noby76

sitting good. IS looks really nice in white and cream leather.

in the right gear, any form of valve timing technology will help an NA engine make around 85-90% of its total engine torque around 1500 or 2000rpm depending on engine mapping and M3 makes 400NM at around 4000rpm so 90% of this value is 360NM and as your Turbo MPS doesn't rev past 7000rpm most of its torque will have to be generated low down as well just like a Turbo Diesel engine so around 1500rpm or 2000rpm you are pretty much matching the M3 V8 with regards to engine torque until speed and gears build up then he starts gaining on you with its bigger cubic capacity and 8500rpm rev limit. I agree 0-60 mph and top speed are not relevant these days even tho they still sell cars. its all about in gear acceleration.

from the sound and how quickly the Corolla revs, its all NA power I don't think there was a turbo in that Corolla you can tell its well tuned to respond effectively to throttle and grip. that's advantage of NA engines light and responsive in sweeping corners when turbo engines are lagging due to not generating enough exhaust gas to spool.

or you can buy the IS-F and drop a Toyota 2JZ-GTE engine in there and you can go all the way to 1000bhp and 200+mph if the standard 170mph and 4.5 secs in the standard IS-F is not enough lol..infact it would work out cheaper to buy an IS300 which has the 2JZ-GE engine boost it using kits from SRT Tuners in US and with the car developing 700RWHP any stock factory car short of Bugatti Veyron has no chance in a drag race. the 2JZ-GTE engine was built with Turbo in mind from the start so can take abuse with regards to bhp not so sure about the IS-F engine tho. it also depends on what you building for.. if the primary goal is for drag racing and top speed records only then you need the highest bhp you can get but if its for day to day driving or track days then descent bhp with descent tyres, brakes and suspension upgrade is where your money should go tbh. http://www.swiftracing.com/SRT/item.aspx?id=84&u=1000084 go to see why power is not everything ..there is a time and place for high bhp but does not mean you will go faster. the Corrolla with reasonable power but tuned suspension, good tyres and brakes lost the GTR driver in the togue race. both are profesional racing driversthat was Tsuchiya in the Corolla the Japanese drift king himself.

its cus the M3 Saloon auto is about 75KG lighter than the IS-f but 0-60 times are the same for both. infact the M3's lighter weight only has around 10bhp power to weight advantage over the IS-F but see if this advantage is really an advantage . from theM3 drivers reactions it was a manual box which makes it even lighter than the M3 auto but still no faster than a bloated auto IS-F.

420 bhp 4.5 secs and 170mph?? .. come on now how fast do you want to go lol..Yamaha has already tweaked the engine to run at its peak with best cams, titanium valves and induction design . with gear changes at 0.1 of a second, you cant shift any faster than it in a manual car. the power is already there in this 5.0 V8 so I personally wont waste anymore ££'s for power upgrades as it would just be a waste and cant be used effectively around a race track. everything to optimise performance is already there. so maybe go for induction kit for sound but the current induction system sounds wicked on full blast from reviews I have watched so will skip that and go for Exhausts system instead which will be more for sound than power as the existing exhaust is already optimised for performance. so where I will invest my money hard if I buy an IS-F will be brakes, tires and suspension upgrades that's it... am not saying the standard brakes and suspension in the ISF wont be up to scratch, but there will be better ones out there.. sometimes you don't need power to go fast what you need is top rubber, top braking and top handling. 420bhp is more than enough power one needs for road and track day driving. good luck :)

fully synthetic 5W-30 or 10W-40 Lexus put that in there for a reason. most forget these engines have VVTi controllers in them as well and they don't like dirty oil, too thick oil or too thin oil. the grade has to be just right so stick to exactly what's stamped in your manual and you wont have any problems. I use fully syn 5W-30 and change every 10k miles.

ahh a younger car with less mileage and under warranty aswel? why not :) .. haven't listened to music off Mark Levinson before but from the experience I have had with my standard 8 speaker in the IS300, I know the ML system will be quality.. if you not soo bothered to have the ML system then as Exdee confirmed, Lexus would have ironed out all bugs and issues in the last models. so Go for it.. nice choice of colour by the way... PS my guess will be only SE-L models came with the Levinson sound system so if its in any other model it would have been fitted in there as an option.

silly question kerrso but if you don't know the difference or advantage the Advance model has over your existing model then why do you want to change?? is it to get a 2012 registered vehicle or more for the lower mileage? 36000 miles is barely broken in on your existing 2007..whats your main reason for making the change?? managed to find a comparison on parkers website not sure how accurate it is but scroll down and you will see a comparison between the two models. http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/lexus/is/saloon-2005/equipment/ only difference I can see between the two models is Advance comes with central locking, telephone and service indicator as standard were as its optional on the SE-L models.

I agree Stevet a lock up clutch like a manual box will always give that Direct control feel to the driver than a torque convertor would. but I believe electronic throttle control system does a good job to eliminate most lags in M from the moment one puts their foot down to when the engine transfers power to the rear wheels. its almost an instantaneous reaction in M mode. wasn't seeing things when I confirmed IS300's can lock up and hold gears. just found this review on the IS300 confirming they do hold gears just like IS-F's strange thing is mine didn't used to do it when I first got the car but lately its doing it now so if I select 2nd gear it stays there all day like an ISF which truly does confirm these boxes learns how one drives over time and adjusts accordingly.

but then that's even better because lets say you selected 3rd gear as your range_ of_ gears when going up or down a hill at some stage during the process of going up or down that hill you take your foot off the accelerator peddle, speed and revs drop slightly and you apply the accelerator again which causes the gear to kick down to 2nd gear. this will still result in more torque and engine braking being generated by the engine to power the car up the hill or engine braking generated to hold the car down a hill for better driver control. so can you now see why I say the gear holding feature in the ISF is still useless for a steep hill scenario?? because the intelligent sensors we have in our non gear holding transmission will still detect road conditions 95% of the time and make the right decision to best suit the driver.

yes Corvettes don't shout a lot and are incredible beasts and I like that about cars. i think its up there with the ford GT40 but GT40 has the history behind it so makes it more popular. Petay 4.4 secs and 180mph in 2013 is still a fast car lol.. Clarkson is an A hole and every one knows it lol. tbh I don't eve watch top gear any more like I used to its all about silly missions they try to achieve these days or football matches between Toyota Aygo's. they have stopped talking about cars and actually comparing them head to head. back to my love of ZR1's take a look at what it did to these cars in Japan's Fuji race circuit. its all in Japanese language. ZR-1's are king of drag races and the cars it went against are no slouches.

I will say GS300 SE-L if you going to be using it for mainly motorway driving. its roomier, has more power and as confirmed if you stick to an 05, early 55 plate GS then road tax will be the same as an IS250 auto mpg on motorway for GS300 is 39mpg and 40mpg for IS250 1 mpg difference between both cars so there is nothing in it. and the GS will ride better and the IS will take corners better. choice is yours really.. but I personally will go for an 05, 55 plate GS300.

its an 02 IS300TTE bodykit. and yes you right in normal D mode if the transmissions ECU deems 1st gear is the best for going up a hill it will use that gear. but once you change over to M or S mode select 2nd gear for a hill, i beleive it stays in this gear.. yes i posted the link from Kurtz on the US forumns about how the ECT-PWR button works with regards to transmission behavior. thing is i drive in ECT-PWR 95% of the time now with 5% accounting for M mode. I hardly drive without the button on now as its much better the way the car responds and drives compared to normal mode.

will cheat and add a 6th :) .. Its gotta an America muscle Corvette ZR1. saw one in the flesh on the highway from Boston to New York last year and this car looked really nice and the exhaust note when the driver took off was insane. i like it cus it doest shout am a SuperCar with any unnecessary design lines or angles. it doesnt try to look German , Italian or even Japanese.... well the rear lights looks a bit GTR Nismo but my guess will be Nismo took that design from Corvette..either way its a nice looking machine with no nonsense American muscle supercharged LS9 V8 performance under the hood. with 640bhp this car will scare a BMW M5 to run to its mama with this sound

your right its quiet visible if you really looking. go for it Petay was just being nosey..:-)

silly question Petay but why would you want to clean the whole back box?? no one ever sees it unless the car is jacked up lol. from behind, one only sees the tailpipe and thats it. but hey if you feel the need to clean the whole back box am not stopping you :)

i see...makes sense now your previous comment confused me a bit . seen a lot of racing drivers do the heel/toe movement during racing in manual cars. sorry Argento not trying to throw this off topic but am just trying to understand this... but Stevet, any drop down of a gear either in a manual or automatic car without rev matching feature causes the revs to rise any way. if am travelling at 50mph in 4th with engine at 2000rpm once i drop down to 3rd gear at the same speed of 50mph my revs will climb up to around 3500rpm so is this not matching my revs to the 50mph am still traveling but now in 3rd instead of 4th gear? am i missing something here? i was under the impression if a cars traveling speed is kept constant and gears are dropped down whilst maintaining that speed this causes the revs to rise anyway?

mmmh i personally think thats a strange feature to have. because when one is in spirited driving and slowing down into a corner they would want their gear to either fall on or slightly above the revs which gives the engine peak torque as so they can have ample torque to exit the corner. so e.g if IS-F's peak torque comes in at around 5200rpm and one is traveling at 60mph in 3rd with engine sitting at 4000rpm and start to brake for a corner, why would one want their engine to fall back at 4000rpm once they have dropped down a gear before the bend?? sure you would want to drop down a gear and have the revs climb up to 5500rpm or more which will translate in the engine falling onto or slightly above the rpm where peak torque is achieved to accelerate the car out of that corner? if rev matching feature causes the engine to drop back to 4500rpm which was the same revs as that of 3rd gear at 60mph then sure at 4000rpm, in 2nd gear, the engine is not making enough torque at the wheels compared to when its spinning at 5500rpm in 2nd gear when exiting a corner? am i the only one seeing a flaw here?

seen about 8 on autotrader ranging between £2000 to £4000 mainly in mica blue and silver sure there should be one in the bunch which tickles your fancy???

sorry stevet maybe i didnt explain well i meant the rev matching throttle blip feature. from the information i have gathered, its meant to match the engines revs once the driver shifts down a gear. is this right?.. if so then what advantage does this bring to the cars performance? for all i know is, when I am traveling at 60mph in 3rd gear with the engine revs at say 4500rpm, and i start braking for a corner or turn, once i get to about 40mph its safe to slot it into 2nd gear whilst braking even before the turn. now at 40mph in 2nd gear the engine rev shoots up to about 5500rpm this happens without rev matching feature so if another IS300 comes in with rev matching throttle blip feature fitted to it does this mean it would rev to 4500rpm in 2nd gear to match that of the same revs the car was doing when it was in 3rd gear at 60mph??

but the true fact is my IS300 does not shift up when i have my foot planted whilst cornering in 2nd or 3rd gear in M mode. it stays in the gear i have selected during my cornering. i dont know about all but if one is bouncing off the limiter during a sweeping cornering move, then they are actually loosing performance rather than gaining because the ECU is cutting fuel supply to the engine ounce you at redline.so one has to keep thier revs around 250rpm below the redline mark as to still have fuel supply to the engine. and my IS300 will hold 2nd when i select 2nd during cornering and stay there even if am nearing 6000rpm it will hold there and when i sense the car trying to over steer during cornering and ease off the throttle to gain control, and apply the throttle again after i have gained control, my gear is still in 2nd gear. it does not and has never shifted up a gear during the process of me cornering in spirited driving. and i think this is all down to the transmissions ECU collecting data from sensors like throttle position sensor, speed sensor, oil temp sensor and other factors to tell it the driver is in spirited driving mode so it then holds off from any sudden upshift or downshift until maximum revs has been exhausted before it grabs the next gear.

@Argento But would you still keep using only brakes going down a steep hill, in the _snow_ ? my guess will be, if you select say 2nd gear as your maximum range gears, the transmission will hold in this gear when going down a steep hill in snow. because it will automatically detect the vehicle is in incline position and hold the best lower gear for the driver. Therefore, the car will hold 3 gear as you accelerate.Bouncing off the rev limiter each time you hit the rev limit. mine didn't use to do this. normally, if say i was activated M mode with ECT PWR it would by default be in 5th to start with i then drop it down to 3rd to overtake a slower car. once in 3rd gear it used to rev to redline and then shift up to 4th by itself as speed builds up. but now it will still hold in 3rd gear in the same scenario and keep bouncing off at redline until i select 4th myself which means its now holding gears. But I believe that _only_ happens when you are in ECT PWR mode.That's how it seems to work in my MY11 F-Sport this should happen even without being in ECT PWR mode. only way to test is to drive down a steep hill or uphill with ECT PWR turned off maybe 30-40mph. when safe to do so, try and maintain 30-40mph once you start going down hill keep it at this speed and watch your rev counter carefully and you will notice even tho you maintaining a constant speed of 40mph, the revs will automatically climb up by about 500 or 1000rpm suddenly. this means the transmission has shifted/kicked down to the best gear needed for engine braking based on the down hill road condition. as our cars are quiet smooth you wouldn't feel this transition and its like nothing happened but watch your rev counter carefully and will notice it will climb up in rpm when climbing a hill or descending a hill whilst maintaining a constant speed limit of say 30-40mph. once you get back on a flat surface, maintain the same speed and notice the revs will drop back down again meaning it has now shifted up from say 2nd to 3rd gear. so in a nutshell the traveling speed of 40mph was not changed before, during and after the steep hill. the only thing which changed was the transmission kicking down a gear and holding it during going down the hill for more engine braking and shifting up a gear once a flat surface was detected all happening whilst maintaining the same traveling speed. so you already have gear holding functionality already built into your transmission based on driving conditions. i still say apart from drifting scenario, the gear holding functionality in the IS-F is pretty pointless in day to day driving or trackday driving because at redline, the engines torque is dropping off so again its pointless keeping it there even when driving a manual car, you will still have to shift once you start bouncing off the rev limiter. why hold it there? off topic but i am still scratching my head with regards to the throttle bleeping feature aswell is this in the IS250 Fsport? any ISF owners care to explain exactly what this feature brings??

yes but the ECT-i transmissions in the Lexus's are intelligent so they can detect when going up hill or down hill and shift down to hold gears for the driver resulting in more engine braking during a descend of a hill. now i can see where gear holding comes into play by the drifting scenario. good thing my IS300 comes with 2nd and 3rd gear on the shift gaiter its self. slot it to 2 or 3 and it will stay there all day long for drifting :) .

the 2012/13 F sport models coming into the market will cater for drivers looking for the BMW handling experience. and more reviews i have read and videos i watched confirms the new IS, GS, and LS F Sports are even closer to BMW handling compared to Audi and Merc and better than it in some aspects like slalom and braking tests so i think more will depend on the review driver as well that's why its not good to make your car buying decision or depend 100% on what these review mags and companies say about cars when they carry out their tests and best to actually drive them yourselves and make your decisions. because 90% of the time, they never go in with a clean mind and always have a favorite before they even test the cars.