lexus

This year's Tokyo Auto Show was sadly deficient in high-future-concept cars, so a bombshell from Lexus wound up stealing the show. That is, the LFA, a long-awaited sports car with a price tag rivaling those of traditional exotics from Ferrari and Lamborghini. When it hits US shores, the LFA will cost a neck-wrenching $375,000. So what is Lexus bringing to the performance table for the money?

Our test location couldn't have been more fitting -- barely 30 minutes south of San Francisco's international airport, right along the coast in a tiny hamlet called Half Moon Bay. You can be in downtown San Francisco in less than an hour from here, yet -- as we put the all-new Lexus ES 300 through its paces on curvy two-lane roads -- I notice a surprising lack of cars on the road. Not what I expected from suburban San Francisco.