The folks at Lexus really, and I do mean really, want us to believe that the IS-F was designed by a small team of performance minded engineers in their off time without having to answer to bean counters or mid-level management. If that were true, the car probably would have never gotten out of bar-napkin stage. As it is, the car stands as a genuine M3 killer. While Lexus did hand over the keys to Editor-in-Chief Levy, for week, he’s still fine tuning his review (Loverman also had the IS-F for seven days, but he’s not writing a review). But I got to sneak behind the wheel for a couple of laps around an unnamed track recently and wanted to share a Quick Look. Keep on truckin’ for a gallery of shots and our views of the car.

There’s no mistaking the fact that we’re in tough times as far as petrol goes, but the old hot rodding mantra “no replacement for displacement” still stands. The IS-F is powered by a 5.0-liter all aluminum V-8 that kicks out 416 horsepower. That’s two more than BMW’s king-o-da-hill, and something tells me that was no coincidence. After all, if you’re going to build a performance luxury sedan, you’re going to be stacked up against the Bavarian bruiser. Lexus knew that coming into this game. Speaking of performance luxury, the cockpit is pretty sweet, with high bolstered leather seating that consumes whoever’s lucky enough to be at the helm. In a good way. If I had the space, I could rave like a mad man about the car’s impossibly fast 8-speed paddle-shifting tranny, the impressive suspension, the bitchin’ quad-stacked exhaust tips or the size-of-my-chest Brembo stoppers. For now, you’ll just have to take my word for it. F is for Fast. Check the gallery for mo’ shots.