LexFather

http://www.topgear.com/jsp/individua...Number=05.html



You know you're getting old when you start thinking that road cars look better without aftermarket wheels and spoilers. You know you're knocking on a bit when you see a new car with a different set of wheels and you think 'why have they gone and done that? It looks much better in standard trim'.

Well just loosen up, guy, and take a look at this. Did ever a car look as right at the Lexus GS300 Sport? The visual changes over the standard car are not massive, yet they make a massive difference. With just a few subtle modifications, the baby Lexus has been transformed from bland to grand, from mild to (at least nearly) wild The Lexus Sport is not, as you might think, the work of some aftermarket tuning company, but can instead be bought from any of the 70 Lexus dealers in the UK. The price is £35,987, which isn't unreasonable when you remember the standard car costs £32,995.

Your extra £3,000 buys a mesh grille for the front, a spoiler for the rear and a set of 'Sport' logos for the side windows. On top of that, the ride height has been lowered by 20mm and shorter springs fitted, but according to Lexus, the spring rate and damping remain unaltered. The 8.5J x 18 aluminium alloy wheels were found by Toyota Motorsport in Germany, while the tyres are Pirelli P Zeros.

There is no change to the 2,997cc straight six 24-valve engine, but with 209bhp on tap it offers reasonable performance anyway. When we figured it over a year ago, it did 0-60mph in 10.4secs and hit a top speed of 138mph. Maybe it's not the quickest in its class, but it certainly never feels slow on the road. It's also smooth, quick-revving and quiet at speed and mates well with the slick and efficient automatic gearbox. The level of refinement from the gearbox and engine may not be as good as the larger, LS400, but it's still pretty impressive.

A big part of any Lexus GS300's job is to cruise motorways in a comfortable and fuss-free fashion and in this area at least, the changes made to the Sport are not beneficial ones. Not only does the ride seem to have become slightly stiffer with the car tending to crash through potholes and over ridges more violently than before, but there is a fair bit of tyre roar too. The second crime the Pirellis are guilty of, is quite noticeable tracking. They're too easily led astray by ruts and changes in road surface and you can feel the car diving off to the side on certain surfaces. Before, the Lexus was a car you could trundle along quite happily in with no more than a couple of fingers casually caressing the steering wheel. But not any more. Now you have to sit up and pay attention to prevent it wandering. Admittedly, it doesn't do it all the time, but you do have to be aware of it.

Of course you can't expect a modified car to behave exactly the same as the standard one. The question is, do the good bits make up for the bad? Turn off the motorway onto some smaller, more twisty roads and the answer is yes. While the steering - which has been left unaltered - could do with a bit more beefing-up and feel, the car as a whole now feels a lot tighter and a lot more composed. The rear-drive 300 was always a good- handling car, but it did suffer from a lot of body roll. Well, now it stays a lot flatter and feels a lot crisper through corners. It's never going to change direction like a Mini Cooper, but it can be pedalled along at a speed that belies its size and bulk.

But is it worth £3,000 more than the normal car? We'd say yes. There's easily three grand's worth of styling and the extra stability in corners makes it much better to drive.

But there's one possible drawback - if you spend a lot of time on the motorway, you might end up thinking that cars should be left just as they left the factory after all

LexFather

http://www.lexus.co.uk/approved.php?...=gs300sportmk1

I found this and figured maybe someone wants to follow a Euro theme with the 1GS....

Richie

That's the car that got me hooked on Lexus.
It was a black one with a custom dark brown interior. Looked awesome.

Epik

iTrader: (7)

Reading the brochure on that link there are some other differences than my 93 GS300. My fuel tank capacity is 21.9 gallons and that one is smaller at 17.6 gallons. Smart way to lessen the cars weight and not effect comfort.. and it also makes up for a large part of the drop in 0-60..
That and the stainless steel exhaust.. best way to uncork power in the 1st.. kill the stock exhaust.

Overall a pretty cool package.. dropped by about 1" all the way around. pretty much the same as mine was about 6 months ago on Eibach pro-kits.

How old is that first article? I'd assume from 95

Eric-RPS13-

dude the gallons over there are different if I am not mistaken

Eric-RPS13-

*giggles* that car has bumper nipples! lol I know what they are for, but they are an eyesore on that pretty car

Richie

The law over here is that when you have hid lights on the car, you also need washers for the headlamps.

Eric-RPS13-

yes I know, that's why I said *giggles* that car has bumper nipples! lol I know what they are for, but they are an eyesore on that pretty car


hehehehe
just to clarify

Richie

Dude, you don't have to yell!!!!