gdh300

I think as ever, the best advice is to try one yourself, although I know with their rarity it is not that easy nowadays. It's not a 'sporty' box by any means, don't think you going to have the seamless flicking-up and flicking down you get with modern DCTs. It's a decidedly old school but lovely smooth slushbox, if you leave it alone. Using the buttons to change down can be clunky and the kickdown can be infuriating (slowly going down to second gear only to change-up to third almost at once). But you learn to drive round these things. Like David said, a big engine with a lazy automatic is wonderful, ideal for slouching up the motorway or crawling in stop-start traffic. But it's not F1. Good luck!

I love the style of RC, such a shame we never got the RC350 in the UK. Poor man's RC-F? Yeah, no doubt; but some of us are poor men!

Looking lovely, mate. What's the plans for the wheels? Footnote: God, I imss my IS300

Does that imply that not only the current CT is being dropped, but that the rumoured 2021 or 2022 CT won't be coming here either? Seems likely any new CT will have full BEV version which could be a good seller.

Hawker

Ah well, it's back to Autotrader for me and that Gen3 GS250... Very impressed with Toyota's 3.3 mile circuit, though.

Official unveil scheduled for later this evening:

I've seen the rumour about BMW engines finding their way into Lexus on few websites. Even I think, a joint development Mazda was mentioned somewhere, so who knows! I suppose it would make financial sense to share bigger petrol engines for the few years remaining of the pure-ICE market. When the new Supra came-out, I saw this interesting video which got into the background of the works between BMW and Toyota. Talk about the chosen engines - relevant or not to the new IS - starts at about 8m05s.

Yeah, but they are expensive, and quite bulky by the looks: https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/motorsport/car-preparation/fire-extinguishers-accessories/fire-extinguisher/plumbed-in/ I guess if you have a sensitive nose and a hand held extinguisher, you should be OK. 😉

Don't know if I missed it - or more likely I might just have forgotten! - but are you fitting fire suppression under the bonnet?

Wow, I had no idea of how close you were getting it on the road! Fantastic effort. 👍 Now you are over the trepidation you must be relived and delighted in equal measure but I guess there's still much to do before the slog of the rolling road work. And perhaps a few days in the gym to build up that left leg! I wonder if you might be better uploaded your videos to YouTube? There'll be interest beyond this forum as well.

I assume the waste gate tube will be sticking up through a new hole in the bonnet? 😁 Good to see an update, appreciate your efforts. A few videos of turbocharged IS300s have been creeping into my feed on YouTube recently; it's like they know...

I think might just be age related; it's a pretty hostile environment for a sensor over 15 years. My old IS300 had the P430 error for ages, even after one sensor was replaced. But like you say, it ran perfectly and passed a couple of Mos with the "fault" still present (clearing the EML first, of course!). You could end up like a friend of mine who replaced sensor after sensor only to find it was the cat was just performing a bit below par.

Have you considered crowd funding amongst the LOC cognoscenti? No ulterior motive, I'm sure...😉

Well done mate, congratulations; a lot of hard work and late nights there. Really missed your updates! A very Happy New Year to you, looking forward to your progress in 2020. 😊

My missus just sent me a link to the most brilliant;y nostalgic website, just here. Flipping through the 1979/80 catalogue, I found this, and immediately thought of you...:

You'll have no need to ever go home. Just find a nice layby, and you are all set...

Here you go, available here.

I think you can either put additives in 'normal' diff oil, or buy sort-of 'ready mix' oil. I think mine was the latter.

Oh, nice! When I was a kid, my absolute favourite car was the Jensen Interceptor. Some of the later ones havd sheepskin seats; may be this is a way forward for the old GS? 😁

I think its worth it. I seem to recall you could tell if your IS300 had LSD or 'open' diff from the the VIN number.

I had my mechanic do the gearbox on my IS300 a couple of times, but only a drain down and top up. Never had the pan taken off for a full drain. I guess the GS with the 2JZ uses the same box as my IS. I had the differential oil changed as well, but only once I'll admit.

Apologies, a bit too late with this particular post. Although SuperGT has concluded for 2019 (see my previous post), there are this weekend two 'Dream Races' at Fuji Speedway. These will see the final, final outing for the Lexus LC500s as the Japanese SuperGT field take on a healthy slice of the German DTM Series. Essentially, the two series run to the same specification nowadays (they did't a couple of years ago, but DTM do use silly DRS albeit disabled for these races), so it should be a competitive show. As I write the first race has already been run, but should you be at a loose-end, it is available to catch-up here. The second race is tomorrow, early doors for us in the UK of course, but will be available on MotorsportTV as well. Good luck, Lexus! By the way, no Lexus involvement but if you do want a bit more motorsport, the Kyalami 9hrs race will be streamed on GT World YouTube channel from 1030 today.

Is that some sort of euphemism?

I can't wait! I'm sure it will be something... tasteful....