‘Club Lexus’ Member Builds Raffle IS F Into Track Warrior!
From our friends at Club Lexus, a forum member wins $125 raffle, gains Lexus IS F, creates an epic track-day build thread for it.
Lexus is one of our favorite brands here at Team Speed. We certainly love seeing the RC-F roll up against the competition in FIA GT3 and IMSA. The LC 500, meanwhile, is a thing of beauty. And of course, Lexus delivers a whole assortment of fine luxury performance from the Land of the Rising Sun.
It’s not often, though, that a functioning, non-salvage Lexus lands in our laps for the price of a 32-inch TV. Yet, that is what happened to a forum member over at our sister site, Club Lexus. What happened next will blow you away!
“A few months ago, I won my IS F in a raffle, $125 buy-in and 210 spots,” wrote illwillem. “I bought a spot and ended up winning the car. I’m definitely not new to tracking or building race cars, but realized I knew surprisingly little about the IS F other than they are a sort of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Though he planned to fix it up and flip it, he soon learned of the Lexus’s potential as a track-day warrior. The motor and transmission were both stout out of the box, and while the car needed work, it was the perfect platform for his next project.
What resulted is a 13-page (and growing) build thread on this unique IS F. The owner’s plan was to build the car into an “arrive-and-drive” machine capable of handling the weather. Obviously, he couldn’t go full-on race car for this one, but he’d do his best to lighten the load, and improve its handling. He even fabricated the front and rear spoilers from carbon fiber!
“I have to say, building street cars makes less and less sense the older I get,” the owner says. “This IS F may be the last one I ever build… Mostly when building cars now, I am chasing a bar that is much much higher than the ‘typical’ enthusiast as far as lap times and driving feel.”
The thread’s been going since late May of 2019, and it’s wonderful to see how far this $125 Lexus has come along. You definitely should give it an hour or so of your time.
Until then, here’s the raffle Lexus in action on the track from the builder’s YouTube channel.
Photos: Club Lexus Forums
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