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So it's 2020 and we've been stuck at home for awhile. I was bored, and so I figured after almost 8 years of ownership, I would create a build thread lol. I did my best to re-create the timeline and wanted to share all of the mods and great times I have had with this car so far. I hold onto my cars for a long time, so hopefully there will be many more posts in the future. Enjoy...
TLDR CURRENT MOD LIST - 2008 ISF (as of August 2022)
RR racing tuned Intake
RR racing tune
PPE headers
Joe Z exhaust
RR racing Road and Track coilovers
Sikky rear sway bar
Rr racing oil cooler
RR racing AOS catch can
MFR chassis mounted front splitter
Toms CF rear diffuser
Girodisc 2 piece rotors
Winmax W6 track pads & RR Racing titanium shims
Enkei PF01 18x9.5 wheels
Bridgestone RE-71R 275/35-18 tires
APR GTC 300 wing
Chronos racing front canards
OS Giken TCD differential
DNA carbon fiber engine cover (#1 of 6)
JMA Racing carbon fiber hood (#3 of 4?)
GROM Vline2 entertainment system
March 2014 – New car purchase
Today’s the day! For many of the same reasons as you, I found myself looking for an ISF. I was hoping for a USB, but then I was able to find a pristine 2008 Matador Red Mica example just 3 hours away from me (Cincinnati) in Cleveland. It was a Manhattan car that only had 5,700 miles on it after 6 years. Grabbed it for $38k and drove it smiling from ear to ear all of the way home. The car was basically brand new for significantly less!
April 2015 – Joe Z exhaust
Time for the first of many mods to come. I wanted a louder exhaust and the PTS Joe Z exhaust seemed to be the popular choice. So I picked one up from Mod In Japan. Still today, I find it to be a nice sounding exhaust – at idle or cruising, it has a nice deep, bass sound that’s not too loud. But at WOT, it has such a musical note!
July 2015 – National Corvette Museum track day
While I have autocrossed for many years and with every car I have ever bought, SCCA started up a new program called “Track Night in America” that offered a relatively inexpensive way to track my car. So I checked my fluids and bought Stoptech Sport pads because they were cheap and had a high temperature rating. I signed up for the track day at National Corvette Museum (NCM) Motorsports park (West loop) about 3 hours away in Bowling Green, KY. In hindsight, I believe that SCCA did not do a good job of educating me and the other novices on the details of HPDE. We had a single brief classroom session, and then they sent me out in the Novice class with no instructor. Despite not entirely knowing what I was doing, I had an absolute blast and was hooked. I even had a few vettes wipe out in front of me (10:45 mark in session 2) and even wiped out (minorly) myself (8:00 mark in session 2). Was on all seasons lol.
May 2016 - RR Racing tune + OBD device; Pocono track day
So RR Racing debuts their tune, the first available for the ISF platform. The problem was that the only way to get it at the time was to ship the ECU to them. I didn’t want to do that, so instead I drove 8 hours to their Pocono track event where Rafi installed the tune directly (and sent me home with the OBD device). At the event, I met a number of fellow F owners and track day guys and witnessed the RR Racing supercharged ISF on its 2nd track day ever (I think) as well as the Red Devil RCF long before it was the Red Devil.
For the track day, I made the mistake of not wanting to be in Novice and with an instructor, so I signed up for Intermediate for my 2nd track day EVER. Huge mistake! Needless to say, I did not enjoy it since I wasn’t ready for that level. But the track was extremely tight and lots of fun especially when it went out onto the main portion of the track. Since I had a long drive home, I skipped out early and missed the final session where they run the entire full pro track and achieve some really high top speeds.
I headed home disappointed in myself for the track day but enjoyed the lower end torque increase of the tune for the drive home (even with no headers at the time)
Quickly becoming a track junky, I signed up for another SCCA Track Night in America, this time at Putnam Race course just outside of Indianapolis. This was a nice simple course that is actually great for beginners. It was a great day for me continually learning my style, my car and the track. In one of my sessions, an older car actually stopped on track with the driver jumping out since the car caught on fire!
Mod time again! I was able to pick up a Sikky adjustable rear sway bar from Evasive Motorsports as part on their Black Friday sale and installed in the Spring. Then I picked up PPE UEL headers from RR Racing. The tune eliminated the CEL and the extra power was addicting. The rear sway bar wasn’t materially different but did help with body roll a little. Still a bargain compared to other mods.
Recall time! So I hate going to the dealer but had accumulated a number outstanding recalls as well as a stuck cooling fan in which the bolts came loose and the fan fell and got stuck. I had the dealer perform the ELF wire harness, GLH airbag, ELE cooling fan recalls. Thank goodness I knew what to watch for because of this forum. It took 3 trips because they (like many other dealers) taped up the wiring harness (so I returned and made them install a brand new one) and they accidentally unplugged the GPS antenna for the airbag recall. But I did at least get a new cooling fan assembly.
Sept 2017 - Mid Ohio
I took the F to Mid Ohio road course just north of Columbus, Ohio for a track day with Autointerests. AI is a great organization with awesome classroom and in car instruction, completely different than my previous experiences. In the time since, Mid Ohio has become my favorite track so far with a number of elevation changes and a long straight. Best time was around a 1:55.
June 2018 – OEM wheels, rotors, RR Racing Road & Track coilovers
Another mod update. I installed new Brembo drilled rotors from Autozone, drove to Chicago to buy an extra set of OEM wheels with new PS4S on them (since I had been running all seasons on the track LOL), and installed RR Racing v1 Road and Track coilovers. Interestingly the extra wheels were slightly darker than mine – which later peeled so I assume were possibly powder coated.
The R&T coils drastically improved the handling on the track but offered no improvement in comfort on the street. While I bought them for track performance, I was initially disappointed that they didn’t improve on the 08 harshness. Also, the spherical top hats make it sound like something is loose in the car. I went with 16k/12k spring rates. Despite the harshness (and I still daily drive it today about 15k / year) I really enjoy the improved track performance for the price.
I also got to see my 2nd LFA in person at the Dayton Ohio Cars and Coffee along with the new LC.
June / July 2018 - Toms Drop in air filter; Project Mu HC+800 front pads; brake lines; Putnam
I threw in a Tom’s drop in air filter and Project Mu HC+800 front pads from SpeedfreaksUSA for better braking on track. Wow, what a difference over the Stop Techs with much better grip.
However, I made the mistake of not upgrading to a high temp brake fluid and it nearly cost me my life. I signed up for another track day at Putnam and had an instructor. On the last lap of the session before the checkered flag, the OEM fluid boiled. Unfortunately, the corner station wasn’t 100% sure what they saw, and no black flag was thrown. About midway through the lap, I felt the brakes go…I uttered the words no instructor wants to hear in the passenger seat: “I have no brakes!” Thankfully I was able to downshift enough to get through the last few turns and rolled into pit (yelling at people to get out of the way). Totally embarrassed, I changed my underwear, allowed the fluid to cool enough to restore braking and headed home safely. Best time was a 1:27 based on my newly purchased Harrys Laptimer app along with an OBDLink Lx device.
Wanting to be “full bolt ons,” I added an HPS intake elbow off of a fellow ClubLexus member who was parting out his car. It is a nicer look but no noticeable difference in performance or sound.
I was ready to head back to Mid Ohio with the proper braking setup this time. Best time was a 1:48, an improvement of 7 seconds partially attributable to the stickier tires and coilovers. I was passing Rollas and Porsches LOL.
Took a quick trip to Mid Ohio, but this time as a VIP spectator to watch the Lexus Racing Team take the checkered flag. We got to meet the racing team, take a hot lap in a GSF, head down into the pit during the race, and enjoy food and fun with fellow Lexus owners.
Time for a WTH silly purchase. I was randomly browsing Facebook Marketplace and came across a local guy selling a broken Lexus sign from a dealership. Turns out he does sign repair and the lighting in this one stopped working. So a quick $60 and 20 minute drive and the sign was mine. I added some color changing LEDs which actually match our pool lights. Definitely a novelty lol.
July 2019 - Oil cooler, AOS, NS400 pads, Blackvue dashcam, Nelson Ledges
I picked up some Project Mu NS400 pads from Australia (thanks to a CL member post) for a deep discount and for daily use. I also upgraded to the Blackvue 750s-2ch dual channel dashcam. Wired it via a fuse tap and added the Magic Pro adapter to enable it to run while the car is off.
Time for a new track. I headed up to Nelson Ledges in Northern Ohio. It is similar to Putnam in that it is a non-technical track with a number of long sweepers and really only 1 hard braking zone. However, it is actually one of the fastest (highest average speed) tracks (see a later post for a pic of some track rankings). I was fortunate to have waited until the track received a long overdue repaving. After the first session in the novice group, the instructor bumped me up to the Intermediate class. An additional nice treat was that for one session we actually ran the course backwards. I had to learn the course all over again! It also lightly rained most of the day, so fast times weren’t really achievable. Best time was a 1:23.
After being able to push the car harder with a better setup and more experience, I began to run into oil temperature issues that are common on these cars. It is not fun when I either have to short shift around 6k rpm or require a few cooldown laps. So I installed an oil cooler and air oil separator from RR racing. But these mods are an absolute must if you track the car as oil temps are a common problem and I pretty much empty the AOS after every session.
This time I went to Pitt Race course in PA about 4 hours away for another track day. I went back to the novice class so that the instructor could help out with the line since the track was new to me. Pitt Race was a nice long course but was brutal on the tires. I got home and discovered my tires were worn to the cords and the front pads were toast along with the typical microcracking of the OEM rotors. Fastest time was a 2:05 with lots of room for improvement. Went with an RCF owner and another met us there.
So in the year of the rona and with nothing better to do, I did a significant number of pre-season mods.
First of all, we sold the Sienna and got the wife an RX350. I later sold my 2002 IS300 I’ve owned for 18 years, flew to Arkansas and bought a 16IS300 AWD F sport.
With the track season over, I installed RR Racing USRS lower control arm bushings for tighter steering feel.
I installed the RR 2-piece front rotors with Winmax W6 pads. Both have performed well over 5k miles and 3 track days with little wearing and awesome linear braking performance and little to no fade. Also shaved a few pounds of rotational weight over the OEM Brembos.
I sold the extra OEM wheels and bought Enkei PF01 18x9.5 et45 wheels for additional weight savings and the ability to go with a 275/35 Bridgestone RE-71r square setup. The extra tire width on the front helps to reduce the natural understeer of the car. And it is nice being able to have more tire rotation options.
I also grabbed a used RR tuned intake from a fellow member and got an updated tune free of charge. Not a huge difference, but I am hungry for every little bit of hp I can get lol.
A local F owner sold his car and I was able to grab an authentic Tom’s CF rear diffuser. I removed my plastidip chrome trim delete and replaced with vinyl tape – much better.
I was then one of the first to pickup an MFR aluminum chassis mounted front splitter offered by Mod in Japan. My front bumper bottom tabs were broken, so this was my excuse for getting the splitter – to hold the bumper on. The splitter is HUGE and awesome. Install was extremely frustrating as the instructions were terrible and the fitment on mine for some reason wasn’t good. There was about a 2 inch gapped between the splitter and the bumper. So MFR made some shorter brackets that did the trick. The splitter offers a nice alternative look, smoother air flow on the track, and I don’t have to worry about cracking it like most carbon fiber lips. In fact, I accidentally clipped the garage and took out a piece of brick with no damage to the splitter lol.
Did a little bit of maintenance as well (Denso Iridium Long Life Spark Plugs FK20HBR11, 2nd Bosch Platinum AGM battery, diff fluid change)
Off to Mid Ohio ready for faster times with reduced weight, better air flow, and even stickier wider tires. Unfortunately my time was 2 seconds worse at a 1:49. The morning sessions were wet and Mid Ohio is notoriously like ice when wet. I went out with a fellow F owner and we were sliding all over the place. So I think I was a little timid in the afternoon when it finally dried out. Disappointing but a day at the track is still a great time.
Finally added window tint to the F…I can’t believe I waited this long. I also replaced the plasitdip and vinyl for the window trim chrome delete. Looks sooooooo much better!
With the threat of everything shutting down, we decided to pull together a regional Lexus F meet. The meeting place was Lexus Rivercenter (downtown Cincinnati/NKY) and we had F’s come from as far as 3 hours away. It was great meeting new faces and seeing old ones, but the highlight of the day was sitting in and cruising with a Nurburgring edition LFA.
11-26-20, 08:05 AM
Lexicon72's Build Blog
