2008 Lexus IS-F Preview

"FAST"

I don't think LEXUS put a 5.0L just to get 4.9 0-60mph. Anyone who tested IS 350 know that thing easily comes in under 5.5 even in auto. I'll say IS-F will come in under 4.5 in magazine test.

Since new M3 is getting soft, IS-F can really get Bimmer, Merc, and AUDI a run for the money. However, what these MFRs really lack is some real sports car like the upcoming GT-R. They are just content in making big money from the middle class by giving them products easy to feel and drive, so called sport sedan.

Failure. I hate the look of this car.

absolutely nothing. it's just made up.

Its Jason in his 2008 Whatchamacallit

You get an F!

In short auf wedersehen BMW Audi and Benz!

This is another superb product from Lexus. Stunning looks, massive power, awesome handling and grip and fully equipped with everything the purist driver desires. Add to that an advanced 8 speed automatic (best in the world) and a TRD tuned suspension and you have yourself a winner. I cannot wait for the reviews to proclaim the greatness of this car.

The M3 has just been dethroned and the IS-F kills the RS4 and C63 AMG on looks alone (and performance of course I predict). I love Lexus.

Finally, someone who's driven it. So how exactly does it compare to the M3 and RS4 which you've also I presume driven?

The M3 and RS4 aren't that good. I know that most magazines get a hard on for them but in a local Toyota-Lexus magazine, these cars were reviewed and received poor scores. The IS-F on the other hand was given 5/5 stars for its quality, comfort, performance, handling, 8 speed automatic, TRD tuned suspension and value.

Excellent, its good to get an un-biased opinion for once on autospies. Tell me though, most importantly, is it reliable? Will it get me from A to B?

The IS-F will have typical Lexus quality. Owners can enjoy this car on the track without having to worry about overheating brakes, rundown tires etc. Did you know that the Lexus IS-F will be faster than a BMW M3 on the Nurnbergring?

You can't say the same for those German rivals. They'll probably spend more time in the shop than on the road.

IS-F looks like a POS STi.
Its a riceboys dream car.

I highly doubt it will even surpass the first generation M3.

407hp, is that official or just more speculation? Apparently the F stands for "Fast" or "Flag-ship".

Kinger, you are funny bro! LOL

This car truly looks boring and is not in the same class as Benz and BMW, it will have it's handsfull dealing with the new NSX and GT-R, good luck you'll need it.

407 hp, ha ha

The IS-F is not meant to compete with those cars....that's what the LF-A is for; granted I'm sure any Lexus nut will tell you the IS-F is meant to compete with anything on 4 wheels.

Obviously it would have it's hands full, considering it's not even in the same CLASS.

@ David989, you're my hero, LOL

sorry but am i the only person that thinks this is going to be a big let down for lexus fans. lets see 0-60mph in 4.9 seconds. edmonds said a mercedes e550 can get to 60 faster. 407 hp considering that ALL the cars in this class have more than that it's safe to say it's underpowered. If you have followed lexus one can predict that the handling won't be up to par with it's german rivals. but i smell a complete tko for the germans. lexus go back to the drawing board on this one. because this is too slow and too underpowered to be taken seriously.

IS 350 went 0-60 in 4.9 seconds.

Well, Lexus claims 5.3 to 60 with the IS350

If some tests get 4.9, that puts Lexus' conservative estimate +.4 above.

This would make 'possible' 0-60 times of 4.5 with the IS-F, which would be a must, otherwise, why buy the IS-F over the 350? Bragging rights?

5.0 v8 with a 407hp output!!! what happened to 450 - 500 hp? what happened to taking on bmw and audi's 100hp per liter? what the heck...

4.9 seconds??
And 407 hp...lowest in class, slowest in class...

IS 350 went 0-60 in 4.9 seconds.....

IS350 in 4.9. that's news. link please.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/3car_dp.pdf.pdf

Sorry to disappoint you. :(


4.9!

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/3car_dp.pdf.pdf

Sorry to disappoint you. :(


4.9!

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/3car_dp.pdf.pdf

Sorry to disappoint you. :(


4.9!

http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/download/3car_dp.pdf.pdf

Sorry to disappoint you. :(


4.9!

I'm a German "fanboy" and let's just wait and see.

I don't think Lexus is stupid enough to bring only 407 hp when MB C63 AMG is bringing 450 horses.
Sure, They are aiming at M3 with 414 hp but lets be honest.
Lexus always aimed at Mercedes cause both company's philosophy is somewhat similar. BMW is more sport than luxury while two companies are more luxury than sport.

I'm not going to bash any new performance luxury car as they are coming out one by one. I'm desperate to see and test drive one by one.

I bet they are now working on an IS-FF. But this time it will be a colabo of Denso+TRD tuning the car.

i suppose when we see the Toyota F1 team begining to kick butt then maybe we can expect the F-series cars to do likewise. i mean, F1 is the holy grail of motorsport development. mercedes and audi are benefitting from DTM alone. bmw is on the rise in f1.

Better luck next time...the numbers look disappointing. But it's their first try so I didnt expect much.

Unlike the Germans, Lexus doesn't rush its product to the market to satisfy demand. Lexus takes time to make sure that every IS-F produced is a quality car. They use catscans to make sure the interior, exterior and everything else is precision engineered. Rest assured that the IS-F is going to be a hit. 407 Lexus horsepower are more energetic and reliable than any German performance car.

@43LE

I don't think its gonna have 407BHP more something like 425BHP.

Simple people how about the F standing for "Formula". After all this Lexus should be ashamed, this doesn't even get more performance than the IS350, is it worth the money? Lexus should just introduce the LF super car which actually will be a beast and forget about the rest.

407hp was the initial number that came up when the IS-F first was announced that Lexus neither confirmed nor denied. It's pretty silly to assume that the IS-F will do 0-60 in the same time bracket as Lexus's own IS350...

It's not silly if you know how to bend insignificant half-truths; oh wait, it is! Sorry.

Lexus wont dime out on this attempt to enter the performance badged class. i dont see the IS-F making more than 430-440, being that Lexus execs said the car is between 400-450hp.

the real test here with Lexus is getting the car to handle BMW like or better. if they can come clsoe to those standards, they have made its attempt well worth it.

the interior, from the pixs, is nicely done. its a 4-seater 4-door and just builds on an already nice is350 interior.

the exterior, at first was a blah for me...but as i sore mor releases of the photos, it grew more to me...it will be a head turner, and will exceed in sales as does all Lexus products. like it or not, they plan on being here to stay.

i really don't think this will be a sales winner...though you claim lexus always exceeds sales expectations:

it'll be another sales bomb like the GS450h (sales of the entire GS line have been a disappointment for lexus...they had hoped to compete seriously with the 5 and the E).

LX has also been a sales bomb at only 6,000 units a year while mercedes and range rover do 4x more volume in the segment.

Yamaha make a 310 hp 4.4 V8 for Volvo.

"Lexus might make them detune it just to give the M3/C63/RS4 a chance since these are nothing more than just fat luxury cars"

Fist you say no chance of hp being lower cuz of ur yamaha crap reasons...then u say it might be to give the fat luxury cars a chance...

RICEMASTER, you sure know how to find reasons for everything. What's the next one? Because a little mouse told you so?

I dunno what happened to you at some point in your life that makes you talk so much crap about german cars. Did someone you love die in one or something?
Well I hope not. You see I have a favorite car in almost every make and I don't have to put another down just to prove a point.

I think the reason he talks so much crap is beacuse he's 12 years old. Get off the computer RICEMASTER, your daddt needs it to do some work.

The article said 407hp, but it might actually be dyno at 407whp! :)

no news here....one year old pic, one year old info.

I heard rumor going around saying that the new Lexus IS-F will have close 500hp. Some were were saying 487hp to 500hp, not sure if this is true.

They're all rumours, I don't think we'll find out how much hp it actually ha til there's some official info released from Lexus. This car has already been discussed at length on this site, why won't Lexus just release the damn thing already!!

you are correct!

I would not be suprise when the Lexus IS-F is release and have 520hp ;)

Lexus will set the standard in horse power in this segment again; it won't have 407, more like 470hp+.

Inside information says 415hp.Based on the Is350 306hp and road and track test of 4.9 0-60 one could low 4's and maybe sub 4.

What are you kidding? You honestly think the is-f might do 0-60 in under 4 seconds? You lexus fans are more delusional every day...

LOLOL Its really funny to see all the Lexus fanboys whine about "BLAH BLAH BLAH, ITS GONNA HAVE 500HP EXACTLY" Get over it! I only expected it to be 380hp. 407hp is still good enough for Lexus to get buried by the Germans.

Oh Yeah? Well... I heard It's gonna have 740bhp, do 0 to 60 in 1.6 seconds and have a top speed of 290mph. The leather seats are going to be made from the foreskin of a blue whale. Heck, even the automatic window motors are nominated for the international engine of the year award...

Some of you guys need to just shut up until lexus releases the numbers.

I agree.

"The engine is a 5.0-liter V8 that develops 407 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque"

Haha god i hope that is true

No thats not true! It will be a 6.0 liter V9 with 666 horespower and 666 lb-ft of torque. It will be the next superman beacuse it will fly also LOL. Typical Lexus fanboy jibber jabber.

BentleyGT I'm pretty sure the 6.0 V9 666HP and the wings will be coming from your ***

Yea and back up yours, OUCH!

let's just wait and see

Lexus should be ashamed of themselves! This thing looks down right fugly. Maybe the designers were watching too much Pimp My Ride on MTV. When I think of Lexus styling the first word that usually comes to mind is classy but this thing...whoa!

Back to the drawing board fellas!!!

I think the color is horrible,but in another color (black)it will look mean.If its not your taste don't buy it,but belive me the'll sell every copy they make, small numbers anyway.

as a lexus owner, let me just say that i dont give a rats *** about the is-f!

If you want to talk about liters and horspower, than the M3 and RS4 make the IS-F's engine look stone-aged. 407hp from a 5.0liter is childs play. Oh and you mention the C63. Well the engine is so large (6.2 liters) because it produces scary amounts of torque. 443 lb/ft to be exact, which the IS-F apparently comes no-where near. So in both respects, the engine in the IS-F fails to be worthy of its competitors.

By the way, the website http://3ada.com/blog has copied this article directly off Auto123.com without permission. The original article can be found here: www.auto123.com/n184141

You are hopeless.

There are so many things wrong with what you said; it all started when you capped-off a statement with a question mark; it all went downhill from there.

At least the extra displacement gives it a guesstimated 55 foot pounds more torque than the new M3. That is no small amount to be overlooked.

Guys i'm going to say it like it is:

The IS-F is what it is, a sports sedan targeted towards in my opinion Mercedes M and Audi S/RS(because M3 isn't even a sedan-NOT YET anyway). Anyways the car like it's siblings the 250/350 is a well put together a good piece of Japanese automotive. I believe if the IS250 performs and rides so well the 350 and F will be even better on the performing end. Now fans who know me know I am a die hard MB fan and will to the end but I must give credit to Lexus for making great cars. Their GS and LS aren't masterpieces but for the money and functionality with a little style they are comparable to it's counterparts.

We debate day in day out about Lexus versus the world but we don't stop and reflect on how much influence "THE WORLD" has on Lexus. Lexus has a pursuit and that is perfection. No Lexus defines that not even the LS600HL. Sure there are functions of each car that does not work well but I think in a grand scale THE WORLD (including Lexus) has come to create cars that are as Jeremy Clarkson would say.."EPIC!"

C63, S4/RS4, IS-F, And M3 if you want to add it on the list are all magnificent cars. The saying "don't hate appreciate" comes into play. So what if they claim IS-F can beat an M3 it's just claims. So what if Lexus fans are saying M3 has gotten soft. Who in the hell are they to have test driven one before it's even arrived at the dealerships. How do we know the test drivers for these magazines aren't biased or paid off? the answer is we don't.

Go out to your local dealerships and test drive each and everyone of these cars. You won't be hugely disappointed. What you will be looking for is that special feeling that tickles your fancy.

Unfortunately, its not all that easy to test drive these cars when they are in such high demand and low inventory. Thats why most people here present their views with opinions vicariously derived from others experiences.

IS-F sucks!