Together with the updated sports hatchback Toyota GR Yaris, its closest relative, the “charged” crossover Lexus LBX Morizo, made its world premiere at the Tokyo Motor Show RR with permanent all-wheel drive and a 305-horsepower gasoline turbo engine.
The Lexus LBX subcompact crossover is the smallest model in the range of the Japanese premium brand; it premiered last summer, but it will hit the market only this year. The main sales markets for the Lexus LBX will be Europe and Japan; Americans are not eligible for this model, even though the Lexus brand was originally created specifically for the USA.
The regular Lexus LBX is technically identical to the hybrid Toyota Yaris Cross, but has a much more refined design and an expensive interior. It is expected that the LBX will help significantly increase the popularity of the Lexus brand in Europe, and the sports version of the Morizo RR should attract additional interest to it, if, of course, it becomes production, because it was presented in Tokyo as a concept.
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Morizo is the racing nickname of Akio Toyoda, the chairman of the board of directors of Toyota, who loves auto racing and sports cars. Until the spring of last year, Akio Toyoda held the position of general director, it was with his instigation that the masterpiece hot hatches Toyota GR Yaris and Toyota GR Corolla appeared in the Toyota range, the hot hatch GR Corolla even had a personalized special version Morizo Edition.
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The press release says that Akio Toyoda personally had a hand in the development of the Lexus LBX Morizo RR; decorative yellow inserts on the body of the concept are a kind of signature of the top manager. The sports version also has an enlarged radiator grille, a new front bumper with large air intakes along the edges and a new, more aggressively designed rear bumper, into which two round exhaust pipes are embedded. Due to the new body kit, the overall width of the crossover increased by 20 mm to 1845 mm, the sports suspension and low-profile tires of size 235/45 R 19 reduced the height by 10 mm to 1535 mm, the overall length did not change — 4190 mm.
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There are few details about the technical stuffing of the Lexus LBX Morizo RR, but it is clear that it is essentially the same as that of the updated Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch. The 1.6-liter 3-cylinder petrol turbo engine G16E-GTS in the premium crossover produces 305 hp. and 400 Nm, it is mated to a new sports 8-speed automatic transmission. The all-wheel drive system with a multi-plate power take-off clutch to the rear wheels is also borrowed from the GR Yaris, this clutch always has a preload, so the full drive is considered constant.
Let's hope that the Lexus LBX Morizo RR will become serial, Moreover, there is no need to spend a lot on its development and preparation for production, all the hardware is already there and perfectly tuned by Toyota racers, such a groovy crossover will definitely not harm the image of the Lexus brand.
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