Rather than shoehorning a 5.0-liter V8 into the nose of an IS 350 and simply calling it the IS 500, Lexus has instead cooked up a far more dedicated sport sedan with its new 2008 Lexus IS-F.

According to Lexus, the "F" in Lexus IS-F is derived from Toyota's initial "Circle-F" designation of 20 years ago for what would become the Lexus brand itself. Circle-F later morphed into Flagship One or F1, which in turn became the internal code for the first Lexus car, the LS 400.

Lexus is using this convoluted pedigree to help explain the importance it attaches to the IS-F. It promises that this and subsequent F-type cars will give Lexus real performance credentials, and it hopes that the F sub-brand will become as synonymous with performance as BMW's M Division and Mercedes-Benz AMG.

Frankly, we would've been just as satisfied with a simple "IS 500" badge and far more subtle exterior styling. But from now on, it's all about the F-word.

F Is for Fury
Regardless of what it means to the luxury carmaker (and how it appears to the serious sport-sedan buyer), the 2008 Lexus IS-F is a serious piece of highly engineered hardware indeed. At its heart, the 5.0-liter V8 (2UR-GSE) comes from a stroked version of the 4.6-liter engine (1UR-FSE) found in the luxo-cruising Lexus LS 460. Now that Yamaha (a frequent collaborator with Toyota for engine projects) has had its way with it, an essentially all-new engine pumps out an impressive 416 horsepower at 6,600 rpm with 371 pound-feet of torque available at 5,200 rpm.

Exclusive to this Lexus V8 are trick cylinder heads with solid lifters and titanium intake valves, plus a water-cooled oil radiator. There's also an oil-scavenge pumping system that keeps the engine supplied with life-sustaining lubricant even in high-G cornering, and even the fuel tank uses an offset pump in a sub-tank for the same reasons.

The engine's lightweight reciprocating mass (said to be half that of other UR engines) combines with variable valve timing to produce a lofty redline of 6,800 rpm.

There's an instantly recognizable pubescent change in the IS-F's voice at 3,600 rpm when the dual-path intake system opens the secondary plumbing (located in the right wheelwell), immersing the passengers in a furious symphony of eight-cylinder baritone.

When you pour the 5.0-liter V8's power through the highly modified eight-speed automatic transmission (from the LS 460), the 3,780-pound IS-F is good for a 4.8-second time to 60 mph on the way to a quarter-mile in 13.2 seconds at 109 mph, and it's still accelerating hard — very hard.

The Competition
Frankly, we expected even better performance from such a good power-to-weight ratio. In our testing, the IS 350 has run to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and done the quarter-mile in 13.8 seconds at 101.2 mph. Meanwhile, the BMW 335i sedan with an automatic clocks 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.4 seconds at 103.9 mph.

And when it comes to BMW's official performance estimates for the 2008 BMW M3 sedan with its 414-hp 4.0-liter V8, the benchmark of 60 mph is supposed to come up in 4.9 seconds. The same stat for the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG with its 457-hp, 6.2-liter V8 is less than 4.5 seconds.

We admit we might've left a tenth or two on the IS-F's table, however. As much as we feel that Michelin Pilot PS2 tires are like sticky Lucky Charms, the IS-F's 255mm-wide rear contact patches aren't wide enough to duplicate a magically delicious launch.

That said, the roar of the rev-happy V8 is one of the most lust-worthy we've heard, rivaling the thrilling sound of the 4.2-liter V8 in the Audi RS 4, which also sounds like a flat-bottom drag-racing boat powered by a small-block V8 with open headers.

F Is for Fuji
Though if drag racing isn't quite the IS-F's sort of environment, road racing is. Besides the four other racetracks where camouflaged IS-F mules spent much of their time during testing, the car primarily was developed on Toyota's own Fuji International Speedway. A nice thing, if you can afford it.

What this did for the IS-F is readily evident in the car's ability to hold a line in the corners, the linearity and tractability of the engine's power, and the magnificent proficiency of the transmission's shift action in manual mode.

The brakes are also track-worthy. The fixed Brembo six-piston front calipers feature three different piston diameters and clamp 14.2-inch drilled and vented discs, while two-piston rear calipers squeeze 13.6-inch drilled and vented discs in the back. Sixty-to-zero stopping distances tumbled down with each successive stop with a best of 112 feet. We tired before these fade-resistant brakes did.

Thank You for Smoking
We had a few laps at a local track and can tell the IS-F is no stranger to an apex. We tried all three modes of stability/traction control and found Sport VDIM mode largely unobtrusive. It's pretty permissive and becomes slightly annoyed only if the driver's corner entry or exit is less smooth than Sir Jackie Stewart would recommend.

Still, we couldn't help but enjoy the drive-at-your-own-risk mode with the stability control switched off. When you briefly lift off the throttle pedal midcorner, then whack it wide open, the tail of the car is easily coaxed into a slide. The faux, brake-induced simulation of a limited-slip differential initially fights the slide, but it eventually relinquishes its hold on the tires and two plumes of magnificent white tire smoke finally emerge.

The IS-F's turn-in is breathtakingly quick, as the car takes a confident and very firm set through corners with pretty stubborn understeer on the car's limit. We measured 0.93g on our skid pad.

Though the steering action is as precise as any rack-and-pinion can deliver, the artificially heavy effort of the two-mode, electric power assist (a 42V system) still cannot communicate as much information about the contact patches of the front tires as other sport sedans we've driven. Even so, the IS-F weaves its way to an exhilarating 70.2-mph slalom run where oversteer becomes the limiting factor. Credit the car's weight distribution of 54 percent front/46 percent rear.

F Is for Fast
Automatic transmissions are slow-acting, power-sapping, indirect hindrances between an engine and a driver's will, right? Yet the IS-F's eight-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic transmission (AA80E) obliterates this notion with an entirely novel — and we think industry-changing — control system.

While the hardware again has its foundation in the transmission of the LS sedan, lightweight yet robust internals plus a complete rewiring of the transmission's brain have produced an entirely new definition of an automatic transmission. In manual mode, it comes as close to instant shifting as anything we've driven.

When manual mode (shifted via steering-column paddles or the console-mounted gearlever) is selected, upshift times drop from a Lexus IS 350's typical 1.3 seconds (0.7 second to initiate plus 0.6 second to change ratios) to a mere 0.3 second (0.2 second to initiate plus 0.1 second to shift). We also appreciate the perfectly timed tone that reminds you to shift just before you hit the rev limiter in each gear.

The gloriously quick downshifts (with matched revs) sound as if the car has a true sequential gearbox. It's unbelievable. The only other transmission that comes close to such quick, driver-friendly action is the dual-clutch DSG gearbox like the one in an Audi A3, or perhaps the latest $9,000, Formula 1-style automated sequential manual like that in the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.

When it's in Drive, the transmission behaves much like a traditional automatic with the personality and torque-converter lock-up habits of the latest BMW StepTronic, but with two or three too many gears from which to choose. The mundane cut-and-thrust of everyday traffic produces frequent shifting among the eight ratios and it takes some getting used to.

F Is for Freeway Hop
While the kind of on-track schooling the IS-F has received is generally a good performance-tuning practice that tends to breed more performance-capable vehicles, it doesn't always make for a livable car.

The IS-F short-travel suspension rides taut and firm like a racecar's — all the time. Without driver-adjustable suspension, freeway overpasses that are usually registered by the seat of your pants as a gentle, rolling hop become spine-compressing jolts. Consider yourself warned.

Generation Gap
What do you think of when you hear "Lexus"? Maybe it's not performance. Initial quality studies, customer satisfaction ratings and a luxury-car benchmark with a reputation for reliability are more like it, and that's why the median age of a Lexus buyer is older than any of its competition among performance-oriented brands.

The way Lexus sees it, all those WRX and Evo owners are getting older, have increased their earning potential and shortly will be looking for cars that satisfy their inner enthusiasts while avoiding the boy-racer stigma. So the IS-F is the right thing to do for the future of Lexus.

The 416-hp 2008 Lexus IS-F also intends to take a preemptive bite out of the high-performance compact-sedan pie currently sized up by the forthcoming BMW M3 sedan and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.

The price of the 2008 Lexus IS-F might make it persuasive. Though the official numbers won't be announced for a bit, Lexus says our estimate of $59,900 isn't "embarrassingly inaccurate," so we used the current IS 350's optional $2,550 navigation system price to calculate this IS-F's $62,540 as-tested price.

The F-Word
If it seems that our enthusiasm for the IS-F is mixed, you're right. While we can appreciate all the work that went into this performance-minded, track-worthy Lexus, we're more than a little put off by its harsh ride on the street. Is this truly a usable high-performance car, or just a car for extreme profiling?

There's also something about the gimmicky styling. The most telling trace of disingenuousness can be found in those stacked quad exhaust "resonators," as Lexus describes them. We discovered that not one of the chromed ovals is directly plumbed to the muffler and are instead part of the rear fascia. They're there just for looks.

There's too much of this car that reminds us of the supersonic jet-powered sports cars we all used to draw on our denim binders back in third grade.

F Is for Future
Yet there's a whole lot more invested in this notion of a high-performance Lexus than the ill-fated "L Tune" kits for the first-generation IS, which were little more than stiffer suspensions, tacked-on body parts and loud exhaust systems.

Depending on its success, Lexus says the IS-F is but the first in a series of F-division vehicles, with the next obvious, though not confirmed, candidate being the GS-F.

We applaud the effort and support Lexus' path down this road, but we hope they spend a little more time on city streets and a little less time on race tracks.

What does the "F" in the name of this new four-door, 416-horse velocityraptor from Lexus stand for? Company boss Jim Farley doesn't much care. "Maybe 'Fuji,' our racetrack," he says (the F logo is shaped like Turn One). "Or 'Circle-F' [the original code name for Lexus Division]. Or 'Flagship.'"

Allow us to offer a suggestion, Jim: "Fenomenal."

Based on the platform that underpins the IS 250 and IS 350 sport sedans, the IS F is a carbon-spewing, tire-vaporizing mutant, the gentrified Lexus family's black sheep (and you know how much fun black sheep can be). Given Lexus's carefully cultivated reputation for civility, the rip-snorting IS F shouldn't even be here. And yet, by sheer force of will (see sidebar), it is. Lucky us.

For sure, nothing else in the Lexus stable has the IS F's street-bruiser look. Two inches wider up front than the IS 350, the F also sports a larger grille (improved engine cooling), fat brake ducts in the front air dam, 19-inch, dark-gray BBS forged-alloy wheels, quad tailpipes in a dual stacked array, and a pronounced hood bulge that hints of something menacing lurking underneath.

It's in there. The engine, based on the direct-injection 5.0-liter V-8 that serves in the LS 600hL, was codeveloped by Yamaha; it's upgraded with new high-flow heads, hollow cams, a head-scavenge oil pump (to help maintain even lubrication during high-g loads), titanium intake valves, a dual-inlet air intake (the second intake opens at 3600 rpm for enhanced high-rpm breathing), and other performance goodies. The net result is 416 horsepower at 6600 rpm and 371 pound-feet of torque at 5200.

The IS F doesn't offer a manual transmission--and nobody's going to complain. Instead, standard is an eight-speed automatic with manual mode and paddle shifters. While the transmission uses a conventional torque converter in first gear, in manual mode the lock-up clutch remains engaged from second through eighth, directly connecting the engine's output to the rear wheels (lift off the gas, and the engine compression is immediate, as with a conventional manual transmission). Adding to the "manual" feel is ultra-fast shifting; Lexus claims the tranny can change gears in just 100 milliseconds--as quick as the Ferrari F430's F1 box.

From the company that's synonymous with a cloudlike ride comes a suspension that's as cushy as a manhole cover. Front spring and shock rates are up 90 percent; the rear rates have climbed 50 percent. Larger anti-roll bars front and back minimize body roll even more, as does a ride height lowered about an inch. Inside the huge forged-alloy wheels (said to be 40 percent lighter than cast-aluminum wheels of the same size) lie six-piston Brembo brakes up front (the vented and drilled discs are an inch larger than the IS 350's) and two-piston vented and drilled Brembo rotors (up 1.4 inches) at the rear.

If by now you think Lexus has forgotten everything it knows about coddling its buyers, the cockpit will immediately put your mind at ease. It's a racy place--shift paddles behind the wheel, four deeply bolstered sport bucket seats, oil-temp gauge, aluminized composite trim--yet it's still very Lexus. All the typical amenities are standard or available, including heated seats, navigation, Mark Levinson surround-sound audio, and radar-guided cruise. Our tester also featured the optional (and gorgeous) high-contrast interior, with dramatic white-on-black leather.

Acknowledging that their new IS F offers higher-performance limits than any public road can handle, the Lexus team unveiled their new black sheep at Laguna Seca racetrack. There, it took about, oh, two or three turns to realize the Nrburgring-tuned IS F is going to make serious trouble for the likes of the new BMW M3, the Audi RS4, and the Mercedes C63 AMG. The car is, quite simply, a monster: Acceleration is brutal, the brakes are wicked-strong, and handling grip is immense (a Sport mode for Lexus's VDIM stability-control system increases steering weight, boosts throttle response, and allows the tail to step out usefully before the electronics step in; Lexus says Sport produces faster lap times than switching off the system altogether). You could easily convince yourself you're driving a track car. The engine note completes the illusion. Given that Toyota runs its own F1 team, you expect the V-8 to scream like Jarno Trulli's single-seater. Wrong series. Instead, the IS F bellows like a Nextel Cup Toyota Camry (redline is a relatively low 6800 rpm).

Back in L.A., senior editor Kiino grabbed the keys and came back from a sprint through his favorite canyons all but frothing at the mouth: "This may be the best Japanese car I've ever driven! Under normal driving, the 5.0 feels like a typical Lexus V-8--super smooth and quiet--yet stomp on it and all of a sudden it's like there's a honkin' Hemi on-board--one that got its Ph.D. at the University of NVH. Shift speed is remarkable--feels like a DSG. And you can flog the suspension and it never gets upset. This car is a riot."

The test gear confirmed our giddiness. The IS F blazes to 60 mph in just 4.7 seconds and stops from the same speed in only 106 feet. It'll also churn up a nice, warm, vibraty feeling all through your gutty-works: Max grip is 0.91 g. Got a long driveway? Top speed is electronically limited to 168 mph, making the IS F the fastest Lexus ever.

How much? Lexus won't say yet, but there's a special Neiman Marcus Edition IS F set to make its debut soon for $68,000. Subtract $5000 for the N-M edition's included Skip Barber Racing School package, and another couple thou for some special goodies on that car, and you're probably looking at a base sticker of around $60K when the IS F goes on sale in late February or early March.

We don't plan to wait that long to drive the IS F again. Memo to comparo-test coordinator: Bring on the M3.

F Troop

Lexus didn't want the IS F. Yukihiko Yaguchi, formerly in charge of brand strategy at Japan's Lexus Center, did. Though Lexus was already producing world-class luxury sedans and several impressive sporting cars, Yaguchi dreamed of a Lexus that would run with BMW's M, Benz's AMG, Audi's RS Quattro division. He pushed his idea to the conservative higher-ups--and won. Like that, he became chief engineer, Lexus IS F.

"Most chief engineers have development teams of between 1000 and 1500 members," the quiet, unassuming Yaguchi says. "I had 200 to 300." But like Kelly Johnson's famed Skunk Works team at Lockheed, whose skeleton crew designed such ground-breaking aircraft as the SR-71 Blackbird, Yaguchi's enthusiastic F troops often worked on the IS F on their own clocks. Yaguchi enlisted the help of long-time friend Takaai Kimura, senior officer at Yamaha, to develop the IS F's engine and borrowed engineers at Toyota Technocraft (which builds everything from police vehicles to race cars) to design the chassis.

"The luxury market is going to change dramatically in the next decade," says Lexus general manager Jim Farley. "In six years, 50 percent of our buyers will be 30 to 40 years old. The IS F is an experiment for us. I don't know if it'll steal buyers from BMW and Mercedes, but we've learned that prestige buyers like to be surprised. If the IS F does well [Lexus hopes to sell 200-300 cars per month], you might well see a wider application of F-branded cars."

"In Japanese," Yaguchi says, "'go' is a word that used to describe a large ship, moving forward and unstoppable." No wonder, then, that this radical new Lexus owes its existence to a team nicknamed "Yaguchi-Go."

Why the letter “F” in the new V-8–powered, 416-horsepower Lexus IS F? Simple: Toyota’s luxury brand and the letter F have a long history. In the mid-1980s, the Lexus luxury division was then just a classified notepad document codenamed “Circle F.” The first Lexus LS400 of 1989 was known internally as the “F1” or “Flagship.” And the stylized Fs on the 2008 IS F are drawn, it’s said, to mimic a few hairpin turns of Toyota’s Higashi-Fuji test track.

This first F (there’ll be more Lexus models with the F treatment soon, most likely) is a V-8–powered sledgehammer that rockets to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds—fleeter by 0.1 second than the new M3—has a 172-mph speed governor, and generates 0.92 g on the skidpad. It also keeps us grinning through hard track laps, even though the frequent fill-ups of premium were inhaled by street driving at the rate of 16 mpg. We’ll have to wait until March, 2008, when the IS F goes on sale at an expected price around $59,000 to see how many buyers are interested in a wicked-performing Lexus.

Developed in cooperation with Yamaha, the IS F’s engine, or the 2UR-GSE as Toyota calls the 416-hp variant of the 389-hp 5.0-liter V-8 found in the LS600h hybrid, sans hybrid gear, is peakier, actually losing 17 pound-feet of torque on the operating table as the changes pushed the horsepower and torque peak higher up the revs. Solid lifters and titanium intake valves with 10 percent more lift reside in new higher-flow cylinder heads. At full throttle above 3400 rpm, a barn door in the box snaps open with vacuum released from a small reservoir, and the unleashed induction noise is raw and thrilling.

Polished paddles put your fingers in charge when you wish it. And they’ll be busy, the swift-revving engine and ratio-stuffed, eight-speed automatic gearbox bringing forth the redline cutoff with annoying frequency. With all that engine fettling, the warning beep reminding you to upshift at 6400 rpm and the cut-out at 6800 rpm feel a bit low. The new 414-hp BMW M3’s engine screams all the way to 8400 rpm.

Despite the bling of braided-aluminum trim on the doors and shifter console, temperance rules indoors. Blue-lit gauges and blue seat stitching, alloy pedals, a digital gear-position display, and the subtle F logo on the wheel are the differentiators that drivers see. The base car’s rear bench is divided in the IS F into two non-folding buckets with a ski pass-through.

At leisure speeds, the air is hushed, Lexus-like, with just a distant snort from the engine and the extra thrum of the fat summer Michelins disturbing the peace. Given the low profile of the rubber mounted to the 19-inch forged aluminum rims, the ride is tightly controlled but commendably mellow. The ride-and-handling balance is perhaps the IS F’s biggest achievement. It makes allowances for road fissures and drops the body into holes with cushioned lurches.

It also permits the 3800-pound car some restrained roll through the esses but not enough to wither confidence. The IS F’s steering rack accurately puts tires where they’re needed and provides talk-back, albeit faint, on how things are holding. And hold they do, with excellent grip.

The all-important sport button also perks up throttle response and relaxes the stability-control system to allow some controlled tail-out action. Lexus also allows you to shut the system completely off, but the shutdown can only be called for while at full stop. Brembo-sourced front calipers on broad cross-drilled rotors deliver solid braking but with a soft pedal.

The muted interior, the slightly watery controls, the heavy price tag; the IS F is at core a Lexus with extra muscle, not as raw as the BMW M3 or Mercedes C63 AMG. The next steps for F may decide if the performance sub-brand thrives or is only a brief experiment.

"The brakes are on fire," says a bystander, pointing to the front wheels of my matador red Lexus IS-F as I pull into the pits after a few hard laps at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. "No, really-they're on fire!"

And they are. Six-inch flames are shooting out of the six-piston front calipers; thick smoke is billowing out of the two-piston rears. Someone hops into the IS-F and drives off in the hope of extinguishing the fire before it ignites the whole car.

From the driver's seat, I had zero indication that the big Brembos had gotten so hot; neither pedal effort nor travel increased, and their ability to scrub off speed didn't diminish one bit. The Lexus just kept putting a smile on my face, generating huge lateral grip, demonstrating its remarkable balance, and showing off its big underhood muscle.

Lexus? Smile? Track? Seriously? Seriously.



The IS-F's engineering team had a clear goal: create a car that you won't want to stop driving even after ten hard laps on a racetrack. If that sounds like something you never thought you'd hear from Lexus, that's because it is. The goal was decreed instead by an ambitious engineer, Yukihiko Yaguchi, who started the project on the down-low.

In 2002, while in charge of global brand strategy, Yaguchi suggested creating a high-performance division for Lexus. Lexus executives said no, but Yaguchi secretly started development of that division's first car-the IS-F-anyway. When he finally presented the car to management, or so the story goes, they liked it so much that they green-lighted the project for production.

The first thing that any skunk works hot-rod team-factory-backed or not-does is shoehorn a big engine into a little engine bay, and so the IS-F received a V-8 transplant. The 5.0-liter unit produces 416 hp, which is right in the range of the IS-F's competitors: the 414-hp BMW M3, the 420-hp Audi RS4, and the 451-hp Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. The IS-F's 0-to-60-mph time, at 4.6 seconds, is also right in the middle of its peers' times.

Unlike the German cars, though, the IS-F isn't a high-rpm screamer. It's actually very much like an American hot rod in its power delivery: its 371 lb-ft of peak torque might arrive at a high 5200 rpm, but the curve drops off steeply thereafter. Despite Yamaha-developed cylinder heads with titanium intake valves and hollow camshafts, the oversquare V-8 feels like it's running out of breath by 6000 rpm, and the engine note goes flat by the time the computer pulls the plug at a mere 6800 rpm.



So, it doesn't scream, but the Lexus engine won't win any singing competitions, either. A secondary air intake opens up at 3600 rpm, filling the cabin with a contrived, nasal induction honk under big throttle openings. It's not particularly pleasing inside the car, and it completely stifles the exhaust noise-the noise that makes the German V-8s so desirable.

The IS-F is available exclusively with an automatic transmission, and Lexus wisely eschewed the slow-witted, jerky six-speed in the V-6-powered IS in favor of the eight-speed automatic from the LS460. It has been reprogrammed to include a paddle-shifted manual mode that keeps the torque converter locked up in all gears but first. The locked converter eliminates a major portion of the slip that is inherent in automatic transmissions, and it stays locked even during shifts, which are practically instantaneous. Gear changes aren't nearly as smooth as they would otherwise be, but the locked converter's direct connection between the engine and the wheels makes you forget that you're driving a car with a conventional automatic, which isn't a bad thing.

Unfortunately, the transmission uses the same curiously spaced gears as it does in the LS460. To wit, first, second, and third are so far apart that you're constantly wishing for another couple of gears in between, especially on slow, twisty roads. Conversely, the higher gears are so closely spaced that half of them seem superfluous. Case in point: when you are cruising at 50 mph in eighth gear, you need to pull the left gearshift paddle six times to downshift to your optimum passing gear. This confuses the transmission and results in no additional forward progress for what seems like an eternity.

The solution is to drive in the normal automatic mode, which allows the transmission to perform a magnificent eighth-to-second downshift at the nudge of your right foot. In automatic mode, though, there is no permanently locked torque converter and no lightning-quick shifts.

In the process of becoming an F, the IS has lost its perfect visual proportions. The front overhang has been lengthened by three inches to accommodate the big engine, and the hood, the grille, and the front fenders have swollen in sympathy. The wonky front fender vents do nothing to help, nor do the strange-looking, stacked exhaust diffusers in back (don't call them tips, because the mufflers release their gases into the air an inch or two before the rear valance). Despite its slightly awkward appearance, the IS-F doesn't look much different from the regular IS. In fact, the young driver of an IS350 with aftermarket wheels and suspension sitting next to us at a red light didn't even notice our IS-F. Until the light turned green and we dusted him, of course.



Unlike the German competition, the IS-F isn't a complete rework of the chassis it's based on. It includes no additional chassis stiffening or unique suspension mounting points; Lexus deemed them unnecessary, since the IS's basic structure is shared with the larger GS, which was engineered to carry a V-8 engine and more weight. The truth more likely lies in the fact that, since the IS-F wasn't a planned derivative of the IS from day one, it was simply too late to engineer those changes. That's not to say that Yaguchi's team left the suspension untouched, as the front springs and shocks are a full 90 percent stiffer than those in the IS350, and the rears are 50 percent stiffer. The antiroll bars are thicker, and the ride height was reduced by 0.8 inch.

The IS-F rides on nineteen-inch BBS wheels that are forged rather than cast, saving somewhere around ten pounds each, but the result of all these changes is still one stiff-riding IS. The ride is fairly brutal, so your passengers certainly won't mistake this for a regular Lexus.

Then again, how could they? There are F badges strewn all over the interior, and the hand-finished composite trim, which looks like aluminum in a carbon-fiber weave, is positively stunning. The IS-F's cabin seats only four, but the front passengers are the luckiest, because their sport seats are supremely comfortable and hugely supportive. And there's no need to worry about that missing exhaust note, because you can fill in the acoustic blanks with the optional Mark Levinson fourteen-speaker stereo, one of the best sound systems in the business.



Surely no one will buy the IS-F because of its stereo, so what's it like to drive? On the road, it feels like an IS350 with another 110 hp, a much stiffer suspension, and a transmission that stays in the gear you select. But unlike the IS350, which is a numb and floaty disaster on the track, the IS-F is a tied-down, capable tool, with good steering feel to boot. Quick turn-in masks the weight of the big engine up front, and the chassis loves to settle into a four-wheel drift, corner after corner. With stability control completely disabled, copious throttle applications induce smooth, sweet oversteer. Compared with the tail-snappy M3, the IS-F is a *****cat-albeit a quick *****cat. We wouldn't be surprised to see an IS-F keeping up with an M3 around a racetrack.

But is that enough to turn the IS-F into the kind of icon that the M3 has become? We don't think so. The small sport sedan category is less about track prowess than it is street cred. The M3 has that in spades. Like the C63 and the RS4, it shares precious little of its driveline, suspension, and chassis with the more pedestrian car that it's based on. And, unlike the IS-F's relatively prosaic engine, which seems to have gained nothing from Toyota's involvement in Formula 1 racing, the M3's 8400-rpm V-8 starts its life in the same factory that builds BMW's F1 engines.



The IS-F simply cannot compete with that kind of lineage, no matter how charming it might be that it's the product of an underground skunk works team. Yaguchi's team has fulfilled its mission-the IS-F is so good on the track that you'll still be smiling even when the brakes are on fire.

But that hot-rod mission is one-sided, and the IS-F's potential customers will expect their cars to do more than simply tear up the tarmac on a racecourse. For all the speed the IS-F gained on the track, it lost even more of the ordinary IS's drivability and good looks. And on the streets and in the showrooms, that's what really counts.

V-8 Sport Sedan Smackdown

Twenty years ago, the Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars that created this lunatic-small-sport-sedan category beat up the big-boy sports cars by using highly tweaked four-cylinder engines under their hoods. But now, this segment is chock-full of V-8s. What happened? Weight.

Today's "Baby Benz" C63 weighs just as much as the S-class did back then. The same goes for the M3 - it weighs almost as much as the 1980s 7-series. It seems our baby sedans aren't really babies anymore - they're big, heavy fighting machines. There are now four V-8-powered competitors in this segment.

Here are the cars that the Lexus IS-F will go up against when it goes on sale early in 2008.



Audi RS4

The 2004 Audi S4 was the first sport sedan in this class with a V-8. Its 340-hp, 4.2-liter engine made seven ponies more than the benchmark E46-chassis M3, but its heavy all-wheel-drive system meant that it could never quite keepup with the BMW. Three years later, the 420-hp RS4 stunned everyone by besting the six-cylinder M3 not only on straight roads but in the corners, too.

Unlike the S4, the RS4 isn't just an A4 with a big engine and a few suspension tweaks. Its completely revised suspension gives a firm-but-never-harsh-ride, and the V-8 is strong throughout its ultrabroad rev range.

The RS4 is nearing the end of its life as Audi starts production on the next A4. But from behind the wheel, nothing about it feels like last-generation goods. It's still the only all-wheel-drive car here, and unlike the Lexus and the Mercedes, it has three pedals.



BMW M3

The M3's 8400-rpm V-8 makes about as much power as the Audi's but with 0.2 liters less displacement, and its haunting, tenor exhaust note sounds even better. Its well-balanced chassis has a surprisingly easy time coping with all the power, although power oversteer is still very much an integral part of the experience.

Available only as a coupe (at least for now; we expect that a sedan version will debut at the L.A. auto show in late November, followed by a convertible in 2008), the M3 gives up a little practicality to its four-door brethren, andpreliminary drives have given us the impression that the brakes arent up to repeated abuse.

Nevertheless, the M3 still owns this segment. Its weight might have ballooned over four generations, and its cylinder count might have doubled, but it has remained true to its manual-transmission, rear-wheel-drive roots.



Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

If the rest of the cars here are black cats, the C63 AMG is Pep Le Pew. Not in smell, of course, but in speed. If you recall, the lovestruck cartoon skunk always kept up with his disinterested feline objet damour without breaking asweat, no matter how hard she scrambled, scratched, and oversteered to get away.

It is with exactly such ease that the C63 AMG chases its prey. While the V-8s in the M3 and the RS4 are tuned to within a horsepower of their lives, the AMG engine was electronically detuned for C-class duty, and yet it still makes 148 lb-ft more torque than the M3's.

The seven-speed manu-matic performs perfect blip-throttle downshifts as you enter a corner. Add to that near-perfect chassis balance, spot-on suspension tuning, great brakes, and a plus-size cabin. The C63 might have dethroned the M3 if it weren't missing a clutch pedal.

Stereotypes, they say, have their basis in fact. Well, at least in the automobile world, there's some truth to that. Take Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota , which has a reputation for building beautifully appointed, bulletproof products that seem predestined for the sort of aging, affluent buyers who don't really enjoy driving all that much.

So what to make of the new Lexus IS-F? Yep, it's well executed, from nose-to-tail, with near-flawless attention to detail and the absolutely precise fit-and-finish you'd expect from the Japanese marque. But boring and bland? Not on your life.



The original IS, launched in 2000, was intended to serve as a hip, sporty and affordable alternative to more mainstream models, like the Lexus LS. But in a segment where everyone benchmarks the BMW 3-Series, the IS fell short, even with the second-generation update, introduced two years ago.



Rather than trying to gain ground, and credibility, by slowly honing in on the base BMW 328, the new Lexus IS-F takes aim at the toughest challenge of them all, the German maker's vaunted M3. What Lexus has delivered is a growling, 416-horsepower muscle car that would likely shock the brand's traditional owners into apoplexy.



"The IS-F is likely to represent everything you didn't think we were - thank goodness," declared Jim Farley, who until recently headed the Lexus division, (and who put in his last public appearance at the IS-F launch before unexpectedly taking the top marketing job at Ford Motor Co.).



In today's alphanumeric soup, every automaker seems to glom onto some letter to represent the high point of their engineering prowess: M for BMW, V Cadillac, R for Jaguar. Considering our less than stellar school days, the letter, F, still carries some painful overtones, but for Lexus, it seems, F stands for "fast," "furious," and "fun."



The letter has been used on internal projects designed to inject some of those factors into the brand DNA, and it's surfaced not only in the IS-F concept and production car, but also the exotic LF-A supercar concept.



While Lexus has yet to create a full brand-within-a-brand, like BMW's M, or Mercedes' AMG, the IS-F is more than just a high-powered makeover of the mainstream IS250. In a company that normally adheres to rather strict development protocols, the new sedan burst forth from what Farley described as "a skunkworks team of car fiends."



Chief among them was Yukihiko Yaguchi. He originally proposed the idea of a muscle car when the Lexus brand was getting set to go global, earlier in the decade. And he was promptly told, "no." But Yaguchi decided to keep the project going - in secret - assigning it "to myself, and working on it in my spare time." By the spring of 2004, he was far enough along, and confident enough of the results, to bring the idea up again. This time, he got the okay, and went from being the IS-F's "secret advocate to its chief engineer."



Even then, where a typical Toyota and Lexus project might have 1000 or more engineers and support staff assigned, the IS-F had to make due with anywhere from 100 to 300, over the course of its development, supplementing the effort with the help of the company's racing arm, TRD, and its Toyota Technocraft division.



So what did they come up with?



Let's start off with some of the vital statistics: under the hood, you'll find a 5.0-liter V-8 making an impressive 416 horsepower and 371 lb-ft of torque. That's a full 76 ponies more than the old M3 and two more than the '09 model. Purists might growl, but all that muscle is piped through the industry's first eight-speed direct-shift auto/manual transmission, with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. The fastest car ever delivered by Lexus, it's capable of hitting 60 in 4.6 seconds and topping out at an electronically regulated 168 mph.


The other part

Of course, those numbers tell only part of the story.



At first glance, you'll recognize the basic IS shape, sleek and reasonably attractive, it's one of the first models to feature the so-called L-finesse styling cues that are fast becoming the brand's visual identity.



With the IS-F, a number of changes have been made, some, such as the big V-8 badge on the hood, to cosmetically distinguish the car from the standard IS 250 and 350, but most for functional purpose, such as the sportier and more aggressive grille, with lower vents to enhance engine breathing, and matching vents for brake cooling. Flared wheel arches house the oversized tires needed to pump all that extra power to the pavement.



The IS-F has been lowered 0.8 inches. The front track was widened an inch, while the rear track is actually 0.4 inches narrower. The body is, overall, 0.6 inches wider. The total length of the car has been stretched 3.3 inches, to 183.5 inches.



The IS-F gets the clean underbody treatment to reduce drag and a variety of steps have been taken to completely eliminate high-speed lift.



The IS-F is attractive enough, though to our eyes, there was a certain lack of refinement to the overall appearance. Some of the performance design features look bolted on, rather than seamlessly integrated, as they typically are in BMW M or Mercedes AMG products.



Inside, the look is more flawlessly pulled together. To start with, the IS-F has adopted a four-bucket-seat layout, rather than the IS's standard 2+3 seating. Those seats are extremely grippy, with added reinforcements and bolstering designed to hold you in place during even the hardest track driving.



The instrument cluster is distinctive and reflective of the sportier nature of the F-car, with additional temperature and voltage gauges. The center console is a hand-finished aluminized composite, with matching switch plates on the doors.



Much like BMW, Lexus has a lot of ground to cover with the IS lineup. The 250 is the entry point for the Japanese marque, but the IS-F carries a buyer into much more rarified territory. You are, of course, paying mostly for the powertrain, but this isn't a boy-racer. The car delivers a lot more refinement than the base model.



Everywhere you look - or listen - you can detect the fingerprints of Yaguchi's skunkworks team. They even spent time tuning the exhaust note of that big V-8, which issues a resonant burble, at idle, and a menacing blat when you're running it *****-to-the-wall.



While displacement matters, this isn't just another big block engine. Equipped with Yamaha cylinder heads and a smart variable valve train, the IS-F engine features ultra-light titanium intake valves, a water-cooled oil cooler and a dual fuel intake system that, depending on engine speed, can switch between port and direct injection.



Lament, if you will, the lack of a manual gearbox, but there's a good chance you'll change your mind after spending a few minutes behind the wheel. The eight-speed transmission requires just a tenth of a second to change gears, beating the times of the Ferrari F430, Lexus claims, and matching the numbers for the new F599 GTB.



There are two operating modes. In Direct Shift, you can manually change gears, using the paddleshifters, or function as a conventional automatic. Manual mode uses the torque converter in first gear only, then locks up from second through eighth.



The front suspension is a double wishbone design, the rear a multilink. And as we discovered during a day's driving on-road and on-track, this is definitely not your typical Lexus ride.



Another big surprise: Lexus has gone with an electric, rather than hydraulic steering system, but you'd likely not notice unless you're prone to reading the detailed specs. The system provides two ranges of adjustable assist, with a noticeably heavier feel in Sport.



The car rides on directional, 19-inch forged BBS alloy wheels with two tire packages available: Bridgestone Potenzas or Michelin PS2s.



To make sure the IS-F stops as fast as it launches, Lexus has turned to Brembo Monoblock Caliper brakes, six-pistons up front and two in the rear.



As you'd likely expect of a Lexus, those brakes are part of a sophisticated electronic chassis and ride control system that includes ABS, traction control, electronic stability control, electronic brakeforce distribution, and more, all integrated into a specially-calibrated VDIM, or Vehicle Dynamics Interface Module. And, yes, you can turn just about everything but ABS and the limited slip rear differential off in track mode.


Grueling track



We had plenty of time behind the wheel, a good part of a day spent at the grueling Laguna Seca track, near Monterey , California . It's an unforgiving course, with fast straights, demanding corners, and a corkscrew that defies the faint-of-heart. Blasting out of the pits, the IS-F took off like a racehorse, blasting into and back out of the first turn.



The wheels always seemed well-planted, the steering well-tuned to the demanding course. With all the electronic control systems on, we ran a series of laps, steadily picking up our pace. Turning to track mode required a little more work. It's easy to forget how much the electronics will do for you. But this allowed us to hang the wheels out a little more, pushing ourselves even more aggressively around corners.



Later in the day, we turned off onto the back 30-mile stretch of Carmel Valley Road , one of the most challenging stretches of public asphalt in the country, with blind turns, rough pavement, off-camber turns and fast elevation changes.



The electric steering, as earlier noted, was clearly up to the task. It's easily the most connected system in the Lexus line-up, and while it's not quite as precise as BMW's M3, it stands up to the other contenders to that throne.



The IS-F's suspension doesn't yield easily. It remains glued to the road until you realize make a mistake, and then the electronics kick in to reel you back in.



The sedan debuts in Japan by year's end, but won't reach showrooms until next March, though a special edition is being offered in the annual Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalogue for $68,000. That limited-edition version comes with a ticket to the Lexus driving school which is worth about $5000. So, while final numbers have yet to be released, we're looking at IS-F coming in around $63,000.



Will the car accomplish what Lexus intended, which according to Farley, is to attract the sort of European intender "who absolutely previously never had Lexus on their shopping list"?



Dedicated BMW fans will likely still turn up their noses, especially those single-mindedly focused on the new M3. But for the rest of us, the IS-F is going to draw some attention, and more than a few buyers. It's got a ways to go before it has everything down to the level of science the Europeans have achieved, but it's a lot more than just brute force jammed under the hood of a Lexus. This is a serious contender that should only get better with each succeeding generation.

There was always something wrong with all the earlier attempts by Lexus to make a BMW 3 Series. First, the IS 300 came onto the market with rear-wheel drive but an automatic. Then it got a manual but came with an intrusive stability program you couldn’t turn off. When the stronger 306-hp, 3.5-liter IS 350 came out, it again had an automatic but no stick.

Now, the mighty IS F, so powerful it doesn’t even get a number in its name, comes with a monstrous V8 and rear-wheel drive, and while it does have an eight-speed automatic transmission, it is such a good automatic transmission that you don’t even care that there is no manual. And the stability program comes with an off button that now, finally, stays the F off.

But first, what is an IS F, anyway? You may remember the one-off, V8-powered IS 430 made four years ago by racer-turned-engineering-guru Rod Millen (“Muscle Car Mania Hits Lexus,” AW, Dec. 22, 2003). At that time, the biggest sports sedan in the Lexus lineup was the 3.0-liter straight-six IS 300. Dropping a big V8 into this relatively small car followed the age-old hot-rodder engine-swap formula that gave us the Pontiac GTO and a host of other very fun cars.

One year later, an engineer in Japan, Yukihiko Yaguchi, approached product planners with his idea for the IS F. Breaking with tradition, wherein product planning does all the thinking up of ideas, product planning gave Yaguchi the green light. But no budget.

So Yaguchi recruited 100 to 300 of what the Lexus press department called “speed-crazy rogue engineers” and went to work. By begging, borrowing and cajoling everything from wind-tunnel time to finite element analysis, he eventually built what you see here.

Let’s talk about that 5.0-liter V8. Yaguchi didn’t want a turbo-charger to get power, because it lacked linearity. He laughed out loud when we asked if a V10 would fit. Yes, it would, he said, but it’s way too expensive and heavy. The engine he started with was the 4.6-liter V8 from the LS and the GS. Working with Yamaha, Yaguchi’s team stroked it a quarter-inch to get the displacement up to 5.0 liters. Adding the stroke made it less undersquare, giving it inherently better low-end torque. Improve-ments to the heads by Yamaha gave it high-end horsepower. It now produces 416 hp and more than 371 lb-ft of torque, numbers that make the old IS engine look like a weed whacker.

It has many unique features not found on the LS and the GS, such as dual air intakes, coolers for engine oil and trans fluid and even a cylinder-head scavenge pump so all the engine oil won’t get stuck up in the heads during high-g cornering. There are two fuel injectors per cylinder—one more or less normal port injector and one high-pressure direct injector. Below 3200 rpm, intake air comes from a single opening at the grille; above 3200, a second intake opens inside the engine bay to increase flow. The titanium intake valves are electrically variable on the intake side, while a hydraulic system controls the steel exhaust valves. Valve lift, while high, stays the same. The changes allow for a redline of 6800 rpm.

Aft of the V8 is what Lexus says is the world’s first eight-speed sport direct-shift transmission. It, too, starts life as the unit from the LS. In this application, the torque converter locks in second through eighth gears in manual mode for more efficiency. The paddle-shift manual mode holds each gear to the 6800-rpm redline. Upshifts take a tenth of a second, the fastest for a production transmission, Lexus says. Downshifts come with a blip of the throttle for smoothness.

The new car weighs 3780 pounds, only 250 more than the standard IS, so there is more than enough power to weight. Balance is 54/46 front/rear.

To get the most from the powertrain, Yaguchi tightened up the suspension throughout. First, he lowered the whole ride by an inch and stiffened the front springs by 9 percent over the IS 350 and the rears by 50 percent. Shocks and bushings are much firmer, antiroll bars substantially thicker. The rear suspension control arms are unique to the IS F to get the most from the forged 19-inch aluminum wheels. Tires are 168-mph-Y-rated Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s or Bridgestone Potenzas, 225/40 front and 255/35 rear, on 19-inch wheels. Brembo disc brakes are 14.2 inches in front with six-piston calipers and 13.6 inches in back with two-piston calipers.

Here’s the part where Lexus finally got it: Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM), which keeps you from killing yourself and your car, or makes it a little harder, can be turned off. You can finally do donuts all day long. A mode switch has normal, sport and snow settings. The sport mode increases effort and weight of the electric power steering, raises shift points in the transmission, quickens the throttle response rate and allows more lateral movement before VDIM steps in.

The goal was not to make a BMW M3, Yaguchi said, though many people will see it as such.

“The M3 is fun for a really good driver, but if you’re not a really good driver, it’s not fun,” he said. “This is a car everyone can enjoy; with this car, your skill level doesn’t matter.”

Thank goodness. They were about to turn us loose on Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. At first, we rode with instructors from the Skip Barber School. Reminded that you actually accelerate into turns three and six and brake a little in nine and a lot going into 11, we set out on our own.

It performed exactly as advertised. It was safe, fun and, even with VDIM off, still stable. Power was prodigious and delivered in a linear fashion. At Laguna Seca, we were able to use everything from third to sixth gear, with a few attempts to get down into second when we entered turn four too slowly.

Coming over the terrifying crest under the bridge at start/ finish, the car remained stable, despite the loss of some of the gravity it had on the rest of the course. Braking was stable, too, especially going into one, where you don’t want anything funny to happen. The hard-core will miss the ultimate truth of an all-out sport suspension. This one is softer than the previous M3’s, for instance. But it is a tradeoff we could live with.

Upshifts were indeed impressive, though we didn’t time them to the tenth of a second. Banging the paddle shifters up along the main straight, we felt like Helio Castro freaking Neves. And the way the throttle blipped on downshifts, we felt like Schuey himself, though his and everyone’s trannies nowadays do everything for them.

Body roll in corners was not a problem—in fact, it was almost unnoticeable—and the tires never seemed to let go. We saw others powersliding coming out of turn 11, but we never got the rear end out of line, even while trying to figure out how much braking to add on the downhill left-hander of turn nine.

Later that day, we took an IS F over Laureles Grade and up G16 for quite a distance, over turns that tightened up suddenly and on a road surface that could use a few fresh layers of asphalt to be brought up to FIA standards. Although we dodged the worst of the bumps and holes, we couldn’t miss them all, and the IS F did not shudder or jar us when we whacked them.

It is a car you can drive comfortably at Laguna Seca or to work. As Yaguchi said, your skill level doesn’t matter.

So, what is the market level for the IS F?

“This is definitely not aimed at anyone buying our cars now,” said then-Lexus vice president Jim Farley.

The average ES buyer is 61 years old. The IS buyer is in the low 40s. We figure the IS F will pull that average down a lot.

Lexus cleverly chose to reveal its IS F just before BMW revealed its M3. Or was that pure coincidence? In either case, everyone’s stories about the Lexus IS F will come out before everyone’s other stories about the M3. This will allow people to view the IS F separately as a sports sedan unto itself. In such context, it is an unbridled success. Against the M3, we’ll have to wait and see.

Anyone in the market for a thrilling sports sedan very soon will have more choices than a cute girl at MIT. In addition to the 416-hp IS F, you can peruse the coming M3 sedan’s 414-hp 4.0-liter, the Audi RS4’s 420-hp 4.2 and the mighty 457-hp 6.2-liter in the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. All of them have four doors and V8s driving the rear wheels (and the front wheels, in the case of the RS4 quattro). Is this a great time to be alive (and with a $60,000-or-so budget) or what?

Actual prices, of course, will come out closer to the car’s launch, which is scheduled for early 2008. The biggest news may not be just this IS F but a whole bunch of future F’s.

“We are looking at this launch from a whole branding standpoint,” said Farley.

That could mean accessories for the IS 250 and 350. If we had to guess, well, we do know the IS platform is derived from the Lexus GS sedan . . .

The Lexus reputation for building high-quality, ultra-quiet and fine-driving semi-sporting machines is about to come to an abrupt halt. Because what Lexus has here, with the new IS F, is a bona fide hot-rod — the most un-Lexus-like Lexus ever put into production.

The "F" designation comes from the "Circle-F" internal code that Toyota used more than 20 years ago when it was concocting the upmarket Lexus brand. From now on, F will designate a performance Lexus — of which company officials promise more of in the future. The F logo was inspired by several turns at Fuji Speedway in Japan, a track where the IS F spent much of its development time.

Lexus isn't embarrassed to admit that the IS F's 5.0-liter V-8 is based on the 4.6-liter version that powers the LS 460 and GS 460. In IS F form, this engine makes considerably more power — 416 bhp at 6600 rpm and 371 lb.-ft. at 5200 — and, of course, that extra power is stuffed into a smaller car. The IS F doesn't just get its power from the engine's increased size, but from such features as a forged crankshaft, forged connecting rods, titanium intake valves, high-flow intake ports as well as aluminum cylinder heads designed and built by Yamaha. A new variable valve-control system (Variable Valve Timing with intelligence and Electrically controlled intake cam, or VVT-iE) is unique in that it uses an electric motor to operate its cam phasing.

A feature that has a huge impact on the alluring sounds that emanate from beneath the car's bulging hood is the IS F's dual air-intake system. The secondary passage opens at 3600 rpm, boosting high-rpm power and turning the engine (if you're at full throttle) from Lexus-quiet to raunchy-V-8 loud. We love it.

Although the Lexus LS takes credit as the world's first 8-speed automatic transmission, Lexus claims the IS F has "the world's first 8-speed Sport Direct-Shift automatic transmission." It can be operated in the usual automatic mode or the driver can shift the eight speeds like a manual via large paddles behind the steering wheel or by using the center-console lever.

We really like that in Manual mode the driver has full control over the shifting — it won't upshift for you at the 6800-rpm redline, and won't downshift if you floor it. But the paddle-shifting works best only when the car is being driven very hard; drive it at half throttle but rev it to, say, 3500 rpm or higher, and the upshifts are quite abrupt. The transmission blips the throttle on downshifts, but at low revs the shifts are also jerky. Downshift from high rpm, though, and the shifts are smooth and deliver the kind of beautiful, almost unmuffled bark with each blip that we normally associate with race cars.

The 8-speed transmission helps the IS F achieve its remarkably quick acceleration numbers: 0–60 mph in just 4.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 12.8 sec. at 113.3 mph. The IS F's rear 255/35R-19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s put the car's 416 bhp to the pavement with just a smidgen of wheelspin, followed by a chirp as you jam home the 1–2 shift.

The IS F is based on the IS 350 and, surprisingly, does without any body strengthening whatsoever, despite the car's added heft, power and penchant for g-loading. Officials at Lexus say this isn't surprising at all, since the second-generation IS is based on the GS platform, which itself was designed to handle a V-8.


Although the IS F's basic suspension layout remains similar to the IS 350's, the tuning is considerably different. The front spring rates have been increased by 90 percent (yes, you read that correctly) while the rears have been upped by 50 percent. Other changes include increased damper rates, larger anti-roll bars and 19-in. forged-alloy BBS wheels.

How serious is Lexus about the IS F? The car's chassis engineers used Porsche's 911 Carrera as their handling benchmark. The IS F's powerful V-8 combined with the stiffer suspension and much more direct electric-assist power steering means this car has none of the soft and gentle nature of an IS 350. But you will gladly put up with the harsher ride once you take the IS F on a curvy road or a track. After spending half a day lapping around Laguna Seca, we were won over by the car's accurate steering, minimal body roll and outright grip. Its 71.2-mph slalom speed is damn impressive for such a heavy sedan (3825 lb.), eclipsing not only the Audi RS 4 (68.9 mph) but also the Porsche Cayman S (70.6 mph). The 911 Carrera 4S barely edges the Lexus, at 71.5 mph.

Where the IS F struggles is on overly bumpy back roads; in that setting, the suspension's lack of compliance makes the car flit, flutter and skate across the road like Helio Castroneves on Dancing with the Stars. But on most roads, no such problem.

The recalibrated VDIM (Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management) system allows three different degrees of driver's aides, including 1) all systems on, 2) a Sport mode that allows for a small amount of tail-out sliding and, 3) all systems off. We're appreciative that Lexus has seen the light to allow the last. But the Sport mode cuts in far too early to allow much fun.

Another impressive aspect of the IS F is its Brembo-sourced brakes. The 14.2-in. cross-drilled front rotors are clamped by 6-piston aluminum calipers, the 13.6-in. rears by 2-piston versions. Lexus fits the IS F with high-friction brake pads that allow all-day track driving with nary a bit of fade — pretty rare for a production car.

In general, the changes made to the IS F's exterior — including upper and lower wire-mesh grilles, new front and rear fascias, side skirts, a rear wing and those fancy dark-gray wheels — are tasteful and appropriate for the flashier image of the car. With two exceptions: The first, the air vents that jut from the wider front fenders; these outlets supposedly vent hot air from the engine, but, looking at the small holes, they can't possibly be functional enough to warrant their gaudiness. The second, and an even more flagrant styling faux pas, are the stacked quad exhausts. Personally, I liked them, until I knelt down to get a closer look and realized they were completely fake — behind them lie the four real peashooter outlets!

The interior of the IS F greets you with the style and quality we've come to expect of the Lexus brand — but in a sportier fashion. The biggest difference is the use of two bucket seats in the rear, making this is a 4-seater. We especially liked the "aluminized composite trim" on the center console as well as the firmer front seats; the blue stitching throughout the interior adds a nice touch. But we don't understand why Lexus made the gear indicator so small — it should be the size of the giant "F" logo that resides in the instrument panel.

When the IS F goes on sale in the U.S. in early 2008 we're guessing it will start in the high-$50,000 range; Lexus' modest plan is to sell about 3000 IS Fs per year here.

How the IS F will match up against the Audi RS 4, BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG will have to wait for a comparison. But here's what we know: Somehow, Lexus got its compact super sedan "right" on the first try. One drive in this car — not even necessarily on a twisty road — and you can feel how serious a sporting device it is. Trust us, this is definitely not your mom's Lexus.

What is it?

This is Lexus’s first rival to the BMW M3, and if it is to succeed it has to have superb handling far removed from that of the firm’s luxury barges and SUVs.

It was no coincidence, then, that Toyota chose Fuji Speedway – still coated in rubber from the Japanese Grand Prix 10 days earlier – to give journalists their first taste of the Lexus IS-F. Where better to show it off than the circuit where most of its development work was carried out?

What’s it like?

Like the M3, the IS-F uses a V8 engine, in this case a 5.0-litre unit. But unlike the Beemer, the Lexus is available with an automatic gearbox only, an eight-speed unit based on the LS460’s transmission. It has ‘manual’ functionality via steering wheel paddles, and first impressions are that its improved shift responses (0.1sec upshifts in sport mode) are quick enough. Its auto-blip on downshifts is neat, too.

The engine is a bit of a star; it rumbles nicely up to 4000rpm, at which point it takes on the same sort of snarl you might expect from a Honda VTEC north of 6000rpm. And it’s quick; we saw well over 140mph on Fuji’s mile-long straight.

Lexuses are not known for steering feel, but the IS-F is easily the company’s best effort yet. Its helm is firm and responsive, endowing the car with nimble handling around Fuji’s twistier sections.

Body roll is well contained, too, and the tyres – 225/40 R19 at the front and 235/35 R19 at the rear – offer colossal grip. They do appear to have a rapid drop-off once you go beyond their limits, though; a more progressive choice of rubber might be better for everyday use.

Should I buy one?

[I]On track, the IS-F does appear to have covered the basics. But whether Lexus’s first crack at a sporting saloon can truly match an M3 or Audi RS4 will depend on its behaviour on public roads in the UK when it arrives next spring. And that’s a different test altogether.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you’re a Japanese car maker with a performance image flatter than cartoon roadkill. On a scale of 1 to 10 for stubble-chinned, tautly muscled machismo, your products score Dale Winton. The most boastful thing that can be said of some of them is that they have two engines, though perhaps only if you don’t mention that one of them is electric. That’s electric as in light bulb. It isn’t that your cars aren’t very good. People say how refined, comfortable, well made and, at a push, ‘green’ they are. It’s just that, well, they’re all soft and gooey in the middle. Not a hard nut among them.

Understandably, this rankles. German rivals BMW, Mercedes and Audi can wheel out punishingly rapid and dynamically honed V8-engined, lower-medium-sized saloons – the M3, C63 and RS4 – whose individual mythologies wreath lesser models with the aura of their mad-bad-and-dangerous-to-know credentials. Moreover, they all have bloodlines reaching back into the misty past – a heritage of horsepower – while for Lexus it’s been a case of vanishingly low noise levels and vanishing exhaust pipes.

Now, it seems, enough is enough. We’ve gathered at the newly opened Monteblanco circuit near Seville in southern Spain. As we walk into the brilliant sunlight from the murk of the pit garages, the imagery could hardly be more vivid or tantalizing. Parked to one side of the pit lane is a new BMW M3 and an Audi RS4. We can look, we can touch but, unsurprisingly, we can’t drive. Only Lexus personnel know what the BMW and Audi are capable of round this pristine 3.5-mile track and, under questioning, they’re understandably guarded. As a device for generating a frisson of expectation, though, it does the trick. Further down the pit lane, warmed-up and ready to roll, is the IS-F, Lexus’s belated but emphatically gloves-off response to the Teutonic high-performance hegemony.

Visually, at least, the positioning seems apt. The steroidally enhanced Lexus is a clenched fist of aggression that makes even the RS4 seem unusually demure. Further still down the pit lane, looking pensive but icily cool, is Yukihiko Yaguchi, project manager for the IS-F. Wearing the same Sparco race overalls he modelled in the Frankfurt motor show brochure that accompanied the launch of the IS-F and sporting the penetrating stare of a kung fu master in a Quentin Tarantino movie, it’s doubtful if anyone has ever looked faster.

With no performance-saloon history to build on, but with clear targets to attack and an adequate stock of engines and technologies to cherry-pick from, Yaguchi understandably adopted a best-of-all-worlds approach. Lifted from the LS600h limo, the 5-litre V8 retains the D-4S technology that combines direct and port injection to improve efficiency throughout the power band. But with cylinder heads developed by Yamaha Racing and a new dual air intake system that massages power and cues up a proper V8 soundtrack, it develops 417bhp and 371lb ft of torque.

Also from the 600h is the eight-speed automatic transmission, but it gets paddle-shifters and completely different controlling software, dropping shift times to just 100 milliseconds – barely a blink behind the Ferrari 430 Scuderia’s 60ms and, according to Lexus, faster than any dual-clutch DSG gearbox. In manual mode the transmission doesn’t shift up automatically, while downshifts are rev-matched to ensure greater stability when braking into bends.

The layout of the coil and wishbone front suspension and multi-link rear end is essentially the same as the IS250’s, but lighter parts have reduced unsprung weight while springs, damper and bushes have been re-worked to increase grip and sharpen responses without trashing the ride. Naturally, electronics play their part and Lexus’s VDIM (Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management) system has gained a Sport setting that makes the electric power steering more direct and allows the driver to push harder towards the limit without obvious intervention. VDIM can be switched off partially, defeating just the traction control, or completely.

The 19in forged aluminium wheels have been developed with BBS and are lighter than the same sized wheel on the LS. Tyre sizes are asymmetric front to rear (225/40 and 255/35) and have been specially developed by Bridgestone and Michelin for the car. Perhaps mindful of the Achilles heel that braking has represented for BMW’s M3 down the generations, the IS-F gets monster anchors developed in collaboration with Brembo: 360mm front discs, 345mm rears, all ventilated and drilled, six-pot callipers at the front, two-pots at the rear. Apart from anything else, they look every bit as drool-worthy as the anthracite alloys that cage them and only slightly less sexy than the diagonally stacked quad exhaust pipes.

Inside there’s new instrumentation that includes an LCD display to tell you which gear you’re in (with eight gears that’s by no means a frippery) and an oil temp gauge. The shift paddles are longer than in other similarly equipped Lexus models to offer better control during more enthusiastic wheel twirling, while the drilled aluminium pedals and heavily bolstered seats strike a quasi-competition pose. The circuit – so new, smooth and, above all, empty – beckons.

Before the end of the pit straight, one thing is already beyond dispute. For the way it slaughters distance and the noise it makes, the IS-F is a major piece of hardware. But mostly – and this is the best bit – for the way it locks you into the process. True, there’s an element of PlayStation in the electric linearity of the power delivery and the way the lightning-fast gearshifts merge almost imperceptibly together. This, however, is no whispering, sweetness-and-light Lexus. It’s loud and, quite clearly, it’s angry and out for German blood.

For such a compact car, that 5-litre V8 is an impressively big gun; only the C63 AMG’s 449bhp 6.2 hits harder, but the difference is unlikely to be significant on the road. Lexus claims 0-62mph in 4.9sec, but it feels quicker, simply hurtling out of the circuit’s tighter bends and sustaining a savage lick until well beyond 130mph. But then that LS engine unleashed is a phenomenon: sublimely smooth and flexible, free-spinning all the way to the 7000rpm red line and replete with a completely unsuspected – but quite magnificent – granite-edged bellow that shades all of its rivals for sheer aural drama. There are several degrees of contrivance at work here (fine-tuning an engine note has become a science in itself) that roughly work out thus: from idle to 3600rpm is pure exhaust note, above that the secondary air intake joins in to add another layer of throaty sonority and, finally, the mechanical contribution of the engine itself dominates.

Throttle response is instant but not hyped as in the Audi. The engine’s formidable reserves are released evenly over the entire travel of the accelerator pedal, not bunched towards the first inch of movement. It lends a progressive feel to the driving experience that carries through to the point where, VDIM off, you feel confident to balance the car’s attitude on the throttle or push all the way into full-blooded oversteer. The IS-F is no M3 when it comes to drifting, though. Its open diff makes for lots of smoky wheelspin and the generous steering lock means you can wind on almost absurd amounts of opposite lock without spinning. But it simply doesn’t have the drive out of bends the M3 finds with its M-diff. That said, with VDIM in Sport mode, the IS-F feels very quick and very secure, combining fluency and grip with enough freedom of expression to keep life interesting.

Back in the pits, the sight of the M3 and RS4 doing nothing is almost unbearably frustrating. The answers will come, but not today. It’s enough to know that the IS-F is, as promised, a Lexus like no other, with the personality and potential to blow a cosy Teutonic triumvirate apart when it lands in the UK next March. If Lexus, as expected, manages to keep the price below £40,000, watch the fur fly.