2009 Lexus IS F

MICHAEL BANOVSKY FOR THE TORONTO STAR

To make room for the 418-hp V8 engine, IS F designers widened the front track and raised the hood, giving it a front profile resembling a bottlenose dolphin.

Michael Banovsky

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Passion counts. It's why Porsches win endurance races, Jeeps are good off-road and Subarus can slide all day long on twisty gravel roads.

It's also why the teams of performance engineers behind the BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and the Audi RS4 ensure those cars stand alone at the top of the sport sedan totem pole.

Well, they used to. Until the Lexus IS F came along.

See, all a car company really needs to make a successful performance model is a person who is so committed to the task at hand that it consumes him. At Lexus, Yukihiko Yaguchi is that person. He not only surprised management by developing a hot version of the IS luxury sedan, he also found a way to have it powered by a Yamaha-massaged V8 engine from the Lexus LS.

The 416-horsepower motor didn't fit. Nor the LS-derived eight-speed automatic. So he widened the front track by 26 mm and raised the hood, making the front profile resemble a bottlenose dolphin's.

His team then fitted a body kit with brake cooling slats for the front wheels, subtle rear spoiler and deep front chin spoiler – making the car more than 86 mm longer than the standard IS sedan.

Lexus says on its website that Yaguchi and his team of more than 200 worked during their own time and had approval from the keepers of the product-planning expense budget.

How they managed to test the car at racetracks around the globe, including Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife, France's Paul Ricard Circuit, the Zolder track in Belgium, Fuji Speedway in Japan and California's Laguna Seca, is beyond me. Maybe they had a good line of credit.

So the IS F has a good pedigree, has been tested at challenging race tracks and costs $64,450, about the same as the BMW M3 Sedan ($69,900) and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG ($63,500); the Audi RS4 has been discontinued.

On the track, the IS F is quick on the straights. Screaming toward its redline, the eight-speed automatic does convincingly crisp shifts in "Sport" mode, and the sonorous exhaust belts out a soundtrack fit for (Steve) McQueen.

The 14.2-inch front brake rotors with six-piston aluminum Brembo calipers and 13.6-inch rear rotors stop the car even better than it goes – put these on a mobile dentistry van and you'd have wisdom teeth pulled in no time.

Then you hit a corner and a few things happen.

First, if you turn in before finishing your braking, the ESP will kick in and you'll miss the apex by a nautical mile.

Second, if you put the power on too early, the chassis bucks and floats over bumps, making it likely you'll use all of the track while sliding like a dog on linoleum.

If you turn the ESP off, you can better appreciate the immense levels of grip afforded by the 19-by-9-inch rear BBS wheels and 255-series tires. You'll enjoy yourself for three laps before getting stressed and sweaty from the hard work, preferring to slow down and turn on the optional $4,000 Mark Levinson 14-speaker stereo (part of the navigation package).

The thing about the Germans is they've got all sorts of performance algorithms programmed into their braking, steering, engine and chassis systems.

You can rip them 'round the track all day – making you look like a million bucks in the process – and never break a sweat. Then they take you home in comfort.

Lexus doesn't even offer adjustable suspension for the IS F, like the Germans do, a point proven by a passenger who poked some buttons on the centre console, turned to me and said, "Where's the switch to turn the sport suspension off?"

As for the interior, my 6-foot-1 frame doesn't fit in the driver's seat in an upright position. The navigation system is annoying, and there is no room to store anything in the cabin, apart from a Red Bull, which is too skinny for the cupholder and will spill all over the supple leather interior. There are four seats, a fact Yaguchi is proud of because it's a rarity for a sport sedan.

Finally, I've driven the IS F's little brother, the IS350, in the dead of winter and it always required heavy correction on slippery surfaces. I can't imagine that more than 100 extra horsepower and wider tires would work any better.

But I prefer the Lexus to the German cars.

If you buy the Mercedes or the BMW, there's no doubt you'll own a well-engineered car that does everything you'd ever ask of it. Keep in mind that both slot in at the bottom end of their performance car range – the M3 is slower than the M5 and M6, while the C63 is the most junior of the AMG family.

But there is no faster Lexus. The IS F is it. It may have some rough edges, but this is one man's vision of how a car should be, not a team's. Yaguchi's unique approach makes a muscle car shine through every kilometre.

I wouldn't want it any other way.

Freelance auto reviewer Michael Banovsky can be reached at banovsky.com.

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