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Wads on Sportscars: Lexus IS-F |
03.11.2008 |
 The other day I managed to grab an hour behind the wheel of the new IS-F with ex-racing driver Tim Jones...
The first thing to say about the car is that it certainly looks “different” to the normal IS models - it's almost as if the car has been fed steroids on the production line to give it wider wheel arches, bulging bonnet and massive front air scoops. In dark grey with dark graphite alloy wheels (similar colour choice to my new M3) the car looks very mean.
After a quick run through of the controls we started the car up. I have to say that after hearing lots of reports of the IS-F sounding great I was a little disappointed as the car didn’t sound anything special (the M3 starts with a very rough V8 burble). Slotting the gearbox into reverse gives you a handy rear camera view in the central dash display.
Leaving the 8 speed box in full auto treats the driver to seamless gear changes. The busy main roads on the way to my favourite testing area gave plenty of chance to appreciate the smoothness of the auto mode (Tim recommended waiting until we got to some good fast roads before going to the paddle shift manual mode). Going up the box the gears change with minimal fuss in much the same way as the new BMW M-DCT dual clutch box does, however compared to the BMW system I was much more impressed with the Lexus when slowing through the gears or when you wanted a lower gear when going for an overtake. The BMW tends to be slow to drop gears and can feel slightly cumbersome when it decided to drop a gear or two when asked to quickly speed up. In contrast the Lexus box reacts smoothly and intelligently and always seemed to be in the right gear at the right time.
"On the run up to the redline (around 6500rpm) the exhaust and engine join forces to produce a fantastic wall of sound mixing old school American muscle car with modern touring car racer."
The first stretch of open road allowed me to get the car above 3000rpm where the 5 litre really starts to make itself heard. On the run up to the redline (around 6500rpm) the exhaust and engine join forces to produce a fantastic wall of sound mixing old school American muscle car with modern touring car racer. Compared to the M3 coupe the noise levels seemed to be a fair bit louder (a good thing) but not quite as addictive or full volume as in the roofless M3. Once on some clear back roads we had a chance to do some standing starts and heavy braking while also swapping to the manual shift mode. From a standstill the IS-F felt very quick so I’m sure their stated performance figures are accurate. Compared to the M3 coupe the Lexus also felt quicker in most conditions, possibly due to its extra torque. The brakes also seemed easily up to the job in hand but on such a short test drive its hard to say how good they are other than that they seemed as good as the BMWs.
Manual shifts are made via either the steering wheel paddle shifters or the +/- gate on the central gear lever, as the gear lever is counter intuitive (push forward for up and pull back for down) I stuck with the paddle shift. The IS-F has one of the fastest shift speeds available today so I was a little surprised to find a delay from pulling the paddle to when the next gear actually engaged. After a few slow shifts Tim realised that the main shift also needed to but put in manual mode before the paddle shifters work as advertised. Basically the paddles worked but the computer was adding a delay whilst deciding if what I was asking was the right thing to do (???).
 "Basically the paddles worked but the computer was adding a delay whilst deciding if what I was asking was the right thing to do"
Once in full manual mode I have to admit that the shifts were almost instant after pulling the paddles and with so many gears to play with shifting up and down the box becomes a lot of fun! The shifts themselves are always smooth with very little obvious break in forward motion, the main indication of a gear change being the drop in revs and engine note. In this respect the BMW DCT system has an advantage in my eyes in that you have so many modes in auto or manual such that you can have smooth leisurely shifts one minute and aggressive full on changes that you really feel (via an extra surge of torque) the next. The M3 shifts do suffer from some lag however a new software update is available that should fix this (my car is being upgraded today) and make it much closer to the IS-Fs near instantaneous reactions.
One area where the IS-F is much better than the BMW is fuel consumption... My M3 manages 17mpg if I’m lucky so I was amazed to see the Lexus return 24.5mpg after an hour of spirited driving! The Lexus may not have the racing pedigree or brand image of an M3 or RS4 but its still a great car and one that will almost certainly remain as a very rare breed due to its low volume sales (this was the first F that I’d seen in the flesh).
For more pictures, technical specifications and, most importantly, lap records, visit Lexus IS-F page. |
Community comments (19)
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In the 1980´s the large sedans reached such speeds and the tires were not able to travel longer distance with heavy sedans at very high speeds. They stoped the speedwar by limiting the topspeed to 250km/h ... today we have tires able to get to 350km/h even with a 2.5to car. All three offer today the option to remove the limiter or set it to a higher speed.
The first german 4door with a higher production topspeed as 155mph was the Audi RS6 Plus... the car was limited to 275km/h not 250km/h. BMW offers as option to remove speed limiter completely..which is a very expansive option.. because you get the unlimited car only after a two day driver training with BMW driver teacher.
Porsche as a sportcar producer was never realy faced with the tire problem of heavy sedans.
Still, the Audi A5/S5, I think, is even more of a beauty. In person, not in pictures.
So all I can say after a 1 hour drive is that the car handled pretty well, it certainly turned in sharply and felt secure in its levels of grip. Understeer in tight corners only seemed to appear when reaching speeds that you wouldn't normally use in day to day driving while oversteer is quickly quashed by the traction control system cutting in. As far as Tim knew the IS-F doesn't have an option to reduce the level of traction control so its either on or off (good or bad depending on your viewpoint!). Body control seemed good as the car showed little sign of excessive roll while cornering or duck/dive when accelerating/braking. The interior seemed a nice place to spend a few hours and it comes with most mod cons as standard (including premium Mark Levinson audio).
“My M3 had its gearbox software update yesterday and now it shifts just as fast as the IS-F”
I cannot believe that BMW screwed up the easiest thing to fix (software) and released it with a program that so obviously limited the actual capabilities of their new "cutting edge" hardware. It couldn't go by unnoticed if the gearshofts were delayed. I mean - why didn't they fix it before the car (DCT gearbox version) got released?