Not in every way. But I agree, lexus plays it overly safe.
[performance........................reliability]

 

Agreed it is a constant tug of war between the perfect balance but it kills me because I think the IS a stunning looking car, drives great, good reliability...but it needs 50 more HP. It needs dual piston brakes in the rear. 114ft stopping distance is good but could be another 5-10ft less. And it needs a better tranny (I can only speak for the 6-speed). Than it could really compete.

I actually really like the tuning of the tranny in my 2015, it’s just slow shifting and paddles are comically slow. I find it it picks right gears well & does a great job of keeping you in the powerband when in the sport modes tho. Just a bit sluggish.

 

I doubt duals in the rear would do anything. About 80% of stopping power is provided by the fronts. I think putting bigger front calipers would do the trick (or at least putting better pads).
6-speed is a bit older than the 8-speed one. But it is not as good as the ZF, or any dual clutch, of course.
I find 8-speed at least to be shifting decently quickly and sharply when you are giving it the beans, but it is not snappy quick, of course.
As for the 50hp. Yeah, it would be great... In fact, getting something like this RR-Racing tune+headers+exh would give you 44 hp.. of course that would cost you 3.2k + installing.
On the other hand, you can go all the way to 400+ WHP (instead of the stock 240 whp) with this RR430-Supercharger

 

Agreed, Lexus really tuned the transmission right in terms of the way it feels, and the Sport mode programming is very effective at giving me the gear I need.

Actually, on that note, I did go for a bit of a brisk drive last night, and I found that, in auto, Sport mode, the 4-3 downshift does get rev-matched appropriately if I give it a decent amount of braking. So manual mode seems to have nothing to do with it - it's all about how much brake force I apply.

 

The rev match hiccup is in regard to 3rd to 2nd. Infrget us yours the 8spd or 6spd?

 

Yeah sorry for hijacking the thread... same problem, different transmission.

 

ahh gotcha ha. The 6spd is part of what was getting me to learn towards 2IS. Although more gears in theory = better...they get at least .5s faster 0-60. Not the case for 3IS 6spd though or is it?

Sorry x2 speak of hijack.

 

Fastest stock 3is time I’ve seen is 5.3 seconds 0-60 and a 13.9 quarter mile. That was a 350 AWD. Tested by motor trend I believe.

RWD is a tenth or 2 of a second behind only because it can’t put down the power off the line like awd can and it needs 3 gears to hit 60mph where the AWD 6 speed can hit 60mph in 2nd gear.
But RWD weighs less, makes more HP to the wheels due to less drivetrain loss & shifts faster. Just can’t pull off a 0-60 quite as fast as an AWD... but will definitely pull away after that.

 

Thsts good to know. I had seen less than 5.5 somewhere but couldn't recall where. Fastest in the 2IS was 4.9 I read. RWD 350. Largest factor I saw was 6spd able to reach 60 in 2nd.

 

Yup 5.3 was probably with some brake boosting which isn’t good for the car but definitely lets you launch it good with the AWD.

Also 2is had 4.11 final drive ratio which is insanely aggressive off the line and perfect for drag races, but they run out of steam around 100 mph... there’s actually a guy on this forum that made a real cool acceleration chart comparing various models and a 2is eats a 3is until around 100-110mph than a 3is pulls on it.

4.9 seconds 0-60 from a Lexus sedan in 2006 or 2007 whenever the 2is debuted must have been INSANE at the time. Hell a 4.9s 0-60 today 10+ years later is still good.

 

It was considered fast, wanted one ever since. The WRX was far more common and pretty new to the states at the time, and everyone had or wanted one. So 5s 0-60 had been know as what a fast sedan should do, in a way. And the fact that a lexus could keep up with the evos and wrx at the time had us all excited. Especially since the 1IS and my SC300 were dang slow. 7.2 I think it was.

Yeah my 8spd 350 goes from 80-120 pretty dang quick, as fast as most sports cars or faster (in my experience).

 

I think Lexus geared the 8 speed strategically to be good for high-speed passing and/or track driving. Another application where this can be seen is with the GS F. Though it loses to the M550i in terms of 0-60, it beats the M550i from 60 to 120. Better top-end power and closer gearing up there.

 

Makes sense. I drive fast I guess but not hard on the engine, keep the rpms low 95%+ of the time. However screwing around here/there I have kept up with much much faster cars on the top end. 0-60 is no contest but after that it keeps up.

 

Oh, really? I have an 8spd 350, and my Supra TT, stock except for the exhaust (so not all that powerful, by modern standards) is MUCH faster.

 

I thought older stock surpas ran like 13.1-13.5@105-108mph 1/4 and 0-60 in the 4.5-5 second range...

Thats waaaay faster than a 3rd gen IS and id expect top end for it to pull even harder