Peter P18

Glad to see you are still in the hunt for an IS-F after all the difficulties chap. Hope you track down the right one soon. Be nice to have another new owner join the ranks. Seems like we have picked up a few new faces recently, which is brilliant! Best of luck mate.

Happy to help Dave. Best of luck with it. Cheers. Peter

Hi Dave, Here are some photos of the piping/location of the RR-Racing intake filter. I'm pointing at the filter in the second photo. Sorry for the poor lighting. Car is tucked up safely in the garage! Lol. Let me know if you can get what you need from these chap, will hold off on reassembly until tomorrow in case you need other bits. I'd measure the hose lengths, but that'll mean undoing the jubilee clips and swearing a lot trying to ease the hoses off! They were tight to fit before, so rather not if I can help it!

Hi Mark, Don't see why it should affect your warranty, but best to check I guess. USRS does give a marginally firmer ride, but I offset that when I installed my BC BR coilovers with Swift springs. The stock suspension on our early models is very firm sadly. That's why Lexus fitted softer suspension on the later models. You will struggle to detect any extra firmness from the USRS, but you'll love the improved feel and confidence under hard cornering or braking. Hope this helps.

Hi Linas. The IS-F does indeed share the same bushing as all the other IS models. This was in my opinion a huge oversight on their part, given the fact they expected the same bushes to work for a 5L V8 with 417hp! I doubt you would need the RR-Racing USRS on your IS250 though. It shouldn't be a heavy as the IS-F, nor should it be operating under the same conditions. I also have the beefed up F Sport rear sway bar installed on my car, and can recommend that for more accurate steering as you already mentioned. Have you considered running your tires on Nitrogen as opposed to normal air? I swear by the stuff. Have mine checked once a year, but so far they have NEVER needed further inflation when checked by my local KwikFit. My tires are set at 40 PSI all round. This seems to be a good rate for even wear on the IS-F. Hope this helps.

Cheers Dave. I may be heading over soon for a business trip or two. If not, due out at the end of July/beginning of August on holiday with the wife and son. Not sure what my luggage allowance will be flying economy (Lol), but may be able to squeeze some things in my suitcases! Let's see what Paul has to say about being an official supplier for RR-Racing first. If I had more working capital, I would offer to be an agent for them myself! That way owners could buy through me, and I could help with fitting a lot of their stuff (don't do the USRS as it really needs a lift to install those). Trouble is for me to keep a stock of their products won't be cheap. Can't see Rafi or Simon offering to send me everything free, and me repaying them when things sell somehow! Lol. Something I may consider if Paul can't or doesn't want to do it. Will be in touch when I know more.

Hi Guys, Time I chimed in on this one me thinks! Lol. The RR-Racing USRS is a real game changer in terms of preventing uneven wear for your tires, and also unwelcome steering wobble under hard braking. I really can tell the difference since I had the USRS fitted, and would recommend these to anyone. Let me speak to Paul about where he would be willing to start stocking RR products as an official UK supplier. With these, the AOS, Titanium intake, handheld tuner, upcoming supercharger kit, would be brilliant if we could get them to be an official supplier/UK agent. Will let you know how I get on with Paul.

Lol, a small Asian man who was a complete spanner! They moved it on the later models to the steering wheel buttons. I'd move it if I could, but the work involved is more involving than you can imagine!

This was the post from Rafi for those interested in their supercharger kit: We have some more video footage from later in the day yesterday.... at 6pm they opened up the entire oval, so we were able to get about 8 full laps in at top speed, hit nearly 170mph on the straights! At one point I had a few Z06 race cars behind me. They were much faster in the turns because they were running slicks (and also I was afraid of hitting the wall at 140mph+ So I am exiting the turn and give them the point-by all while mashing my foot on the gas... and the ISF just pulled away on the straight. Still running only 3.2psi peak boost Anyway, so this was the first track test of our new SC. Track testing is critical to test the reliability of the SC drive system, and it was flawless all day. We will post more details soon, and of course dyno results as we continue fine tuning the car. We are getting a lot of questions about pricing. The kit will not be cheap. Rotrex c38 based supercharger kits for the e92 M3 run anywhere from $8000-$14000. Our kit will be around $8k, and we will try to keep it below that if possible. Rafi

Rafi has mentioned the figure $8K, but is hoping to come in a little below that if possible. Based on current ROE, that's around £5,445 plus shipping, VAT, import duty, tax etc (although I will probably bring mine home on the plane! ). You also need to add in the ECU tune on top of that. Hopefully the handheld solution can be made to work on our cars, so that will save a lot of hassle removing it and sending it to RR-Racing and back! Exciting stuff though!

Did see that Tom, but don't think it will be that noticeable once it's fitted to the car though.

Sweet! Here's hoping the boys in blue don't take too much interest in them! Lol. As others have said, don't think many would be that bothered, but you may get the odd jobs worth who has nothing better to do! Now hurry up and get those bad boys fitted on the car!

Saw those! Even more impressive when you think it's only running on baby boost at the moment! Will be a game changer for sure.

No worries Dave. Indeed, Rafi and the RR-Racing guys are way out front in terms of developing exciting new products for the IS-F. Their prototype supercharger kit is also out and about being thoroughly tested at the moment. Check out the sneak peek photos on the thread over at Club Lexus. Interestingly the revised intake only applies if you are running aftermarket headers (PPE,SIKKY,Novel etc). Not suitable (or worthwhile) for anyone who hasn't fitted headers to their car (my next step). Annoyingly the revised intake won't be compatible with the supercharger kit though. Can't see the point in spending out that kind of money only to remove it all once I can afford the supercharger kit?! Would be better to put that $500 odd in the supercharger kitty! Lol. As I have always said, best intake setup is a performance intake elbow (I now have the rather lovely RR-Racing titanium version) with an uprated panel filter (currently using the Tom's Racing version) in the stock airbox. Whilst the Takeda intake sounded good, it actually robbed me of power (10-15hp), and put a nasty blip in my AFR readings. Glad to see another UK owner looking to tinker with things. Not many of us!

Sounds good Dave. Look forward to reading how you get on. Remember there should be a bedding in period for the ECU to re-learn any changes you make. You ideally need to allow around 1K miles between each change before re-dynoing. If not, the results may not be what you are expecting. I'd also suggest re-setting the ECU (disconnect the battery) after each change to speed up the learning process. Remember your seat, window, steering wheel settings will be wiped, and need restoring after each disconnect. Best of luck!

Looking good Tom. What did you drive before the F? It can take a while to adapt to something with this much power going through the rear wheels! I actually find my car behaves incredibly well in the wet compared to when I had my 550hp Supra. The wider tires on mine help though. Glad you got it home safe, and have already started the modifications!

That's a good price mate. I pay the same but am 36 with full NCB. All my mods are declared though, and covered on a like for like replacement basis though should the worst happen! For me, that's worth its weight in gold!

No issues when I MOT'd mine without the secondary cats. They actually struggled to get any emission reading on my sniff test! . You shouldn't have any issues mate. Adding silencers in place of the secondary cats helps reduce drone to almost nothing. My H&S setup is virtually drone free now thanks to the X pipe they added. Its so quiet and refined for normal use, but when I floor it with kickdown or manual mode, comes alive! You should pass emissions just fine without the secondary cats, trust me.

Nice photos guys. Looking good. Hoping I can get some free time sorted out soon. If so, would happily try and attend a meet with you folks. Got my photoshoot booked for this coming Monday. Will be out in the garage most of this weekend getting it looking as nice as possible. Just hoping the weather will be kind, as it's a lot of effort to get it looking tip top only to get dirty and wet! Will let you guys know as and when it is going to be featured in Banzai. Hopefully they will be in touch shortly after the photos are done to get the article written up.

Looks clean! Nice choice. All been there in terms of keeping the other half happy mate! Lol. You'll love it I'm sure.

Congrats! Best colour too! I'm sure you'll be pleased with it. Great cars for the money. Get some pictures up once you've settled in together!

Welcome. I'd agree the extra spec on the 2011 model is worth the extra cost. Service history is important, but I'd personally be just fine seeing independent specialists over main dealer stamps. Not convinced Lexus are worth the extra cost to be completely honest. Most dealerships aren't that familiar with the IS-F due to its rarity. Warranty offers peace of mind, but I don't have one as the cars are very well built and durable compared to others. Servicing needs to be every 10k or annually. So I'd expect at least 5 services on the 2011, if not 6. There were a couple of recalls, but you can ask them about that, or check the VIN with your nearest Lexus dealership. Running costs are very fair considering what you get for your money. Check the condition of the brake rotors and pads, and the tires. These are quite expensive to replace, but factor that in with your negotiations. If you do need work like brakes doing, buy the parts yourself. No reason Lexus should kick off about that if you provide them with the parts to install. Best of luck with your search. Any questions, fire away. Happy to help.

Hi Gillian, Having heard both the Joe Z and the H&S, I prefer the sound of the H&S. Call me biased, but the fact the US guys are actually trialling the H&S tells me I'm not wrong on this. You also need to factor in the H&S comes with a lifetime warranty for as long as you own the car. Can't see you wanting to ship the Joe Z back across the pond to get any faults or defects repaired, but I appreciate that is unlikely with something like this. Check out some of the videos I posted on YouTube to hear how the H&S sounds in comparison to the Joe Z. If I was you (which I will be once I can afford my set of PPE headers), I would go for the H&S with the X pipe. Think this will combine with the PPE headers really nicely.

Welcome aboard! Always nice to see a forum members car going to a good home. Hopefully you hold on to it for a little while. Like you, I went through plenty of cars before buying my IS-F. Whilst I've been tempted a couple of times to sell up and go back to another Supra, I've decided to keep it. Really is a great all-rounder. Now that the ECU has been cracked for tuning purposes, the options will continue to improve. RR-Racing in the States are working on a supercharger kit at the moment. No clues as yet on what sort of power it will add, but I'm sure it will be advertised on the US forum soon. Hope you continue to enjoy the car. Any questions, fire away. Cheers. Peter

Thanks James. It was only after I sent some photos and measurements to the manufacturer in the States, that they told me the manual version of their bracket would fit. Guess you live and learn though. Not like I had any sort of reference or guide to go off! Still, once I pay for another bracket, and it arrives from the States, all will be sorted.