2012 Lexus IS F: Toyotas Turning Point? - Ignition Episode 33 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:06 This week on Ignition, the first fun Lexus.

00:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:26 Initially, the ISF seemed like a bizarre step for Lexus to take.

00:29 Here is a company known for producing quiet, smooth,

00:33 and let's face it, boring cars for older folk.

00:35 Then they take a 5 liter V8, put it

00:37 in their smallest rear wheel drive chassis,

00:39 and target directly the M3 and C63.

00:43 That's strange.

00:44 And when Lexus did it, it created an understandable

00:46 amount of doubt.

00:47 Here's the thing, though.

00:48 I believe that history will look back on this car

00:50 and see it as the turning point, not just for Lexus,

00:53 but for Toyota as a whole.

00:55 So before the ISF, Toyota sports cars in the US

00:58 seemed just like a dead concept.

01:00 All we had was the Toyota Celica and the MR2 Spyder.

01:04 The Supra was long dead, and the LFA seemed like a fairy tale.

01:07 But then Toyota got a new CEO.

01:09 And not just any CEO.

01:10 They got Akio Toyota, who's a massive fan of racing

01:13 and who has said that Toyota needs

01:15 to start making cars that are more fun to drive.

01:18 This ISF was what he was talking about.

01:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:35 For one, you have 416 horsepower.

01:37 And that makes for some pretty impressive acceleration.

01:40 [TIRES SQUEALING]

01:47 0 to 60 takes just 4 and 1/2 seconds.

01:50 And that beep when you hit red line,

01:52 you kind of get a Pavlovian response to it.

01:54 It's like more power, more sound as you accelerate.

01:57 [TIRES SQUEALING]

02:00 The quarter mile flies by 12.9 seconds

02:03 at just over 111 miles an hour.

02:07 You also have some sticky Michelin tires

02:09 working some pretty large brakes.

02:10 [TIRES SQUEALING]

02:15 Our best stop from 60 took 105 feet.

02:18 [TIRES SQUEALING]

02:23 The thing is, with great power and respectable braking

02:25 performance is unless you have a chassis or a suspension that

02:29 puts it all together, it really doesn't matter.

02:31 Fortunately, this ISF has both.

02:34 It is an absolute blast to drive.

02:37 [TIRES SQUEALING]

02:40 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

02:41 [LAUGHS]

02:43 Once you enter a corner, it communicates very clearly

02:47 when you're approaching the limits of adhesion.

02:49 And it tells you just what you need

02:51 to do to get into an oversteer, which is really fun.

02:55 But also, from there, you can know exactly what you

02:58 need to do to maintain your angle

03:00 or do a big sideways like that, which

03:03 isn't fast, but a lot of fun.

03:05 Braking feel is just fantastic.

03:08 Throttle control is very nice.

03:10 And the sound is really rewarding once you finally

03:13 get on the straight and can lay into it.

03:17 You can avoid driving like a hooligan, though.

03:19 This thing will put down a very impressive lap time.

03:22 This was about as fast around the figure 8

03:24 as the last M3 we tested, which is very impressive considering

03:28 its horsepower shortcoming and the fact

03:32 that you just want to power slide everywhere.

03:34 Again, woo!

03:35 [LAUGHS]

03:37 Maybe it's too easy, but this thing

03:38 has come out of every corner sideways.

03:41 But it does it in such a controllable fashion.

03:44 You never feel like you're going to end up backwards anywhere.

03:47 You just feel like, yeah, I can power slide now.

03:49 That seems like a good idea.

03:50 Yeah, I'll just do that.

03:50 That's fun.

03:51 It's OK.

03:52 You never feel like you're going to overstay your welcome

03:54 with this car's limits.

03:55 You can hang out, meet the family, meet the wife,

03:58 the kids.

04:00 It's all fun.

04:01 Wee!

04:02 [LAUGHS]

04:04 [TIRES SCREECHING]

04:05 [CLICK]

04:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]

04:10 You know, when the ISF first came out,

04:17 it was kind of seen as the third place

04:19 finisher behind the C63 and the M3.

04:23 But since then, Lexus have made some pretty crucial

04:26 improvements to this car.

04:27 They've upgraded the suspension.

04:28 They've given it a limited slip differential.

04:30 And I feel that those changes transform this car

04:33 into a serious competitor.

04:36 You know, I don't envy the person

04:37 who has to choose between this, the C63, or the M3,

04:41 because they're all such very good cars.

04:43 And I can understand why you'd go either way.

04:45 Personally, I lean towards the M3.

04:47 But I don't understand why someone would choose the ISF.

04:50 I mean, it's just so bonkers from Lexus.

04:53 I mean, Lexus is a company you associate with the ES and the GS

04:56 and so on.

04:57 And then there's this F model, which

04:59 is just completely opposite of anything you'd ever expect.

05:02 It's super surprising.

05:03 It's like the quiet accountant in your office

05:07 gets in a bar fight.

05:08 And then you find out later he's secretly

05:10 been training in MMA for years.

05:12 It's that kind of surprise that this car does.

05:15 And beyond that, it's genuinely a fun car to drive.

05:19 We spent all day at the test track beating on it.

05:22 But even here, when we're not on the limits,

05:24 when we're just cruising on a mountain road,

05:27 it's communicative.

05:28 It's flexible.

05:30 There's a ton of torque.

05:31 The sound is just phenomenal.

05:33 It's really rewarding.

05:35 And it's just a blast to drive.

05:40 Lexus has done a great job with the inputs

05:42 on this car, the steering wheel, the pedal feel.

05:44 And I know it's good because I'm not thinking about it.

05:46 When it's just progressive and linear

05:48 and does everything you expect, you

05:49 don't have to concentrate on it so much when you're

05:51 charging up a mountain road.

05:52 You can just enjoy the drive that much more.

05:54 I love the power delivery of this V8.

05:59 And I love watching the needle climb

06:01 through that gigantic center-mounted tack there.

06:04 One thing, though, is that the ride is just a touch stiff.

06:07 The dampers seem to be just a little bit stiffer

06:10 than I'd like.

06:11 But if that's giving you the ride that this thing has

06:14 and the control this has in a corner, I'll gladly take it.

06:16 It's not much of a complaint, if any.

06:19 This is one of the first few cars

06:20 with an eight-speed transmission.

06:21 It got a lot of flack for that.

06:23 Who needs eight gears when you're driving along the road?

06:25 Well, now you get it in a Chrysler.

06:27 Now you get it in a Hyundai.

06:28 And it actually makes sense, because six gear is one-to-one.

06:32 Seventh and eighth are overdrive.

06:33 And that means one through five can be very close to each other.

06:37 And they allow you, when they're that close, to keep the engine

06:40 on boil pretty much any time you want it to be.

06:43 I'm cruising along right now in fourth.

06:45 And it's kind of crazy to know I have four more gears to go up.

06:50 You know, it's tough to decide what I like more,

06:52 the way this thing drives or the story of this car's

06:55 development.

06:56 This was built largely in a skunkworks kind of fashion

06:59 by a very small group of engineers

07:01 working mostly after hours.

07:04 In fact, the chief designer of this car

07:06 had his hand in the original Toyota Supra.

07:09 This car was a labor of love.

07:11 And that makes it all the more special.

07:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:16 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:20 The ISF has led a group of new sports cars

07:37 from Toyota to production.

07:40 The LFA followed this car, as did the GT86, or Scion FRS,

07:44 or whatever you want to call it.

07:46 Rumor is there will be a new ISF, too.

07:48 But this one here, this first generation,

07:51 on top of being extremely fun to drive,

07:53 it also has the opportunity to be

07:55 remembered as the harbinger of good, fun-to-drive cars

07:58 at Toyota.

07:59 All we ask is that they keep at it.

08:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]

08:05 [ENGINE REVVING]

08:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]

08:12 Fly.

08:21 Pretty fly for a white guy.

08:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]

08:33 [ENGINE REVVING]

08:36 [SCREAMS]

08:45 Did we get-- no.

08:46 He's good.

08:46 He just tucked-- woo.

08:47 Freaking squirrels, man.

08:50 (dramatic music)

08:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]

2012 Lexus IS F: Toyotas Turning Point? - Ignition Episode 33

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