mmarshall

It should, considering it will probably have a more track-oriented suspension and underpinnings.

I hope, though, that they do a better job on the GS-F's underpinnings, overall, than they did when the IS-F was first introduced some seven years ago. I test-drove an early-production electric-blue IS-F at Lexus of Silver Spring in 2008. Among other local roads, I drove it on Route 29 (if you lived in MD back then, you might (?) remember U.S. 29's notorious frost-heaves before the pavement was resurfaced). On those frost-humps, the IS-F's suspension, even at the proper tire PSI (which I check before test-drives) was so stiff that the rear end of the car (which was lighter than the front end and its heavy V8) actually would come off the ground an inch or two and sometimes come down at a slight angle from a slightly different force on each rear wheel, requiring a small steering correction when it hit. I had to slow down markedly over those humps to go over them civilly...not that I was really going over them that fast to start with. I had never experienced that before on a test-drive, though I suspect that the rock-hard Mitsubishi Evo I also test-drove might have done the same thing on a rougher road....it was as stiff as the IS-F on minor bumps.

Now......before you respond, I know that you think I'm just some kind of Baby-Boomer Grandpa that grew up with pillow-soft 1960s Cadillacs and Lincolns and am so in love with rolling mush-cocoons that I simply can't accept a suspension or tires of modern specs. But, consider that, on the IS-F, it was not just my opinion. Road & Track, Car & Driver, and Automobile Magazine all tested an IS-F around the time I did, and all three publications, which were accustomed to driving stiffly-sprung performance vehicles, came up with pretty much the same conclusion....the IS-F's initial suspension was overly-harsh even by their standards. Lexus did make some changes to it the next year, though, which did made it a little more civil without giving up the excellent handling.

SW17LS

Remember that IS-F came out 7 years ago. Since that time they redid the suspension on the IS-F and addressed those issues, released a RC-F that has been praised for its handling both on the road and on the track, and developed several models (the IS, the GS) that went from bottom of the pack to leading their segments in handling in one generation. I have confidence that Lexus understands how to design and build a great handling, yet drivable performance luxury car at this point.

Considering that the IS-F was basically the first performance car they had ever built, one would expect the first product to be less polished than the subsequent products.

mmarshall

True. That's why i said that I hope we initially see better from the GS-F, and like you, I'm confident that we will.

I haven't driven an RC yet....have you? Hope to do so in the coming year....though it seems to be in limited-production, and may be in short supply. I have a feeling most of them will come off the truck pre-sold....especially F models

SW17LS

I have not. Sat in them but have not driven one. They had several at Silver Spring and Rockville when I was there, including some Fs.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I understand F Sport proliferation but I just wish Lexus did the power thing more like BMW. There's 3 choices of the 3, 4 and 5 series.
The 328 has around 240 hp (way more than the IS250), 335 has 300hp and M3 over 500. An IS-F would fix that.
On the other hand, I hate trying to copy another brand. All I really care is that Lexus give us more choices of power in the various models.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

I personally think this is quite exciting for Lexus . And think about it the regular GS since 2007 has had 306 hp and Lexus has carried that up to 2014. Now with the up coming release of the F model and 467hp is pretty iconic imo. Minus the hybrid model of course. Having a few different choices between models only gives the customer more choices. It's always been that way

Trek

That's where you are wrong. The price is expected to be at least 75K base:

http://toyotacars2016.com/2016-lexus-gs-f-review-price/

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

That's a site run by some dude in Serbia. Not remotely official.

natnut

Differences between a F-Sport GS and a base GS :

1) semiautonomous self-adjusting suspension (AVS)--which can be tuned stiffer with the rotating dial in the car cabin
2) sports tuned shocks
3) larger 2 piece front rotors : 14inch rotors vs 13 inch rotors in non-F-Sport
4) larger 19 inch wheels, staggered for RWD models
5) VGRS -- speed sensitive steering, improves steering feel in Sport+ mode
6) Rear Wheel Steering (RWS) --decreases the car's turning radius at lower speeds, thus increasing car's agility and increases car's stability at highway speeds
7) VGRS+RWS+VDIM(Lexus stability control) is then coupled with Lexus software tuning to dramatically increase an F-Sport's handing/performance envelope over a non-F-Sport. This also known collectively as Lexus Dynamic Handling package (LDH)

Edmunds tested a GS350 F-Sport with LDH and it completed the slalom faster than a 560hp BMW M5 despite the GS350 being only 306hp. So F-Sport tuning is no joke

http://www.edmunds.com/lexus/gs-350/2013/road-test.html
http://www.edmunds.com/bmw/m5/2013/road-test.html
Seem like you haven't done enough research on Lexus F-Sport program. Think about it : an F-Sport GS350 outslalomed a 560hp $90,000 BMW M5. I'd consider it a bargain.

Vladi

Truth be told if you are living in US and you want to get NX you need F-Sport package to delete the ugly base bumper. I'm still not sure how they could get F-Sport bumper approved but not the other bumper that is offered in the rest of the world. But then there is a question are you really ready to blow 50 grand on a CUV that does exact same thing and features same materials as loaded Rav4 or CX5.

F-Sport does get you better looks on almost all of the Lexus cars and SUV there is no question but is it worth 5k? For example on GS you get a lot less amenities in F-Sport package compared to Luxury package but cars' performance difference between those two packages is 10% in the best case scenario. Maybe if you equip it with LHP or whatever cornering would be noticeably better but then F-Sport option ends up being almost 40% more expensive than Luxury add-on. On IS its even more of a trade off between F-Sport and Luxury since you cant get the ventilated seats yet.

Bottom line F-Sport is cosmetics first everything else second.

Gojirra99

They should have just called it SPORT and leave the F out ......

sick21

Umm wut. I do?? No I know exactly what my car is. **** I even know my car doesn't compare to a 550 (m sport) haha. I know exactly what an IS F is and I don't even like the IS. I like my F Sport. I didn't want an ultra luxed out GS. You guys ***** about wanting more choices but here you are complaining about the choices that lexus just started offering. Some people will never be happy. You want to see a pointless trim. I use to have a VW CC. I got the 2.0T Lux. I wanted the R Line but it was just to plain and wasn't anything more than ground affects. At least the F Sport GS is a lot more than that.

SW17LS

LOL, why?!? You guys talk about "F" like its some sacred thing. All the competitors reference their performance division in the name of their sport appearance/suspension package. M Sport, AMG Sport package, etc. Its just a letter.

He's not referring to any of us here on the forum, but clueless "general" consumers out in the marketplace.

Gojirra99

AMG and M are well established and iconic already, not the F, that's one good reason already, when you try to establish a brand playing catch up in the public ' s eye , try not to confuse them with something else the best you can.
F is just a letter, and the 3 point star is just a logo, but you cannot overestimate how important and valuable it is to a company. Did you read the annual reports of measuring how valuable the brand names are, benz and Toyota consistently come up top in luxury and non-luxury car brands, and it's because of the brand name/logo. THAT'S why a medicore Camry can still outsell all year after year, and early to mid 2000's Mercedes still sold very well despite being near the bottom of all quality surveys among all luxury and non ' luxury brands during that period, thanks to just that 3 point star logo .

Toys4RJill

While I do not get the who GS-F or IS-F thing, I think the F-sport trim level is awesome and worth getting. I like it better than the base models of most Lexus products. One of my favourite details is the A, B, C pillars and roof being coloured all black.