Lexus IS F gives hotshot rivals a prickly newcomer to contend with, writes motoring editor Alastair Sloane
KEY POINTS:
Debbie Pattullo steps out of the passenger seat of the go-fast Lexus IS F sports sedan as if she's stepped out of the pages of a fashion glossy: poised, elegant, unruffled.
A handful of searing laps around the Manfeild race circuit with famed New Zealand race driver Chris Amon at the wheel of the V8-powered four-door is all in a day's work for the woman who heads Toyota's luxury marque in this part of the world.
"I really enjoyed that. Once a talented driver, always a talented driver," Pattullo says of 65-year-old Amon.
A few months ago Pattullo was Lexus' marketing manager in New Zealand. Had been for a couple of years. Then her boss, Matthew Morrison, headed back to Lexus Australia and Pattullo took over as national manager.
It was a muffled transition. "It was in June," she says. "We didn't make any announcements. We were pretty busy then and we've been pretty busy since."
Pattullo, 43, has moved through Toyota's executive ranks since joining the company in 1990. She was national marketing manager for eight years before switching to Lexus.
Now she has the top job, the only woman in New Zealand in such a position. It's a hot seat, made hotter still by the current economic climate.
Pattullo says she is enjoying every minute of it, despite a 21 per cent slump in luxury sales in New Zealand over the past few months and a prediction that numbers this year will top out at 5000 units, against 6180 last year.
"Our customer base reacted very early on to the sub-prime mortgage collapse in the US," says Pattullo.
"With a greater exposure to equities and finance companies the luxury car customers have essentially kept their hands in their pocket for the greater part of this year."
Pattullo expects Lexus sales in 2008 to be around 500 units, down from 681 last year. But there is some good news as the carmaker enters the sports sedan segment for the first time.
"The launch of our IS F could actually be viewed as perfect timing," says Pattullo.
"The sports saloon performance group makes up 77 per cent of the sales volume and we are predicting 1000 sales in the total segment.
"The IS F gives us an introduction to a totally new customer and sheds a different light on Lexus, a brand that is undoubtedly luxurious but has been criticised for being unemotional.
"That's set to change."
So far Lexus has orders for 16 IS F cars, each priced at $137,000. For that, buyers get a four-year/140,000km warranty wrapped up in Lexus' unrivalled customer care package.
They also get days at the track with professional drivers.
The IS F goes up against all comers in the sports sedan segment, including obvious rivals such as the BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz AMG C63, Audi's new RS4 and more expensive exotics.
The use of F to identify the go-fast Lexus comes from the F in Fuji Speedway, the race track owned by Toyota and used for IS F development. The F logo also integrates the most demanding Fuji corners in its design.
Amon, who has been a consultant to Toyota since the 1980s, who knows the Fuji circuit and has driven everything under the sun, believes Lexus' first performance car is a splendid blend of rear-drive poise and power.
"The traction control is the least invasive system I have experienced," he says.
"It doesn't shut things down when the back end is moving about a bit. I prefer driving with traction control on. Turn it off and I have to work a lot harder at the wheel."
Amon worked pretty hard at the wheel anyway during the IS F launch, chatting to whoever sat in the front passenger seat. It's something he's known for. Toyota's people are used to it.
"I could go deeper under brakes here if I want," he says pulling the car down from around 190km/h on the back straight going into a right-hander. "The car doesn't have a gear for this corner."
Another corner, this time deep under brakes into the apex of a left-hander that almost turns back on itself. "Always remember to brake in a straight line," he says, working the wheel and the throttle.
At the heart of the IS F is a 32-valve 5-litre V8 engine producing 311kW (416bhp) at 6600rpm and 505Nm of torque at 5200rpm. An eight-speed gearbox channels power to the rear wheels.
Take it as read that the engine is hugely sophisticated, goes like the clappers to an electronically limited 270km/h, and offers significantly more useable torque than the M3, for example.
Take it as read also that the chassis is a cracker, that the brakes are progressive, that the driver's seat is as good as it gets, that the audio unit is the bee's knees. Perhaps the plain dash could do with some carbon-fibre highlights to blend with the console.
Whatever, it's the whiz-bang eight-speed gearbox and its lightning-fast shifts that are the fun part. The transmission has three methods for controlling gear shifts: D, or normal mode; D, or fixed-range mode; M, or sports direct-shift control.
In normal mode D, it's an automatic, offering the same smooth shifting as the rest of the Lexus range.
Fixed-range mode D is used with the paddle shifts behind the steering wheel. But the gearbox will not change to a ratio higher than the one selected. For example, if fifth gear is chosen, the transmission will use gears first to fifth only. It will automatically go back into normal mode D once the IS F stops or in stressed conditions.
Sports direct-shift control M is the most fun, especially on the track. It features gear hold control, lock-up control (second to eighth gears), super fast up-shifts and blipping downshifts. The emphasis here is on shift response and feel and throttle response.
The sound from the quad exhausts downshifting under ultra-quick throttle blips in mode M was intoxicating. The blips match the engine and gear speeds to avoid sudden engine-braking during performance driving.
The IS F is based on the IS250, the New Zealand Herald car of the year in 2006. We said then that the IS250 chassis was so good it could handle a lot more power. The IS F proves we were right.
Those hotshot six-figure German rivals, good as they are, have a prickly newcomer to contend with.
