Does a Supercharged Lexus IS F Make a Reliable Daily?
Sure, slapping a blower on an IS F makes it much faster. But does that power also sacrifice reliability and fuel economy?
These days, if you want to add power to your ride, forced induction is the way to go. Modern superchargers and turbos are a quick, dirty, and highly effective way to add hundreds of horsepower without having to crack your engine open. This includes the legendary Lexus IS F, which many of our members have supercharged over the years. But while many of those cars are simply weekend or track toys, Club Lexus member ISFpowered was wondering recently whether or not strapping a blower on his daily driver IS F might be a good idea or a potentially terrible one.
“I’m looking into purchasing the RR supercharger for my IS F and was wondering if anyone here actually dailys their car with the supercharger? I’m looking at the reliability and durability of the kit as a whole. If you do, how many miles have you put on it? Any down sides? Did you go from FBO to the supercharger kit? Was the difference big as far as how the car felt? I just want to get all the facts because 10k is a good size chunk out of my wallet and I want to make sure I don’t regret this.”
It’s certainly a fair question, and there’s no better place to ask than in the Club Lexus forums, where plenty of folks have experience with this sort of thing. And sure enough, ljdsong is quick to offer up his own personal feedback.
“I’m one of the first folks who took the plunge when RR Racing came out with the SS kit. Before installing it by myself I did a compression test to make sure that my engine was healthy enough. For the first 10k miles after installation I daily’d the car and had no problems. I remember it was at 68k miles when I installed it. Now I’m at 84k miles including three track days. It’s still going strong. I dyno’d it without prep, but the air filter was after two track days, so heat soak occurred. I started with a full bolt-on and RR Racing tune. For me, that 10k was worth it.”
The same goes for njoyRice, who has also had some solid results after supercharging his IS F.
“I have a supercharged IS F that I used to DD. Got it around July and put about 10K miles on it. Started with FBO and E30 blend. Dyno’d at ~447 WHP (dyno-mite), which is a known happy dyno in the area. On pump gas with mixed driving (mostly city) I averaged 17 MPG. With the E45 blend I averaged 13-14 MPG. I’m guessing that with the parasitic loss, city driving and traffic seem to sap a lot of gas. I would also guess it adds an additional 150 lbs to the front of the car.”
Amazingly, ljdsong even offers to let the OP test drive his car if he’d like. But that’s exactly the kind of camaraderie we often see here in the forums.
So far, it looks like there’s really not much downside to supercharging your Lexus IS F at all. But we want to know what you think. If you’re currently rocking a blower, head over here and let us know about your experiences so far!
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