Peter P18

Hi Glenn. I'm planning to post up links to each set of bulbs once I've fitted and tested them chap. Don't want to get anyone's hopes up until I am 100% sure they all do the job. :) The low beams are 4,300K, so tricky to get a matching rating as most are 4K,5K,6K etc. The LED sidelights I got are 7,000K, the main beams will be 5,000K, and the fogs will be 6,000K. The main thing I wanted was a pure, crisp, white light. Not looking for the blue look you see on most cars. The 7K are as blue as I'd want to go, but being so small, and being LED, they look whiter than 7K (more like 6K). I upped the rating on the LED's as they are smaller than the OEM bulbs, and whilst very bright, the beam is whiter than with halogens. If I'm right, the match should be pretty close once they're all installed. Cheers. Peter

Absolutely chap. :) Will get them installed so you can see how they look. If you're happy with them, you can order yours like we did on the side lights. The fogs are Cree LED's (like the sidelights but bigger!). Arguably the brightest, best LED's on the market. Should finish it off nicely. :)

Look what was waiting for me when I got home: Back ones are for main beam, front are for fogs. Hopefully get them fitted before I head to New Jersey on Sunday! ;)

Good point. Maybe we look at doing bigger mufflers, or add an additional one if it's too loud with the secondary cats removed?? Guessing they will come up with a plan nearer the time.

Thanks Stu. It's a water based paint they mixed mate. Did ask what they thought about the heat aspects etc, but he seems to think it'll be fine as is. :) Will see how it copes with the long motorway run to my folks on Friday! ;) It's holding up fine so far though (done 50 miles or so with it fitted without any peeling etc). I doubt there is that much heat involved as it has the rubber underside that stops a lot of the heat getting to the cover. Time will tell though chap. They didn't flatten the surface too much, as that can cause issues.

Lol. Thought this place had been eerily quiet over the weekend! ;) I did think I would get them to retain the resonator that they removed on your system, and lose the secondary cats. Hoping that will give more performance, but not change the noise levels too much. Can't be dealing with anything too loud! :(

Thanks guys. :) Will probably try it without them to begin with. As long as I keep them handy in the garage, can't see it being a major issue if they do kick up come MOT time. Where you been hiding Stu? Did you see the painted engine cover pictures I put up at the weekend? Looks a lot better than it did in the silver mate. ;) Have a look and let me know what you think chap. Pictures are on my 'Productive Day' thread. Cheers. Peter :)

Anyone else heard about this new rule that may become part of the MOT test? H&S said they could do me a second de-cat pipe, but they told me to check with my local MOT tester first. Apparently the rules are changing so that all cars must retain the same amount of catalytic converters they were fitted with at the factory?? Guessing that's going to be a nasty surprise for a whole heap of cars if it does come into affect! :( Has made me hold off till I find out more. I don't see the purpose of it as long as the emission levels pass? Surely that's all it should need to do??

I'm not a fan of the whole 3M stick on carbon for interior parts mate. Got a company that will send them to Japan for a real coat of carbon fibre, then a clearcoat to finish it off. Going to have them do my centre, door switches and rear armrest. Will obviously post pictures once it's done so others can see how it should look! ;) Lol. The real TRD stuff that was sold would be thousands of pounds mate! Bit like a real carbon diffuser (over $1K without import duty, shipping, fitting etc!). There are plenty of UK based craftsman that can do really good work. Easy to forget we were the No.1 coach builders and interior trimmers in the world at one stage. Think Rolls-Royce, Bentley, TVR, Lotus, Aston Martin, Morgan, Jaguar....... I'm also exploring the idea of having the 'F' logo'd headrests done, as found on the 2014 model IS-F in the States: May go one step further and do the rears to match. As I said, it'll be just right for me once I'm finished with it mate! ;)

No David, it should be like this: As should the front centre console, and door switch covers!! ;) Fussy?! Moi?! Lol. Just used to getting things the way I like mate. So much choice with the Supra's. Plenty of aftermarket goodies, unlike the IS-F. I'll get it the way I want though. ;)

Who knows why they used yellow halogen bulbs mate. ;) They did some LED's in the interior, but not all of them?! :( I'm guessing the bean counters got their way by cutting things they could that weren't easily noticed! The dashboard is another letdown that a lot of journalists criticised. Think they could have done something with suede or leather to alter it from the normal IS design. Then again the rear armrest was a big failure as well in terms of aesthetics. Do like the F embossed headrests on the US models. Hoping to source a set at some point. The sidelights I bought are very good though. Going to get some fog and main beam replacements soon to finish it off. :)

Cheers David. :)

Yes mate. :) Paint job is spot on in terms of colour match etc. They can paint them pretty much any colour you like.

So had another good day on the car. :) In addition to a good clean and polish, I picked up and fitted my newly painted engine cover. Here's how it looked before: And here's how it looks now: Pleased isn't the word! ;) Looks sooo much better!!

Did wonder that myself Keith. ;) The fact is was posted in the IS-F section led me to believe it might be an IS-F, but who knows!! :) Hopefully we will find out at some point.

No stranger than fitting fake exhaust tips instead of a proper quad system, or using fake silver carbon for the interior trim instead of the real deal! ;) Guess Lexus cut a few corners in terms of the specification for their flagship model! Do think a few of their decisions seem odd considering the cost, target market etc. Will probably get mine done at some stage. Not in the top 10 of my 'to-do' list though! :)

That could work! ;) I'm quite partial to the Mazda 3 MPS. Think they are closer to £10K for good ones, but doubt that would be much better on fuel than the ISF! Think Stu had one for a while? Again, I just like the look and relative rarity of them. If things ever changed for me, that would be something I would look at. Best of luck with whatever you end up doing Kevin. :) Cheers. Peter

I'd agree with Stu on this one. Private sale all the way if you can hold out mate. Seem to be lots of interested parties considering ownership of these rare cars. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get £18K all day long if it's in good shape chap. Don't give it away whatever you do! As Dave said, these are brilliant cars for the money. Hope things work out and you don't need to sell it. Cheers. Peter :)

Poor reviews?? Any particular areas they are saying are poor? Personally I don't think there is a better performance saloon out there for the price chap. Full service history is a must in my opinion. Should be every 10K or annual. Means the car you are looking at should have 3 if not 4 services in the book. Most of us have Lexus service history throughout, but Toyota would probably be fine as well. Brakes are quite pricey, as are tires if you stick with the Bridgestones or Michelins. The design means stone chips are common on the front bumper, bonnet and wings. Make sure the alloys aren't kerbed too badly either. All in all they are very good cars to drive with plenty of performance, sleeper good looks, practical compared to other 400+ HP saloons (two adults in the back is fine, as is a boot of luggage or shopping). Running costs aren't cheap, but you get what you pay for. Tax is another £400 odd for a year as well. Let us know how you get on chap. Cheers. Pete :)

Got mine through a good friend from Houston, Texas mate. He bought it from eBay in the States on Black Friday. :) I'm in the States quite often with work. Happy to bring things back for people if they can pay up front. :) Cheers. Peter

Interesting analogy Stu! ;) Personally never a fan of wet dreams chap! Lol. Sport mode has it's uses, but I'm another fan of normal mode. :) Smoother shifts for sure. The red mode on the throttle controller and sports mode on was frankly insane!! ;)

Hey David, The throttle controller worked out at $255, which is roughly £153. I was fortunate enough to have a friend bring it over for me from the US, so didn't pay import tax, duty, shipping etc. It basically intercepts the throttle signal from the accelerator pedal, and can either improve or dull down the amount of response. The red mode is boost (very responsive), whilst the blue modes are economy settings. The main thing to appreciate is this product does not increase horsepower in any way. It's purpose is to alter the throttle response only. As you can see from my pictures, the control button fits snuggly in the blank beside the headlight washer button on our dashboards. It does need a bit of double sided tape to pack out the blank, but it comes with a pad I chopped about to make it fit. The wire from the button is snaked down inside the dashboard (easy job), and goes into the control box. The box then has a main harness that connects into a model specific harness (sold separately, but was part of the package I bought for the price above). The harness is then a plug and play to the connector found at the top of the throttle pedal. Installation and setup was around 20mins, but I was doing things very carefully. It could probably be done in half that time now I know the procedure. :) I'm going to play around with the settings over the next couple of months to see how the different modes work in terms of MPG etc. Will try the dark blue economy mode on my next long drive to see if it improves my previous figures on the same trip.

Engine and gearbox I reckon. Don't forget this was the first 8-speed automatic gearbox. Much like the GTR, the box is very complex and sophisticated, and would cost mega bucks to repair if you did manage to knacker it! ;) I'm rarely in the mood to use manual mode (the auto is spot on most of the time). The throttle controller has certainly cut response times from stock. Still experimenting with all the different settings, but red mode is very responsive! ;)

Well a big thank you to both you and Keith then chap. :)

All done David. :) Thanks for the keen spot! Hadn't noticed obviously! ;) Took it back to the same Kwik Fit in a Strood that did the nitrogen for me. They weren't going to charge me anything to swap them over, but chucked them a tenner for an after work pint! :) All in all a productive weekend for the F. :)