It seems you just can’t escape Toyota these days. Australians are buying more Toyotas than any other single brand with sales continuing to reach record levels.

So its probably fitting that their luxury brand Lexus has been awarded World Car of the Year. Thats not ‘Australian’ Car of the Year but WORLD car of the year.

The new Lexus LS460 has grabbed the judges by the short and curlies and given them a good twist. At this point you might be wondering what the Lexus LS460 is doing on a performance car site right? Well this luxo barge will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds. Thats faster than some HSV’s!

The 2007 model LS460 is powered to world car of the year glory by a technologically advanced 4.6-litre V8 that manages to squeeze out 280kW and 500Nm of torque. By way of comparison the L76 6.0-litre V8 available in the VE Commodore range puts out 270kW and 530Nm. The fat Aussie slacker.

What a VE can do, I can do better.

The Lexus LS460 uses a new 8-speed automatic transmission because 6 or 7 speed gearboxes were just becoming too common. Lexus has designed the powertrain to achieve an ultra low emissions rating.

All of this magnificence is likely to cost you in excess of $200k when it becomes available in Australia but you will be buying the World Car of the year and one of the worlds best made cars.

Now I’m just going to go and see what those two lazy cylinders on my LS2 are doing. Maybe they popped out the back for a smoke.