News

• 2008 LEXUS IS F
• Type: Super sport sedan
• Price: $64,400
• Engine: 5.0-litre V-8, DOHC
• Horsepower/torque: 416 hp/371 lb-ft
• Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
• Drive: Rear-wheel-drive
• Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 13.1 city/8.5 highway; premium gas
• Alternatives: Audi RS4, BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

The F stands for Fuji Speedway and, as logos go, it is styled to resemble the one used by Toyota's Formula One racing team. You'll find it decorating the back end of the 2008 Lexus IS F supersedan — all 416 horsepower of it.

The logo and the whole car are impressive, the car itself even a bit menacing. Toyota's F1 teams are not, however.

Neither has finished first in any race and through the five races run so far this year one team has 13 points (Williams-Toyota), the other nine (Toyota). Ferrari, leading the series, has 63, BMW Sauber 44 and McLaren-Mercedes has 42.

Okay, okay, Williams-Toyota is in fourth place on the season, but for this F1 observer that only suggests that F1 racing is as exciting and unpredictable as Question Period here in the nation's capital.

You know Question Period. Every question is preceded by a windy, self-serving preamble and we know that every answer will be a mix of mock outrage and fervent dissembling.

Similarly, in F1 we know that Ferrari will win every race and win the overall title.

Someone like Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren might get lucky, really drive the lights out of his car (as happened last weekend in Turkey), but if you're betting, bet on Ferrari. Of the five races run so far, Ferrari has won four, with Hamilton taking one, just one, in Australia.

Calabogie Motorsport Park, where we let loose in a brilliant-blue IS F, is not quite Fuji Speedway, the site of the Japanese Grand Prix at the base of Mount Fuji, but its 20 turns are an excellent place to go thrashing about in a red-hot sedan designed to take on the BMW M3, in particular.

Best of all, I had it to myself. How often does that happen? Not often enough.

Alas, as we set out for Calabogie, about an hour's drive from Ottawa in cottage country, the drizzle began to fall. By the time I reached the track, that drizzle had morphed into a downpour.

On the track at better than 160 kilometres an hour, I was hydroplaning down the long, 610-metre straightaway.

Fun, but a little scary and certainly an unorthodox way to test a brand-new and very impressive automobile.

But orthodox is not what the Lexus people want. The IS F is the first of many future "F" cars from Lexus. They are joining the lineup to add emotion to Lexus.

Consider them the right-brain piece that goes with the left side that makes a rational case for buying vehicles from Toyota's luxury brand.

Quality? Of course. No one makes a more reliable car than Lexus.

Resale value? Of course. The latest Canadian Black Book numbers show Lexus has the best residual values in the country.

Advanced technology and safety gear? The LS 600h hybrid, the brand's flagship model, has infrared beams that scan your face to detect whether you are nodding off. The car can park itself, too, and has an "advanced precollision system" that can detect when the car is about to hit an obstacle. Automatically, it helps the driver brake and steer out of harm's way. And so on.

The IS F has some pretty fancy technological triumphs, too, but they are all of the go-fast variety.

You would expect that from this Yamaha-tuned 5.0-litre V-8 sedan, the first F in the Lexus lineup and Toyota's high-performance answer to the Mercedes AMG family, the R cars from Audi and BMW's M.

Lexus doesn't plan to sell many IS Fs, perhaps a few hundred in Canada and no more than 7,000 in all this year.

Some buyers will jump aboard because Lexus to them means bullet-proof quality. Others will want the "new" racy model and this is it. Still others will look at the price tag and say, "What a deal."

At $64,400 — several thousand less than any competitor — the IS F certainly looks like a player.

With a top speed of 270 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of 4.8 seconds, it is the drag-strip equal of the M3 and Audi's RS4, and takes the crown in flat-out autobahn performance. The M3, at $69,900, has a top speed of 248 km/h, the RS4 250 km/h. The Lexus people are pleased to point this out.

I never hit 270, but went fast enough to be impressed.

At high speeds, the IS F feels like it is coasting. The gear changes from the eight-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic transmission, paddle-actuated on the steering wheel, come fast but not furiously. There is even a nice little throttle blip on the downshifts.

The eight-speed, paddle-shift automatic transmission is really something of a technological marvel. Somehow Lexus's engineers managed to fit this tranny in the same space as the six-speed from the IS 350.

For those who wonder why no stick-shift version is available, the IS F automatic can initiate and complete a gearshift in 0.3 seconds. That's as quick as a Ferrari F430.

All in all, I have the feeling this is the car Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda, drives to work. Akio Toyoda is an avid racer and he's been seen decked out in a black full-body racing suit with his name stitched on the belt.

Almost no one ever sees this racy side of Toyota and almost no one expects to see it either. But it is there and Lexus is now being charged with expressing it in order to expand the brand's appeal.

In fact, the F designation is part of a broad Lexus plan to diversify its products. More F versions are in the works and we're led to believe Lexus is studying new F products, including crossovers and serious sports cars.

The IS F exists as a start, to get the basics right. The next step is to gauge other possibilities and decide which ones make the most sense. Lexus is determined to erase any suggestion that its cars are joyless appliances that never break.

Going fast is the obvious way to change perceptions, but so is the right kind of braking performance. For that, Brembo has provided the front and rear disc brake systems, the front brakes having six-piston calipers. Six!

Under the skin, the IS F gets a modified version of the IS 350's double wishbone front and multilink rear suspension. Except Lexus has lowered the IS F by about 25 mm, spring and damper rates have been increased significantly and the suspension components beefed up. Also, the bushings are designed specifically for the IS F.

And there is Toyota's Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system, which links traction control, stability control, limited-slip differential, antilock brakes and brake assist into one unit. For the IS F, however, there are two "sport" modes, which allow for more wheel spin before the electronic nannies interfere.

All this stuff works, and works well.

In the heavy rain that swept across the Calabogie track, I tried hard to keep the high-tech interventions to a minimum and for the most part succeeded.

What I like about these driving nannies is that they do not jump in too soon and they do their work progressively, rather than shocking the driver into submission.

The rest of the standard package includes 19-inch BBS wheels, bi-xenon headlamps, LED brake and tail lamps, fog lights, heated mirrors, trip computer, keyless doors and ignition, rain-sensing wipers, heated front seats and six-disc CD changer with 13 speakers.

All that for the base price of a car that is the first of its kind — according to corporate types, no Toyota or Lexus production car has been so heavily tested at race tracks all around the world. The plan has always been to bring a car to showrooms that is as authentic on the track as it is on the street.

Lexus need make no apologies on that score. But how about winning an F1 race for a change?