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Pete very kindly invited me over to see his fantastic looking and sounding isf. A credit to all the work he has put in. Made mine look very standard indeed. The exhaust note is something you wouldn't believe till you heard it, ultra aggressive! Looking forward to a bluewater meet in the near future. Matt

Had a drive of my dad's new RC-F the other day. A lot more different to the IS-F than I was expecting. Everything has been turned up a notch. Quicker and better throttle response, better gearbox, better intake sound and lovely steering feel, far sharper on turn in. I was surprised how light the car felt. The seats are awesome too! Made the IS feel a little old!

So @wow300 and myself when hunting for an isF for last week and found a pretty good example at Lexus Cheltenham, it wasn't to be as one of us was tempted by a GSF instead all will be revealed regarding that this week 😐 Any way lots of fun was had testing the cars below all in the interests of science naturally, as well as some pictures of the Prescott Hill day. @Warrington guy Dave behave yourself looking at the RCF's leave your credit card in the wallets 😂 Big Rat

Got a mate that has an ISF and a GSF......due to kids etc he changed the rear base to a 3 seat and fitted the centre belt so he didn't have to sell it, his is the GSF and the wife's is the ISF, I can't even get mine to like it let alone drive it 🙄

Flytvr. Go on dav , I know you want one

I bought mine 2 yrs ago from Lexus Coventry, I'd had 3 Lexus previous all is's being the 200,300 then the 250. I have a brochure from 2008 when they launched the car, the blue isn't even a colour 😉.....I've always liked/wanted the red, was the 3rd I'd looked at, both previous cars were Lexus (South Woodford) a 2013 blue one with 300 miles on the clock (last one to sell) in 2014. White interior which wasn't my first option, when I'd decided to go ahead it had sold to someone upt north over the phone, the second was the directors cars with 8000 miles on it, again 2013 in black......but black is the worse colour for me, don't get me wrong they are beautiful after washing for about 10min then the neighbour cuts the grass and it starts again......my IS 250 was black. As a fairly newly wed, the wife took me to the motofest in Coventry for my birthday, sat in traffic by the showroom was this red ISF......looked lovely......anyway whilst at the show Lexus tried to tempt me into the is300h......"no thanks, the only one I'd buy would be the F but can't justify £500+ for road tax" for a car that will sit on the drive......long story short, the wife gave permission to go ahead with purchase, I love the car BUT she doesn't n what with other projects (house extension) and a large sum used on this purchase I may well find myself being the one to fight off tyre kickers or lack of calls IF I decide to sell, still hoping for a lottery win as to many signs where there when I bought mine for me not to have bought it. they all look great in all the colours and are a truly fabulous car 👍👍

I had a call from Lexus asking if I'd like to test drive the new GS-F. I had to think about it but decided it was worth a go. What can I say, its one of those cars with a very large price tag which no matter how I look at it I just cant quite justify. That said after a drive in it you start thinking of re-organising those finances so that you can. I guess its just about the engine sound. Yes, the interior is quite nice, the seats very supportive and it has all the toys. It looks pretty nice from the outside with those large brakes and four exhaust pipes, but it is the engine note that you fall in love with. Whilst driving at normal speeds such as around town it drives just like any other Lexus, its refined, the gearbox is smooth and its often hard to tell its changing gear at all which considering it has an 8 speed auto is pretty impressive. The ride keeps the car flat in the corners and is solid and control over most surfaces. I was surprised just how good the ride was for a car with this type of performance. At low speeds driving normally you could almost forget that under the bonnet lurks a 469bhp 5litre motor as it drives quite sedate under light throttle. Some high power cars are just too responsive and you can never really relax in them but the GS seems to have managed to keep its Lexus pedigree under tap. Then you come to a dual carriageway and its time to switch to Sport mode. You squash that throttle hard and the gates of hell open as that angry roar unleashes from the engine & exhaust. My faces was a huge smile. It does plant you hard in your seat, the power is quite brutal. It reminded me of powerful cars from the 90's in that it's just brute power which didn't feel like it was trying to be eco friendly. The sound though, Oh I'd pay the money just for that. It is without doubt one of the nicest sounding cars I have driven under acceleration. Yes, there are quicker cars out there such as the M5's etc but they dont sound this good and lets be honest how often are you in a drag race with an M5. Id take the GS with its roomy cabin for four and fantastic ride. You could drive this car as your daily just the same as you drive the normal IS or GS range, the only difference is this one will drink slightly more of the liquid stuff but my god its worth it. Added to the bucket list.... Carl

After nearly three years of ISF ownership I have finally had an exhaust fitted :) I'm in the process of uploading some videos to Youtube but unless you have decent speakers/headphones then the sound in the videos don't really do it any justice. I'll put the links to the videos up shortly once uploaded. Thanks to Pete, Stu and Gib for their advice during my quest for the exhaust!

I'm hoping to be there if all goes well 👍

Luck lucky man ! 🐀

And one RC300h?

Looking forward to the Kemble meet next week . Are we going to break the record of 8 fs

@Warrington guy I agree with Dave his sounds superb, filth I might say absolute filth 😂 now that I've got a second system having heard his number of times when the time comes I'd be prepared to travel to Cobra. His also retains the standard tips which is important to me. Big Rat

More Pics:

This is our 1st Lexus vehicle that we have bought in over 30 years of owning cars. Really delighted with our choice so far. Looking forward to getting tips advice etc from here. :)

@Warrington guy It's got lots of tech that just works, the head up display with mph as well as road limit mph, sport+ disabled traction control enhances intake flaps even more and also valved exhaust. And adaptive suspension to name but a few, it's a weapon 😍 🐀

@Flytvr @Warrington guy @Big Rat It's from JP Exhausts in Macclesfield. Can't fault their work and seemed to know exactly what they're doing. It's from the second cats back (resonator deleted) and I asked for it loud and that's exactly what I got. I also asked for no x-pipe for the V8 burble. Now for the reason I went for somewhere reasonably local rather than taking it to H&S: If it sounded exactly like the video I'd be happy but it is way louder than it sounds in the video, (I didn't think it could be this loud whilst retaining the secondary cats) so I'm contemplating having an x-pipe fitted but I know this will reduce the burble. It burbles a little more and is louder all the time but it only sounds significantly different under load. Driving at steady speed is ok. Mine isn't a daily driver but I think if it was a daily driver I'd definitely have an x-pipe fitted as it does drone above a certain rpm or when accelerating. I can't really hear the intake flap open above 3700 rpm anymore so thinking about an intake at some point very soon as well as I'm missing the intake noise already.

No, I don't want one.. Really I don't No, honestly! ...

More spotted at the ring: A pair of red 5 litre V8 coupes

Very useful videos for those thinking about changing the exhaust, it sounds great 👍

It's a stunner @Peter P18 🖒

You can't set it to comfort - its not a system like you find on other brands It only really has 2 functions - Normal, which is what its like in Eco, normal and sport and then the stiffer setup in Sport+ Having said that, the 4RX does have an individual mode, so if its too stiff in Sport+ for your liking but you prefer the steering and throttle response, you can customise it to keep those and keep the suspension supple. But, all in all, the F-Sport will always be stiffer than the Luxury/Premier models.

a lot of the checks are carried out on your mot so why should you have to pay for the checks again on your service as alot of cars will require a sevice and mot at the same time so why pay for them twice. the cars being reliable is mainly down to the engineering thats been applied whilst in design and having the correct grade of materials used in the right areas of the car therefore giving the end user trouble free motoring.

I thought the same regarding the 2 different cars, I do know what wrapping is though...it's a type of music.

I went to France a couple of weeks ago, drive down to Dover on the Sunday and spend the night in Premier,-the drive was o.k. until we were going through the town and then disaster. The rear offside tyre went flat I pulled into a bus stop got the pump and inflated it, and drove up to the Premier, took out our overnight gear booked in and went back to the car--tyre flat again. pump out inflate again, after a couple of HRS check again---flat. Had a word with the receptionist and she phoned a firm in the town, they couldn't come until Monday--They came at around 8-30 had a look at the tyre and said it was knackered the rim had done damage to the tyre wall.(The car has L.P.G.) in the wheel well NO SPARE IN THE BOOT----. The car was put on a recovery truck and taken to their depot--now the problem starts the tyre is a (225-60-16) he tried many tyre depots they all said the tyre was bigger than any they had in stock!!! The only place to get one was from a depot in FELIXSTOWE, it was put on a delivery van doing it's rounds and it would arrive at KWICK FIT in 4 HOURS) the next problem is our Ferry, the time now is 10am the boat sails at 12pm so I phoned D.F.D.S. and they said if I miss the 12pm boat we can go on the 2pm one if we miss that one we can go on the 4pm boat yippee, any way the tyre arrived at 4-20 pm. too late for the 4pm boat--- D.F.D.S. again that's O.K. you can go on the 6pm boat but it will cost another £54 on top of the £ 104 I had paid.. In Total --Ferry £158---Kwik Fit---£69-99---Tow truck---£84 ALL in ALL £311--99 Lesson to learn Take a spare with you...

I keep on saying to myself to be strong minded and don't think about changing to a RCF until end of the year, so this thread is not helping!!...

Sounds epic, really want to see both the RCF and GSF in the flesh again to have a good look. Is your day rate about to go up @Big Rat?

Got some more pics 😊 Is it getting boring yet? 😂

Wolf in sheep's clothing

RC-F Carbon?

Nice one. What exhaust is it? I'd be interested to know if it has changed the car at low speed when just pottering along.

Sounds great. Nice rumble and burble to it . Are you pleased with it

I had a brand new Audi, it was on a 20k service interval. At 10k miles I extracted some oil and sent it to a lab to be tested, they found metal in it and recommended oil change be carried out immediately. The cars computer didn't pick this up, the car was leased and had its oil service 10,000 miles later. This is why I moved to Lexus, a service every 10k miles is a necessity in my opinion. Also once your car reaches 5 years old the service costs drop a lot I believe.

Go to cobra exhaust in Sheffield . Just tell them wot you want and how loud. It takes them 3/4 day

Thanks Matt. Great to finally meet you fella. Glad you liked the car. As we discussed, still got plenty more work lined up! Lol. Hopefully we can line up another Bluewater meet soon. Be good to get a few more owners together again. Cheers for now. Pete

It's a very complex subject and clouded by non-disclosure (OEMs will not commit to definitive facts, and will use words and terminology designed to keep their clients - in both sectors of the industry - happy). The OE contracts vary quite a bit now, especially since there are many manufacturers competing for the same deals. This is why you will see a lot of cars now with glass from up to four different manufacturers on some models. As for the erased logos/motifs... much of it will be for commercial reasons but that usually happens when the models (or facelifts) are new/recent. When those obligatory periods pass, the aftermarket copy production will emerge, and increase in number. A lot of the 'OE erased' examples can often be rejects (for a number of reasons). It's not that they cannot be sold as OE products, but given they are usually (in most cases) the best available products (all others are copied from them) and sit at the top of a tier, they cannot be seen as inferior in any way. This may be something as trivial as an imperfection in the silkprint for example. Generally speaking, if the glass does not feature the (car) manufacturer's logo, it will not be as good as one that does.

Ain't that the truth !!! I have just managed to validate my vehicle after trying all different permutations I could think of. They obviously do not test these things properly, i.e. a country based test team\users.

It is quite possible that I don't know him, but I did work for said organisation (and they're not franchised BTW) and still am in touch with a few of the (past and present) employees, some of whom are very good mates. I also lived in Gorse Hill for about 18 months and got to know some of the (uniformed, AG) lads (many of whom still are uninformed) in and around the area.

I find my old Credit Cards do this sort of job probably just as well. Can be cut into any shape you need and any size strip. Well done for perseverance.

Thanks! Pre-fitting has already been. ;) Now I will finish making copies and I will issue pics. I don't post pics with preliminary fitting for the reason that the car was white, and the genuine WALD details were black colour. I want to do everything in white and then show you.

I am enjoying driving it for sure! V8 for my daily/only driver! I just missed out on JapFest Silverstone but am hoping I can make it to JapFest Donington on 1st July. I am hoping to share the car with all those who appreciate it too at shows/meets etc if I can make it. Once I get more settled I can get some nice photos sorted too. I just found "sport" mode this afternoon but haven't tried it with manual mode yet.... plan for tomorrow lol!

I would just like to recommend Lex Tek services run by Dave. I know have been mentioned on here before but a further recommendation won't hurt! Yesterday I took my car to him for a thorough once over and fortunately it seems my car is a very good one. Dave showed me the car underneath, explained issues as regards to the radiator leaking, leaking rear air con pipes to the back and the air suspension. He also had a silver LS / cream leather in the day before, anyone on here? Dave was at Lexus Sheffield for 20 years so know his stuff and while there I met a gent called David. He was a now retired director at Lexus, Sheffield and told me a lot of fab facts about Lexus and there inner workings and discussed our shared love of cars in general. For the going over and replacing rear pads he charged me £125 inc vat, I was very happy with this. My car does have full Lexus history but I'll definitely be taking it to Lex Tek from now on. Very easy to find as he's located just two minutes from the M1 junction 30. By the way I'm loving my Lexus,

Great to see atleast sone of us enjoy and appreciate the car :) Mines on 138k and have put 40k on her myself. Shes had her probems but still runs great

A big big done on all the work!! But any chance of ever seeing this looking amazing on the actual car??

Did you consider warming the wood bits up with a hairdryer before attempting removal which should soften the glue aiding removal?

How about using a good soak of WD-40 on the sticky pads. I don't think the fumes are toxic or addictive.

Venom Wraps did it cost from £1,300 although I had all the doors inside the bonnet, boot etc done.

@runsgrateasanut Ah yes we've all got our cross to bear, I was in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago and horrible experience went into a pub that didn't serve Guinness, well picture the scene Mrs Rat called the paramedics air medivac and so, but the situation was finally resolved with this I survived the experience 😂 Big Rat