To establish that ultimate experience, Toyota decided to sell Lexus in a completely separate setting from its main line of vehicles. Lexus was to have its own state-of-the-art dealerships and top-notch dealers who were committed to the philosophy of treating customers as they had never been treated before. This was called the Lexus Covenant, which reads, in part, "Lexus will do it right from the start. Lexus will have the finest dealer network in the industry. Lexus will treat each customer as we would a guest in our own home." Finally, "If you think you can't, you won't. If you think you can, you will. We can. We will."

The first goal the Lexus study team assigned itself was to learn what American drivers really wanted in a premium luxury car. Was it an automobile in the formal, proscribed German style? Or was it something else entirely?

To find out, in May of 1985 a study team was sent to the U.S. to conduct focus groups of potential new car buyers. Members of the groups were asked what they were looking for in a luxury car. New car buyers were asked how well the current competitors in that category filled their needs and what new car buyers would like to see in a luxury car that current competitors weren't offering.

How this new car felt and drove was just one of the important questions that had to be asked and answered. Another, equally important question involved learning what prospective buyers felt the car should look like.

"One area that everyone fussed about was styling," remembered Illingworth. "Was it too conservative, too aggressive? I think the younger people always felt styling should be more aggressive, while the older people felt it should be more conservative, so there was always that tension."

To get a handle on design direction and to relax the tensions over creativity, a team headed by Shoiji Jimbo moved to Southern California to do research with both customers and dealers, and to develop styling concepts based on that research. Additionally, a separate five-person team took up residence in Laguna Beach, an upscale and luxurious California beach community, to study lifestyles and integrate design concepts suited for American customers.

Study teams followed typical luxury car buyers through all their daily activities. Luxury car buyers went shopping with them, picked up the kids from school, made trips to the golf course and learned about American tastes.

Back in Japan, the engineers were busy as well. By July of 1985 they had built the first running F1 prototype. So relentless were they in their pursuit of perfection that before the project reached completion, an incredible 450 running prototypes were built.

With those prototypes, the real tests began. By May of 1986, testing was being conducted on the ultrahigh-speed Autobahns of Germany, on slick, curvy mountain roads in Sweden and, finally, for a full 10 months, on the flat, wide-open highways of America.

One of Lexus LS 400's most amazing aspects was the incredible attention to detail, right down to the engine compartment finish.

"The engineers took as much time designing and engineering the engine compartment as they did the rest of the car," recalled Illingworth. "It was beautiful. They were trying to produce the finest car ever made and did not overlook any detail. The determination was made that the customer wanted a clean, crisp and consumer-friendly engine compartment, and that this buyer would not be working on this car."

Finally, after thousands of hours, multiple discussions and eight presentations - far more than customary even for this detail-oriented group of professionals - Toyota's upper management approved the final design for the F1 in May of 1987.

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