Lexus previews the 2019 RC Coupe, with official reveal promised for the Paris Motor Show in October

Photo: Toyota USA Newsroom.

Personal luxury coupes may be all but extinct among American automakers, but continuing apace with the category is Lexus, announcing refinements yesterday for the 2019 RC and offering a preview ahead of an official reveal set for October.

If you can look beyond the unfortunate cowcatcher-shaped grille that is plaguing much of current Toyota and Lexus lineup, it’s quite a lovely car, especially viewed from the side—albeit with lines that echo much of what we’re seeing from Nissan and especially Mazda these days.

Photo: Toyota USA Newsroom.

But the RC Coupe arguably falls short of the visual pizzazz that these competing Japanese automakers have been able to achieve in the best of their respective lineups.

An unfortunate reality of automotive design today is that, with rare exceptions, no one seems to be trying too hard to stand out. Granted, there are very practical engineering reasons—like how certain shapes affect crash and pedestrian-strike scenarios—behind many of the basic forms in which today’s designers have to work today.

But for a good designer, that doesn’t by definition exclude the potential for creativity. Mazda arguably stands out as among the best at having achieved a distinctive, signature look across all vehicle categories within these frameworks. Making a crossover look sexy is no mean feat, but Mazda is among the few—Porsche being another example—that have been able to pull this off.

In developing the look of the RC coupe, Lexus says that designers sought to add “a high level of elegance to the exterior… through the addition of distinctive design elements, such as a new front bumper corner that flows down from the headlamps and a grille mesh pattern that gradually transforms from top to bottom.”

Among other new design features for the Lexus RC coupe is a pair of air ducts, one in each corner of the rear bumpers. The ducts nicely complement the L-shaped lenses over the rear combination lamps, which are one of the coupe’s sportier and more visually interesting elements. In fact, the rear overall is one of the stronger, more distinctive points of the 2019 Lexus RC Coupe’s design.

Photo: Toyota USA Newsroom.

From an engineering standpoint, the Lexus announcement emphasizes enhancements to the aerodynamics, tires, and suspension, along with improvements to the engine response and steering feel with the result, according to the automaker, “of a sharper and more refined drive.”

Lexus promises more detail concurrent with the official reveal of the 2019 Lexus RC Coupe at the 2018 Paris Motor Show in October.