noby76

Now thats what i call a Brave man.. :D

Its a Lexus..meant to do things in a smooth quiet way :winky:

nah no worries budy was just messing about :)

ahh stif neck after that pic !!

You know what shafque am in the same boat as you my Pirelli Rosso's will need replacing in about 2 months time! and i just cant decide. am torn between Potenza, Pirelli, Toyo Proxes and Falken and you know what am starting to lean towards Falken even tho i have not experienced them before but They are Jap company and have a history of making grippy tyres for drifting and Lemans so am starting to get sold on their brand. but cant decide. oh one i was looking at was the Falken Azenis FK-453's and the price is reasoable too.

yeh there are a lot of fakes out there mate I ordered mine from US ebay as there was no Apexi panels being sold in UK when i was looking. worth giving Funky Power a call to double check http://www.funkypower.co.uk/catalogue.php?make=TOYOTA%20-%20LEXUS&model=IS200-IS300-ALTEZZA&year=&level1=AIR+INDUCTION&level2=AIR+FILTERS&level3=&id_product=2462

Hi Stuart most of the parts like lights could be sourced second hand and that could save some ££'s or else you want all the parts being brand spanking new!?? £600 for Potenza tyres?? you could get RE050's through black circles for £116 fitted and my maths tells me 4 set will be around £465 saving £136

I like the sound of that stevet IS-F is in my books for sure but the current price has to drop down and I need to find out why it will cost me £3000 just to insure one am 30 with 9 years no claims so i wonder why

and every one talks about how BMW is the 'Ultimate Driving Maching' I always say one needs to be a good driver or awake to drive Jap cars. BMW's have good handling but i bet they are no fun to drive as they pretty much drive themselves any one can be potrayed as 'Schumacher' when driving BMW . even the 1st Gen IS is a tail happy car and needs a focused driver to handle it in twisties otherwise you will loose it and these are what makes jap cars more fun to drive. same as how most drivers used to torque in Turbo hot hatches say Honda S2000's or Civic Type R's dont have tourque and will be outruned by a 2litre diesel mondeo. but get a good driver in this 'Tourqless' car and a 300bhp car is humbled round a race track.

Yeh i think the standard torsen LSD and vehicle stability control does a good job to keep the rear wheels planet to the tarmac during rolling launch and ones you get past 2nd 3rd gear in M mode those 6second 0-60 hot hatches and monster torque diesels wonder if they left the handbrakes on :-) thing just goes and i mean quickly to 147mph and i backed out..this was with the Type R Civic but i must say for a 2litre four cylinder engine without a Turbo charger those Type R's are very very quick. but the E-shift IS300 is very underated car. what makes it even more fun is those guys always mistaken it for the IS200...

best to go on the US Lexus forumns as most guys on there have done the conversions.

mate even without a 3.91:1 final drive ratio EU IS300's are quick(well mine is). I think the 1st into 2nd gear ratio is what makes the un entertaining 0-62 time of 8.2 happen but I personally will rate it at 7 seconds. where it smokes most cars is rolling acceleration from 3rd to 4th to 5th. I think 4th gear alone pulls from a low 85mph all the way to 125mph in the same gear before shifting to 5th. so where most cars would be changing gears between 85 to 125 mph, you are maintaing the same gear and climbing. I think it it was built for drag racing based on the gearing I am still not sure if mine has the LSD but its the Sport version so might have one. In stock form IS300'S are not in the same league as the BIG V8 boys but boy it does surprise you the cars that it can slaughter if you go by paper figure performance alone. with high octance fuel, ECT PWR activated and in M mode, even RB270 subaru Imprezzas with 270bhp cannot pull away from it in a straight line....put it simple a 3.0litre Audi with 240bhp and 500NM of torque both of which should blast the IS300 onto the hard shoulder based on it paper figures gets smoked after 3rd gear.. so i wonder what the Supra MK III 4.3 gears and the LSD conversion unit into the IS300 will do to a 300 - 350 bhp car in real world without even going to the extent of fitting a turbo.if a 270bhp imprezza cannot pull away comfortably what chance does the 300bhp car have after you do the Supra gears and LSD swaps??

Yes its the down side of having the induction kit on a less torquey engine or should i say a peaky engine. as per my link the Induction kit robs you off low down power as its not building enough pressure to fill the cylinders due to your engine having less/shorter stroke. in a nut shell big engines have a longer stroke(but not always) so at lower revs the piston will move up and down a longer distance to fill the cylinder with enough air think of it as a hospital syringe! the longer you move the plunger towards you the more liquid you can draw into it the shorter you move the plunger towards you the less liquid you can draw into it which in an engines case it will be air. hence bigger engines will not suffer with an induction kit but smaller engine will do . and once you go past a certain rpm it then wakes up an becomes lively and takes off right? your factory air box was designed to over come this effect by buliding more pressure at lower revs to make the car feel lively at these revs too but as you have replaced it with the induction kit you will loose this advantage and will only be lively once more pressure has been built in the cylinders and thats at higher revs.

you mean when running the car with cold air feed or just with the induction kit on its own?

I run the the bigger engined IS and opted for the Performance Panel filter instead of an induction kit even though my engine could gain from one. as confirmed in this link if you have a smaller, non Turbo engine which is less torqey or generates its maximum torque at the upper range 4000rpm + then get a performance panel filter. If you have a bigger engine or Turbo charged with intercooler which generates ample torque low down the rev band 4000rpm or below then running an induction kit will be fine but either with a cold air feed if its open cone type or best with ones that comes with heat shield or carbon fibre. I suppose if its just the induction sound on full throttle you want then running an induction kit on a smaller or less torqier engine is fine but performance might be compromised due to heat which = more fuel comsumption as the engine will not be running effeciently or as its supposed to. http://www.torquecars.com/tuning/induction-kits.php

I think its all done and dusted with the snow!! summer tyres (well mine) will still grip in the wet no problems so i will still get by with no issues. we pretty much in February another 4 weeks from now is Spring so winter is pretty much done and dusted now i think.

So Its all over and snow has now cleared with 10 degrees celcius outside today with sunshine :) . my summer tyres worked in the brief snow spells for the past two weeks and have now come into thier zone. even if i could have stored my summer tyres at a neighbours shed for a couple of months and opted for winter tyres for the brief 2 weeks winter tyres really came into thier zone as we encountered snow and minus temperatures, I didnt opt for winter tyres which translates into ££'s saved on winter tyres, ££' saved on garage labour cost to swap summer tyres to winters, ££'s saved on garage labour cost to swap back winters for summers and time spent on doing other things than in the garage having tyres swapped around. I think my decision not to run winter tyres was spot on even though I could afford winter tyres and could have found ways to accomodate my summers through neighbours storage space or family I didnt and my rear wheel drive Lexus got by with no hassle on summer tyres in the snow but my location(Bedfordshire) must have played a part in this aswell. As its not mandatory to have winter tyres in UK during winter seasons, my question to all Lexus owners not just the IS, is if you did not run winter tyres would you say it was a good decision and where you able to get by without encountering any incidents due to the fact that driving style was adjusted to accomodate road conditions or would you opt for winters next year?? if you opted for winter tyres would you say it was money and time well spent over the duration of a brief 2-3 weeks where most of UK really had snow and experienced minus conditions and winter tyres really came into thier zone or would you just save money and time next year and keep your summer's on??

sorry budy that was me reading fast thought you meant 'no good underneath' looks like its in good condition. yeh head gasket failuer is not a common problem with Toyota engines and will only go when things like coolant and oil is neglected but sounds like yours is OK.

6 speed in the IS200 couldnt handle the torque the IS300 chucks out for a long duration of miles so the IS300 uses a W58 transmision instead of AZ6 found in the IS200. So if you can get hold of a W58 transmission then your conversion will work but dont aske me how its done though cuz i have no clue

fully synthetic 5W-30 or 5W-40 oil which has API-SJ, API-SL and API-SM on the label. lean towards 5W-30 with API-SL or API-SM for better engine protection, performance, and improved fuel consumption.

you should get oil into that engine ASAP if you want to save it. if there is no oil on the dipstick then you havent got long before you cook the head. any 5w-30 engine oil should be ok just look for these at the back of the oil label, API-SJ, API-SL or API-SM and it will meet the engine requirements.

'Luxury' cars of today mean Luxury and Sporty so I guess Lexus is offering the F Sport versions of the LS to the driver who likes a bit of comfort and pampering on his way to work and a blast down the autobhan and winding roads on his way back from work.

no probs mate. I personally think IS300 is an underated car thought it would feel slow being a tiptronic but i have driven manuals all my life and wanted a change for a bit. I know tiptronic cars tend to loose more horsepower through drive losses and more friction compared to an equivalent manual car of the same engine size or horsepower but for some reason this IS respondes exactly like a manual kick down is quick when you floor the peddle in ECT PWR mode and in M mode it actually feels like another 50bhp has been added to the car and am not exaggerating in this mode, not a lot of cars can keep up or gain in speed acceleration as quick and I have had challenges from quite some powerful cars both hot hatch Turbos and big engined TDI's for some reason thier huge Torque figure gets thrown out of the window..

Yeh russell at Toyotec did my spark plugs aswell 66 mile drive each way but his quote was cheaper than Lexus quoted me if i factored in fuel cost aswell. so went with him and enjoyed the blast back home.

i noticed mine was low 2 days ago due to weather conditions and toped it up with both water and concentrate antifreeze as mine is not pre mixed. engines do tend to go through a lot of coolant during minus temperatures and hotter temperatures aswell so worth checking both engine coolant and oil during this time and if you manage to save it early it wont be headgasket cooked ££ infact iam going to check the coolant level now and top up again if a bit low.