Lexus IS suffers from fundamental flaws in backseat space and interior controls that won’t be resolved until the car gets a full redesign. However, that doesn’t mean Lexus can’t make the car more fun. With the addition of the 2022 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance model, Toyota’s luxury brand is covering its compact sedan’s foibles by jamming a giant V-8 under the hood. To my surprise, it almost works.
This isn’t the first V-8 to make its way into the IS. That distinction belongs to the IS F, which debuted with styling straight out of a tuner magazine in 2008. The IS 500 is much more subtle than that car, lacking the same “F” badging and dramatic body folds that the IS F once featured. Tweaks are instead subtle, with four small exhaust tips, a slightly beefed-up hood bulge, a front bumper pulled forward to fit the larger engine, and new 19-inch Enkei ten-spoke wheels.
Pop open the hood and the engine takes up practically the whole bay, with barely any room on all sides. The same 5.0-liter V-8 can also be found in the RC F and the LC 500 and in this application, it produces 472 hp and 395 lb-ft of torque. It also shares a transmission with the RC F, an 8-speed automatic with a lockup torque converter.
The best part of the rear-wheel-drive IS 500, the V-8 produces easy power and a throaty exhaust note that enhances the driving experience. This is old-school V-8 performance, devoid of the forced induction found in most performance cars today. The V-8 doesn’t deliver immediate punch the way a turbocharged powertrain would. Rather, its power unwinds as the rpm levels climb. Lexus quotes a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds, which felt about right. But the IS 500 isn’t at its best off the line. It’s most happy on a curvy road with its revs held right at around 3,000 and the exhaust snarling in its wake. Even when winding it out the engine never really feels taxed. It just pulls and pulls up to its 7,300 rpm redline.
Despite the addition of the V-8, the IS 500 doesn’t gain that much weight. It adds 143 lb over the IS 350 F Sport and its V-6 for a total curb weight of 3,891 lb. The extra weight up front doesn’t make the nose feel heavy on turn-in. On my drive through the canyons above Malibu, California, it did exhibit a little understeer on a series of tight hairpins, but not enough to be alarming.
Compared to the IS 350 F Sport, the IS 500 gets larger brakes with opposed four-piston front brakes with 14.0-inch two-piece aluminum rotors and a single-piston rear with 12.7-inch rotors. They provide excellent stopping power with no front-end wiggle even during a panic stop.
