2009 Lexus IS F: Smokin'

KATHY RENWALD FOR THE TORONTO STAR

Outfitted with 19-inch rims, the IS F has the kind of menacing good looks that attract attention.

Kathy Renwald

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The hardest thing to describe when reviewing the 2009 Lexus IS F is how I will cook the crow I have to eat.

Like many auto journalists, I was so busy drooling over the BMW M3 and Nissan GT-R at the AJAC Car of the Year testing last month that the IS F sat unloved like an ugly girl at a dance. Then it got mavericky and won Sports Performance Over $50,000.

At a price of $64,450, it was a solid 20 grand cheaper than the version of the M3 and nearly $30,000 cheaper than the GT-R competing at TestFest. If the IS F can put a smile on your face and save you 20 to 30 Gs, why not surrender?

"Okay – when you get some open road, just hammer it and wait till you hear it," was the advice of a fellow auto journalist at TestFest. So many of us needed to catch up and drive it, we had to lug each other around on the buddy system.

It was great advice, though. The IS F is so unLexus-like; at hammer time a deep moan punches through the stratosphere thanks to the work of the exhaust tuners.

Those maestros have tuned it to have three distinctive sounds that change at different rpms.

The payoff is at 3600 r.p.m., when some extra pipes open up and the ground shakes.

With a 5.0-litre V8 producing 416 horsepower, the rear-wheel-drive IS F is some super leaf blower, sweeping the roads clean as it breezes by.

The eight-speed automatic can be driven in "D" for demure or "S" for serious good fun. Lexus bashfully tucks the Sport switch behind the steering wheel, awkward to get at but worth searching for.

Once "S" is selected a delicious tension ensues. The throttle responds immediately, steering weight increases and the transmission upshifts faster.

Slide the console shifter to the left and Manual mode lets the driver control the gear changes, there or through paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel.

The stodgy among us cling to the Zen of a true clutch-equipped manual transmission. But the eight-speed auto and the IS F seem like a swell match.

The transmission facilitates a wide range of driving preferences, from extreme edginess to sedated.

Even at 100 km/h, it's interesting to switch between Normal, Sport and Manual and experience the response of the car.

In Sport, Lexus says the IS F shifts in 0.1 seconds, the fastest for any road car in the world.

Best of all is the throttle blipping on downshifts, like lightning, and requiring no burning of calories from driver exertion. On the sissy side, the IS F will beep at you to upshift in the lee of the redline at 6800 r.p.m.

"I'm sure at one point we were all screaming," said my friend Diane Bos, a photographer with a love of fast cars and auto racing, after we took her and her dad for a ride in the IS F. The screaming came not from speed antics, but from the blood clot-busting force of the Brembo brakes.

At 77, John Bos has on his resumé a few laps around the Zandvoort racetrack in the Netherlands on a Norton motorcycle. He was game to ride shotgun in the IS F.

"The take-off is like it has wings," he said. "I'm glad there's a headrest to prevent me from getting whiplash."

But he found the ride a bit stiff. "You feel everything at my age," he added.

Well, the ride is crisp; you'll get all your body fluids percolating on rough roads. The suspension – double wishbone front, multi-link rear – is track-ready, according to Lexus.

A bag full of handling and braking enhancements including stability control, ABS, traction control and brake assist is designed to reduce visits to the body shop. Under normal driving, the handling is sharp and predictable.

The white-on-black interior of the IS F is as chic as a plastic surgeon's office. My tester had lily-white perforated leather seats – very coddling for the driver. The lustily bolstered driver's seat was wedged pretty close to the door, so only the smallest hands could operate the seat adjustments.

In back, things are cozy, with sparse foot room and a low seating position, but it's nicely appointed. Cargo hauling is limited by rear seats that don't fold down.

The good-feeling steering wheel featured paddle shifters of decent size, but the placement seemed a bit low for my hands.

The tachometer and speedometer are bright and readable with blue LED needles, but a digital speed readout would be useful in a car that scampers like mercury.

On the centre console, the aluminumized fibreglass trim reminded me of a furnace filter, but an arty-looking one, and the shift knob has a sculptural quality in the hand.

Radio controls were easy to use, though the displays for tuning and climate controls were hard to read in bright light. High marks for adding a simple "off" button for heat and air conditioning.

Among its trim trinkets, I liked the tough-looking dead pedal, brake and throttle in gleaming alloy, the cool reading lights that shine only on your chequebook and not in your eyes, and the big F, stitched into the seats and displayed on the instrument panel.

The F, symbolic of the racy side of Lexus, is discreetly displayed on the exterior of the wedge-shaped IS F. The test car in Granite Mica, outfitted with smoky grey 19-inch rims, had the kind of menacing good looks that attracted attention.

My last night with the car, a group of kids gathered around it in a parking lot yelling, "ALEXUSISF!" as if it was the name of some babe. They knew all about it and they knew it was smokin'.

And maybe that's how I'll have that crow – smoked.

Freelance auto reviewer Kathy Renwald can be reached at kathyrenwald.com

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