Lexus sure had an amazing year and decided to go out with a bang as the end of year approaches. Following up on its hoverboard and cardboard IS Sedan, the luxury carmaker has unveiled another wonderfully engineered design; an NX crossover that rides on a set of ice wheels. Yup, Ice Wheels – wheels made of ice.
Lexus didn’t just film unique stunts with production cars or aimed at setting world records that made no sense, instead it grilled and grinded its expertise in publicity this year. It has spent the year partnering on unusual and new builds that are actually functional. The latest project, in the footsteps of the previous ones, is also not just a sculpture but an actual functional car.
According to Toyota’s luxury arm, it has spent three months in researching, designing and then testing the ice wheels in partnership with Hamilton Ice Sculptors that is based in London before it incorporated a set to the NX. The real NX wheels and tires were scanned using lasers and then replicated by using frozen water. Each wheel took a team of four sculptors about 36 hours to complete and the process moved on to incorporate the acrylic inserts in order to impart the strength to support the NX while the LED lights were incorporated to add some style.
Lexus readied the wheels by keeping the whole of NX in a -30°C deep freeze for an astounding 5 days. It started up on the first attempt before it rolled forward down the streets of London while spinning on ice. It doesn’t go super fast but the sight of it moving is surely an impressive scene.
Lexus director Richard Balshaw stated, “Projects such as our hoverboard, the origami-inspired cardboard car and now a dazzling set of fully functioning ice wheels demonstrate how we use advanced technologies and the best craftsmanship traditions to achieve outstanding results. That’s not just for eye-catching one-off projects, but for the cars we deliver to our customers, too.”
Let’s see what feats Lexus achieves in 2016!
