Official 2008 Lexus IS-F Pictures

[850CSi]

I am actually a fan of the regular IS (favorite Japanese sport sedan, and really not so far off the 3-series or A4 IMHO), but this looks horrible.

+1

[The Pirate]

Jamal if I may ask, what circumstances took you from an SSEi and put you into a Civic?

I went from SSEi to Ford Ranger 4x4 to Civic, actually.


The SSEi had about 230K miles on it when I sold it.  I bought the truck off a friend for $300, installed new brakes and brake lines all around and put new tires on it.  I drove the truck for about a year.  I traded the truck in on the Civic because I was commuting about 40 miles one way to school, and the truck got 16 mpg and had about 165K miles, with some problems.  My savings in gas more than paid for the Honda payment, and with 65K miles on it (at time of purchase), I had less worries about being stranded on my commute.  The car has 115K miles now, and the only unexpected repair was an oxygen sensor at about 79K miles.  Just routine maintenance and the like, and it runs as well today as the day I bought it (maybe even a little better).

[ro51092]

EEEWWWW

[SVT666]

Manuals do it for me too.  I don't find it fun to have to wait 2 or 3 seconds for the automatic tranny to kick down after I manually dropped it down a gear.  I don't find it fun to have the transmission hunting when I want to hold a gear.  I don't find it fun to have to brake to slow down for a corner instead of downshifting, and I certainly don't find it fun that I can't drop the clutch at 4000 rpm.

For me...manuals are King.  I have driven a sequential before and I didn't like it much.  Maybe because I wasn't used to it or something, but I prefer to actually row the shifter.

You can like whatever you want Chris, but don't tell me I'm narrow minded or a partial enthusiast because I prefer a clutch pedal and a shifter to anything else.

[Fire It Up]

What do you people not like about it? I think it looks badass. I want to see it in black.

[red_shift]

I love the feel of a manual transmission car. It makes me feel good. I guess I'm just not an old fogey yet. 

[Andaluz]

It doesn't take too long to work out, why they call it the IS-F.

I will give you a clue:

Just look at it...








The resulting design is an utterly, utterly crass atempt to make the Lexus IS look "aggressive".

[ro51092]

What the hell is up with that hood bulge?

[sportyaccordy]

Looks great! The hood is a bit much, and honestly I don't see why they would need to raise the motor as the V8 would only require more length; not height; assuming they just slapped 2 more cylinders on the 3.5L V6. In any case, even with the automatic, it's definitely a step in the right direction. I think this would have been better served with a rear-mounted DSG, but I'm also an unreasonable engineering techno geek.

[MX793]

What the hell is up with that hood bulge?

Probably had to raise the hood to accomodate the 4.6L V8, which I'm sure is a physically larger package than the V6 that comes in the standard car.

[Car Zeus]

Hell Lexus could come out with the most aggressive sports car and many would say it's ugly.


The L must be getting to you guys!

[SVT_Power]

The whole thing looks bloated

[FlatBlackCaddy]

The IS-F,

   I for one think it looks pretty good, maybe its just the color, but overall I think lexus did a pretty good job. The engine sounds fantastic and the interior/exterior details look to be well executed. I?m in the minority here. Overall I think it?s a good first effort for lexus.

The Transmission,

   Oddly enough I have to agree with ChrisV here its getting to the point were it?s hard to defend the traditional manual. I have been driving manuals since I got my license, its going on 10 years and dozens of cars. I still prefer a true manual, but the reasons for a manual being truly better are getting pretty thin. A manual transmission used to offer several advantages over an automatic transmission. Efficiency was the biggest thing, a manual had less power loss, better fuel mileage and more gears which resulted in closer ratios that allowed better performance. With modern 6 and 7 speed auto(8 in the lexus) as well as DSG transmissions, these advantages have disappeared. Actually the more you look at it the automatic is now holding most the cards when it comes to performance, economy and gearing benefits. Its getting harder and harder to hold onto the thought of manuals being the transmission for future performance cars. While several still are offering them, tomorrows performance machines will benefit greatly from DSG?s and 7/8 speed automatics. Take this lexus for example, this 8 speed will be able to deliver the most performance for the power, there is nobody(or very few in the world) that could probably match the 0-60 or quarter mile that this 8 speed could deliver if they had to shift there own gears, only 6 gears at that.

[red_shift]

What the hell is up with that hood bulge?

Now that you mention it....

I think the hood is beginning to look too big for me as well.

Or may be my eyes got clearer since morning since I had that big lunch.

[Catman]

Not a fan.  Too ricey.

[GoCougs]

Looks like an amature lowering job IMO; throws the proportions off.

[r0tor]

I'm not a huge fan of an automatic tranny, but in this case I give it an OK seeing that with 8 gears it can have some great performance AND efficiency gearing and the fact that according to what I've read the torque converter is fully locked in gears 2-8, so your loosing little performance while maintaining nice shifts in less then a tenth of a second... and i wouldn't want to manually shift an 8 speed, 6 is too much for everyday driving 

[SJ_GTI]

Looks like an amature lowering job IMO; throws the proportions off.

I would say it looks like an amateur bodykit as well.

[SJ_GTI]

I would love to go back and read what you guys that are saying an automatic is okay in a top of the line sport sedan said about the M5 when it was instroduced with a 7-speed SMG.  Excepting ChrisV, I would guess you were all a little more harsh.

[Raza]

It still looks like a hotted up Camry to me.

[Colonel Cadillac]

It's disgusting. Purely untasteful.

[Catman]

I would say it looks like an amateur bodykit as well.

My thoughts as well.  The more I look at it the more atrocious I think it is.

[sportyaccordy]

Hahahaha @ the wild polarizations.

I agree that the aerokit adds ungainly height to the car, adding to the previously questionable shortness of the windows and high shoulder line. The hood bulge, again, also proves unnecessary as the the V8 adds length, not height. In fact, I would go as far as to say the V8 should be shorter, as the V6 has a 60-degree V, while the V8 has a 90-degree V, lowering the height of the block, head, manifolds, etc.

Still, as far as everything else goes, I'm impressed, although I feel like somewhat of a hypocrite. Somehow I see this car being adequate; however, if DC were to throw the 6.2L V8 in the C-class, I would be first to call it a waste of a car and shitty overpowered C-class. In any case, as FBC stated, while there is additional joy in rowing through a manual gearbox, a well sorted automatic tranny can provide close to the same driving pleasure without the hassle. I'm still in awe of the G35x's tranny I drove a while back...it definitely made a strong case for performance automatic trannys. I don't think Lexus would botch this up.

[Submariner]

Hell Lexus could come out with the most aggressive sports car and many would say it's ugly.


The L must be getting to you guys!

No.? It's just that Lexus decided to throw three extra heaping servings of Rice-a-roni on the car, and turned a farily attractive small sedan into a ugly ricers wet dream.?

AMG, M, and the S bodykits manage to a sporting flair while still remaining low-key.? This is just obnoxious.

[r0tor]

i hope it flops... so they will have to heavily discount it and i'll buy one 

[Catman]

No.  It's just that Lexus decided to throw three extra heaping servings of Rice-a-roni on the car, and turned a farily attractive small sedan into a ugly ricers wet dream. 

AMG, M, and the S bodykits manage to stand out while still remaining low-key.  This is just obnoxious.

[so cal cookie]

Aside from that UGLY vent behind the front wheel, I like.

[r0tor]

I like the "less then 4.9 sec to 60" comment seeing the Is350 just put up that number with over a 100hp and 2 gears less 

[Car Zeus]

[r0tor]

the coupe version should be really hizzaat