dreameagle

bet i got your attention with that title!

yes, i'm brand spanking new here, so much as a 60+ retired vet and baseball player can be;

after years of stubbornly refusing to buy ANYTHING on time--so much so that i had a perfect credit rating i long cherished...ZERO--I finally broke down and replaced my dead Honda Civic 5-speed (died just before i planned to Fast and Furious it) with a Mercedes, until friends and my Corvette mechanic steered me from the Dark Side (helicopter maintenance requirements, too-big-to-fail bank sized maintenance bills) toward the automotive marvel that is Lexus;

preferring small quick cars cars since my days in an SCCA racing pit i naturally gravitated toward the IS250..and came to like it so much (whenever i could praise the fob from the spoilt hands of wife and children) we decided to help our last child also get a 2008 for his first car;

had i known his was the F model i would've held out for one over my stock voiture--it is that good and i'm not much of a fan of automatic transmissions since Jim Hall (A.K.A. GM Covert Racing Division) couldn't get them to work for much more than an hour on his Chapparals;

i've done a bit of research into the factory underpinnings that help transform the stocker to an F, so will be hitting the net and junkyards for salvageable pieces, and see you recommend about a 30-35 mm spring reduction to drop the car about 1.25" in order toevict the homesteaders currently residing in my wheel wells;

i prefer to keep the stock 17-inch rims so need to know what is the tyre size that will give me the biggest lowest footprint while maintaining practical over the road use (in other words, not marrying the tyres to the body panels every time i take a sharp turn or go over railroad tracks or manhole covers);

is is there a recommended intake manifold and exhaust system to improve breathing?

do i need larger injectors, colder spark plugs, etc., for better throttle response and MPG?

i'll replace the stock snorkel air intake with a more open one and install an aluminium radiator to drop those ambient temperatures, but i already have an adequately modified (read about 500bhp) '02 Z06 Corvette so haven't the need to turn Aimee' into another all-out bare knuckle hot rod;

btw, this entire forum is FANTASTIC, on a level with my Corvette forums if not better;

thank you, ladies and gentlemen;

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

Welcome! Unfortunately it is a 250 and not a 350. Nonetheless, still a fun car! Go straight to coilovers to bypass the aftermarket spring-to-factory shock imbalance. BC Racing is a very popular option on here for they affordability and dependability.

Those with 18s on factory wheels and factory suspension have fit 245 and 255 18s up front. I don't see why a 17" would be much different, assuming a 40-series sidewall is used.

There is no aftermarket intake manifold for our car; best you can do is maybe hand-port the thing. Exhaust systems are all over the place. The best sounding most say is the F-sport system. Believe it or not, there are headers available for the motor. I highly suggest checking out PPE. Of course you can have a short ram intake or a custom cold air.

Don't touch the injectors. LOL! Colder plugs are not necessary with bolt-ons. You can try out one of the various aftermarket electronic throttle controllers on the market. Many seem to like their Apex-i device.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

Since it is an IS250, he has the option to go with a used (or new) BRZ/FRS LSD or something aftermarket. Some can be had around the $500 neighborhood, or so I've read.

dreameagle

thanks, fellas;

say, did i read that correctly...you're running a sub-10 quarter with a lightly modded 350?

we all know there's no sub for cubes, but 1 litre makes that much difference in low-end grunt with these little gems?

i understand the recommendations about the intake snorkel, but wouldn't at least changing the tubing to aluminium facilitate a cooler charge via better heat dissipation as compared to the stock plastic?

no, i most certainly will not flog it--i don't even take the Vette to the track despite constant appeals by local owners and club chapters;

having been intimately involved in road racing, i know full well the difference between a perfectly suitable street car and an all-out kidney-crushing, foot-frying, neck-compressing, eyeball-scrambling track car--and more importantly, why one should NEVER mix the two;