It's rarer that Toyota build a car with true passion, but when it does, the results are truly spectacular. With the Lexus IS-F, they wanted to make a 400-plus horsepower sports sedan to challenge the dominance of the BMW M3, and they managed to come close on their first try.
Much of the development of the IS-F was carried out by a small team of passionate engineers at the Fuji Speedway. They chose a big 5.0-liter V8 engine to ensure they have enough power under the bulging bonnet. The production car ended up having 423 hp transferred to the back via an eight-speed direct paddle sport shift gearbox.
Even so, in its stock form it has no chance against the 420 hp Volvo S40 T4 we've been following for some time now. Not only has it been tuned by Autotech, but it also has a limited slip diff to handle all the torque. It positively murders the Lexus with time to spare.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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