2011 Lexus IS F – Short Take Road Test « New and Used Car Listings

2011 Lexus IS F – Short Take Road Test

The corporate line at Lexus is that the IS F was never intended to dethrone the BMW M3 as the world’s greatest sports sedan. We, like the general public, never believed it. Just look at the two cars’ spec sheets: Both are based on their respective company’s entry-level sedan; both have special 400-plus-hp V-8s shoehorned upfront; and both have big brakes, ultra-high-performance tires, upgraded sport seats, and so on.

When we first sampled the IS F, however, it was clear it wasn’t quite up to the task for which Lexus swore it wasn’t intended but everybody knew it was. The BMW M3 is a perennial 10Best winner, and its head-to-head battle with the IS F is just one of the current car’s five C/D comparison-test victories.

A Thorough Revamp

Still, the IS F had serious potential; its 416-hp V-8 left no doubt about that. But its ride and handling simply didn’t deliver. It would hobbyhorse down uneven pavement and batter occupants in a straight line but roll excessively in corners. For 2011, Lexus addressed these concerns in a big way, changing or retuning every major suspension component. There are softer front springs, stiffer rear springs, larger-diameter anti-roll bars front and rear, stiffer bushings on the rear subframe and rear anti-roll bar, and a new steering knuckle and front lower control arms for reduced unsprung mass. Oh, and the rear camber is tweaked as well. The honking V-8 and the eight-speed automatic carry over unchanged, but a Torsen limited-slip replaces the previously open differential. Engineers also retuned the electric power steering, injecting a dose of much-needed feel.

With these changes, the IS F goes from subpar to front-runner. At our latest Lightning Lap track romp at Virginia International Raceway, the 2011 car posted a lap as quick down to the 10th as any we’ve recorded from an M3 coupe (3:05.4), despite weighing roughly 200 more pounds and having only two extra ponies. A lap time is a great measuring stick for performance, but all-out driving alone does not tell the whole story. The ride is still rough but far more livable, and cruising around town in the F is an exercise in sublime stealth. Keep the revs below 4000, and the car will pass into the casual onlooker’s unconscious as just an average sedan. Crank the revs and hit the sport button, and the F becomes a green-light monster, devastating every Japanese car this side of the Nissan GT-R and broadcasting it with a burly exhaust note on throttle and back-pressure burbling off.

A spirited stint on a country road highlights the F’s newfound handling prowess. Corners are inhaled as the driver’s confidence builds. The retuned electric steering feels more natural, more like traditional hydraulically boosted steering, although our skidpad revealed that maximum lateral acceleration, at 0.90 g, is unaffected by the suspension changes. The brake pedal is reassuringly firm. Cracking off shifts with the steering-wheel-mounted paddles doesn’t make us miss a clutch pedal as much as we thought we would, and the swaps feel as quick as any dual-clutch box’s. An audible shift warning lets the driver keep his eyes off the large, centrally located tachometer and on the road. Although we would normally object to an idiot buzzer, with eight ratios to work with and 371 lb-ft of torque hurrying the car through each one, shifts are frequent.

A Different Kind of Green

At the drag strip, our 2011 test car didn’t quite measure up. It was a few 10ths off the other Fs we’ve tested, turning in a 4.7-second 0-to-60-mph run and a 13.1-second quarter-mile at 110 mph. That this car had a fairly green engine, with fewer than 1000 miles on its clock, could account for the drop in performance. Our past IS F test cars all ran to 60 in 4.4 or fewer seconds, with the quickest turning in a 12.8-second quarter at 114 mph. Either way, with its sub-four-second 60-mph dash and low-12-second quarter-mile, the M3 betters the F in a straight line.

The Lexus also trails the M3 in the price wars. A base IS F runs $61,535 compared with the M3 sedan’s $58,075—M3 coupes start at $61,075. Pricing has yet to be released for the updated 2012 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, but the 2011 sedan starts at $61,175. The 2011 IS F’s base price is an increase of $2200 over the 2010 model’s, and well worth it. The car tested here also had a package bundling touchscreen navigation with a 14-speaker Mark Levinson stereo for $3925 and dynamic cruise control for $1500. A cargo net for $64 and a trunk mat for $73 bumped the total to $67,097. We’d recommend forgoing the fancy cruise and the nickel-and-dime stuff, getting the navigation-only option for $2485, and reserving the roughly $3000 difference for replacement tires. Trust us, you’ll need them.