Considering the car has been out on the streets for nearly what 20 months? ... I'm starting to get a little disappointed. Sure I'm saving money.... but I certainly would have expected more than just some basic suspension mods and intake pipes and exhausts.

Where is the innovation? Where is the aftermarket?

Think about it..... we don't even have performance/sport/adjustable shock options other than coilovers, and what about 3 spring manufacturers? That's pretty pathetic, especially considering the biggest gripe of the mags, and in general is suspension/handling related.

Sure tom's has a bunch of braces, and from pictures it looks like maybe control arms? but who has any experience with any of it? What happened to the days of being able to do springs/shocks as a great bang for the buck setup? Now we are stuck with $1000+ coilovers. Or we can get some springs, that don't do anyhting more than drop the car for aesthetics.

How many aftermarket brake pads are available now? 3 total choices? Huh?

Sure there's what 5 cars out there with the LMS supercharger.... but where are all the other things you would expect to see from the aftermarket world.

Turbos... sure theres a couple in the works.... ok. Will be released in what 2011?

While I certainly would never use it... where are the no2 kits? Surely a company could have designed something that works by now.

Exhausts.... $1000 for a true catback exhaust... Huh? These companies are out of their mind. 500 for some mufflers and pipes?... wow. I should start my own company....

Maybe I just have unrealistic expectations. Maybe I expected that because this car was marketed as the fastest car in its class over its first 2 model years it would have jump started the aftermarket support. The IS300 had pretty good aftermarket support. You'd think it'd be a natural transition.

All this lack of news is rather boring... and it makes the forums boring also. As much as I love browsing, a man can only handle so many HID threads, or wheel threads, or picture threads or DRL threads or LED threads or accident threads and so on... its the same day in and out.

While I'm certainly not unhappy with the car, I'm a tinkerer by nature, and there just isn't enough bang for the buck out there. Am I out of line to think you should be able to do both a full exhaust (think Borla's off road version) and some mid range suspension mods- like say shocks/springs/sway bars for no more than $1200?


Maybe I'm just bored... but it may be time to start looking at something else. With a baby, that Volvo V70R wagon is starting to get more tempting. Sure it's a turbo 300hp to start..... but another 2 grand into it, and it becomes a 400HP sleeper wagon that'll handle better than any 2nd gen IS.

Okay I'm done... my first rant here on club lexus.

 

I could have said it better myslef, that exactly how I feel.

 

Lets not forget, larger MAF/throttle body, just a intake pipe??? thats not really any true performance. Is ne1 even designing a intake manifold? cams? headders? xpipe? 1k-1.5k for a catback exhaust is fools money and yet ppl are buying them, without headders and xpipe you still have the stock exhaust bottlenecks. (im just gonna do a muffler swap probally get the same hp boost as someone who does buy the full catback)

Wheres the ignition/ecu upgrades? Our transmissions are what auto? so where are the higher stall torque converters/shift kits/driveshafts/LSD/gear ratios/axles. Just under 7k for a Brembo bbk??? You gotta be kidding me, more fools money.

Even the SN-197 Mustang when launched in 05 had ton's of stuff for it at SEMA. Yea i get your point, im not even gonna bother with the 'performace' mods yet cuz what, intake pipe/catback exhaust for 10-20(?)hp to the wheels isnt worth the money. You buy a intake pipe now and maybe later a bigger maf/tb comes out and you'll have to get a new pipe again... Better to wait for the 'full kit'....

Its not how much money you have, its how wisely you spend it.

 

I believe it is the nature of the Lexus owner; conservative. Which means the potential market isn't as big as BMW or Mercedes.

Look at all the whining that was done on the 'dusty' brake pad issue. If I was a pad manufacturer would I want to get into the market where the owners are that picky about some brake dust? I don't think so. Overall, Lexus owners are more concerned about looks than performance, imo.

 

OHHH you mean like a histrionic disorder... alittle narcissism thrown in to boot? Ok well... times are a changin

 

I agree. I think the problem is the compression on these IS is so high that nobody really has an interest in making a turbo for it. 11:8:1 I think is our ratio? That's really high. Not sure what else you can do to our engine to get more out of it being NA. I think I read somewhere where lobux (or somebody smart) said that they thought our engines could handle up to 500hp (i could totally be wrong right there and am more then likely misquoting so don't get mad lobux).

So I guess I understand why there is not a lot of interest in making after market performance items.

I totally agree with you guys about the price some of these people are charging for items though. That's why I basically did my own exhaust. which really just involved me cutting some parts out and putting hi flow magnaflow mufflers. I was able to do all this for under 300.

anyways.

 

Although there are exceptions to every rule (obviously), it's a simple matter of supply and demand, IMO.

If I were a manufacturer, I would definitely think twice about going to the expense of fabbing something for anything manufacturered by Lexus. Mods for Evos, STI's, Z's, Porches, Vettes, Vipers, etc? Absolutely. The prospective and respective owners of the latter tend not satisfied with stock to a greater extent then Lexus owners.

We see the availability of the existing aforementioned aftermarket parts because there isn't a lot of R&D and related costs to bring them to the marketplace. I wonder if the COTS conical filter on company ABC's intake for the IS is any different than the conical filter they make for a Civic?

 

If they can make a Turbo for the S2000, then they can make one for our cars. It's all about tuning.

But in regards to your suspension issues... I know of people developing suspension parts for our cars, stay tuned.

 

I think as NA engines and engine management systems are getting more and more advanced it'll be harder and harder for the aftermarket to come up with something easy to increase the power significantly. Add this to the fact that toyota's ecu is hard to hack + it being a LEXUS it means we dont get jack. The old IS was a 20 something k toyota altezza in japan but the new 2IS is an expensive lexus branded car in japan. If you want easy to get power on a new car nowadays get a car with a factory turbo.

 

First everyone is talking about an 11.8:1 compression ratio like its a bad thing??? WHAAATTTT???? Sure for FI it is, but NA??? Hey we got the high compression already. That part is ALREADY DONE. Isn't ne1 old skool? Dosent ne1 see that this is a good thing?

Why oh why is the 2fast2stupid generation so fixated on FI... Short term yes FI is fun, long term... lots of rebuilds and please dont give me the 'if you keep the boost down' bs... that only gonna fly for the first month, then you get used to the power and say, 'hmm lemme turn it up a bit', well all know where thats gonna lead to... If you own your own shop FI is the way to go, if you dont then its not a smart direction to take.

The buy-in for a Lexus isnt cheep so i assume this isnt a first car for alot of ppl so you should know all this by now.

 

i agreeeeeeeeeeeeeee, where are all the companies at?!?

 

Ok, so umm.... Where is the aftermarket at??? I fail to see the point of your post in relation to the topic.

 

I dunno My point... hmm... I had one when i wrote it Maybe that ppl are looking at what the aftermarket can offer from a different direction than me? When ppl think of aftermarket there is a bigger picture and that ppl only see FI and not think of the long term effects of FI? Maybe someone in the aftermarket community will see my post and remember that not everything is about obtaining 500-800hp? yea thats it

*edit* OH yea i remember now, my point is, some of us want a reliable 340ish hp that will run for yrs rather than a something under boost that wont. Kinda gotta read into what i wrote to understand...

OK here one that is on topic:

Look how long it took HKS to offcially (not some custom job) come out with a FC for a turbo for the rx-8 (last yr?) and how long has that car been on the market? Therefore we must be patient.

 

Its comes down for the aftermarket companies time and money . And what kind of market and return will they make by developing our products...Hopefully they realize that the younger generation of lexus is hungry for aftermarket parts ..

 

How about some damn headers?!?! That's something that I think should of been out a long time ago.