On the hunt

essexgt4 · September 27, 2016

Right im on the hunt for an isf hoepfully a blue one but ideally 2010 onwards anything worth looking at?

DT_Racing · September 28, 2016

Due to scarcity of these you'll probably only ever find a selection of 8-15 available at any one time so never a huge selection. Usual spots to look, autotrader, piston heads and the dealer network, mostly all duplicates across them all however. Might get lucky from time to time and find a members of ex-members car up for sale, Only way to be sure if the F is right for you is to go test it I suppose.

lotusdave · September 28, 2016

what's your budget? There isn't a blue one auto trader by looks of it. With 200ish in the country in total, there is a very limited supply but if you're patient it'll come up. Well worth the wait as they are cracking cars.

what's your car history and have you driven an f yet?

Mark G · September 28, 2016

Don't know how many blue IS-F exist, it took me a long time to find mine, good luck with the search, brilliant car.

essexgt4 · September 28, 2016

budget all depends on the car tbh, id love a blue one but im impatient and will settle for another colour, i can always wrap it if desperate lol, ive been pottering around in my celica gt-four but now fancy something with a v8 to sit along side, however i am starting to wondering if the LSD in the 2010 onwards is worth the extra? anyone had experience with both? and no never driven one, want to find one i like and then will be going for an extensive test drive.

lotusdave · September 29, 2016

the Carlos saint gt4? Nice. I've always said id wrap mine if i got bored with boring silver! Three years, 30,000 miles later and I haven't got round to it.

I've driven mine on track - i regularly track my Elise - and didn't notice it didn't have a mechanical lsd. From what I know you're more likely to notice the better ride in the new ones. My 08 rides like the suspension is solid. I still love it though.

try and get the legendary lexus extended warranty at least initially until you know the car is sound. I did, then let it lapse. Fingers crossed that was prudent.

have fun!

dr_rick · September 29, 2016

2 hours ago, lotusdave said:

My 08 rides like the suspension is solid.

This is a pertinent difference for the pre / post 2010 discussion. Pre has the harder suspension and no LSD, Post has updated / softer suspension and the LSD. Question is which would you value more?

DT_Racing · September 29, 2016

2 hours ago, dr_rick said:

This is a pertinent difference for the pre / post 2010 discussion. Pre has the harder suspension and no LSD, Post has updated / softer suspension and the LSD. Question is which would you value more?

95% of the time the LSD isnt noticeable. As above I went later more for the ride, the LSD was a bonus.

dr_rick · September 29, 2016

My thoughts exactly. Likelihood of actually needing an LSD - slim. Likelihood of needing all my vertebrae to be working (exaggeration I know) - much greater.

essexgt4 · September 29, 2016

lol no not a carlos sainz, I have an st205 and it runs coilovers so a hard ride is not a problem for me lol my other half has an st185, so would you say the earlier model handles better?

lotusdave · September 29, 2016

my 08 is perfectly good ride wise as I do 10k a year and I can still walk okay!

condition and history important obviously.

I've only ever driven mine so can't comment. What I do know is it handles fine. It's not s lotus, but it's a v8 engines saloon which goes like stink and is very very rare. I've only ever seen one on the road outside of meets. That one was the one which made me buy mine!

none of it will matter when you hear the second port open foe the first time and go "yeah this is the car for me"

Flytvr · September 30, 2016

The ride is firm, no doubt. But I think it gets much worse press than it deserves. I suffer from a bad back, so I am relatively fussy.

Our old 335i was arguably as bad as the ISF, and I thought the M3 (E92) was no better.

Good luck with the search!

emjay82 · September 30, 2016

My 08 is more than acceptable in my opinion, no worse than any standard car with low profile tyres. I drove my other half's b class Mercedes with the oem 'sporty' 17" wheels and I found the rise worse than the ISF. This is also coming from someone with serious back issues. I guess it's all subjective but wasn't worth the extra spend when I was buying.

JonP · September 30, 2016

Equally, for what it's worth, on my 11 the ride is very good, certainly compared with my mates more recent Audi which feels like the tyres are filled with concrete.

I like having the LSD, it comes into it's own accelerating through a corner, but I don't think it's a must have unless you want to do lots of track days.

Linas.P · September 30, 2016

One important thing to note is the choice of tires - which I believe becomes very important for cars like IS-F. That especially applies to 2 posts above about Audi and BMW.. e.g. I had very bad experience with BMW being like "tires are filled with concrete ". That was quite obviously because of 18" rims with "run-on-flat" tires and I believe very same applies for Audi, or in fact any other vehicle with those stupid run-on-flats (just as it happens Audi and BMW promotes these tires the most).

The above experience makes me to believe that if one would fit some kind of "reinforced" tires or "run-on-flat" type, the experience would be dreadful in Lexus IS-F, but with right tire choice it might be completely fine (even the pre-2010 ones).

P.S. when I hit pot hole with presumably run-on-flat it fully deflated and dismounted in 100 meters at 20MPH and even the tire sealing kit which is in car instead of spare tire didn't help so I was left waiting for recovery truck in winter night with temps -20 degree. As well mechanic concluded that in result of tire being very hard my suspension was damaged - something he claim he never seen when standard tires gets punctured in potholes.

lotusdave · September 30, 2016

for avoidance of doubt, they all have lsd. Just the early ones use the inside wheels brake, the new ones is a proper mechanical lsd. these days such electronic trickery is known as torque vectoring and Mclaren use it alot if I understand their set up, rather than a mechanical lsd.

a friends v12 vantage even has separate calipers at the back for it, one assumes to have different pads for braking and torque v, thus avoiding overheating.