IS-F FULL TEST
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How about something good to say? 
The Lexus just kept putting a smile on my face, generating huge lateral grip, demonstrating its remarkable balance, and showing off its big underhood muscle.
Lexus? Smile? Track? Seriously? Seriously.
The IS-F's engineering team had a clear goal: create a car that you won't want to stop driving even after ten hard laps on a racetrack. If that sounds like something you never thought you'd hear from Lexus, that's because it is.
Compared with the tail-snappy M3, the IS-F is a pussycat-albeit a quick pussycat. We wouldn't be surprised to see an IS-F keeping up with an M3 around a racetrack.
Lexus? Smile? Track? Seriously? Seriously.
The IS-F's engineering team had a clear goal: create a car that you won't want to stop driving even after ten hard laps on a racetrack. If that sounds like something you never thought you'd hear from Lexus, that's because it is.
Compared with the tail-snappy M3, the IS-F is a pussycat-albeit a quick pussycat. We wouldn't be surprised to see an IS-F keeping up with an M3 around a racetrack.
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From: Dallas
Originally Posted by aggie,Oct 28 2007, 06:29 AM
Seems to me Automobile didn't like the IS-F very much. That 8-speed transmission sounds unimpressive.
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From: Orange Park
333whp is respectable.
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From: formerly versionJDM
Originally Posted by derryck,Oct 29 2007, 06:11 AM
It definitely is but that's almost 50 less RWHP than the new M3 has and the IS-F is heavier. Obviously the previous thread posting a tested trap speed of 114mph is just a fantasy.
this car is probably onlt good for 13.0-13.3's@107-108.
for me and my money, and as much as i hate to say it, im driving home an Alpine wiess M3 sedan.
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From: Orlando
Originally Posted by versionJDM,Oct 29 2007, 07:32 AM
this car is probably onlt good for 13.0-13.3's@107-108.
for me and my money, and as much as i hate to say it, im driving home an Alpine wiess M3 sedan.
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From: Vancouver, WA USA
Originally Posted by Iceman1,Oct 27 2007, 11:24 PM
wow... reads like excerpts from an obituary... 
Despite Yamaha-developed cylinder heads with titanium intake valves and hollow camshafts, the oversquare V-8 feels like it's running out of breath by 6000 rpm, and the engine note goes flat by the time the computer pulls the plug at a mere 6800 rpm.
Unfortunately, the transmission uses the same curiously spaced gears as it does in the LS460.
So, it doesn't scream, but the Lexus engine won't win any singing competitions, either. A secondary air intake opens up at 3600 rpm, filling the cabin with a contrived, nasal induction honk under big throttle openings. It's not particularly pleasing inside the car, and it completely stifles the exhaust noise-the noise that makes the German V-8s so desirable.
But that hot-rod mission is one-sided, and the IS-F's potential customers will expect their cars to do more than simply tear up the tarmac on a racecourse. For all the speed the IS-F gained on the track, it lost even more of the ordinary IS's drivability and good looks. And on the streets and in the showrooms, that's what really counts.
But is that enough to turn the IS-F into the kind of icon that the M3 has become? We don't think so.
Six-inch flames are shooting out of the six-piston front calipers; thick smoke is billowing out of the two-piston rears.
Despite Yamaha-developed cylinder heads with titanium intake valves and hollow camshafts, the oversquare V-8 feels like it's running out of breath by 6000 rpm, and the engine note goes flat by the time the computer pulls the plug at a mere 6800 rpm.
Unfortunately, the transmission uses the same curiously spaced gears as it does in the LS460.
So, it doesn't scream, but the Lexus engine won't win any singing competitions, either. A secondary air intake opens up at 3600 rpm, filling the cabin with a contrived, nasal induction honk under big throttle openings. It's not particularly pleasing inside the car, and it completely stifles the exhaust noise-the noise that makes the German V-8s so desirable.
But that hot-rod mission is one-sided, and the IS-F's potential customers will expect their cars to do more than simply tear up the tarmac on a racecourse. For all the speed the IS-F gained on the track, it lost even more of the ordinary IS's drivability and good looks. And on the streets and in the showrooms, that's what really counts.
But is that enough to turn the IS-F into the kind of icon that the M3 has become? We don't think so.
Six-inch flames are shooting out of the six-piston front calipers; thick smoke is billowing out of the two-piston rears.