Headphones in, volume up. The LC 500 sings a V8 anthem that fires with a rich, deep-timbred tonality. There’s just such a stark difference with an engine breathing atmospheric pressure unencumbered by forced plumbing, bringing breadth to a car’s voice. Upshifts are met with a raspy snarl while downshifts are followed by an authoritative bark. The real highlight is when you put the LC 500 into Sport+ mode and hold the revs at the redline for half a second - it will ping and bounce off the limiter with a gnarly V10-like noise, reminding me of the LFA. It’s also refreshing not to hear any synthetic burbles on overrun that automakers love to program into their exhausts these days.

Lexus says that all of the exhaust noise you’re hearing in the cabin is authentic, but they have found a way to pipe in more natural sound by carrying the engine’s noises (not the air itself) through a diaphragm into a sound pipe and pushing them into the cabin. They used this system before in the Lexus LFA, and admit that there is absolutely zero electronic sound generation in the LC 500 either. We believe it. After hooking up our microphone outside right next to the exhaust, the V8 rumble sounds almost the same as from the driver’s seat, minus some engine intake noise. Enjoy the video.