Gor134

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I am with you. I realize it's a concept and we need to wait to see what the production car looks like, but the IS has been one of Lexus' best looking vehicles in every generation, and one of the most attractive vehicles in its class as well.

If Lexus scraps the IS legacy for some sort of weird electric "part coupe, part CUV" blob with no personality, that'll be... um... not great.
I'm still praying for that concept sedan to make it to production from 2021... but I now understand that was just a showcase for CALTY's design skills, not representative of any future product unfortunately.
 

internalaudit

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Facts, TMC def could use some more push with again engaging Lexus i agree, i wish i was excited about GR stuff but folks like myself didnt leave M cars for Toyota branded GR compact sports cars. I do hope to your point TMCs breathes more racing life into F as they did when Yaguchi san was active. Lets see indeed.
Even M-Lite / M Performance with the B58/8-speed ZF is hard to beat from a value perspective, let alone from your experience, actual M cars.
 

ssun30

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Even M-Lite / M Performance with the B58/8-speed ZF is hard to beat from a value perspective, let alone from your experience, actual M cars.
And what's funny is that BMW didn't even have much success in premier level motorsports, and the M cars aren't track machines as advertised either. They have never built a super car since 1981. They haven't produced a single car capable of breaking the 7 minute barrier at Nurburgring. Yet people talk about M cars as parallels to Porsche and AMG.
 

Randen Montalvo

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And what's funny is that BMW didn't even have much success in premier level motorsports, and the M cars aren't track machines as advertised either. BMW has not produced a single car capable of breaking the 7 minute barrier at Nurburgring yet people talk about M cars as parallels to Porsche and AMG.
For the sake of the culture, I have to ask. Do you view the M3 GTS, M4 CSR , M4 GTS not as track machines as advertised?

How can they be more track machine-worthy as compared to a 911 GT3 if i may ask you to elaborate on please?

What defines the gap they're missing on those models that make them not track machines as compared to a 911 GT3 as a baseline respective to their years if I may ask?

M4 CSL with a 7:18,137 Min at the Nurburgring, you would say is not comparable at all to a slightly faster Porsche 911 GT3 6:55.737 on that same track?

I totally agree its not sub 7 but to say there are ZERO performance parallels to a comparable Porsche and AMG...... brother/sister......i respect the your high standard here but wholy moly.
 
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internalaudit

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For the sake of the culture, I have to ask. Do you view the M3 GTS, M4 CSR , M4 GTS not as track machines as advertised?

How can they be more track machine-worthy as compared to a 911 GT3 if i may ask you to elaborate on please?

What defines the gap they're missing on those models that make them not track machines as compared to a 911 GT3 as a baseline respective to their years if I may ask?

M4 CSL with a 7:18,137 Min at the Nurburgring, you would say is not comparable at all to a slightly faster Porsche 911 GT3 6:55.737 on that same track?

I totally agree its not sub 7 but to say there are ZERO performance parallels to a comparable Porsche and AMG...... brother/sister......i respect the your high standard here but wholy moly.
He drives a BMW lol.
 

internalaudit

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And what's funny is that BMW didn't even have much success in premier level motorsports, and the M cars aren't track machines as advertised either. They have never built a super car since 1981. They haven't produced a single car capable of breaking the 7 minute barrier at Nurburgring. Yet people talk about M cars as parallels to Porsche and AMG.
Probably because people value the overall package and like me, many don't bother tracking their vehicles.

Many suggest the power/drivetrain is better than many Porsches and BMWs are way cheaper to purchase and operate, if we base on oil change pricing alone.
 

Randen Montalvo

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He drives a BMW lol.
Unsure what that means good sir. I did as well for many years all M cars and did all those fun BMW classes in Spartanburg also etc Knowing the history of a Hofmeister kink is cool stuff but kinda just trying to follow the logic on the statement of track focused machines.

Was kinda curious on the question as to say how one can say they dont make track machines to tickles ones curiosity fancy. I'm curious on the logic to say a M4 GTS, M3 GTS, M4 CSL are not "track focused machines" as compared to a 911 GT3.

This is not a track machine its a love bubble covered in sheet metal designed to pick up the dogs & kids on way to work on Nordschleife. :)

1732675233776.png

Those cars are pretty dedicated track-focused cars thus im curious to how much weed one needs to smoke to understand that logic before passing it is kinda my goal here. That statement is two hits on a bong listening to Simon & Garfunkel in Dolby Atmos level stuff so im trying to set expectations correctly if you catch my drift. Being half Jamaican i have yet found a marajuana strain powerful enough to say that a for example a M4 GTS isnt a track-focused machine as one fills up distilled water in its trunk with a great view of a roll cage straight from factory. :)

Pass the dutchie pon the left-hand side by Musical Youth is a great song BTW!

All love.
 
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ssun30

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For the sake of the culture, I have to ask. Do you view the M3 GTS, M4 CSR , M4 GTS not as track machines as advertised?

How can they be more track machine-worthy as compared to a 911 GT3 if i may ask you to elaborate on please?

What defines the gap they're missing on those models that make them not track machines as compared to a 911 GT3 as a baseline respective to their years if I may ask?

M4 CSL with a 7:18,137 Min at the Nurburgring, you would say is not comparable at all to a slightly faster Porsche 911 GT3 6:55.737 on that same track?

I totally agree its not sub 7 but to say there are ZERO performance parallels to a comparable Porsche and AMG...... brother/sister......i respect the your high standard here but wholy moly.
My point is you don't necessarily need a successful motorsport program and top level super car to have a successful performance brand. The key to that is consistency and variety. The success of the M brand comes from all the M and M-lite options they offer consistently over the decades. BMW successfully captured me as a potential buyer because they offered exactly what I wanted. And I know I can come back to the brand for my next car because I don't need to worry about them killing off 50% the lineup.

Lexus has the opposite problem that they think making a top performance super car is enough to convince people to buy the F brand. The problem is people cannot buy F cars when there's nothing to buy.
 

Randen Montalvo

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My point is you don't necessarily need a successful motorsport program and top level super car to have a successful performance brand. The key to that is consistency and variety. The success of the M brand comes from all the M and M-lite options they offer consistently over the decades. BMW successfully captured me as a potential buyer because they offered exactly what I wanted. And I know I can come back to the brand for my next car because I don't need to worry about them killing off 50% the lineup.

Lexus has the opposite problem that they think making a top performance super car is enough to convince people to buy the F brand. The problem is people cannot buy F cars when there's nothing to buy.
I see, that was your statement my bad about BMW not making track-focused cars at all. I was quite confused and it threw me off because that clearly isnt true of course.

The rest I get is common stuff yes we all have heard for years regarding BMW how they move consistently and deliver a great performance products with stable volume sell-through to not worry its base with their line up; so no sweat there. All good.

Point is they make track focused cars that parallel with Porsche and Mercedes. Stevie Wonder even sees this.
 
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My point is you don't necessarily need a successful motorsport program and top level super car to have a successful performance brand. The key to that is consistency and variety. The success of the M brand comes from all the M and M-lite options they offer consistently over the decades. BMW successfully captured me as a potential buyer because they offered exactly what I wanted. And I know I can come back to the brand for my next car because I don't need to worry about them killing off 50% the lineup.

Lexus has the opposite problem that they think making a top performance super car is enough to convince people to buy the F brand. The problem is people cannot buy F cars when there's nothing to buy.
This goes so unbelievably hard. Well said. If BMW "kills off" cars, it's mostly them killing off nameplates, but have kept the cars the same.
 

ssun30

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This goes so unbelievably hard. Well said. If BMW "kills off" cars, it's mostly them killing off nameplates, but have kept the cars the same.
It's impossible to support a brand when the product you want to buy simply isn't available.

Every time I walk into a Lexus dealership and ask about the IS500 or LC500 the response is "sorry supply of these cars is very low and the next available allocation is 3 months away and sorry we can't help you order one from the factory". I NEVER have to walk into a BMW dealership and wonder if they have a M340 or M3 available and even if not I know they can make arrangements to build one for me. I know some of the members here have the connections to get inter-dealer transfers but that's an exclusive privilege not available for everyone and is a complex process.

When 99.99% of the available cars in the dealership inventory are cookie cutter SUVs, you can only sell cookie cutter SUVs.
 

internalaudit

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^ Allocation is probably much worse on those higher-end Porsches where you may need to have bought a few vehicles before they will sell one of those higher end models to you.

Porsche is trying/mimicking limited supply to keep demand/prices up. Prices on any Porsche has gone through the roof here in Canada. Unless I really highly value the cachet, the "better" steering feel, the slightly better chassis design when driving closer to the limits (which I probably won't), I'm just not so sure if the brand is going to be on my radar. Sure we were considering the Macan 4 but yikes about the pricing and who knows how much Porsche will want for the battery pack replacement down the road.

Even the Polestar 3 seems very well regarded when it comes to handling, thanks to the BorgWarner eTVD.

I still remain interested in Lexus vehicles because I know they are still built and drive better than Toyotas and probably are the more reliable vehicles we can find nowadays when reliability and longevity are taking the dumpster.
 
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carguy420

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It's impossible to support a brand when the product you want to buy simply isn't available.

Every time I walk into a Lexus dealership and ask about the IS500 or LC500 the response is "sorry supply of these cars is very low and the next available allocation is 3 months away and sorry we can't help you order one from the factory". I NEVER have to walk into a BMW dealership and wonder if they have a M340 or M3 available and even if not I know they can make arrangements to build one for me. I know some of the members here have the connections to get inter-dealer transfers but that's an exclusive privilege not available for everyone and is a complex process.

When 99.99% of the available cars in the dealership inventory are cookie cutter SUVs, you can only sell cookie cutter SUVs.
Same crap when some people were trying to buy the base spec Nissan Z, "we don't have any in our inventory and we can't help you to order this specific spec from the factory".

So it ends up being like, these cars are on sale, but also not on sale at the same time.
 

larryren

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https://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1641964.html
It seem we miss something new on Nov. 23, same time on Rally Japan Toyota's booth and we know Celica is incoming.
The new 1.5 and 2.0T are tentatively called X15/X20, 1.5T with hybrid system will be equal nowaday 2.5 system. 2L turbo targeting 400PS on sale. racing version converting "head" will be 600PS (Sorry, don't know what is the "head" mean in orginal article.)
And CTO Nakajima said these new engines can fit in longitudinal and tranverse.