Lexus IS F-Drive since 2008 sedan

Plus three white horse

Probably, we should expect something like that. Mercedes-Benz has an extensive line of charged AMG vehicles, Audi has monstrously fast RS, BMW has its own sports series M. But such a recognized premium brand as LEXUS Superman cars did not have a brand in the entire twenty-year history of the brand. With the advent of IS F, everything has changed. The Japanese thoroughly prepared for rivalry in the Higher League of speed and gave out an amazingly strong car. So, make bets. The race involves 423 white horses from the Fuji Speedway nursery and 420 brown trotches around in Bavaria.
The BMW M3 sedan in our test has the role of a reference sports car. Look at the technical data, and you will make sure that it is ideal for comparison.
The highlight of all EMOC has always been motors. On modern BMW M3 (we use the plural, because the car is produced in three bodies - sedan, coupe and convertible) light high -speed V8 is installed, which produces 420 horses with crazy 8400 rpm. The engine can give power to the rear wheels or through a mechanical six -speed transmission with lightweight ventilated clutch, or through a seven -speed automatic with two DCT DriveLogic clutch, which provides a continuous stream of power and allows you to accelerate the sedan up to hundreds of only 4.7 seconds (by two tenths, it is faster, faster, than with a pen).
A lightweight body, a lowering center of gravity, increased rigidity of the chassis, compound brake discs, a DSC dynamic stabilization system and the main feature - an adjustable differential that can provide one hundred percent blocking - gives modern Emca true racing habits. The Bavarians for a long time and painstakingly debugged their car, chasing it on the northern loop of Nürburgring, and, judging by the times that were shown there, everything that was said above was not empty trep.
 
Pavel Karin, newspaper Autoreva
Did Lexus manage to scare competitors or have they only made fun of?
About laughter, it is definitely not about laughter. They reached the BMW M3 level, but have not surpassed it yet. For the first step, IS F is a breakthrough.
The motor, transmission, brakes, suspension, taxiing in our test with Lexus with the listed everything was fine. And you?
He pierced only in one test of smoothness. IS F was tossed more on the waves of the coating. But, I admit, we could not compare it with competitors on the highway in Myachkovo, since the test took place in two stages. Theoretically, IS F would have lost both M3 and Mercedes as it is deprived of a differential blocking. But the C63 AMG on the highway overheats the box, and we do not know how the Lexus automatic machine behaves in these modes.
For a car for which three million is asked, is the salon too poor? Because of this, IS F will not buy ...
Perhaps. In the case of Emka, no one looks at the salon, they take it to drive it. And on IS F you can push in traffic jams every day and here the interior, like the neighboring IS 250, can disappoint.
M3 has another unique feature - adaptability. The M Drive system allows the driver to program the machine for himself - set up the characteristics of engine control, electronic adjustment of the rigidity of shock absorbers, the effectiveness of the Servotronic steering amplifier. Click the M Drive button on the steering wheel, and the car from the submissive Savrac turns into an boucphal.
At the wheel of this car, the smile will not get off your face - promises Lexus, representing IS F. The idea to make a powerful version of the compact sedan IS came up with the chief engineer of the Yukiro Yaguchi project a couple of years ago. He took as a basis a five-liter engine from LS and from it-the only 8-speed SPDS machine with an aluminum card, then squeezed it all into IS and made the new shell go very quickly and endlessly reliably.
Important improvements: the engine has an additional large intake pipe, which opens at 3600 rpm and better fills the cylinders. Light titanium intake and heat -resistant exhaust valves are served by a system of changed phases with electric drive, which more accurately and quickly changes characteristics than the traditional hydraulic scheme. 19-inch wheels and an aggressive external body kit make IS F similar to a drift car, but this is not for beauty for the sake of (although, I admit, it acts-the jaw falls especially low among the owners of ordinary ice). The discs are made by BBS by forging, and the body kit passed numerous purges in the aerodynamic pipe and better distributes clamping forces when driving at high speed. Even under the bottom of the machine, composite fairings are installed. The final refiner of IS F took place on Fuji Speedway-on the autrod that belongs to Toyota is located at the foot of Fuji and is used to hold formula 1 and a number of national and world-class competitions. The letter F in the name of the car indicates this.
Egor Dobrovolsky, What Car magazine?
You have experience in operating the third EMKU both with a pen and an automatic machine M DCT Drivelogic. How is a new box?
I would probably like it if we talked about an ordinary car. But it’s more pleasant to ride an Emke with a pen. The car is livelier. The machine makes it some kind of virtual. In addition, there are small delays.
But in the city, probably, a car with a pen is not so convenient? In addition, her pedals are not the easiest.
For me not. A very clear clutch, a very clear course of the speed of speeds here is everything close to the ideal. As for the stroke of pedals, for example, I get tired not so much from heavy as from long pedals. Here Audi S5 is definitely not a car for traffic jams.
How do you describe the suspension?
Emka is not a stool like evolutionary. It is nice to ride it every day. She is only a little tougher than ordinary tremors. This is her highlight.
It seemed to me that the motor on the M3 was blown away early at the top, although the BMW presents it as a high -speed ...
Yes, I noticed that too. But this is an eight! She has a very good average range.
About prices. IS F in the USA is offered for $ 56,000. In Russia - for 3 million rubles. Very cool for Lexus. You can only be consoled by the fact that the price of the initially more expensive BMW M3 sedan in a comparable configuration (machine, electric heating, navigation, adaptive lighting, rain sensor, parking sensors and something else on trifles) is also tightened to three lemons.
The Lexus advertising slogan: power - nothing without pleasure, the Japanese should not be associated not with the GS model, but with IS F. Because there is both strength and passion in excess. This machine gives such sensations that are worthy of the most expensive and thoroughbred sports car. Acoustic comfort is incomparable. The smoothness of the stroke for a sports -clamped suspension is very good. A 8-speed automatic should be recognized as a work of art. Transfigurations are carried out without shocks and in a timely manner. The manual mode works clearly and even involves in the process, but a portion of exciting driving can be obtained without jerking steering wheel petals. Leave the selector on the drive, activate the sport mode and before you plan someone to overtake someone, lightly knock on the gas pedal-the car will catch the signal, instantly make an inconspicuous pushing and switch to the transmission below. And now - full gas! How quickly it breaks forward, how frantically it begins to devour the air! The sound of the Lexus sports eight at high speeds is difficult to even compare with something. Jaguars, Astons and other representatives of elite breeds are also able to roar, but they get it loud and rude.
Five starts from a place on the go -ahead - and all five wines Lexus! You need to be an acs and mercilessly quickly distort the handle of a mechanical box in Emke so as not to lag more than on the case from the Japanese in a 400-meter race. It feels like a white car of the handicap does not have three horses of power, but all thirty-three (in fact, thanks to the 8-speed box and the monstrous moment V8).
BMW saves only a smaller mass and a more responsive motor from the defeat-because of this, the Bavarian sedan responds sharply to the accelerator and does not lose moments when accelerating at the exit of turns or at high speeds. The suspension on the M3 did not cause enthusiasm. At first glance, the car is distinguished by an iron grip - the racks convey all the bumps to the body. But when it comes to sharp maneuvers, Emka begins to seem dissolved beyond measure, even allows the rolls and small departments (though very predictable). We were able to explain such a regression only with tires-there was a low-profile 19-inch rubber on the Japanese, and 18-inch on BMW.
The German has obvious virtues. When you lead EMKU to the limit, it is more understandable - through the steering wheel you get a lot of information, through a rigid clamped chair you catch all the side and longitudinal overloads. Again, the car absolutely unequivocally understands the driver's teams - the dosing of the draft is not dull, the reactions are instant. On the Piglet, the Bavarian sedan turns like a yula, baking on the asphalt even fat traces of rubber. M3 is better balanced by mass than Lexus, and this allows you to boldly storm the turns.
But I also had no complaints about the controllability of IS F, although this car is clearly different. The front suspension on double levers provides a comparable, if not even greater steering accuracy, but transfers road information to the steering wheel, as it were, in filtered form. It seems that every pebble is felt under the wheel, any track makes itself felt, but this does not cause tension or discomfort in the driver. Another feature: IS F on the front axle has a significantly large mass than on the rear, but the machine is clearly adjusted to insufficient rotation. In the turn Lexus begins to safely slide the front axle. You can send the ass through a steep arc only with the help of a frank provocation. On the runway of the Tushino airfield, I tried to unwind IS F on a quick snake with a stabilization system, but even in imposing drift continued to draw a clear sinusoid. The same experience was effectively repeated on BMW, but, I must admit that I got out of the car with sweaty palms and a strongly increased pulse.
For such a courage, many people love Emki. I have nothing against - if only a person at the wheel understands what he controls. But the Japanese managed to make a car, which, in my opinion, is better adapted for a driver who is aware that he is not Michael Schumacher, but adoring a quick ride at least seven times the royal racing champion. My sympathies are on the side of IS F.
Pedals with an elastic weighted stroke, a thickened steering wheel rim with a soft non -slip leather braid, a short -flowing gear space and a black ceiling - all signs of a racing machine in the BMW M3 are present. And nothing else is needed. The quality of the plastic, the design of the dashboard, the capacity of the messages, the thoughtfulness of the interior - this is all fades into the background, when you start the engine with the button start, the arrows of small devices come to life and a pleasant vibration of the eight -cylinder motor touches you through the carbon body of the car. I did not find fundamental differences in the EMKU cabin from a standard three-piece, in addition to the defiantly red skin of the seats and some inconspicuous decorative things. But I praise ergonomics and seats. The latter have a large range of adjustments, a sliding pillow and a customizable lumbar back. I liked the powerful fixation in the shoulders - the rollers on the back are perfectly held by the medium -complex driver from the chatter and at the same time do not constrain movements with rapid steering. I did not like the rear sofa-it is some kind of anti-sports. And from the BMW multimedia system I expected more: there are many functions (there is navigation and TV), but it sounds flat and shrill.
The gut of IS-F was a general positive impression. The steering wheel, covered with perforated skin, is thin, but the pedal node is impeccable. Black leather seats, stifled with blue thread, are very convenient and, it seems, are generally able to take root to the body of the rider. But Torpedo frankly upset both form and texture - it looks like a shmat of black rubber. Undoubtedly, a spectacular detail is the Optiron instrument panel, which, when ignition, welcomes a wave of blue arrows. However, there are all the more striking Americanisms. On the door handle - condo buttons of mirror adjustment. The same horror stories are clutching on the beam under the instruments-it is good that they are not visible at the wheel. And on the right, something dullly bessformant: from the center, a block painted with gray paint is bulging, into which the display with large buttons around the perimeter, digital hours and the mouth of a primitive CD resigner are cut, which disgraces the name of my longtime acquaintance-Mark Levinson. It's a shame that a car with such sophisticated features received a salon, completely devoid of internal dynamics. The revival in the interior is introduced by fiberglass overlays in the central tunnel, but they are not very very very.

BMW M3
Gasoline engine, v8
Working volume (cubic cub) 3999
Power (L.S. at rpm) 420 at 8300
Moment (nm at rpm) 400 at 3900
The rear drive
The gearbox is mechanical, 6-speed
Length/width/height (mm) 4580/1817/1447
Equipped mass (kg) 1680
Maximum speed (km/h) 250
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 4.9
Fuel consumption, city/highway (l/100 km) 17.9/9.2
The price in Moscow is 2 545 600 rubles.

Lexus is f
Gasoline engine, v8
Working volume (cubic cub) 4969
Power (L.S. at about/min) 423 at 6600
Moment (nm at rpm) 505 at 5200
The rear drive
Gearbox automatic, 8-speed
Length/width/height (mm) 4660/1815/1415
Equipped mass (kg) 1700
Maximum speed (km/h) 270
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 4.8
Fuel consumption, city/highway (l/100 km) 16.8/8.3
The price in Moscow from 3 009,000 rubles.

We thank for help in organizing the filming of Toyota Motor LLC (495) 258-3469 and BMW Group Russia 8 (800) 200-3269.
Text: Ruslan Tarasov
Photo: Andrey Danilov
 

A source: "Autopilot"