Posted Jul 17, 2008, 8:24 am
Filed under: Lexus

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Lexus IS F gallery: 23 photos >>

Story by: Max Toome
Photos: Max Toome

Test Drive: Lexus IS F

- Gentlemen, welcome to Fight Club.
- The first rule of Fight Club is... you do not talk about Fight Club.
- The second rule of Fight Club is...you do not talk about Fight Club.
This kid from work, Ricky, couldn't remember whether you ordered pens with blue ink or black... Come on, man! But Ricky was a god for 10 minutes when the trounced the maitre d' of a local food court.
Sometimes, all you could hear were the flat, hard packing sounds over the yelling... or the wet choke when someone caught their breath and sprayed... Stop!
You weren't alive anywhere like you were there.

“Fight Club” the movie

So far this club was consisting only of a three members. Three ordinary family men on the face of it, who go to their duty every day and during a weekends drive out for a barbeque. And all three are German. We’re talking about BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-class – M3, RS4 and C63 to be exact. These members of this fight club differ from mere mortals only with the “asses carved out of wood, short hair and trimmed fingernails”. The main thing is hidden inside. Under the hood. These fellows unites highly powerful V8 engine. One has more power, another has less, but the idea is the same – they are created to fight. And all the experts can’t decide up to this very point who of them is the best.

Breaking system with 6-piston break caliper is created by BREMO.

Too young?

But very recently the idyll of this holy trinity made up his mind to disturb one modest and yielding Japanese guy. The main competitor in his second generation – Lexus IS. To earn his right to enter the ranks of the fight club members Lexus IS was sent to the gym, where he pumped up his muscles as expected, and acquired 5-liter V8 engine under the hood, and the ‘F’ sign to the end of its name – Lexus IS F. But did he spend enough time on gymnastic bars and running tracks not to be knocked out with the first punch in a fight? Let’s find out.

The appearance of the new fighter ideally suits to the routine standards of the fight club. Everything here is concisely, but at the same time extremely brutal. The hood is swelled, ambiguously alluding to the hidden potential under it. Front and rear wings got noticeably wider – it now takes wider tires to hold this little monster on a road, and such tires will never fit into the standard wheel arcs. The standard package of the IS F includes 19-inch low-profile tires that are “shoed” on beautiful titanium-toned 10-spoke rims, which cannot hide large perforated brake disks created by crackjacks from BREMBO company.

Coal-plastic here is not black as usual, but silvery. But still, this is not the interior of any mad sportsman. Comfort here is much more important.

Distinctly raised doorsteps are also looking good, reminding the ‘F’ insignia of the charged Lexus with its style. From behind the IS F can be recognized by its unusual shaped tailpipes – in a form of a figure of eight. It’s strange, but the exhaust gas is coming out through them only partially. The point is that the pipes of the exhaust system are ending several centimeters before chromed ‘fake eights’. It’s like a little pieces are cut out of the pipes.

One of the main reasons for the IS F to be so sternly is its color. “Dark Granite” color option the most precisely reflects car’s essence. They could go even beyond and offer customers mate color, looking more like teflon. Then there won’t be need in any explanation.

The seats and the steering wheel are finished with perforated leather, however dark-gray suede would have more interesting look and would slip less under hands.

Inside the IS F is not that rough as from the outside. The seats and the steering wheel are finished with perforated leather, however dark-gray suede would have more interesting look and would slip less under hands. The Japanese approach for the mandatory piece of interior of all modern ‘pumped family guys’ – carbon trimmings – is also not trivial. Carbon here is not the usual black, but silvery.

Stop!

This is not the interior of any mad sportsman. Comfort is much more important. How one can live in today’s cruel world without LCD displays, seats with memory option and a button sets on a steering wheel. No one can. The Mark Levinson audio system would also be to the point of stress removal. But don’t hope too much, the IS F itself will never help you remove your stress for nothing! On the contrary, it will bring you into the ecstasy. It is capable to make your heart beat rate go up to 200 per minute. After this car your hands are shaking like madman’s, and the gaze is quite similar. Though it can also be a pretty boy, but then you need to press an accelerator with the fine precision. A little harder, and you hit the back of a seat blankly trying to find support, grasping the steering wheel. But it’s still carries you straight ahead almost tearing off front wheels from the ground. And all this accompanied with the grumbling bass of the engine.

”Passing the line of 5000 rpm the engine is as if it would turn on a huge subwoofer, and absolutely incomparable sound of V8 is starting to go out from under the hood.

The sound of the engine here is another story at all. Under the 4-5 thousand revolutions per minute everything is more or less calm. Yes, it’s grumbling a bit, but nothing unnatural, but after passing over this barrier it is as if a huge subwoofer is turned on, and absolutely incomparable sound of V8 is starting to go out from under the hood, that you’ll never mix with anything else. In many respects, it’s typical roar of V8 that made me constantly keeping rpm near the red zone of the tachometer. And with such driving nobody’s speaking about fuel economy. Gas was leaving the tank like through the bottomless funnel. Just keep filling. I managed to exceed manufacturer measured fuel consumption rate by 4 liters per 100 km. In the end of a test board computer was showing over 20L per 100 km.

But the fuel-economy-thinking people have to knock to another door. The way to the Fight Club is only open for mad about seconds and horse powers.

It appears to as they foresee your hands movements and shift gear even before you pull the silver petal.

If you could fight any celebrity, who would you fight?

100 km/h in 4.8 seconds – that’s terribly fast. The Lexus IS F is faster than the world’s acknowledged authority cars like Porsche 911 Carrera, Aston Martin V12 Vanquish or Honda NSX. But despite of that, the Japanese yields to his competitors from Germany though. However things are not that simple. After all the IS F showed its best sides passing track turns and was very fast. Clear and precise steering lets you adjust the movement trajectory to 1 degree. And if it still seems not to be enough, you can always help it with a foot-throttle. At the same time you don’t have to wait for a century until it gets clear for the 8-step automatic transmission that it is time to shift gear. You can do everything yourself with the help of the switches behind the steering wheel. It appears to as they foresee your hands movements and shift gear even before you pull the silver petal. But of course that is not possible yet. It’s just the reaction time of a gear shift here is about 100 milliseconds, which is a excellent figure even against the Italian supercars.

Indeed, in some time you start unintentionally comparing the Lexus IS F with the real supercars. But let’s not forget that this Lexus has 4 doors, large trunk and quiet and comfortable passenger compartment. Modest and imperceptible, just like as the Ricky fellow. But in the Fight Club the IS F can be a god, we don’t doubt. We welcome you, mister “F”!

From behind the Lexus IS F can be recognized by its unusual shaped tailpipes – in a form of a figure of eight.

Lexus IS F technical specifications