V300

STORY

Aristo appeared in October 1991 as the performance flagship of the Toyota Auto and Toyota Vista channels, with a shape drawn by Italdesign under Giorgetto Giugiaro, Crown Majesta underpinnings and assembly at Tahara. The 3.0-litre inline six came two ways: the naturally aspirated 2JZ-GE at 230 PS at 6,000 rpm in the 3.0Q, and the twin-turbo 2JZ-GTE at 280 PS at 5,600 rpm in the 3.0V, which also carried Piezo TEMS damping, traction control and a limited-slip differential. A 1UZ-FE V8 four-wheel-drive version joined in October 1992, and North America got the same car badged Lexus GS from 1993. The S160 of 27 August 1997 kept both sixes at those outputs, as JZS160 S300 and JZS161 V300. Production ended in December 2004 and sales ran out of stock to August 2005, when the Lexus channel opened in Japan on the 30th and the GS took the slot.