Lexus IS F | PH Heroes

Remember when Lexus went really big on performance?

The clue, of course, was in the name. Or more precisely the letter F, which everyone was told stood for Fuji Speedway, the circuit acquired by Toyota back in 2000. But it might just as well have stood for ‘fast’ because that’s what it signified when first applied to the IS ahead of the Detroit Auto Show in 2007. Where previously there had been a by-the-numbers compact exec (a compact exec so on the nose that Coogan thought its predecessor ideal for Alan Partridge) there was now an IS F - and to prove it was serious about the F bit, there was a naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 under its bulging bonnet.

Smash cut to two decades later and the engine, only recently retired from the RC F, seems a preposterous choice for an otherwise modest saloon - until you remember that the E90 M3 was to launch later that same year with an atmospheric 4.0-litre V8, and the W204 C63 AMG was waiting in the wings with a party keg displacing 6.2 litres (those really were the days). So in fact, Toyota had understood the playbook perfectly: bigger was better. And ideally noisy with it.

To call this a departure from Lexus’s existing strategy - the one that produced the game-changing LS400 a decade earlier - is underselling it. The brand had previously had about as much to do with sportiness as a maker of glaucoma glasses. Its values were based on quality and comfort and matchless refinement. Adding the F didn’t necessarily mean jettisoning all those things, though if the cars were going to succeed against European opposition, clearly something was going to have to give.

The first-generation model showed how this might be done. It was well received for its rev-happy V8, but critical opinion at the time suggested it was less free-flowing than its Germanic rivals, not least because it didn’t feature a proper rear diff. Ever alive to these sorts of suggestions, Lexus duly went with something mechanical and limited-slip from Torsen in 2010, followed by a fairly liberal tweak of the chassis settings. The later models, like the one you see here, also relocated the rev counter to the centre of the instrument cluster. Which helped set the tone.

The styling makeover, though, remained much the same. Some people at the time suggested Lexus was trying too hard - mostly while staring at the vertically stacked quad exhaust. But time has been remarkably kind to the IS F in this regard. Who, after all, could have foreseen the size and ferociousness of the ugly stick that most major OEMs have since taken up? In contrast to the roque’s gallery that is 2025, the venerable Lexus, gently swollen at the arches and on very modest-looking 19-inch BBS alloys, is a thing of tender beauty.

No one, it must be said, looked twice at it while it was visiting PH. Except us lot, of course. We stared and stared. Mostly at the car’s compactness and its old-fashioned proportions. Less so the bulge of its bonnet, which also seems hardly worth mentioning these days. In a maddening age of elaborate DRLs and pointless puddle lights, the IS F’s slide into nondescriptness feels like a superpower: almost certainly you have to know what it is to grasp why it might be interesting to look at - making it Q-car royalty virtually by default.

Affection for the exterior design is additionally important because you’re unlikely to feel the same about the interior. If the boastful shape of its tailpipes was evidence of Lexus extending an experimental toe outside the box, the IS F’s interior is a stark reminder of its conservative instincts. Most of it was carried over from the standard model, which was considered a demerit at the time and appears doubly so now when you factor in the sort datedness that no saloon from 2011 can avoid. Somewhat inevitably, you sit too high. And probably you’ll forget to disengage the pedal-operated handbrake for the first few goes. I did.

In its favour, there is a brand-specific solidity to admire: the fit and finish continue to hold up, especially when you consider the vast amount of plastic switchgear incorporated, and the pervasive, old-school Lexus vibe - of everything being assembled to fine tolerances and clad in slippery leather— is still made to seem tangible. Admittedly, Toyota’s UK heritage car has not yet covered 15k miles, though you get the feeling that even with six figures under its belt, the quality of its door-closing thunk would not have diminished.

Good, at any rate, to let this feeling of heft waft over you, because the IS F requires considerable manhandling at low speed. The car was relatively novel at the time for featuring electric power steering— and it promptly reminds you why people were so keen to stick with a hydraulic solution. Sophisticated, it is not. Exiting a parking space is tiresome; three-point turns, a mission. Predictably, it gets better the quicker you go, but it remains a one-note affair and ultimately deprives the IS F of the kind of nuance that an E90 M3 owner would take for granted.

Pushing down on the accelerator, it must be said, does not immediately modernise the experience. The eight-speed automatic might have benefitted from tailored ratios and a lock-up mechanism in every gear save first, but this doesn’t prevent its throttle response from seeming mildly elasticated in 2025. You’ll notice a little test balloon of revs before you get underway, just as you’ll notice the fractional delay between asking for a paddle-shift gear change and actually getting it. Not for any particular lack of effort on Lexus’s part; transmissions have simply come a long way since 2007.

Fact is though, if you ignore the bottom half of the pedal travel, you’ll find yourself swanning about the place like a Tokyo taxi driver, blithely unconcerned with getting anywhere very quickly. Lexus might have comprehensively reworked the IS chassis - reducing unsprung mass, thickening anti-roll bars, increasing spring rates, modifying bump stops, etc - but it did not completely lose sight of its instincts so far as refinement was concerned. Generally speaking, the flagship rides ably and quietly, and the V8 is very civilised under 3,000 rpm. Only its resonant hum, as warm and fuzzy as the womb, reminds you what you’re leaving untapped.

Accordingly, and probably intentionally, it feels like the IS F has two speeds. One could be surmised as ‘in-town’ where you ghost indifferently about the place, the automatic seeking out the longest ratio possible with the hope of besting 20mpg. The second, ideally away from passers-by, involves you keeping the V8 above 4,000 rpm pretty much the whole time. Because once you’ve ascended the heights of its pleasure-zone, accessible via the Sport button on the steering wheel but not dependent upon it - a place entirely distinct from the woofly lobby - you’re inclined to never leave.

Predictably, a sizeable part of this experience is owed to the noise, which uses the opening of a secondary intake at 3,600 rpm to harden up considerably. It resists a full-throated yowl, but it is expressive nonetheless and unprocessed enough to make a modern-day equivalent sound like it was being played back to you underwater. Plus, of course, it needs constant chasing: the torque doesn’t peak till 5,200 rpm, the power, 6,600 rpm. Elsewhere in the Lexus lineup, the V8 was electrically assisted; in the IS F, you’re a very necessary part of pressing on.

And push on you will. Lexus quotes 4.8 seconds to 62 mph, and in full flight the IS F feels every bit as quick as that. It helps that the chassis meets the rawboned V8 halfway. In fact, it starts to seem like the most old-school thing about the car: passively sprung and deceptively unsophisticated it might be, but the vertical control is mostly well-judged, and it does not suffer for a lack of balance. Naturally it helps that the IS F is half a tonne lighter than it would be were it built today; once it gels with a road, there is nothing perfunctory or punishing about the relationship. You really do buy in.

Even the one-dimensional steering essentially comes good. Never in feedback it must be said, but the faster you go, the more its blurry weight starts to feel like directness, helped along by a front end that’s easily dependable enough to make up the shortfall. The back end is dependable, too; typically any loss of traction is a result of you knowingly pushing the limit, and it’s progressive enough thereafter for it to not leave a dent in your confidence. Or to prevent you from wellying it pretty much anywhere.

In short, there’s a lot to like. Granted, with the benefit of hindsight, it didn’t change the world. Lexus had set its sights on beating the Germans at their own game; much as Jaguar did with the XFR. Both were laudable efforts, not just for their forthrightness in throwing down the gauntlet, but for retaining a personality all of their own even when mimicking the competition. For Jaguar, this was surely easy: the DNA of fast saloons being elemental to its existence. For Lexus, initially feeling its way into what F ought to mean, tougher.

But the resulting car, especially the later derivative, richly proved what the brand was capable of - a fledgling reputation it doubled down on in 2009, introducing the sensational LFA to an unsuspecting world. The IS F itself was wrapped up in 2013 and not properly replaced (the conceptually similar RC F launched a year later, but exclusively as a coupe). Nevertheless, its place among an iconic generation of compact execs is assured, not least because it helped establish the high watermark of hugely thirsty, naturally aspirated V8s before the configuration was rolled back for good. Faster, more frugal cars would emerge to take their place. But for Lexus fans, us among them, F still only stands for one thing.

SPECIFICATION | LEXUS IS F

Engine: 4,969cc, V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 421@6,600rpm
Torque (lb ft): 371@5,200rpm
0-62mph: 4.8sec
Top speed: 168mph
Weight: 1,700kg
MPG: 24.8
CO2: 270
On sale: 2011
Price new: £51,105
Price now: c £25,000

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GreatScott2016

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