New member

[Pilstukas]

Firstly hello,

Here it goes.. i have been reading and extracting knowledge and experience from this forum anonymously for quite a while now. Helped me a lot with my transition from being a BMW fan (No swearing please) to now a proud Lexus owner. Had a few Lexus cars over few years allow me to run trough some of my car's backgrounds. Fed up in fixing German cars BM's (been owning various models previously)  in particular, i have decided to try something new. So i have bough this:

GS300 my first ever Lexus with black interior. As standard Lexuses are quite too "far away from the ground" i have lowered it:

And then put some alloys on:

After initial drive and seeing the reliability of this car i was confident that i will stay with lexus for a while. Always wanted to try V8, hard to come by in these 2nd generation GS's. After long search i have found what i was looking for:

GS430 my first ever V8 (custom exhaust was already fitted by someone previously owning the car) what a sound it produced! I could have spend the full fuel tank just revving it! Had this for a while and eventually found a good example of 2005 LS430 so i went for it:

Bought this just a couple of weeks ago still newbie in terms of how most of the stuff works loving it to bits though. What a car ! considering how much it costs nowadays. So i think i have my dream car up to date(being sensible now). I will do some mods to this one as well will keep you updated with more pictures and specs to come. Thank you for keeping this forum running and active with the latest prices, tech stuff and so on. Hopefully we will get along just fine.

 

 

 

[The-Acre]

Welcome to the LOC Ed, that's a lovely selection you've been through, and a fine looking LS430!

[Bluesman]

Hi Ed and welcome to the LOC, we are a friendly bunch and some of us even know how to pull them to bits and put them back together again, with of course the one bolt and washer left over.

We recommend you spend a couple of mins looking over the rules of the LOC, we will be asking questions later.

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/terms-conditions/

 

Regards Mike

[dougie175]

Nice list of previous motors. Look forward to your progress on this new one. 

[Pilstukas]

So i have done some work to my Lexus LS430 basically just put the coilovers and same alloys from previous GS and currently this is the setup but i am in search for a new wheels probably 20":

 

[The-Acre]

So how does it feel with coilovers, did you do them yourself, was it easy and roughly how much?

[Pilstukas]

Hey The-Acre, it actually feels quite nice to be honest, i had the same coilovers on my GS300 so i new roughly what to expect. They are BC sport 700 pounds for the coilovers. And unfortunately i have no time to do it myself so local garage put them in for 160 quid. The only thing even though i have ordered ones for LS430 specifically still the rear ones needed the thread on the three top screws cut in about half. Because otherwise the original rubber plate that was used for the air suspension would not have fitted on top and definitely did not want to put them metal to metal without that separator. 

[Shahpor]

Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but doesn't it ruin the ride quality putting the coil overs on?

I mean it looks very nice, but most people seem to compliment the wafting ride the LS has, so isn't it a bit hard now?

By the same token, I assume 20 inch wheels would need narrow tyres, which would make it even harder.

[Pilstukas]

Hey, actually no it does not ruin the ride at all. Well everyone to their own i guess in terms of the ride and suspension setup depends how you like it. These coils have 32 clicks from soft to hard i have done mine at 8 clicks from soft and i am still receiving a lot of comfortable drive, not harsh at all. The biggest advantage in my opinion is that it gives the car more stability since in UK there are a lot of roundabouts kind of fed up finding myself on a passenger seat when taking one (joking) but to be honest it does not even feel sporty still soft as a couch by the telly :) my mate had 20" on his ls430 with the same coils and it was bang on in terms of the ride to be honest.

[Shahpor]

Sounds good

I suppose it has changed a lot from the good old days when I had a set of coil overs and on bumps you had to watch you don't bang your head on the roof!

[Pilstukas]

They still make those head bangers  but the ones that i have are quite soft and since it is not a golf or fiesta, but LS with the soft seats and stuff i think it feels differently anyway, well definitely feels a bit different than my gs300 did even with the same coilovers  and even same setup and the same wheels  

[Pilstukas]

Did not know where to put it in the forum. This is our first driving video that we have made. So any critics would be appreciated :) link is to Youtube. Hope you enjoy. 

 

[bobmc]

Very nice video! Good editing as well.

Thanks for sharing this