Killysprint

Might as well give it a scrub.

Not a lot else to do!!!

Another thumbs up for the EBC reds here. Done about 6000 miles on them since they were changed and no deterioration in performance - but once bedded in, much less dust.

17.

in my head

New Alpine is an epic bit of kit.

my brother has a basic car on 17’s, and has had the Litchfield map put on it, and it is brilliant. Just brilliant.

Quick, low 4’s to 60, handling, steering and ride are sublime.

the best car I’ve driven in a long time.

if I had the space - there’d be one on the drive.

all the praise it has received from the pundits is thoroughly well deserved.

It’s in NI - won’t show on the DVLA system.

Good to see it again

glad you’re enjoying it. Is (was) a cracking car!!

My ISF was sold out of Belfast last Jan.

I had contact with him before he bought it, and the car was staying in Ireland.

2 hours ago, Flytvr said:

Hated the 993. Bloody pedals. And it was like driving a tractor!

Watch out for RMS on 996 etc and bore scoring.Frightening!

Must be driving it wrong then 😜 as I’ve got size 13 feet and have no problems....

mines not a tractor.

The missus used to have a 911 convertible as her daily...... just saying. It was black not white as I had to drive it sometimes.

we ran 911’s as her car, 993, 2x996, and a 997 for the best part of 10 years. 
All reliable, all 2wd as they steered better, and costs were as you’d expect of a car in that price bracket. 
When I used one of the cars for a period, due to the arrival of my daughter- it lunched a set of rear tyres in 4000 miles. You could do that in the rcf. 
servicing was every 2 years or 20000 I think and always was around the £1k mark.

on the 996/7/coxster they eat rads and condensers for fun, they need to be cleaned regularly to stop corrosion from accumulated debris around them.  
Had a 996 turbo S too, fast, but didn’t fall in love with it.

when I sold my 993 for the first 996 - after a couple of days I thought what’ve I done. It was like driving a fast BMW. Had lost its soul.

nearly bought a 991 a couple of years ago, but outside the dealer saw a turbo cab with WAG driving it - sort of summed it up. Might be a great car but lost its way and now as easy and forgiving to drive as a shopping cart.

so bought a nasty 993 instead. And it’s brilliant, scalpel sharp, fast enough, and sounds like a 3.8 flat 6 chainsaw. Will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t respect it.Love it. Oh and the missus won’t drive it......

RCF = GSF

My wife merc estate has cross climates on.  We fitted this time last year, and have done around 15k miles on them. 
she works towards consett in Co. Durham, and it can get a bit hairy up there in the snow and she managed to get there no problems in the snow we had last year. during the monsoon like weather we had earlier in the month were confidence inspiring at motorway speeds on soaking wet surfaces.
the merc is a petrol hybrid with around 300hp, and clips along quite nicely. But doesn’t get driven hard, so can’t really comment on dry warm weather handling, but they handle the power and torque well in the wet.

Would I put them on again - definitely on the merc or her next car. Not sure on a higher performance car.

Ran Bridgestone blizzaks on my ISF for the 3 winters I had the car. 
For the past 15 yrs or so have always changed to winters on my car. The ability to stop better in the bad weather is worth the cost alone.

Still have the wheels and tyres and am undecided whether to change on the GSF, As I have a defender and the kids cars and my wife’s car all have their winter boots on. So if the weather takes a turn for the worst i have other options.

Peak power for the GSF should be 471bhp at 7100rpm and 391lb ft from 4800 to 5600rpm. 

looking at the graphs above - the dyno run looks like the throttle was shut at just over 6000rpm, so not surprising power is down.  the 500nm is about 370 lb ft, torque peak / plateau is where it’s supposed to be, but a little low

There’s been a couple of threads on the club Lexus site talking about dyno runs on the f cars. 
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-f-2016-present/887291-gsf-dyno-questions.html

this one suggests that on the GSF the runs to give the most representative results should be in in 6th gear.  May be a similar situation with the LC.

14 hours ago, FTBBCVoodoo said:

I have 245/45 front and 275/30 rear.

Double check Costco.  I think they will only fit tyre sizes as specified by manufacturer.  Not sure if this is a nationwide policy but I do remember someone on here having Costco refuse to fit them.

I wanted the larger 4S fitted to my ISF, when they were on offer at Costco. Said they could only fit the manufacturer width spec tyres to the car - company policy.

Had to prove to them, by going through the owners handbook, that the rears on my s2000 were wider that the fronts. Wouldn’t change them until I showed them the documents. Don’t have a problem with that, offer a good service and price.

As an American company guess they’ve got to cover their backsides every which way due to the litigious nature of life there, and the corporate policy extends to all sites.

Might bring the roads up to date, but as with the ISF, the GSF system couldn’t find its own arse with both hands.....

waze is much much better

So cleaning the car yesterday, I noticed Leaf debris building up in the outer side grills of my GSF. 
Not sure if they’re radiators / AC condensers or oil coolers behind the grill, but there was quite a few leaves / plant debris building up in there.

as you can see in the pics even after a trying to get the majority out, there’s still some left.

so what you may ask - well in water cooled Porsche’s it’s a big problem. I had both condensers replaced at 2 years and a centre rad  at 3 years on one car, due to leak pick up and the debris rotting and causing the rads to corrode and eventually leak. The only way to access the areas was to remove the font bumper.

So has anybody else seen the problem? Is there a quick and easy way of removing the grills without removing the bumper to get access to clean???

maybe it’s nothing here.... but on past experience it’s a big expense to fix if left unchecked.

As ever any help would be greatly appreciated!

Beggars belief.

however there might only be 70 gsf’s but how many GS’ are about? A couple of 1000?

my bet is there’s someone with a lesser GS wanting a GSF look and this is the start of it - unfortunately.

39 minutes ago, PRT68 said:

Killysprint, yes, I understand what you say. 

My point is that if a shared component on a Toyota RAV4 fails after 4 years it's covered under warranty, but you'd have to pay with a Lexus.

On a further point raised earlier about the servicing on new vehicles where they can be serviced according to manufacturers schedule by a vat registered non Lexus garage to maintain the warranty.

I'm sure a Toyota garage could service a Lexus better than a specialist in Lexus's eyes. So how about going to Toyota for 3 years at possibly reduced cost....

If you’re not happy with the warranty conditions - buy something else. Easy.

It won’t have a full Lexus service history if you service with Toyota and consequently be worth less when you trade it in - your win on servicing will be lost. Theyll have your money either way.

Independants have their place - my defender - main dealer serviced - no. 

My 911 and 968 - main dealer serviced - no.

Why ? They’re not new cars and Because the specialists know the cars better and they can’t be plugged in for a computer says no. And with the type of cars they are and their age, an independent service history is as good as a main dealer one - and in the case of the 911 probably better, due to where it goes.

My s2000 - main dealer serviced - yes. This next year no. The Honda warranty is no longer valid. So it’ll go to a local type r specialist, and the car is 10 years old. 

My car The kids and the wife’s cars - main dealer yes because they are still within warranty and will be moved on when they’re 3/4 years old. The main dealer history helps preserve the value and is generally the first question asked when people buy a car.

Forums are littered with “can I have my lease car serviced at an independent, do I have to have it serviced before it goes back, do I have to put approved tyres on can I get away with ditchfinders to save £1” - my opinion is if you can’t do it properly, don’t do it all all.

1 minute ago, PRT68 said:

What really miffs me is the Lexus versus the Toyota warranty. I have an RC300h, 3 years warranty. Toyota RAV4 hybrid, 5 years. To get the extra 2 years warranty on my Lexus, £995. Many of the components are shared. Should really be the other way round. Still, my choice.

How many other manufacturers that Lexus compete with offer warranties longer than 3 years??? Merc, BMW, Audi, Infiniti? None of them. When you buy new you can add at cost warranty extensions. 

 The £500 a year lexus charge for the extended warranty is cheap at the price point Lexus sells at new. £42 per month for a £70k car - peanuts. As I said in my previous post my M5 was £140 a month, and I paid £65 a month for my sons previous 114i. 

Now ask the same question for Toyota - totally different market sector and demographic.

hyundai and Kia offer up to 7 yr warranties hence Toyota must offer the same to maintain and help sales.

The original warranty conditions contain T+C’s that contain terms defined by our friends in the EU. I.e allowing others to service the car as long as manufacturers original parts and schedules are used and adhered too.

the additional warranty is your choice, you don’t have to buy it, it doesnt come under the rules in place for new car warranties and hence they can impose whatever contractual conditions they like.

The reason why the warranty is cheap and so restrictive on maintenance  (£450 a year? - I paid £140 a month on my M5) is that the cars don’t go wrong, and also to push cars through the dealers and continue to generate revenue for them. Speaking to my local dealer they only exist due to the significant contribution from used car sales and servicing. New car sales alone won’t support the dealership.

2 minutes ago, Martin F said:

Myself I hate using any garage(independent or main stealer) and would rather do all work myself as then I know everything has gone back correctly and nothing has been damaged in the process. But for my RCF i do use Lexus just for servicing to keep the stamps in the book. 

 

100% with you.

At the end of the day you pays your money and take your chance.

if at any time in the future if you decide to sell and there’s a similar car in similar condition with a lexus SH - it’s very likely that the LSH car will sell first, or if you trade it in you’ll get more with a Lexus history. 

Also remember the RCF and GSF when new were expensive cars - and as such running costs should be expected to mirror other cars in their market sector - but they don’t. From what I’ve seen servicing as others have commented are cheaper than those of lexus’ competitors. For comparison my colleague had his year old RS5 services today. First year service, after 6000 miles. £560. For essentially oil, filter and pollen filter.

As for the warranty - the most important point is it’s manufacturer approved.  You’ll find that most extended warranties- I.e those paid for after the new car warranty expires are provided by a 3rd party.

I warranted the M5 I had before my ISF. It was BMW branded, all the paperwork and booklets were BMW, but cover was provided by Mondial. In the time I had it - no claims were knocked back or rejected by the warranty company. Claims in 2 yrs - £9200.

I took out the extended warranty when I bought my ISF. Never used it. It was there for peace of mind after the M5. Don’t expect to use it on the GSF either. Fingers crossed!

4 minutes ago, Womble72 said:

I’ve a mate who’s has both ISF and GSF. He says advancements in GSF over ISF is noticeable on every aspect BUT says the ISF is the better car to drive and get feedback, he’s always said GSF feels like someone is overriding all decisions. Think a 48hr test drive is a must when parting with the ISF 

Have to disagree - even though it’s a bigger car In the twisties with the wick turned up on the TVD, the GSF drives much better than the ISF. Feedback through the steering and the confidence it gives you is far superior.

day to day there’s no competition the GSF is more comfortable and eats the miles easier than the ISF.

The ISF was more sneaky and slipped under the radar, didnt attract any attention.

Here you go. Pics of the front spoiler and the dark chrome surround