We called upon professional driver Paul Swift to take on this unique challenge. Firstly, Paul had to safely drive the frozen Lexus LC out from the freezing climatic chamber with zero visibility. And then, ice still dropping from the LC Convertible, he put the open-top Lexus through its paces around a challenging test circuit.

Discover Paul's impressions from the driver's seat - both of the LC Convertible's awesome V8 power and its luxurious Climate Concierge system - in our short film.

It was a frosty start to the day - inside the car at least. "This morning I got in the freezer and sat inside the car which was quite crispy," explains Paul. "The steering wheel was freezing, and it was all completely dark."

"This morning I... sat inside the car which was quite crispy"

Professional driver Paul Swift on our frozen Lexus LC Convertible

Darkness wasn't the only challenge inside the chamber. The frozen Lexus LC had a coating of ice on the windscreen, just as with a normal vehicle defrost test. Combine that with an instant cloud of condensing cold air around the car once the chamber opened and Paul was driving blind. "It's quite unnerving not being able to see anything," he continues. "The screen was completely frozen up, so I was guided by the team over the radio for the first part... You could hear the crispness of the tires on the ground as I was turning the wheel. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before."

With the car running, the situation in the sculpted leather driver's seat rapidly improved. Our LC Convertible's Climate Concierge includes a heated steering wheel, heated seats and the optional neck heater. These features would be welcome on any chilly day, especially if you enjoy open-top motoring no matter the temperature. For Paul, they were a blessing in the conditions: "[I] started the engine and immediately I could feel the steering wheel warming up and [heat] coming through from the seat... There's even some vents behind your neck to keep that warm." His verdict on Climate Concierge? "Considering it was minus 18, immediately I felt quite comfortable in the car."

"Considering it was minus 18, immediately I felt quite comfortable in the car."

Professional driver Paul Swift on Lexus Climate Concierge

The windscreen completely defrosted within minutes so Paul and the team could head out onto Millbrook's famous Alpine Test Track. Paul highlights the challenges from a driver and vehicle perspective: "The Alpine Route's quite testing because it undulates quite a lot. It's got some quite fast-flowing corners into some tight hairpins, so you can feel the chassis. You're really asking a lot of the car as you're dipping into these corners and then turning in."

How would our luxury soft-top respond to this test? "It does everything you want from a performance point of view, but also it's comfortable," Paul relates. "There was no problem with understeer, the gear change is effortless, and it has the blipper as you're going down so you get that little [blip of revs] which is quite appealing." And as well as looking stunning from every angle - roof up or roof down - the LC Convertible sounds the part: "It's a 5.0-litre V8 engine," he explains, "You can give it full power and...you can hear the exhaust opens up and you could hear the full V8."

So, what was Paul's verdict after experiencing the frozen Lexus? "I've never really experienced anything as dramatic as this where you're going from such extreme cold back to sort of normal temperatures for the UK in May," he reveals. "In regular UK May temperatures, it's still not St. Tropez [but] I felt comfortable in the car, so it does exactly what it's meant to do: keeps you up to temperature." Paul continues: "It does everything you want from a performance point of view, but also it's comfortable. I'd like to keep it..."

Blue skies and sunshine are the ideal backdrop for a great drive in the Lexus LC Convertible, but this is a car that’s just as capable of dealing with much harsher weather conditions, as an icy endurance test has proved.

To demonstrate the LC Convertible’s depth of quality, Lexus subjected a standard car to 12 hours inside an industrial-scale refrigeration unit at -18°C. More than that, the four-layer roof was stowed for the sub-zero marathon, exposing the interior, and the test was followed by an immediate high-power drive around a demanding test track.

The gruelling trial is the subject of a new Lexus short film, available to view here.

The venue for the event was the Large Climatic Chamber at the Millbrook Proving Ground in the UK. The 468m3 unit is regularly used to test the endurance of defence equipment as well as road vehicles, at temperatures between +85 and -60°C, with up to 98 per cent relative humidity.

For the LC Convertible’s visit, the mercury was set at -18°C – cold enough to freeze rubber and the industry standard for assessing defrosting performance. Taking the test a step further, the Lexus was given a preliminary water spray so that a sheet of ice would form over the vehicle body.

Greg Fleming, the senior engineer overseeing the trial, said: “With the roof down, the interior components would be in an extremely stressed condition and it would not be a nice place for anyone to be – the hope was that the air conditioning system, the heated seats and steering wheel would all still operate as they should.”

Once the Lexus was parked inside the chamber, it took about an hour for the powerful gas conditioning system to bring the temperature down to the required level. Then the car was left untouched overnight.

Paul Swift, a professional stunt driver, was recruited to put the Lexus to its post-freeze test. On the call of “action” for the film crew, the 457bhp V8 engine fired up first time and the car’s displays and gauges sprung instantly to life, showing no adverse impact from the extreme cold.

As Swift discovered straight away, the Climate Concierge responded immediately to heat the cabin. “I could feel the steering wheel and the base of my back warming up and the vents in the head rest behind my neck. It was actually quite pleasant, considering it was minus 18, I felt quite comfortable in the car right away,” he said.

His driving skills were then called into play as he piloted the Lexus out of the chamber to take on Milbrook’s hill course, an alpine-style test route of challenging curves, climbs and descents.

Here the LC Convertible demonstrated exhilarating performance to match its styling and comfort, shedding dramatic shards of ice from its bodywork as it gathered speed.

“I didn’t really know what to expect but pressing the start button she started right away,” said Swift. “The route is testing, so you are asking a lot of the car and you can feel the chassis,” Swift explained. “There was no problem with understeer, the gear change was effortless and there is an appealing blip of the revs as you change down. This is a lovely car and does exactly what you need it to do.”