IT'S a bold design team that takes on the brief of creating the world's most seductive convertible but the creative geniuses at Lexus seemed to have pulled it off.

With its curvy muscular lines, flush fitting door handles and retractable spoiler the new LC 500 is a stunning piece of automotive styling and arguably achieves the mission of producing the world's most beautiful open-top car.

And given that buyers of convertibles - more than buyers of any other category of cars - tend to want to be noticed it's a car which is guaranteed to be a best seller.

You will have to have deep pockets to afford one, however, as this beauty is priced at more than £96,000.

That figure is a little more understandable, however, when you realise just what this car has on board, including huge 21-inch forged alloy wheels and a 5.0-litre, 457bhp V8 engine, so it goes without saying that this is a performance car par excellence.

The first open top car to come from Lexus in more than five years it follows on from the success of the equally stunning LC 500 Coupe.

And great pains have been taken to ensure the lines of the hood are as clean and sharp as the solid roof on the Coupe by making sure the tensioning of the soft top is just right to ensure a smooth surface rather than one which shows the ridges of the lightweight magnesium/aluminium supporting struts.

The four-layered canvas hood can be raised or lowered in just 15 seconds at speeds of up to 31 miles per hour so little chance of getting wet when a shower passes over.

And the nice thing about this Lexus is that you will be tempted to enjoy topless motoring even when the weather is cool thanks to a combination of a relatively wind free cabin, a specially calibrated air conditioning system which adjusts to topless motoring, a heated steering wheel and seat and neck heaters.

The LC 500 has four seats but in truth the leg room in the rear means the back ones are really only for small children. All the seats, however, are in top quality leather with those in the front benefiting from a unique and distinctive quilted pattern on the shoulder section.

The multi adjustable powered seats and electric steering wheel control allow you to achieve the perfect driving position in this superbly luxurious cabin and you can adjust the dashboard appearance to suit your mood.

In addition there's a head-up display so you don't need to take your eyes off the road, which is important in a car with an unlimited top speed of 168 miles per hour.

On the other hand I did find some operations were too fussy and long winded.

Turning up the volume on the satellite navigation system, for example is achieved on most cars by simply tuning up the radio volume when the "navigator" speaks.

On the LC 500 you have to perform some five different actions on the touch screen which inevitably takes your eyes off the road.

With a seamless 10-speed automatic gearbox equipped with a "brain" that learns your style of driving and makes the changes accordingly this is a car which is always in the right gear for super smooth motoring.

When you want to press on you can change the driving mode from comfort to Sport S or even Sport S+ if you are brave enough.

Even in Comfort, however, the power from under the bonnet is enough to impress any enthusiastic driver as the car will hit 62 mph in just 5.0 seconds.

Switch to one of the Sport settings and use the paddles behind the steering wheel to change gear and your face will be beaming.

But unlike some V8 engined cars this one delivers that power in a superbly civilised manner befitting of Lexus.