The story
For nearly 20 years Lexus built cars that never startled anyone, which was precisely the point. Then a small skunkworks team led by engineer Yukihiko Yaguchi, working at Fuji Speedway, squeezed a 416 hp naturally aspirated V8 into the IS and took it to Detroit in January 2007. The 2UR-GSE wears Yamaha-designed heads, revs to 6,800 rpm and carries a scavenge pump to keep its oil supply steady through long, hard corners, while the 8-speed automatic fires off upshifts in 0.1 second and blips its own downshifts. From the curb it looks like an ordinary IS that has been lifting weights.
Magazines kept lining it up against the BMW M3, Mercedes C63 AMG and Audi RS4, and it never finished first; the Germans were sharper at the limit and quicker off the line. Yet it matched the M3 for grip, made far more torque, used less fuel and carried a longer warranty, and later updates brought a Torsen limited-slip differential and retuned suspension. About 11,000 were built before production ended in 2014. As its rivals have aged into expensive projects, the IS F has become the sensible way to own something wild.
