PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is hard to believe that this is now the fourth Toyota book I have written, but in many ways it is the most satisfying. Ever since I was given the chance to experience the LS400 when the Lexus marque first burst onto the scene in the UK, I have to admit my rather cynical views on Japanese cars changed forever.

As a typical Englishman, I had all too readily dismissed anything from the Land of the Rising Sun as cheap and lacking in pedigree. I had been used to driving cars from Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz on an everyday basis, and was obsessed by Alfa Romeo, Porsche and Maserati sports cars - how could anything from Japan compare?

After that first trip in the LS400, I was very impressed, and had no qualms about telling everyone I came into contact with about how good it was. Shortly after, a run in the Infiniti Q45 reinforced my admiration for Japan’s strength in engineering and attention to detail. As a young motoring author (at least I was young then!), I could now take a fresh look at what Japan had produced down the years.

The most surprising thing for me was how ill-informed we are in Europe. Apart from the exploits of Honda in F1, which had rightfully received a lot of attention in the Press, the Japanese manufacturers had produced a whole string of sports-racing machinery that was almost unknown outside their country of origin. In addition, on the road car side, I found dozens of desirable models from the Sixties and Seventies that no-one had ever heard of.

While the Americans were much quicker to realize the qualities of Japanese cars, the Lexus story remains one of triumph over adversity. The success of the marque is a tribute to the determination of the Toyota engineers and stylists to produce the ultimate in luxury motoring.

This book traces the first ten years of the Lexus brand, and would not have been possible without the help of many people. I would like to give a special thank you to my friend Yoshihiro Inomoto; as the world’s best technical artist, it is an honour to be able to use some of his drawings. Not only that, but because of his special links with Lexus, he did an awful lot of work behind the scenes, for which I am extremely grateful.

I would also like to thank Toshio Bando of Toyota’s Lexus Division in America for providing me with a great deal of archive material, as well as fellow RJC member Hideo Aoki, and Yoji Yamamoto. As always, my wife Miho did a sterling job translating conversations and the piles of paperwork I put in front of her, helped on the technical side by our friend Tetsuya Goto. Thanks also to Toyota in Japan and England, and to Peter Hunter of the Toyota Enthusiasts Club, who came to the rescue once again as gaps appeared in my research material.

Brian Long

Chiba, Japan

Dedicated to Yoshihiro Inomoto - The Cutaway King