Christan

*Warning* Long post

Long time no see folks. Its been close to a year since i bought my F. I have an 08/09 ISF.
I have few complaints. And I think its a great car. I love the M3 too but after owning an F i know that it'll just keep on getting better and it will be my car of choice until some moron decides to mess up the design or just completely screw it up.
But Time and time again i get asked the question, why the IS F?

For one I love the way the car looks, I love its interior and i love that transmission. Yes you heard me right.

I regularly take my car out to track and as correctly pointed out by some "forumers" the main things that are lacking is (with some rectified in the 2010 model) are:

1) Lack of a mec slip diff.
2) Suspension systems
3) poor low end rev performance.

I have modded my car for performance. Every other week i set out to beat my previous lap times, of course its not just the car but the driver itself and my experience is as such.

The F is almost unmanageable with Traction control off if you are a poor driver or if you have no understanding of over/under steer and do not know how to apply proper throttle and counter locking measures. Its a handful.

I tracked my car fully stock and it was a fun experience. After which using race logic diagnostics I saw my braking/acceleration and also cornering Gs and where i could improve my car.

2nd time I had JoeZ intake, Toms Filter installed with Toms Stainless steel mufflers. The mufflers reduced weight and was also more efficient as limited dynos showed. The results of the intake and filter gave me better response. The result of this run was a reduction in lap time of 3/10ths of a second.

3rd time out, I installed tein CS suspensions and toms front strut bar - this was an improvement from the original shocks with the strut bars making the car a little stiffer you can actually feel it as i had it removed and reinstalled. This was the biggest change, it resulted in more than a second of reduced lap times. Of course i got better and more comfortable with the F and eventually reduced my lap times by just over 3 seconds. (grew bigger ***** basically)

4th time tweaked suspension settings, removed some weight and also without traction control, i had better laptimes but worked way too hard for them.

Now I am planning to install a mechanical limited diff, new Tein Comfort Flexes, titanium mufflers and also looking at brake/ wheel options.

I went with comfort flexes because the other options Bilstein etc do not allow me to change my settings in car and since i already have Tein's EDFC i didnt want it to go to waste. Plus the Flexes will be somewhat familiar. Bilstein and other options have in car management too but ive only seen the b16s etc in lower end 3 series and others. Plus I drive my F as a daily too so i need some form of comfort.

I know there may be other ways of making my F a better performer i.e weight reduction etc or removing of seats forced induction etc but I want to keep it as true to its old form as possible with well not so 'minor' tweaks.

My success against m3s on tracks albeit i know they may not drive as much or as well as me (because i actually practice and drive for an amateur team) i get great satisfaction when they come up to me and say, man that car is fast and "i can't wait to see what else lexus does".

As far as cars go, I love them all, m3s, ISFs AMGs they are all excellent but it boils down to personal preferences, I like aston martins better than ferraris but that doesnt mean i dont like ferraris. But of all the cars ive had the pleasure of driving, my IS F will forever be the best. Because to me, a car like this really has no competition because there are just as many things wrong as there are things that are right with it. So tweak the F. Shes asking for it

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Tein? I wouldn't waste my time with their stuff - adjustable or not, it's low end and the CS is Comfort Sport. Emphasis comfort, not SPORT.

Sounds to me like you've learned to drive the car better, but I wouldn't give much credit to the Tein suspension. I get through the kink at CMP better than some race prepared cars on my stock suspension.

What tracks do you run?

Christan

I run sepang international f1 circuit in malaysia. And I actually the cs sports are better than stock but that's just me, of course with credit to my driving much more than parts although I did find them better imo.

I'm still on a quest to find a perfect setup. The irony of it all is that I was more keen on the comfort aspect of the CS which I can report, improves on stock but not significantly.

But thanks for your 2cents lobux you've always set me straight!