noby76

wow didnt know there was a 400bhp version thought all had 350 bhp.. would be nice to see some track day videos thats if you would be tracking it to see how it fares against cars of similar class e.g 911's .. enjoy matey :)

haven't had the privilege to drive any of them so cant really comment on 'real' life performance of both and without putting them side by side on a track one cant tell how better the Evora is to the Nizmo but basing on paper figures there is only 0.5 secs difference from 0-60 and Evora tops out an extra 15mph compared to the Nismo's 155mph. the Evora is almost twice the price of the Nismo but is it twice the car in terms of looks, appeal, performance and handling? thats debatable.. £40K will buy me a lot of 5 star holidays/shopping for a few years.. :)

tho am not a big fun of Lotus's this looks very nice Stu... these 3.5 litre V6 from the Lexus IS350 sound nice not sure why IS350 was not made available to Europe market.. Lotus did well in tuning the exhaust saying that I personally would have something like a Nissan 370Z Nismo they are about 40K less and deliver similar performance.

will do.. i recon i might have a worn part somewhere.

although i havent run Dunlops they are definately a good brand but if comfort is a priority I am not sure they are designed for that Gran Touring tyres are what you should be looking at but i might be wrong about the comfort level of the Sport Maxx

tyre pressures are the recommened 33 psi. so not sure why its wondering. will get suspension parts inspected for wear.

Hi all, with the recent gust of winds lately, any one else finding it a challenge to keep the GS driving straight on the motorways/open road? was on the M1 yesterday with my travel speed ranging between 50 -70mph and GS was swerving all over the place even at 50mph. strange this is other cars like vauxhalls, Accords, etc were driving past me with ease and with the GS having around 0.29cd drag and being quite bloated in weight why was it struggling to maintain stability? anyone else experiencing this or do i have a worn part e.g bush which needs replacing??

yeh the UTQG rating explained why the Falkens lasted a bit longer than the S001 Bridgestones i replaced them with. a lower UTQG rating does not necessarily mean the tyre is bad in terms of performance its just a wear indicator. most track day tyres have very very low UTQG rating which i believe contributes to them being very sticky and gripy. does this mean the SP Sport Maxx will be a more grippier tyre than say the Micheline Sport 3 due to its low figure? I dont know but as an example the Toyo Proxes R888 DOT competition track day racing tyre only has 100 AA A rating being semi-slick its a very sticky tyre. there is more technology which goes into designing a tyre than just its wear rating so dont let that put you off its just an indicator if oen puts wear as priority when choosing tyres.

hi Tony, question you need to ask is how much power are you looking for the GS to have? performance air filter and cat back exhaust might improve things give or take 5-15bhp from just those mods but its car dependent. most also play with the final drive gear ratio's which improves the 0-60 but decreases top end speed. best way for more power is forced induction. these do add a healthy amount of power. but to keep thing s cheap performance air filter and cat back/full exhaust is your best bet. alternatively get the GS430 which gets to 60 2 secs quicker has more torque and obviously more power but not much of difference in mpg compared to GS300.

get a GS430 :D Those CL's looks well built they fast and sound nice on song i recon you wont go wrong if you pick a late(05)model or to keep tax down go for earlier and some warranty to go with it a private number plate and you laughing

i have no doubts the Dunlop SP Sport's are good tyres but thier UTQG rating is low. UTQG ratings is a tyre rating systems in the US which takes into account how good/bad a tyre is at maintaing traction, disipating heat and tread wearng I look at a tyres UTQG rating aswell when deciding on one a rating of AA A indicates the tyre is better at traction and heat resistance. The higher the number the better it is at wear as an example Dunlop SP Sport Maxx has a UTQG 240AA A click on the show sizes & prices tab in the link below to see ratings http://www.1010tires.com/Tires/Reviews/Dunlop/SP+Sport+MAXX Falken Azenis has 300AA A, Micheline Pilot Sport3 has 320 AA A Micheline Primacy has 240AA A Toyo Proxes has 280 AA A these ratings are mostly found on US tyre websites. i recon these rating s are better when compared the the european ratings which takes into account wet, external road noise, and fuel economy.

if keeping noise levels down is a priority then you should be opting for Grand Touring tyres and staying away from ultra high performance tyres as those will be harsh ride due to their compound. i believe the GS's came with Bridgestoine Potenza RE050A from factory but for comfort consider tyres like Bridstone Turanza , Micheline Primacy, Continental PremiumContact, Yokohama BlueEarth etc..as those are designed with noise and comfort in mind rather than high performance but saying that i have run Pirelli P Zero Rosso, Falken Azenis FK453 and Bridgestone Potenza S001 in my IS300 and found all considerably quiet and less harsh even with 18's i now run 17's in the GS and would consider running the Falkens again after winter due to its stiffer side wall design from personal experience.

yeh the GS is a bit on the softer side 90% of the time its good but when taking tight corners you can actually tell its a heavy car. i dont intend to lower it maybe sharpen it up a little with harder performance tyres, upgraded bushes and possibly stiffer sway bars.

how many bushes did you had to replace?

not seen any on here but some guys in US have done V8 conversions buy fitting the engine from GS400/430 to the IS. i think all depends as sometimes it works out cheaper and less hassle to keep the car you have and then mod it or upgrade to another car with more power in my case would have cost me more to do and engine conversion or boost my 300 than just getting a V8 GS.

i think the Lexus RX was not built and marketed as an off roader just a fancy 4x4 to criuse in.. the Lexus LX/Toyota Landcruiser's are more capable but saying that, every off road 4x4 has its limits as to what it can handle.

there are lots of performance cars out there to be had for around 10 grand. your IS does look nice and you right i personally dont see a lot in your colour. was there issues sourcing a smaller spooling turbo? i wouldn't enjoy driving it if i have to wait an age until it comes on boost and do you have some dyno figures?. so long as you like it that's what counts..

considering this thread is 8 years old lol... all depends on the bhp being sort after with the right budget any engine could be made very powerful. but depends on how much one is willing to spend to reach their power target and sometimes it works out cheaper and less of a hassle to sell and buy a more powerful car and be done with it. although the tiptronic in the IS300 is not a full blown manual it was still fun when I owned one. manuals are and will always be involving to drive but does not translate to being able to react i.e. shift up/down quicker than a good modern sport auto in manual mode. if one does not care about having a manual box then upgrading to an IS300 might be cheaper than boosting the 200.

it really shouldnt make any difference what was already in the sump so long as the new engine oil meets manufactures requirement that should be fine Mobil 1 ESP should give your engine all the protection it needs being high performance.

not everyone's cup of tea but I do like it.. gives it character and looks different :)

remap always works best in a forced induction engine than NA 10-15% more power in an NA after a remap wont be night and day in terms of performance.

for a budget of up to 5k i would go IS250 benefit they are newer and more economical than IS200/300.

gen 1 IS's will be about 10 - 15 years old now depending on year of reg and like any other 10+ year old car there is bound to be some issues here and there. whats your budget and how far are you willing to travel for one as a quick search on the trader has returned some low mileage nice/clean examples. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201510127745341?onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&postcode=so211jw&make=lexus&model=is_200&radius=200&search-target=usedcars&page=1&sort=pricedesc&logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509177009605?sort=pricedesc&page=1&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=lexus&postcode=so211jw&search-target=usedcars&radius=200&model=is_200&logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509086723161?sort=pricedesc&page=1&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=lexus&postcode=so211jw&search-target=usedcars&radius=200&model=is_200&logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509146887993?model=is_300&make=lexus&search-target=usedcars&sort=pricedesc&page=1&radius=200&postcode=so211jw&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&logcode=p http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509297329883?make=lexus&radius=200&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&postcode=so211jw&page=1&model=is_300&search-target=usedcars&sort=pricedesc&logcode=p

I think Honda doesn't get the respect they deserve from the industry. these guys build anything and everything. thier latest Honda Type R is giving BMW M's headache around race tracks cant wait to see what the new NSX is capable of.

helpful as usual TigerFish.. thought the same but figured i'll double check to be sure.. i am guessing the GS400 was still being sold in US in 2000 hence they made the 430 available from 2001 onwards where as europe had 430 from october 2000 as you confirm.. of topic but why does Lexus GB/Europe charge so much for parts when the same parts could be bought and delivered cheaper from US as messi confirmed o2 sensor cost less than 40 quid all in and lexus wanted 170 for the same part..