I gotta say guys. I've driven nothing but German cars before I bought my IS350 and I wasn't extremely satisfied with the way the body would roll some (for luxury reasons of course). It made it a little unpredictable. For such a nice motor, it doesn't deserve to be so restricted. I went a head and installed the F-Sport intake and Tanabe Medallion exhaust (axle back). I did the exhaust first and I gotta say there was some droning on the interstate but only when you pushed the accelerator and the valves opened. It had no throaty growl in the acceleration at that point; just a smooth constant note that would get louder with RPM increase.

After the F-Sport was installed, That's when the beast decided to wake up. It now has a growl, definitely noticeable around 4k+ and the interstate drone has deaden some. Nothing that my Alpine ten won't defeat.

After doing that I decided I wanted a more predictable ride so I installed new anti-roll bars front and rear and put the rear on the stiffest setting. The car drives different. Not TOTALLY different but its a ton more predictable going into turns and just all around a better feeling.

This weekend I'm putting TEIN H-Tec springs on it. I think it rides good now that the roll bars are on it but since I already bought the springs, I'm gonna go ahead and put them on. I got the H-Tec because they're compression and not progressive. They're a little more expensive then the S-Tec but from what I've heard they're worth it.

I'll be sure to put up pictures of the car when everything is done this weekend.

And I'm also new to the forum. So hello everyone.

 

welcome and congrats on making the switch. I recently purchased my first Lex as well; i sold them for a while and really became fond.

the mods sound cool and i'm really interested to know how the Teins work out for you. i am anxious to lower but still at age old dilemma of springs vs. coils. let me know

 

welcome and congrats!!

 

Welcome to the addiction!

 

Welcome! Yes, the bug bites hard :P

 

congrats! and of course welcome to CL

 

Welcome and congrats!

 

Hi and welcome!

 

Welcome to the site and please post up some shots

 

Congrats on the car and mods. The IS350 is supposed to be more sporty, but for some reason, they come with thinner sway bars than the IS250. Once you slap in F-Sport Sway Bars, there should be a noticeable difference when you corner the car.

Have fun and welcome to CL.

 

The 250 and 350 come with the same sway bars stock... Lou has posted the data to prove this like half a dozen times now.

It's one of several reasons why the Lexus quoted figured on "stiffness change" in the F-sport marketing material make no sense.

 

^^^ Thanks...

I got mis-informed with all the posting earlier commenting on "the sway bar upgrade on IS250 won't make a difference, but on the IS350 will make a big difference..."

I guess I know what my next mod will be then.

 

I gotta tell you that the H-Tec springs work wonderfully with the factory shocks since they're compression (huge money saver right there). The car rides beautiful. No rebound on dips or bumps (feels like stock in aspect). When driving over bumps, the springs are noticeable but not rough or harsh. Cornering is REALLY impressive from stock, especially with the new roll bars. The stopping power is impressive. The acceleration aspect is impressive. It doesn't pivot towards the front on a stop or to the rear on acceleration. I'm really happy with the springs. As far as lowering goes. It closes the wheel gap decently on my 19"s. If you wanna go lower, then look for something else. These springs were designed for what springs do, not for the "slammed" look. Coilovers have ups and downs, personally, if you can get a good spring/shock setup then you won't have to worry about adjusting the Coils all the time. I know that if I had gotten Coils I would never be satisfied because I would be adjusting them all the time.

 

Yeah you're right. I drove a loaner that was an IS250 and you could tell right away that it drove different and might have even handled better. It had less roll then my IS350 did. I was somewhat disappointed that Lexus would put something less then what the car needed into the IS350. The F-Sport stuff is overpriced and not really worth it. The intake is nice though and I like the carbon fiber hood cover. Other than that, I don't know if I'd buy anything else from the F-Sport category. MAYBE, the brakes. But my stock brakes perform superbly with what kinda driving I do. I don't autocross or anything. I will say that the IS250 has ****ty brakes though but it felt more distributed. On the IS350 it feels like the front is doing all the work, but that's the way you want in case you get into an oversteer position.

 

Thanks for all the welcomes. I appreciate it. I will get around to posting pictures of my car sooner or later when school relaxes a little and my wife's wisdom teeth surgery is healed all the way.