2002 Lexus IS 300 Review (continued)
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Driving Impressions

Chief engineer for the IS 300, Nobuaki Katayama, is a passionate racing fan who admits that his personal driving style is dynamic; he likes to pitch his car. So he designed the chassis and suspension of the rear-wheel-drive IS 300 to accommodate such a style. He did a great job. Last year we were impressed by the agility of the sedan, and the 2002 SportCross corners even better than the sedan, given its slightly better weight distribution (53/47 versus 54/46) and wider rear tires. But the five-speed, with its stiffer sport suspension, should corner best of all.

Katayama started by mounting the engine (and battery) as far back as possible. The double-wishbone independent suspension was specifically designed to resist lateral roll in corners and front-end dive under hard braking, and it thoroughly succeeds. Meanwhile, the speed-assisted rack-and-pinion steering provides precise cornering with excellent feedback.

But it was the car's balance that was downright dazzling. We drove it very aggressively (Katayama-san would have approved) through our favorite remote twisty section IN THE WET, and we kept trying and trying to get the tail to hang out, but the car would not oversteer. Our SportCross was not equipped with the optional Vehicle Skid Control, but it did not seem to need it, and that's saying a whole lot. Still, for $350, the VSC option remains a steal. Think fail-safe. Think ice.

The SportCross handled better in the wet than the front-wheel-drive Acura TL-S, for one, did in the dry. Of all the cars we tested in the last year, only the all Subaru WRX was more fun in corners; and that list includes such excellent sports cars as the BMW Z3, Audi TT, Honda S2000, Toyota MR2, Mazda Miata, even the BMW M3.

It probably wasn't Katayama-san who programmed the IS 300 transmission. We loved the operation by buttons on the steering wheel, but the mapping of the five-speed manual automatic gearbox is problematic. Manual is a misnomer. Even in the manual mode, it's often automatic, which is both frustrating and confusing when you're driving hard. It overrides you, especially downshifting, and when it does, the digital readout on the dash often doesn't change, so it's actually inaccurate; the readout indicates the last gear you selected (the gear you want to be in), not the gear the car actually is in. Drive into a corner hard, begin clicking the button on the steering wheel to downshift, and often it won't respond. It's a mechanism to prevent abuse to the transmission and/or over-revving, but it's set way too conservatively; one time it wouldn't even downshift for us at a modest 3800 rpm. Sometimes, accelerating away from curves, it even leaves you below the powerband, which is reasonably broad. Also, it won't do short-shifts when you want heavy throttle at lower rpm.

Bottom line: If you really want to control shifting with the IS 300, you should get the manual transmission.

Turning to the ride and brakes, the IS 300 gets great again. The ride presented remarkable equanimity, which is to say it felt the same over every kind of surface. High-speed ripples, firm and steady; low-speed bumps, firm and never harsh. Out on the freeway, it delivered a nap-inducing smoothness.

And the brakes, with big ventilated discs in front and solid discs in back, were always there. The anti-dive suspension design works. We abused the brakes during our longest cornering session and they never faded; we drove into rain-slicked second-gear turns too fast and too late, relying on the anti-lock system to save us, and it did, with rock-steadiness and without protest.

The engine, using Lexus's continuously variable valve timing system, offers keen acceleration, but the three models are not equal. The five-speed is quickest, the sedan next, and SportCross the slowest because it's the heaviest. According to Lexus, 0 to 60 times are 6.8, 7.3, and 7.4 seconds respectively, and quarter-mile times are 15.1, 15.3, and 15.6.

Finally, we were both puzzled and impressed by the performance of the traction control with optional limited-slip differential; the rear wheels spun quite easily on wet pavement (accelerating lightly from uphill stop signs, for example), but when we pounded the throttle to see just how bad it was, the limited-slip kicked in with a shudder, and prevented the wheels from further spinning. We can't say what role the Bridgestone Potenza summer radials played in this. But we can say that they did a great job gripping the wet road, back on those memorable curves.