspective to spend Porsche money—or, for that matter, Lexus LC 500 money—on this car instead. But look at what happened with the Lexus LFA. It, too, debuted on a dated platform. It, too, was rather more expensive than many people could justify at the time. And those who did make the call in the LFA’s favor were rewarded when its value doubled in just 10 years. At the end of the day, this is a new car review, and it’s not our job to speculate on automotive investments. But in a rarefied market segment, allowing our train of thought to follow a less commonly traveled track feels warranted.