Earlier this year, during the factory closings brought upon the auto industry by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, Lexus turned to the simple art of origami. In April, Lexus announced an interesting contest. As it turns out, you could win a new Lexus just by folding some paper. Origami became the new path into the seat of a new Lexus LC 500h.

Called the Origami challenge, the competition to win a 2020 Lexus LC 500h became one of the most exciting things to do in quarantine. Many people entered, but only one ultimate origami artist took the prize. Yeah… someone actually won an LC 500h by folding some paper.

‘Lexus Origami Challenge’

Inspired by the famed ‘Takumi Challenge,’ Which is a test that Lexus design artisans and craftsman have to perfect before reaching upper levels of development. The Takumi Challenge is the prompt for Lexus designers to master the craft of folding an origami cat. With their non-dominant hadn’t. In 90 seconds or less. No biggie.

This process of mastery within Lexus led to the idea for the Lexus LC 500h contest. Promoted primarily through social media, the Lexus Origami Challenge was to find the person who created the best origami masterpiece. However, the competition was only open to residents of the UK. Next, the #LexusOrigami winner was determined by choosing the best entry out of all the origami photo submissions on the Lexus UK Twitter, Instagram, and FaceBook.

Who won?

So by the end of May, the results were in. In fact, the winning origami fold is incredible. In case you’ve never seen an origami dragon, here you go. It’s absolutely stunning. We can only imagine how many attempts it took to get this right.

Talk about Takumi. According to Lexus, Ashley Blumson won’t the origami challenge. We are definitely hoping that this contest will make its way outside of the UK. Ahem… USA, please? Hopefully, we will see other origami challenges come up in the future. Even the entries that didn’t win are impressive.

The Lexus LC 500h

In case you are wondering what the heck a Lexus LC 500h is, we’ll give a brief rundown of the awesome prize resulting from the Lexus origami contest. The Lexus LC is a sports car that starts just below the six-figure range. The ‘h’ in LC 500h stands for ‘hybrid.’ And it’s a great one.

“The 2020 Lexus LC ranks near the top of the luxury sports car class. It boasts animated powertrains, a nice blend of handling composure and comfort, a high-class cabin, and an outstanding predicted reliability rating.”

US News and World Report

According to US News and World Report, it’s one of the best in its class. The hybrid Lexus LC 500h has a steep starting price of $97,460, US News reports. However, it boasts nearly everything you could ever desire in a luxury sports car. It’s a machine of superior design. In fact, it’s almost as if the designers behind it have non-dominant hand origami cats up their sleeve.

The Lexus LC 500h has two electric motors that pair with a 3.5-liter V6 engine. As we expect for this segment, the engine generates up to 354 horsepower. So, the LC 500h readily competes with like cars on the luxury market. Plus, it’s equipped with a variable hybrid automatic transmission with a lithium-ion battery. It is a fine specimen as is. However, the awesomeness abounds when you imagine winning one just by folding some paper.