Staff Absence: Me, a Lexus IS-F and Wales.

I don’t know if people are even really interested in this sort of stuff, but hopefully a few of you will find it vaguely interesting. πŸ™‚ One of my jobs at DW is to blog stuff, and occasionally regular readers may notice it goes a little quiet for a couple of days – and the reason is I’m usually out of the office filming cars for various companies. I was hired a few months back by CAR Magazine to do a drifting film in Jaguar XF-R’s alongside Master Photographer Greg Pajo who is one of the most skilled photographers I’ve ever worked alongside, Ben Barry who is a dab hand M3 drifter and writer for CAR, and as an added I had a LexusΒ  IS-F to take to Wales to make sure it was all dandy. So I guess it would be rude not to do a mini review.

The Lexus IS-F Gen2 is the BMW M3 in the Lexus garage, and it’s a got some good specs: A proper mechanical differential, track biased suspension, 8 gears (plus reverse) and and a 415bhp V8, which combined with it’s generous steering lock is all the ingredients you need to make a hilariously fun car to drive on a private empty wet track. So whilst we were setting up photo shots with the Jags, I set off on a sodden track and went for a skid.

Now I guess I’ve driven a few decent cars of this ilk and I can certainly report the car is certainly better suited to the track than the road – quite stiff ARB’s make bumps quite prominent and eight gears (yep, count them)Β  is enormously frustrating when all it wants to do is constantly hunt for a new ratio when in full auto, even on flat motorways with cruise control – so on my epic drive up from DWHQ to Anglesey race track I set the sat nav for ‘Most Fun’ route (up the middle of Wales), smashed it into full manual, most aggressive engine and throttle map, and spent the next 3 hours grinning like an idiot.

The noise is good, really good – those four pipes DO make a very nice sound but the real joy is in the cabin. The way the car fills the space around your ears with a classic near-push-rod-esque V8 noise just adds to a fantastic on track experience. The car has a very decent amount of steering lock, and you can hold the car at more or less any angle you feel you want to try within reason, and the suspension just laps it up. I guess the big clue is the ‘F’ in the name, which stands for Fuji Raceway where the car is proven in Japan. The steering is excellent, great feedback and a really good turn in without being unstable – perfect for being a hooligan.

People have a very misguided view of newer cars if they’ve never had the opportunity to drive these machines in these enviroments – and the myth that new cars don’t let you have fun is totally untrue. Cars are better than they have ever been before, and manufacturers will always be battling with the silly emmisions laws and pedestrian impact protection etc, and despite all this – they still produce wonderful fun cars – the only difference is you need to be in the right place at the right time.

If you liked this post – let me know, and I’ll tell you about the two Jaguar XF-R’s which are even better… Perhaps Driftworks should start testing new cars based entirely on how much fun they are to sling round corners?

Thanks to Greg Pajo for the photos – they’re amazing.

And thanks to CAR Magazine and Ben Barry for letting me make this film!

[2 Jaguar XFR’s Drifting Film]

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Bradders
Bradders
13 years ago

Love it Al! Keep ’em coming!

Sigurbergur
Sigurbergur
13 years ago

nice write up πŸ™‚

always like the IS-F

would love to read about the jaguar !

William
William
13 years ago

Sweeeeeeeet! i want to see more. videos…… great write up. nice to these factory built cars can slide. but having said that. i would to see it in the dry on that track..

Tony
Tony
13 years ago

Through the middle of Wales you say? Did you by any chance go on the A4212 from Bala to Trawsfynydd? Come up to a T-Junction at the end of it with a petrol station to your right? Now that is a very fun road to drive!

ElTorro
ElTorro
13 years ago

Cool feature. Your idea about DW testing “fun” factor in cars is really nice. Thumbs up!

Tony
Tony
13 years ago

In fact, next time you go to Anglesey or North Wales, I recommend you take Top Gear’s favourite route where they film a lot of their stuff:

Get onto A5 heading to Llangollen/Oswestry

Just after Nescliffe take the B4396 to Knockin

At LLynclys crossing, go straight over it onto the A495

Follow that for a few miles and then there is another juction, go back onto B4396 heading for Bala.

At Penybontfawr take the B4391 (Bala) and follow this all the way to Bala.

Than at Bala it is pretty much a right turn then immediately a left turn onto the A4212 to Trawsfynydd which is held in high esteem by all who drive her fast and hard (with one of the greatest hairpins you can imagine!)

Here’s a routemap for you:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=knockin&daddr=52.9377903,-3.6275345+to:A4212&geocode=FWeTJQMddlbS_yn_NWp0VaR6SDGAbm3tnvkMBQ%3BFT7EJwMd8qXI_ynBHXIlD0FlSDHApJLCI4sNEw%3BFYo3JwMdMjfE_w&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=12&via=1&sll=52.910351,-3.544121&sspn=0.118637,0.264015&ie=UTF8&ll=52.86685,-3.449364&spn=0.118756,0.264015&t=h&z=12

This shows what the bikers think of the Bala – Traws route: https://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcyclegps.php?n=A4212-Bala-Trawsfynydd&code=1732a1

tim
tim
13 years ago

Great article sir, it’s easy to forget that people are still building new driftable cars. More.

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Tweets that mention Driftworks | Staff Absence: Me, a Lexus IS-F and Wales. -- Topsy.com
13 years ago

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Scott Brownlee and SliproadJunkies, SliproadJunkies. SliproadJunkies said: Some nice shots of a Lexus IS-F in action: @ToyotaPR @driftworks https://www.driftworks.com/blog/2010/10/staff-absence-me-a-lexus-is-f-and-wales/ […]

Nick
Nick
13 years ago

Can you teach Jim how to do it then, ask him about his Stow experience in the same car πŸ™‚

Andy
Andy
13 years ago

beast of a car this , i so wish 1 of these comes into the workshop πŸ™‚ even just for a wee look ..

Andy
Andy
13 years ago

i have now experienced the ISF :DDDDD

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