July 2004 Featured Car

 Screen Name: INDGOGRL
 Age: You’re kidding, right?
 Profession: Credit collections analyst
 Car model: Lexus IS 300
 Car year: 2004
 Engine size: 3.0 Liter 2JZ-GE
 Color: Indigo Ink Pearl
 

Modifications

1. Engine

1. Stock : FI coming

2. Exhaust

1. Stock, for now

3. Suspension

1. Tein S Springs
2. L-Tuned Front and Rear Adjustable Sway Bars

4. Exterior

1. RMM Side Skirts
2. L-Sportline Front Spoiler
3. JDM Altezza Front Grill
4. Xpel Headlight Protection
5. Xpel Clear Bra
6. Ugo Roof Spoiler

5. Interior

1. OLT Blue Gauge Cluster
2. Valentine One Radar
3. SmarTire Pressure Monitoring System
4. Pioneer Navigation Unit
5. Sony PlayStation
6. Accele Color Side view Camera
7. Pioneer AVD – Widescreen Front Monitor
8. Accele Widescreen Headrest Monitors (2)
9. Monolithic 4 channel amp
10. MMATS Class D Bass Amp
11. Monster Cable Speaker and Video Cable
12. Stinger Power Cables, Fusing & Capacitor
13. Dual Aperiodic Loaded SubXtreme 10" Subwoofers
14. AVI Tweeters and Mids

6. Wheels

1. HRE 441R High Polished Aluminum: 19 x 8 Front, 19 x 9 Rear
2. Tires – Pirelli P-Zero Nero 225/35 Front, 255/30 Rear

What led you to buy a Lexus?
At the NorCal End of Summer Meet last September, I saw a lot of nicely modded IS’s and I started seriously thinking about getting one for myself. I have always been in love with the Spectra Blue Metallic IS back in 2001, when the car first came out. We originally wanted to buy an IS back then, but we needed a larger family car, so we decided to get the Rod Millen GS4 instead. Now that I am working full time, I wanted a car that would be fun to commute to work, so now I’ve finally got my blue IS in Indigo Ink Pearl.

Interests:
I enjoy entertaining and having people over at the house, which helps support my husband (RMMGS4) in organizing activities for NorCal. Our house is a place where you can find CL members hanging out almost everyday. Don’t ask me what the neighbors think! We have a great group of people up here in NorCal. We attend each other’s family activities, like weddings and children’s birthdays. It’s just like one big family.

Goals:
The goal for my IS is to give it classy styling that reflects a woman’s taste. It has to look sporty, but not look boy racer or like I am driving my husbands car. I want my car to have the performance of my husband’s GS, because every time I drive it, everything else I drive feels so slow. Some time in the near future, I will consider forced induction, so it doesn’t make sense to mod the engine with NA performance parts for now. The car will be a daily driver, but I will maintain it in show condition, since I like to display it at events like Hot Import Nights (HIN).

All the history about my car is talked about in my very first post on ClubLexus titled “My IS Story: Day 1“.

If you look at some of the mods on my thread, you can see that wherever possible, we have tried to make the mod as practical as we could (because that’s what women want!). The front spoilers paint is protected with Xpel and it has a custom skid plate to prevent rubbing. I wanted low profile tires on 19” rims, so I chose HRE wheels because of their strength and I have a low tire pressure sensor to tell me if a tire is going down. I wanted as smooth a ride as possible with better handling, so I chose adjustable swaybars and Tein-S springs because the spring rates were much softer than any coilover available and I needed to do everything possible to make up for the low profile tires. Having no chassis bracing was intentional, because the trade off of ride vs. handling was not worth it for me.

Why you chose to modify your Lexus?
All the cars I have owned in the past have been modified, even before I was married. So I guess I was born with the “mod bug”. We have enjoyed all the mods that my husband did on his GS, so it only made sense that I get what I want on my car.

I’d like to thank all the NorCal Members who helped me in choosing the mods for my car. I never really had to ask questions or advice on the forums, because I am supported by many local veteran CL members, whose advice I trust. In the end, the final decisions were mine, but I think most everyone approves of what I chose. It’s a great honor to be the first female owner chosen as car of the month. I appreciate all the great responses to ““My IS Story: Day 1“ and I promise there will be more interesting additions to this thread as time goes on.