Lexus IS Wax Edition unveiled with onboard vinyl record player

The US subsidiary of Lexus has produced a one-off 'Wax Edition' based on its IS medium sedan.

As the name suggests, the vehicle features an inbuilt record player in lieu of its glovebox.

The vehicle was built as a promotional exercise with music publication Pitchfork, as part of their "Driven by Sound" documentary series.

Lexus involved Los Angeles-based production house SCPS to help outfit the showroom-specification IS350 F Sport for show-car duties.

As record players have a tendency to skip when subjected to vibration, it wasn't a simple exercise to integrate one into a moving car. As a result, the player features a motor to "help stabilise the turntable to avoid skipping while the vehicle is in motion".

Furthermore, Lexus went to the extent of re-tuning the vehicle's suspension to help its new cause.

The record player is large enough accept to a full-size 12-inch record. The analogue signal it produces is fed through the car's 17-speaker Mark Levinson-branded stereo system via an upgraded amplifier.

The Lexus IS Wax Edition will remain a one-off show car and "will not be for sale", according to the brand.

In the 1950s and 1960s US-based manufacturer CBS Electronics built an internal record player for cars known as the Highway Hi-Fi. While the product was heavily promoted by celebrities at the time (shown below with George Harrison) – and Chrysler briefly offered the Hi-Fi system as an option in some vehicles – the idea never caught on.

Vinyl records have undergone a revival recently, with 2021 set to see the sales of wax overtake CDs for the first time in Australia.