THE new Lexus GS takes the fight up to the German establishment in a way never seen before from the Japanese luxury brand.

F Sport variants are designed to appeal as much to the emotional side of a purchasing decision as the rational side.

Although the hybrid GS450h provides extra oomph while consuming less fuel, the extra weight of batteries and electric motors can blunt the handling – and our weekend trip for five to Victoria’s twisty Great Ocean Road required plenty of luggage space, too, so sacrificing load capacity for battery packs was out.

For that reason we took what we consider the purest GS F Sport, the 350 variant powered by a 233kW/378Nm petrol V6, and put it through its paces.