FULL DISCLOSURE: IQ and I are Lexus slappies. We've owned 5 Lexus and currently have a GS and IS in our garage. I've tried to be honest and neutral, but feel free to doubt every single word I say. Much of this has driving opinions, so that's what this is. My opinion. YMMV.
IQ and I were invited to the 2nd to last stop on the IS Ride & Drive Tour. This event is invitation-only. It was about 3 hours from home, so well worth the drive. After registering and receiving our RF ID bracelet, we were treated to a nice luncheon. Inside the event area, there were 2 IS cars for display. They were fully functional, so you could test out the stereo, GPS, etc. I liked how you could fully customize the dash/GPS area to only display the things you wanted to see. I don't recall reading about the extensive customization available in what your dash can displays in the IS. You set it up the way you want. Nice!!
There was also a display showing their unique carbon fiber loom. Seeing how it worked was incredible. It was so complex, yet so mesmerizing seeing all of the moving parts work in unison to crank out carbon fiber. While the display wasn't overly impressive, the videos and information about the loom was truly impressive.
After lunch, we had a short presentation about the new features in the IS. I really liked how the demonstrator said "We know you came here to drive, so I'm going to keep this short.". I've been to other similar events, and it seemed like the product presentation part was longer than the driving part. Not the case here, and a breath of fresh air. Since I would be driving these cars shortly, I paid close attention to the enormous changes to the suspension.
When the presentation was done, we were loaded onto some luxury buses and taken to an enormous parking lot. The parking lot was adjacent to an airport to give you an idea of the size. Perhaps one of those long term parking lots. They had 3 separate areas marked off with 3 different courses set-ups. The F-Sport, the Timed Autocross and the Competitive Comparison Autocross. It was nice to know that there was no specific order we needed to do the courses in and we could have as many laps as we wanted except for the Autocross track (more on that later). Also, there was ZERO sales BS/marketing/cheerleading going on. Never once did I see any of the reps pushing anything Lexus to anyone. They were there to answer questions only. We really appreciated this and to us this made it seem more like a bona fide driving event than a sales presentation. So big kudos to Lexus for this. I have never seen a more neutral manufacturers event than this one.
F-SPORT TRACKWe went to the F-Sport track first. They had every guise of F-Sport to drive. So all of the reviews below are F-Sport cars. It was a tight track, lots of turns, a couple small straights, 3 chicanes in one section, 90 degree turn in another, etc. Looked like fun! I ribbed the rep for not having an IS-F, and they politely replied that the IS-F wasn't available in 2014. True enough. At first nobody went to the CT. The rep then said "Come on, we need someone in the CT! It's not fast, but it's fun around this course!". IQ and I jumped in the CT first
CT200h: IQ behind the wheel. As has been complained about before, the engine is coarse when pushed. However, the car handled surprisingly well. And yes, it was fun. I thought for sure IQ was going to blow a corner and murder some cones, but the CT wheeled around the corner easily. We drove the car for a couple more laps and were laughing they whole way through. This would be a competent, fun car if you lived in the city. Nice interior, zippy handling. It was fun to drive on this course. Engine isn't terribly refined for a Lexus though. It's about the same as any small car in engine refinement...just not Lexus refined.
GS350 AWD: Me at the wheel. The GS is a bit of a let down in the fun department. Not in a bad way though! Whereas the CT makes you giggly as you drive it, the GS makes you nod in approval at its competence. It's refined and quiet....but snarls when you nail it off the line. And it leaps off the line pretty well! It handles very nicely..no surprises either way. Feels smaller than it is. You won't mistake it in size to the IS in the feel department, but it doesn't feel overly big. I guess that's a big compliment, because the GS isn't exactly small. This would make a very fun all year car with the AWD and a handler with the F-Sport package. This is a very nice do it all car.
IS250 RWD: IQ behind the wheel. As many of you know, I HATED the last IS250, despite owning an IS350. I just didn't think it did anything great and the engine felt weak. For sure it was a competent entry luxury car, but I just didn't like it. At all. Well I don't know WTF happened, but Lexus has done something to make this car much more enjoyable! The chassis is great! Surely that a big part of it. The chassis is so good, maybe it made the shortcomings of the last car less obvious. Turn in is quick. I'm not sure if they re calibrated the transmission but the IS250s power felt pretty good. We REALLY enjoyed our laps in this car, and were both pleasantly surprised at how much better it felt. While we both said "more power, please!" at the end of the drive, I think many people would be satisfied with this car. I could never understand why anyone would buy an IS250 in the past....after this drive I can totally see why someone would buy one.
LS460: Me behind the wheel. Ok..this track is horribly suited to the big LS460. The 90 degree corners were tight, and you were aware that this is a BIG car. You were concerned for the poor little cones' safety. The V8 growl sounds great! Music to my ears. It handled surprisingly well in the less tighter areas. I blasted through the triple chicane quite quickly! The brakes are stupendous! Easily the best brakes of the day...easily. When I first got in the car, the brakes surprised us both. You just breathe on them to get massive braking. I was really jerky at first which prompted IQ to ask "First day out in daddy's car?" I underbraked the first couple of corners too. But once used to them..man, are they ever good! I have a soft spot for big, luxury cars. I'd have this as my daily driver. I loved it. Everybody knows about the impeccable quality of the LS, so I won't bore you. With this F-Sport package the car has a new personality. This is the car I would own..and I will own an LS460 some day.
IS350 RWD: The engine pared to the 8 speed tranny is very good. It seems to always be where it needs to RPM wise. It never got caught out when driven. I liked it and shifting was imperceptible. The engine was almost too peppy for this tight course. The car felt really fast. The chassis is great! It is much, much better than my IS350 Sport Package I had. Ditto the interior. The seats were great! I mistook the interior for leather! The seats were great...extremely comfortable and supportive. Just really nice place to be, this cockpit. I can see why this car has supplanted the BMW in several drivers test. It's luxurious, yet very, very sporty when you want it to be.
TIMED AUTOCROSS: This was to be run in IS350 RWD F-Sport cars. You had 2 laps. One a shakedown lap, and the second would be timed. Fastest man and woman would each get a hot lap in the LFA!! This was what our RF ID bracelet was for. You tapped it on the console of the car, and it would start the video recording of your lap. Inside and outside camera views. These will be available to download from Lexus in a week or so. So I'll post it when I can. IQ went first. She used her first lap as a sighting in lap to accustom herself to the track. I think that worked against her though. With driving as slowly as she did Lap 1, she didn't know the limits of the car. Despite this, she posted the fastest woman's time of the day to that point. Hooray IQ! My turn next. I drove the track pretty hard for Lap 1, mindful of how dogging it might hurt me. What I found was you could push the IS REALLY hard. There would be no real surprises. The IS could handle everything on the course easily..so it would be all up to me to put it together for a nice lap. I made a few mental notes as I approached the line for Lap 2. The starter said "Hey, don't give up on the stop box. Keep it floored until the checkers and jump on the brakes and you should roll right into the stop box". Good advice. But blowing the stop box or hitting a cone was a 2 second penalty. I tapped my bracelet and set off. I was very aggressive. IQ said I was the first car that you could audibly hear tires screeching! I approached the stop box and slammed on the brakes. It felt like a good lap. As I parked the car, the man under the tent said "Ron, the board is yours!". I was the fastest lap of the day thus far! I was 1.5 seconds from the pro drivers lap record. So not bad. And IQ was the fastest woman. We left this event very stoked.
COMPETITIVE COMPARISON TRACKI thought this was a very fair comparison track, moreso than other similar events. For example, there were no F-Sport cars here. I've been to other events where the manufacturer has their car on sport package suspension, wheels and tires and the competition on 16" all season rubber. This was not the case here. All cars were spec'ed similarly and we really appreciated that.
Audi A4 2.0T: Right away, we were both horrified at how weak the engine felt. It was weaksauce, and our most disappointing engine of the day. The IS250 felt positively fast compared to this engine. The track was the largest of the day, so there was room to punch the pedal and feel the performance. But the A4 was disappointing, at least compared to the competition. It handled OK, the interior was nice. But overall, it was very ho-hum. This was the IS250 competitor. At some point they had a BMW to compete against the IS250, but something happened to it. The rep wouldn't say it directly, but it sounded like a mechanical issue put it out of commission.
BMW335i: This is a VERY good car. In all regards, though the interior lagged behind the Lexus IMO. The engine remains a gem! Tons of power, pulls really hard. There is some lag though. Not a lot mind you, but you notice it compared to the lag free IS350. The IS350 responds instantly. The cars handling was easily 2nd best, only behind the IS350 IMO. IQ felt very comfortable in the 335i, so much so I was puckering a few times when I thought she'd overcooked a corner. But the 335i handled it all. IQ said something that I thought was noteworthy. She said the last gen BMW felt harder and sportier than her modded IS300. And she's right, of course. But the new BMW reminded her quite a lot of her IS300. She said the handling dynamics felt very similar to her IS300, which is why she drove it so quickly. This statement backs up what others have said. That the new BMW 3 Series is a bit softer than the old one. That being said, we loved the car. There's a reason this car the segment leader in sales. Because it's so damn good. It looks good, it drives good, the interior is good and the engine is a gem. Again, we preferred the IS350 to this car. The IS350 turned in quicker, the interior was better, the engine was more responsive. It just felt like more of a package than the 3 Series. But the 3 Series was easily our 2nd favorite in this section. Not even close. I think IQ hit the nail on the head with her observations about new vs. old.
M-B C350: This was our biggest disappointment chassis wise. It positively flopped around the corners. Body roll was excessive. This car was the least well handling of the cars in this section. The engine was nice...reminded me of the IS350 engine in power, but didn't seem as though it had the same crisp throttle response. But good power. The interior didn't wow us either. Not crap or anything...just not as nice after coming out of the BMW or Lexus. But the chassis was way too soft.
SUMMARY: We went back to the autocross to see what was going on. IQ was now 2nd quickest, and would not win a lap in the LFA unless my time was good. And it was good! It had been a few years since I've done autocross, so it was nice to know that I could still drive a car quickly.
Earlier in the day, I promised IQ if I won a lap in the LFA, she could have it. She loves the LFA as much as I..maybe more. So I was stoked to be able to see her face and smile when she learned she'd be going in the LFA! The LFA was black, and had earlier been used as a press car. It had over 30,000 miles on it and everything still looked great about it! The Lexus rep swore that the car has had zero mechanical issues and has needed nothing but tires, brakes and oil despite having the crap kicked out of it every single day of its life. I believe him based on what I've read on the owner forums. It sure sounds mean..and beautiful. If there is a better sounding car than this, I'm hard pressed to pick one. The F1 sounding V10 is music to my ears!
IQ got her helmet on and loaded into the car. She told the driver that she expected him to NOT take it easy and to wail on the car. He seemed happy to oblige! This was a full on hot lap. Right from the start it was pedal to the metal at every point, sliding and drifting and speeds reaching ~120 MPH on the back straight. I sounded great! IQ came back beaming, and said that she wanted one. I, of course, had to ask her how it compared power wise to the Supra, as that's my benchmark for fast cars. "Quite a bit slower up top" she said. But she said response was quicker and down low the LFA seemed more eager. No surprises there, really.
Overall, this was a great event and was expertly put on. We appreciated the fact that this didn't feel like a sales presentation and also that Lexus kept the comparisons fair. We're very glad we were invited, as it made for a great day.
Below is the video link to IQs drive in the LFA as well as some pics...some pics I took and others belong to someone else.
IQ in the LFA video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljuInS2a-2sSomebody is stoked!
