Exclusive Lexus LC Structural Blue Edition Paint Introduced

After 15-year of research project, Lexus uses the structure of a butterfly’s wings to develop ground-breaking new vehicle paint technology. The exclusive LC Structural Blue Edition is a new shade of blue and takes vehicle colour to a new level. The process takes eight months, 12 production steps and more than 20 quality inspections, with 300 billion nano-structure pigment flakes applied to every special LC.

It’s called Structural Blue and it’s much more than simply a new choice on a colour chart. The result of Lexus’s painstaking advanced technology research is a finish that is deeper, more lustrous and more “blue" than anything seen before.

First presented on Lexus’s acclaimed LC grand tourer in the spotlight of the Geneva motor show, it created an instant sensation. Now it has been developed for production, adding extra elements of exclusivity and hand-finished quality to Lexus’ sensuously designed coupe.

Offered in strictly limited numbers, these cars will be the choice of those who recognise and value the interaction of science and the highest standards of Lexus Takumi craftsmanship. In their intensive search to create the new colour, the team drew inspiration from the Morpho butterfly.

Native to North and South America, this insect is renowned for the deep, shimmering blue of its wings. But, in fact, the wings are colourless. The blue seen by the human eye is created by light interference on the microscopic lattice surface structure of the Morpho butterfly’s wings.

Replicating this effect led the team to combine an entirely new kind of multi-layered pigment with experiments with the basic principles of the way light interacts with our eyes.

Conventional pigment paints reflect less than 50 per cent of incoming light as a visible blue colour, but with Structural Blue the level is nearly 100 per cent. Such is the fine quality of the process, only two Structural Blue cars can be produced in a working day at Lexus’ Motomachi factory in Japan, the high-technology home of the LC.

Given the effect, like that of the butterfly wings which inspired it, is designed to work on the eye rather than on a camera lens, it is only when the Structural Blue paint is seen ‘in the flesh’ that the amazing effect becomes clear.

The LC Structural Blue Edition is available to order now.

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