Here’s a Lexus LS400 sedan, spotted in a barren area in 2016 in the far northeast of Beijing. It was parked in front of a small car shop, standing next to an Audi A7 with a body kit. The good Lexus was a little dusty, but it looked super cool.
The shop had lowered the suspension, blacked out the windows, and fitted a set of wild shiny wheels with five spoke-like holes. A job well done; the staid sedan suddenly seemed very speedy, badass, and even a tad sinister.
MasoAir
Note the MasoAir sign at the shop. MasoAir is an air-suspension technology developed by OnAir, a Chinese firm based in Beijing. The company makes air-suspension kits for Audi, Tesla, Toyota, Xpeng, and Zeekr, among others.
The first-generation Lexus LS400 was the first car of Toyota’s Lexus brand. It debuted in 1989, and production ended in 1994. The LS400 had a massive impact on the luxury sedan segment; it was technologically far ahead of the German and American competition.
Interior
The shop updated the interior as well, with super fancy leather seat covers and a nice thick steering wheel cover. It also has an aftermarket radio. Happily, the rest of the center stack is intact, with the typical line of small buttons, which where the automotive high-tech standard in the 1990s.
The license plate is from Sichuan Province, at least 1800 kilometers away by road. That’s a nice ride with a low-riding Lexus! The area was to the northwest of the Goldenport race track, littered with all sorts of transport companies and car-repair shops. It was like a frontier area between Beijing and the hinterlands, strange but cool. Sadly, developers have now replaced the area with the usual apartment buildings and malls.
LS400 specs
The engine of the Lexus LS400 was an ultra-quiet 4.0-liter 32-valve V8 with an output of 242 hp and 350 Nm. Lexus mated the motor to a 4-speed automatic transmission, sending horsepower to the rear wheels. Lexus limited the top speed to 250 km/h, and the car accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.5 seconds. I couldn’t be sure if the shop had tuned the engine; there was nobody to ask, but the exhaust system seemed standard.
Because Toyota did not market the Lexus brand in China until 2004, it did not officially sell the first-generation Lexus LS400 here. However, quite a few cars arrived via the gray market, government-batch purchases, and via diplomatic channels.