2021 saw the demise of two of the last free-breathing V8 sports cars. Glenn Butler looks back on a love affair that began more than 60 years ago.
This year we said goodbye to the Chrysler 300 SRT and the Lexus RC F sports coupe, two of the last naturally aspirated V8 heroes. Cars that rose to prominence in an era when V8s breathed freely and roared loudly.
A time when thunder rocked the mountain passes and lightning crackled as they roared by. A time when hurricanes whipped the roads in their wake chasing every caress of the throttle.
It was a time of great excitement, great emotion and passion, rendered dust by the unrelenting and uncaring steamroller of progress.
Cars like the RC F, SRT, E90 BMW M3 and 6.2-litre AMG C63 were once giants of the performance genre. Today they are gone, but they were the titans upon whose shoulders today’s turbocharged beasts stand, and we should never forget that.
Turbocharging has elevated the sports sedan and performance coupe to even greater heights. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mourn the passing of the age of free-breathing V8 sports cars.
For me, one of the peak performers in terms of performance and driver immersion was the 2008–2012 BMW M3 sedan and coupe which packed a screaming 4.0-litre V8 capable of revving to a wondrous 8400rpm.
And it wasn’t alone. The 2008–2015 Mercedes-AMG C63’s V8 pumped out 380kW in its most fearsome Black Series form and placed the driver equally high in its esteem. Audi, too, played with eight free-breathing eights, most notably in cars like the 331kW Audi RS4 and R8 V8.
Let’s not forget Australia’s own pantheon of V8 heroes, a parade too long to recognise here, and the Chrysler 300 SRT that tried valiantly to sate similar appetites but never quite nailed the recipe.
Cars with powertrains like these will never come again.
The demise of the Chrysler 300 in 2021 brought a thundering run of more than 50 years of affordable V8 sedans to a whimpering end.
The first V8s arrived in Australia before the 1950s, but it was the locally made Australian-designed V8 cars of the 1960s from Valiant, Ford and Holden that really kicked off the love affair.
As of 2021, affordable V8 passenger sedans are no more. And the RC F coupe’s passing in November leaves the Ford Mustang as the last affordable V8 coupe. Lexus is not without non-turbo V8s in coupes, but while I am pushing the friendship to suggest the $136K RC F was affordable, the 50 per cent dearer LC500 coupe is definitely not.
Fans of the atmo V8 have a few more plucky survivors to choose from in SUV-land thanks to the Nissan Patrol, Lexus LX570, Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado – although those last two are imported by a third party and converted to right-hand drive locally, just like the Chevrolet Camaro.
Perhaps the 300 and RC F outstayed their welcome, relics of a bygone era that ended when Holden, Ford, Audi, BMW, Benz and the rest moved to turbocharging and supercharging almost a decade ago. We’re glad they did, though, because every extra day behind the wheel is a day for the memory bank.
The RC F first came into our world in 2015, in essence a two-door version of the IS sedan, although in truth many parts came as much from the larger GS sedan. The RC F was priced under its European rivals and powered by a 5.0-litre V8 engine with a healthy 351kW of power and 530Nm of torque. That was enough to take on the Germans of the time – on paper, but not in reality.
Sadly, the RC F was much heavier than its rivals, up to 363kg in some cases, and this might explain why Lexus shied away from comparisons with the C63 Coupe and M4 Coupe, saying instead that the RC F was a ‘grand tourer’. Still, 0–100km/h in 4.5 seconds isn’t bad for a grand tourer.
Fast-forward to 2019 and the RC F got its biggest mechanical update, including the addition of a second model, the lighter RC F Track Edition.
Changes to aerodynamics, weight reduction, ride and handling, and drivetrain performance meant the RC F was a sharper drive. And while judicious use of lightweight materials in the RC F lowered its kerb weight 15kg, extensive use of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) on the Track Edition lopped a further 50kg off that one.
Drivetrain enhancements didn’t increase power or torque, but they did make the engine rev harder and faster, and gave the transmission faster gearchanges and more intuitive gear selection. It was enough to make the RC F Track Edition a bona-fide competitor for the Euros.
“Can you now consider a Lexus like the RC F Track Edition as an alternative to the BMW and Mercedes-Benz protagonists that it never quite matched up to?”, we asked at the time. “I would say that not only can you, but it might in fact be even better. Lexus is serious about performance, and this is a serious sports coupe. It deserves to be in the same echelon as a C63 Coupe or an M4 – it’s that simple.”
But, despite the changes, Australians bought even fewer RC Coupes in 2019 (252) than the year before (334). In 2020 that number dropped to 217, and halfway through 2021 it was on track for less than 200 sales for the full year.
Then, in July of this year we revealed that new side-impact safety regulations coming into effect in November meant Lexus would withdraw the RC Coupe (and IS sedan) from sale on October 31. The fact that these regulations had been drafted into legislation in December 2015 means Lexus had six years to prepare for this… but chose not to.
It’s a moot point now. The Lexus RC F is gone. And when Mustang and LC500 either disappear or convert to turbochargers, the era of the naturally aspirated V8 sports car will officially be over.
Performance cars are faster now, and truth be told, they’re also better. Audi Sport, BMW M, Mercedes-AMG and others have finessed their turbocharged drivetrains to give them the intimacy and immediacy to rival a polished atmo drivetrain. To argue anything else is just pigheaded.
The naturally aspirated V8 may be all-but dead, but performance lives on. And that’s something to be happy about.
The post Goodbye old friend, we’ll miss you appeared first on Drive.
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