mrfunex

My GSF (2016) is listed as Euro6, yet still produces 471bhp? Possible typo?

Note to self: don’t turn up with a full tank of petrol to a recall...

Stylish indeed! The “gentleman making the best of it in the face of adversity” reminds me of this picture... In the meantime, I guess we all wait for the recall letter to arrive...?

I took a friend for a spin, and we noticed a bit of attention, but not excessively so. Conversely, this friend had an F-type V6S a while back and the attention that got was comical - people on the pavement would almost drop what they were carrying and stare! The F-type certainly provided a lot more drama, whilst offering more-or-less the same package as the LC. I’ve only been without the GSF for a day and... I do miss it! I mentioned in my review of the GSF a few months back that I’d sat in a new one upon release at the dealers and was instantly smitten. After 3 months of ownership, I feel exactly the same! Don’t take many negatives away from my review - the LC500 is a very pretty, capable and extremely fast car - perhaps because it isn’t an ‘F’ car though, it loses that little fizz? It’s extremely close and if an LCF ever exists, that’d certainly be worth a drive. However, it’d probably have to cost £130-150k and for that money I’d find it extremely difficult to walk past a McLaren showroom...

I’ll start my review with a huge thumbs-up to Lexus Hedge End. They’re consistently a pleasure to deal with but this time one of their sales guys and true petrol head, Michael, really pulled out the stops for me... I’ve been given a LC500 as a courtesy car. So, “how does it compare to the GSF on a rain-soaked February afternoon?” I hear you all ask... Under normal driving, it’s remarkably familiar! The engine is the same 5.0 V8, albeit with twin intakes over the single one of the GSF/RCF. The gearbox is now a 10-speed, with a slightly clumsy new design of shifter, but economy appeared the same. The rear-wheel steering is unusual! Sage advice from a slightly nervous Michael - “take the first few roundabouts gently, and don’t steer as much as you think you need to!” He was right - it feels like the rear wheels are sliding sideways! An odd experience, but ok once you learn to work with it. I believe the rear wheels turn slightly in opposite directions to the fronts at low speeds, effectively shortening the wheelbase - this has the result of making the car feel more like a go-kart, together with the Torque Vectoring Differential. The opposite happens at high speed to increase stability. Picking the speed up, the twin intakes give the V8 a proper howling scream above 6500rpm with lovely pops and the occasional crackle on a downshift. The car is more of a GT that can be hustled than a sports car - I though it felt it’s weight a bit more than the GSF. The OEM tyres are 21” runflats and provide good, if not exceptional grip - perhaps the non-RFs on the GSF as well as, frankly, me owning rather than borrowing it, allowed me to push the saloon harder. The ride quality is good - only the occasional thump over really bad roads, but I did notice a bit of squirming over undulating poorly maintained tarmac. The brake pedal felt slightly spongy, but the stopping ability was good. Inside, the seats are just as supportive, the cabin roomy (in the front) and the equipment list is extensive. Many of the features the GSF has buttons for are now incorporated into the computer, which now uses a touch pad to navigate instead of a mouse-lever-platform-type thing. Compared to the (dare I say “corporate”) interior of the GSF, the designers have really cut loose here! They seem to have used every type of material/surface/texture they could get their hands on, with bold, swooping lines devouring the insides of the doors. This is, of course a matter of taste, but I found it a little busy. A few bits of the switchgear are in different places - I particularly like the drive mode selector and the traction control knob to either side of the instrument binnacle - a nice nod to the utterly unobtainable LFA. There’s not much room in the back - it’s a 2+2 at an absolute push - I’d say if the person in the front seat is 6ft+, you’ve just generated a bag storage area behind. Finally - is this a car I’d look to trade up to? I’m not sure. It’s very good indeed, but apart from the looks, it feels so similar to my GSF (not a bad thing!!), I’d need to think about it more. I’d like to try the hybrid sister LC500h before a firm verdict! So, there you have it. Enjoy the pictures!

I don’t think things like this should go in the back pocket - wasn’t there a similar issue with iPhones a few years back - I think it was christened “BendGate”!

It baffles me how Adrian Flux do any business; I’ve never been able to get a sensible quote out of them. I’ve always lived in decent areas, not done many miles, generally been a low-risk driver. They’ve always flat out refused to quote me (as I’m a young driver in a powerful car - I was 27 and had a diesel Mondeo) or quoted such a sky-high price, not even Bill Gates would consider it! I’d put your details into a comparison site, choose the top 3, then get quotes from them directly. End of the day, all insurance companies can be bad or good to deal with - it’s just luck of the draw. You might as well save a few quid.

Can’t wait for news of the date! I’d consider a straight swap - LFA for a GSF..

Did you need a tracker installing/does it already have one? The insurance on my GSF is about £230, but no one would touch it without a tracker.... Have fun! Car looks great. Everyone knows black cars are fastest! ;-)

Looks lovely! All the best new F cars are black, anyway...

Its a firmer ride - although nowadays it’s probably the same as any other car. (Why does nobody make a comfortable car any more apart from Citroen? Anyway, I digress...) There’s a lot more control over rough/bumpy roads and none of the jarring that I noticed in my 2008 ISF before I swapped over to ‘13 suspension.

Time for some rambling input from me, I suppose... I've had my GSF for about a month less than @Mark G and I can only echo his positive experiences. Mine is a black car with a black interior. Mine is an ex-Lexus UK car too. The inside is more modern, with far, far more toys than the ISF, an alcantara dashboard (I can't tell you how much I love this!), and far more comfortable seats. The ISF wasn't exactly uncomfortable in this respect, but the GSF is so much better, if you catch my meaning! The seats are now cooled as well as heated, the radio is a class above, and it's obviously a bigger car inside (as well as out) - it'll seat 5 people whereas the ISF was really designed for 4. The boot is utterly collossal and the sunroof really brightens up the inside. Outside, the carbon fibre accents really work for me - the rear wing and the front splitter look magnificent. The car manages to look purposeful as well as being subtle - after a few cars that really drew attention I realised that this wasn't necessarily a good thing! The headlights are excellent. I suppose you'd like to know how it drives? Oh - go on then! It's smoother and more grown up than the ISF for sure. As mentioned before, it's obviously a bigger car to park etc, but once on the move it absolutely doesn't feel it - it sort of shrinks around you - for me, this is the sign of a well engineered machine. You'll have to drive one to see how you get on. The noise is broadly similar to the ISF, the engine revs higher and the gearbox is slightly smoother and a bit more intelligent than before. The different drive modes - economy, normal, sport, sport+ all subtley change the steering weight, engine response and the gearbox's willingness to change. Sport+ really feels like the car is ready to eat the traffic in front, however the lesser sport mode changes the rev counter to match the LFA, with a little persistence line on a gearchange to show what revs you'd reached! As mine is a '16 plate, it doesnt have variable dampers but the standard springs/shocks (remember this old tech?!) are nicely chosen for a good balance of comfort and sportiness. In cold, damp weather it has no problem bothering the TCS at the top end of 3rd... Economy - urban driving (lots of 30/40 limits) my average is 20-22mpg, on a run you’ll get better than 30mpg without trying too hard. As for reliability; well - nothing's gone wrong so far. Looking at the service history, I believe a few visits were required back to the dealer to begin with to get the HUD working correctly, but it's been fine ever since. Depreciation? - who cares! Maybe it'll depreciate less, there being only 50-55 of them in the UK as upposed to 200-210 ISFs; maybe it'll continue to drop like a stone as many expensive Japanese saloons seem to. Bear in mind, mine had lost £30k in 18months with the previous owner. It's by far the most well-sorted car in it's class and can perform effortlessly as a comfortable cruiser, but change to a full on muscle saloon in around a second with a turn of a dial. I honestly had no idea what I'd ever find to replace my ISF, but it seems the answer wasn't so very far away! Here are some pictures of the filthy girl to whet your appetite... As always, I'll answer any more questions if you need :-)

What I great video! I really enjoyed watching that!

My only advice - buy on condition. You’ll love it! Welcome to the forum!

Big Al, Do you mean an IS F Sport, or an ISF?

Hedge End Lexus told me they’d dealt with 3 cars for this already... maybe people on the south coast are unlucky! Such a rare car kind of skews the statistics a bit when talking about what is ‘common’. They’re slightly less common than you suggest - I’ve just had a look on www.howmanyleft.co.uk and there are only 120 LCs registered in the UK, of all flavours. They’ve already massively outsold the GSF (only 54 examples registered in the country) - depending on your viewpoint, an issue with any GSF, no matter how small, would automatically affect almost 2% of the UKs cars!

Just to finish this thread off, my 64Gb USB thingy arrived and it’s TINY! Barely any bigger than the USB connector itself! It wasn’t entirely without issues, though... The radio in the GSF (presumably RCF and others with a USB music input too) **only** supports the FAT32 file format. Windows doesn’t officially support any drives larger than 32Gb unless on a NTFS or exFAT file system. Poop! However, there are a wealth of free programs out there that *can* format a drive bigger than this size limit to whatever file system you choose! Other options include using an Xbox360 to perform the format! Problem solved! Now to spend all weekend filling the device with tunes for every occasion!

I wonder if the pop-out door handles are broken on that one too. Apparently it’s quite a common fault... Fussy? A little - most Lexii are. Too fussy? No! I’d have one in a heartbeat over any big GT. Gorgeous!

I found the limiter (i think) on mine in June last year... the speedo showed just under 180mph at around 6000rpm in 7th. I can’t say I looked more accurately at that....

Is that Brian Blessed??

The M3 also had a far racier 8400rpm red line... after watching the M3 v ISF v C63 YouTube video, this seemed to be it’s Achilles Heel. At least until they popped it on the track at Silverstone!

The engine in the GSF, albeit similar, is not the same as the ISF, nor is the ISF ‘strangled’. The ISF was very good for the day; the GSF is approximately 8 years newer - engines move on. The newer 2UR-GSE uses different materials, a higher compression rate, a higher pressure DI fuel system. It revs higher as it’s slight better balanced, has slightly larger valves and a better designed cooling system. The exhaust system and intake are different. It’s still a 5.0 V8, but not many parts are interchangeable. The LC500 *does* use the same engine as the GSF and the RCF, by with a twin air intake this liberates another 4bhp. You can read (depending on your skill at Japanese!) up on it here... some of the diagrams are self-explanatory.

Given that the GSF hadn’t been dreamed up when the ISF’s design was being finalised, I find the claim that the ISF was held back to stop it stepping on the toes of its big brother unlikely... Yamaha did a pretty good job with the intakes on the ISF, I’d imagine any gains by polishing etc to be negligible - worth a play if you’re interested in that kind of thing though. The ECU will relearn any subtle changes, so a remap ought not to be required. The OEM exhaust is, however, a bit restrictive. It has a flat section to get it past the back axle - proper aftermarket ones maybe release 10bhp or so...

When the ISF becomes a modern version of the Lotus Carlton, you’ll feature on some Channel 5 documentary! It’s great you’re keeping track of all of them - very useful too!

NemesisUK - exactly what I was after! I still can’t find that section in my handbook... Cheers!