All IS-F Reviews here
03-04-08, 12:34 PM
#47
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repost, but the only thing i want to do while watching that review is smack the narrator upside the head. not only is he biased his voice makes the review extremely boring. maybe edmunds should stop bashing Lexus vs their peers and instead concentrate on doing a better job vs their own peers. losers.
03-04-08, 12:40 PM
#48
Pole Position
well, i dont have to post mine cos it already in you tube... but what the heck here is it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7c9jjViMDU
I have been watching Fifth Gear and Top Gear for years.. Well i prefer Fifth Gear cos Tiff is a real race driver. he have been competing in Lemans.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7c9jjViMDU
I have been watching Fifth Gear and Top Gear for years.. Well i prefer Fifth Gear cos Tiff is a real race driver. he have been competing in Lemans.....
Thanks for putting yours up. It covered the lead-in a bit of the conversation at the end that helped to add just a touch of color to the clilp.Overall I thought the clip was a bit more Top Gear-ish than I expected. Hearing him complain about the beeping for the first 1/3 of the clip and not talk about the shift quality itself or some of the more objective performance measures was not what I expected/wanted.
03-06-08, 11:21 AM
#50
Lexus Fanatic
Tom Ford from Top Gear wrote a brief review on the IS-F and he loves it, although pointing out many deficiencies against the competitors at the same time.
http://www.topgear.com/blogs/drives/160-lexus-isf/
You've probably read a bit about this car already, but here's another line of thought just to confuse you.
First, a little background. I'm a big fan of fitness for purpose. If you make a supercar, you need to make it super. If you make a daily grind hatch, you need to make it practical and durable. Everything has a little niche, and compromises to make, to steal a customer or two.
So one of the hardest cars to make would be a properly sorted fast and practical saloon, mainly because 'fast' and 'practical' don't tend to sit well with each other. It's the milk and orange juice equation. Fine on their own, but try to mix them and you end up with a queasy mess.
And yet, right now, we have several extraordinary cars that manage it to varying degrees of success. The Merc C63 is properly mental. The RS4 (I know it's out of production), is a brilliant, brilliant thing. The BMW M3 brings together so much tech and knowledge that the sheer speed it can amass is almost inconceivable.
And then we have the Lexus IS-F. And I love it. Why? Because I'm not a racing driver. I realise that real life is as important as the weekend blast of the car journalist. I constantly think what it would be like to live with this car for a couple of years, how successful it would be as my day-to-dayer.
It isn't particularly hardcore, really. Not when faced with the M3 or the C63. It's actually more like the RS4 - a better all-rounder that loses perhaps the last five per cent of speed in pursuit of the real world. The steering has an awfully dead feel to it, and there's a dearth of seat-of-the-pants information. But there's an ease to the eight-speed auto and creamy-smooth V8 that means you could live with this car.
It's mega fast and terribly exciting when you make that V8 reach upwards, but what many people aren't focussing on is the fact that this makes a fantastic fist of being a memorable car because of the way it goes slowly. Try that in the goad-tastic C63 or M3 and I guarantee you'll be getting faster and faster at every corner. Not a bad thing in a sports saloon, but different.
The IS-F is also a bit of an oddball choice. There'll only be about 150 coming into the UK per year and that's very appealing to me. It's got exciting technology in that engine and gearbox that make it a bit different, though it's not all perfect. I could live with this car for a year or two. Now I just have to work out how to afford it...
So what compromises would you make? Are you prepared to forgo your spine for handling, or do you get annoyed when the fourth cupholder isn't within reach? I'm somewhere in the middle...
http://www.topgear.com/blogs/drives/160-lexus-isf/
You've probably read a bit about this car already, but here's another line of thought just to confuse you.
First, a little background. I'm a big fan of fitness for purpose. If you make a supercar, you need to make it super. If you make a daily grind hatch, you need to make it practical and durable. Everything has a little niche, and compromises to make, to steal a customer or two.
So one of the hardest cars to make would be a properly sorted fast and practical saloon, mainly because 'fast' and 'practical' don't tend to sit well with each other. It's the milk and orange juice equation. Fine on their own, but try to mix them and you end up with a queasy mess.
And yet, right now, we have several extraordinary cars that manage it to varying degrees of success. The Merc C63 is properly mental. The RS4 (I know it's out of production), is a brilliant, brilliant thing. The BMW M3 brings together so much tech and knowledge that the sheer speed it can amass is almost inconceivable.
And then we have the Lexus IS-F. And I love it. Why? Because I'm not a racing driver. I realise that real life is as important as the weekend blast of the car journalist. I constantly think what it would be like to live with this car for a couple of years, how successful it would be as my day-to-dayer.
It isn't particularly hardcore, really. Not when faced with the M3 or the C63. It's actually more like the RS4 - a better all-rounder that loses perhaps the last five per cent of speed in pursuit of the real world. The steering has an awfully dead feel to it, and there's a dearth of seat-of-the-pants information. But there's an ease to the eight-speed auto and creamy-smooth V8 that means you could live with this car.
It's mega fast and terribly exciting when you make that V8 reach upwards, but what many people aren't focussing on is the fact that this makes a fantastic fist of being a memorable car because of the way it goes slowly. Try that in the goad-tastic C63 or M3 and I guarantee you'll be getting faster and faster at every corner. Not a bad thing in a sports saloon, but different.
The IS-F is also a bit of an oddball choice. There'll only be about 150 coming into the UK per year and that's very appealing to me. It's got exciting technology in that engine and gearbox that make it a bit different, though it's not all perfect. I could live with this car for a year or two. Now I just have to work out how to afford it...
So what compromises would you make? Are you prepared to forgo your spine for handling, or do you get annoyed when the fourth cupholder isn't within reach? I'm somewhere in the middle...
03-08-08, 12:59 AM
#52
Lexus Fanatic
ISFinsider says
Exhausts and vents fake? Nope.
Just like you, I found it dull too that the actual pipes of the IS-F's exhaust are not connected to the chrome outlets. I wrote about them on my weblog and made some pics of the exhausts when I got the chance to drive the IS-F in early February. However, there are some proper reasons for this, as I found out when I received an e-mail from a keen Lexus-employee (!). He writes: "As the exhausts are attached to the engine which is mounted with some tolerance for load-driven movement inside the engine department itself both muffler units could not be connected directly to the rear bumper. This is however not the only reason. That is the sound. The same design is enhancing the deep sound it has, and also therefore the pipes could not be connected to the outlets. It would have ruined the bass-sound the car has, especially above 3.600 rpm. Both pipes on both sides are no fakes as you will see when you climb under the car." You also write the air vents are false, which I cannot believe. I learned from the introduction that the IS-F's underside is closed for aerodynamic reasons. There are no holes in the bonnet, so the vents are very much needed to get rid of hot air. ISF-insider www.isf-blog.com
03-26-08, 12:50 PM
#55
Lexus Champion
Review from Autocar.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...0-V8-F/231890/
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...0-V8-F/231890/
Verdict 3.5 out of 5 stars
The IS-F is a credible effort for a company whose stock in trade is luxury and refinement, and there is much that Lexus has absolutely nailed. The V8 powerplant stands comparison with any of its rivals and the overall balance of the IS-F’s entertaining and adjustable chassis is wonderful. Those are the basics and they’re spot on.
In the end, then, it’s details that set the Mercedes C63 and BMW M3 apart from the IS-F. But they’re the details that separate excellence from mere competence. If Lexus is serious about its ‘Fuji’ moniker, it should fit a limited-slip differential and a gearbox better suited to fast driving. It has tuned the suspension to retain comfort while improving control, but in the end it excels at neither. And inside you’ll find seats that are too flat. Lexus has done well, but could do better.
The IS-F is a credible effort for a company whose stock in trade is luxury and refinement, and there is much that Lexus has absolutely nailed. The V8 powerplant stands comparison with any of its rivals and the overall balance of the IS-F’s entertaining and adjustable chassis is wonderful. Those are the basics and they’re spot on.
In the end, then, it’s details that set the Mercedes C63 and BMW M3 apart from the IS-F. But they’re the details that separate excellence from mere competence. If Lexus is serious about its ‘Fuji’ moniker, it should fit a limited-slip differential and a gearbox better suited to fast driving. It has tuned the suspension to retain comfort while improving control, but in the end it excels at neither. And inside you’ll find seats that are too flat. Lexus has done well, but could do better.
03-29-08, 11:54 AM
#56
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For those who can read Russian, nice review:
http://autoreview.ru/archive/2008/04/lexus_isf/
and nice pic on the cover:
http://autoreview.ru/archive/2008/04/
They liked the car, 2 main complaints:
1) no limited slip differential
2) trans does not downshift during braking to the turns in D
http://autoreview.ru/archive/2008/04/lexus_isf/
and nice pic on the cover:
http://autoreview.ru/archive/2008/04/
They liked the car, 2 main complaints:
1) no limited slip differential
2) trans does not downshift during braking to the turns in D
Last edited by max90034; 03-30-08 at 11:44 PM.
04-01-08, 01:56 AM
#57
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Audi RS4 vs BMW M3 vs Lexus IS-F vs Mercedes C63 AMG
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carrevi...vs_rivals.html
1st Place: MB
2nd Place: BMW
3rd Place: Audi
4th Place: Lexus
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carrevi...vs_rivals.html
1st Place: MB
2nd Place: BMW
3rd Place: Audi
4th Place: Lexus
04-28-08, 09:15 PM
#60
Motor Trend: Comparison: 2008 BMW M3 vs. 2008 Lexus IS F vs. 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...amg_comparison
Motor Trend has always been biased toward BMW.
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...amg_comparison
Motor Trend has always been biased toward BMW.