A Lexus LS400 sedan, seen in the winter of 2013 in Beijing, China. The LS400 was painted in a classy shade of red and dressed up considerably with a body kit. The kit included a reworked bumpers and wide side skirts.
The five-spoke alloy wheels looked racy but were heavily damaged.
The first generation Lexus LS400 (XF10) was made from 1989 until 1994. Power came from a super smooth 4.0 V8 engine with an output of 250 hp and 353 Nm, good for a 250 km/h top speed and a 0-100 of 8.5 seconds. Gearbox was a 4-speed automatic, sending horses to the rear wheels.
For more pretty, this S400 has four exhaust pipes and darkened windows. It was the first LS400 with a body kit I had ever seen in China. The kit does the car pretty good.
The famous black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars or on price or on engine type.
The numbering started at A·00001 and then up. So the lower the number the older the car. This Lexus LS400 has 京A·10799, so that’s an early one. Each province and municipality had its own black-license plate program.
The first generation Lexus LS400 was not officially sold in China but quite a few cars arrived via gray imports, diplomatic channels, or, like this car, via the foreign-owned company way. Lexus only started selling the LS officially in China in 2004, with the updated Lexus LS430.