Super Lexus

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty years ago, Toyota had the audacity to launch “The best luxury car in the world.” And no, they didn’t do this quietly among themselves in a smoky karaoke room in Tokyo after ganging up on a bottle of Hennessy XO; they did this right smack in the heart of the largest, most significant automotive market on earth during the 1989 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The nerve.

Try and picture Nokia building a plane that would compete with Airbus and you’ll have a fair idea of how ridiculous this concept was to the established brands like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and the like. two years later, however, in 1991, Lexus outsold them all to become the bestselling luxury import brand in the United States, and by the year 2000, had become the top-selling luxury car brand in the US – a title it has held for 9 consecutive years.

The question mark had become the benchmark, and 20 years on, Lexus has now embarked on a new challenge that is set to deliver another swift kick in the groin of the luxury sports sedan segment. It is another bold step, of course, and one that has not been taken lightly, either. It is their most radical departure yet and everything you thought they weren’t. Some have gone as far as calling it ridiculous; Lexus calls it the ISF.

And on a grey and chilly February morning in the sprawling city of LA, I had the chance to drive history. It had taken almost a month of planning to get to this stage, and the anticipation was almost paralyzing. This wasn’t your average drive around the block test drive we’re talking about here, nor was it a baby-sitted regional launch; no sir, this was an all-out weekend road trip starting from the smog filled highways of LA to the sinful streets of Las Vegas. And back.

The mere thought alone was consuming me during the painfully long flight over; poring through the spec sheet just cranked up the foreplay even more until it reached fever pitched excitement. But then again, as giddy as I was, I have driven both the M3 and RS4 back to back before, and even had the chance to frighten the elegance out of Korina Sanchez during a spin in the almighty C63 during a feature she was doing on her TV show on ABS CBN, so it is safe to say that as much awe as I was in, the expectations were even greater. As Spiderman says, with great power comes great responsibility, and the ISF wasn’t about to play host to a completely star-struck passenger. No matter how good the reviews have been so far.

First thing that strikes you about the ISF are the heavily blistered wheel arches that house those massive forged alloy, bespoke charcoal BBS rims and specially made 19-inch Bridgestone “F spec” tires, cut exclusively for the ISF. Then there’s that bulging hood that just barely swallows that massive 5-liter V8 engine, making the whole front end seem pregnant with endless possibilities.

It is menacing, angry, and intimidating all at the same time, which gives you the impression sometimes that the F stands for something else. In fairness, it’s no more than an M3 or an RS4 is to its entry-level equivalent – it’s just that it seems more provocative because this is Lexus’ first car to hit puberty and start rebelling, much in the same way if McDonald’s started serving liquor. It’s just unexpected.

Inside, the theme continues with embossed F logos on the seats, the steering wheel, rear seat console, while the blue stitching carries the tone through the leather sports steering wheel. On the 9 and 3 position, just where your index and middle fingers would naturally fall, rests the most beautifully sculpted and inspiring paddle shifters I’ve ever tried. There’s also an oil temperature gauge and shift light, but other than that, it’s a fairly familiar place for previous Lexus owners to be.

Crawling through the congested 405 out of LA hadn’t given me a chance to open up the taps and clean the pipes, but at least it allowed me to appreciate the 300 watt, 14-speaker Mark Levinson sound system that seemed to wrap us up in a perfect envelope of acoustic brilliance. I couldn’t stop raving to my boss, who was sifting through his Rick Astley dance remix collection, just how wonderful the sound (not necessarily music) was. Until I heard the engine and exhaust note.

Damn. Mark Levinson could learn a thing or two from the Lexus engineers. 300 watts and 14 speakers is no match for 416 horsepower and quad exhausts. I never really felt that way about a sound. Aroused doesn’t cut it. I wanted to marry it. Hey, its not that far-fetched, I was heading to Vegas after all. I’m sure they’ve married stranger things.

I could devote the next five pages describing the resonating anger that erupts as soon as you pin that aluminum pedal against the carpeted firewall and watch the electric blue tachometer needle soar its way to 7000 rpm, but that would be as pointless as dancing about architecture. Go to Youtube and search for it. There are not just sites dedicated to it, there are cults named after it.

But a car with all bark and no bite wouldn’t last 24-hours on an internet forum, and the ISF answers back with such a cooperative chassis, sharp steering and sensational 8 speed gearbox, that it silences its critics faster than they could click a mouse. Lexus are the first company to use this 8-speed automatic technology and claim shifts as fast as a tenth of a second. While I didn’t have a timer quick enough to measure it, I have absolutely no reason to question it.

On some deserted, um, desert roads (if there even is such a redundant thing) I flicked off the traction control and painted a couple of 255 mm wide black lines that stretched as far as 50 meters. Turning into a fast corner, a quick lift of the throttle throws the rear end out; I dial in an armful of counter steer, and balance it out with the power… It is so easy, you almost feel guilty doing it and looking so good while you do.

There is just so much power left in the bag that you could safely donate half of it to another less privileged car and still have enough to play with – but nobody is suggesting anyone should do that, of course. The perfect recipe for any sports sedan is to have at least 50% more power than you actually need. And nothing makes a stronger case for this than the ISF.

Tearing around a mountain pass through the red rock portions of the Las Vegas countryside, the road had opened up to a long straight that stretched as far as my eye could see. There was no sign of life for miles, and more importantly, none with flashing lights. I call up 2 years worth of press releases to start living up to their printed words. The 5-liter V8 unleashed its fury and the sound that it made while it did dived straight into my soul and dragged the 8-year-old boy out of me.

But despite the violence taking place between the engine and the rear wheels, it is in the contrasts that you really feel the brilliance of the brand. The powerful punch wrapped in the softest glove; the razor sharp handling in the gently damped and absorbent suspension; the deep guttural engine howl filtering through an expensively muted cabin – Lexus has not come into this segment picking a fight, it’s looking for an all out brawl.

The ISF is as brutal as any sport sedan has a legal right to be. It can bring you from a standstill to 100km/h in 4.7 seconds flat, and soar to 275km/h faster than your life can flash before your very eyes. But it is the 8-speed gearbox that is the unsung hero in most of this. Not just does it put you in the perfect gear for every situation, from the wide sweeping curves, to the hairpins that demand a whole lot of torque to recover from, it returned an average of 8.24 kilometers per liter on a 50/50 Highway/City cycle. This, I should note, does not include painting black rubber lines on the road or trying to break land speed records.

The only real areas of improvement would be to develop an adaptive suspension system that allows you to toggle between a comfort mode and sport mode, as well as a more precise steering system to take advantage of that wonderful chassis, and more personalization of interior appointments to be able to match BMW’s awesome individual program.

Other than that, the ISF consistently comes within a whisker, or out performs its immediate peers. Head to head track tests put it ahead of the RS4, and in some situations, even the 457bhp C63, although the industry-standard M3 still proves to be its biggest headache. Then again, the mere fact that the M3 and a Lexus appear in the same sentence without a punch line at the end, should speak volumes about how impressive this car really is. A proper track test between former F1 driver Tiff Needell, and British Touring Car Champion, Jason Plato, showed the M3 quicker on their test track by 1/10 of a second. Absorb that for a moment.

But what really comes across when you drive the ISF – once you sober up from the devastating power of course – is just how good the basic chassis really is. The IS has been around since 2005 and has undeservedly been overlooked by the traditional sports sedan buyer. It has everything you could ever want in a sports sedan, and even offers some extra kit for the cash, but it has never flown the flag for Lexus. Perhaps it just didn’t make enough noise about itself. Until now, that is.

Every successful brand needs a hero to draw attention to it, and the ISF has done just that. At first I thought it existed solely to stick four tailpipes up at the Germans, and perhaps it still does; regardless – the indisputable thing is, you can’t help but appreciate the superb driving dynamics and comfort of the entire IS series while it does so. It may lack the liveliness of the BMW’s steering, the all-wheel drive grip of an Audi or the suppleness of the C Class suspension, but it marries all its key features beautifully and comes up with a total experience that would be a complete shame for you to not seriously consider.

The M3 may have written the rules here, but one thing the Japanese seem to excel in is rewriting rule books. They have this disturbing knack of being able to give you more for less, and while I don’t think there is a passing of the crown here just yet, the Germans should be afraid. Very afraid. There are still some areas of improvement that Lexus needs to focus on, but remember this is their first stab here; where Lexus really has the competition baffled is in its incredible attention to detail, and the renowned Lexus ownership experience that begins from the first turn of the key – or Start/Stop button in this case.