AWD IS300 and new SC300 Coupe is coming to the showrooms for the 2003 model year according to Marc Evans from Longo Lexus. If you ever wanted a 4 wheel drive IS300 your chance is coming very soon.

Also the SC300 is supposed to be based on the SC430 body but in coupe form and using the 3 liter engine.

Marc mentioned that these cars should be showing up in the fall. I can't wait....

 

Humm... AWD w/ the TRD SC. Oh what a sweet combination!

 

damn that would be sweet

 

nice

 

OMG do you know what these means? No more traction issues from 600hp IS300s.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Imagine the ETs that a IS300 with AWD and a bolton Turbo kit would make

 

There we go. Think about the crazy applications! Can you guys imagine what this will do in the racing circuit? The WRX will no longer be the king!

 

since Lex doesn't have any other high-HP (nor Toyota) 4wd cars, I wouldn't get your hopes up. The car will probably be way to fragile to handle that kind of HP.

 

I know there are a number of cars out there currently that have 500-600 hp right now (a number meaning I know of 2 )

What do you mean exactly when you say that it's too fragile to handle that much HP?

 

My concern is more on the suspension and body aspects of the car. I love rallying so I am wondering if Lexus has plans to come out with a Group N IS300 AWD car for the circuit. Imagine that...

 

Since all this talk is hypothetical, my comments were also.

My point being that if you want to build a 400+ hp lex, no bog deal.. you can grab off the shelf parts from the toyota family hat were built to hande a lot of power. (supra!)

When it comes to 4wd however, the only applications we see are in terms of trucks, and these aren't performance-oriented parts. So assuming that Toyota does build an AWD version, I question how robust the parts will be, and if they will build them w/ upgradability in mind.

 

Noted about the durability. However, Toyota has/had other AWD car applications in US. Remember the Celica All-Trac, and the new Matrix. If I recall, Stillen? did a one-off Celica show car last year and borrowed the drivetrain form the older All-Trac, and it was like over 400hp??

 

for a 600hp car (which are mainly used for drag racing application and not rally or autoXing) to have traction problem, you're doing one of two things wrong:

1. you don't know how to drive it
2. your suspension setup is crap

every drag racer knows that suspension setup is half of the race, and the drivers skills is the other half....so do it right, and traction wont be a problem...

on another note, awd is not an advantage when it comes to drag
racing although it does pull quick right off the line.

as for 600hp for rallying...i dont think youll be able to use that much hp without crashing, unless you're really skilled

 

Could you imagine a car with 600hp trying to rally? The front of the car would sink into any mud it finds. It would be at a major disadvantage. It would be funny to watch the expression on a guys face as he tired to race with that much power.

 

I would like the AWD, due to weather concerns up here, and for light to light races, it would rock.

Concerns:
Toyota Matrix has an AWD version, however you can ONLY get it on the 130HP engine, the 180HP engine has "too much power" its in this months Motor Trend

So the indications that they have a strong AWD transmission are not good.

Murdock

 

one thing really truely pisses me off about all this stuff that lex is doing to the is -


I GOT MY IS IN THE FIRST YEAR AND CAN"T HAVE IT!!!!!