Lexus LC 500 Convertible review: A wail of a time

Singapore

NOT to sound crass, but a car like this reveals the whole point of having money. The Lexus LC 500 Convertible is the kind of rolling sculpture you bomb down your favourite road in, Dire Straits pouring from the 17-speaker sound system by Mark Levinson, for nothing more than the simple pleasure of being inside something so striking to look at, the Venus de Milo would salute it if she could (which she can't, for two obvious reasons).

The starting point for this car was the newly-facelifted LC 500, from which Lexus deleted the roof because if any coupe was screaming for the convertible treatment, the LC 500 was it. It's an ancient rule of the car world but a valid one still: to add glamour, simply subtract weather protection. But the Lexus isn't something for your moderately tubby tabby, since it costs S$556,800 with Certificate Of Entitlement. Yet, in the economics of exotic cars, the price is downright sensible.