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Blast from the Past: That Time Lexus Put Ice Wheels on the NX to Show Off

Some of the most amazing custom builds come to be because someone is looking to show off or to simply act out on whatever creative impulses they’re under at the moment. This is no different.
The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015) 6 photos
Photo: Lexus UK
The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015)The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015)The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015)The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015)The Lexus NX rolling on wheels and tires made of ice (2015)
Lexus likes to market itself as a carmaker that thinks outside of the box and aims for perfection in whatever it’s undertaking. So, towards the end of 2015, it set out to prove that its team of engineers and outside partners could create the world’s first SUV to roll on wheels and tires made of frozen water.

The custom project didn’t involve any work on the car, a newly-introduced NX, except to have it deep-frozen for five full days at under 30 degrees Celsius, because the UK (the place where the stung was made real) was having a very warm winter that year. However, the process to create the ice wheels and tires alone is impressive enough to warrant a second look after five years – and a notable mention in autoevolution’s Custom Builds Month section.

The NX with the coolest wheels in the world, in the most literal sense, wouldn’t have been possible without help from the team at Hamilton Ice Sculptors in London. They worked with Lexus engineers because, despite what your eyes might be telling you in the gallery attached and the videos at the bottom of the page, some trickery was involved.

Ice could never support a 2.2-ton vehicle and everyone involved knew that. So, engineers had to recreate all the metal supporting parts, including the rims, in acrylic, to which ice was attached. Still, the fact that the car was able to start at the first touch of a button after being put on ice for five days and then roll down a London street is impressive.

Lexus never said how far the NX got on its ice shoes or how fast it was able to travel, but the answer to both question is probably “not much.” As an experiment on how Lexus uses “advanced technologies with the best craftsmanship to achieve outstanding results” the iced-out NX was a success.

The project took three months of hard work and used a combination of CAD designs and multi-axis machining, laser-scanning and traditional ice-carving by hand. It was the ultimate show-off of that year, and to this day, represents custom work that lives on for its merits – if not in physical form.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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