WedsSport, a Japanese performance tuner, has revealed its Lexus IS 350 drift car, which is destined to compete in the D1 Grand Prix, the preeminent professional drifting series. NZ Performance Car has some details:

…the company has been slowly developing this new car which is, not surprisingly, powered by a Supra derived 2JZ-GTE motor. The new Lexus sports an awesome wide-body look, a 780hp T04Z turbo power delivery and an awesome handling package custom made for the car.

It will be interesting to see how WedsSport’s IS performs in the D1GP. (It certainly gets bonus points for those fantastic yellow rims!)

[Source: NZ Peformance Car]

The orange modded Lexus IS-F by Fox Marketing/Artisan Performance will be making an appearance at the Hot Import Night in Dallas this Saturday. Here’s a brand new photo of the car along with some other details:

[Brian Fox will] have the car at the Dallas HIN on Saturday, and from there he plans to take it to his buddy Kenny Strickler, who will install a Turbonetics GTK350 twin turbo setup. After that the next stop is the Lexus booth at SEMA!

[Source: Car Domain]

It was only days ago that I posted a Flickr photo, but this new set from 360° Forged photographer William Stern (see previous feature here) is beyond stunning:

The wheels are 360° Forged Mesh Eights, matte black and super. You can see the rest of the set here.

(In fact, this car/wheel combo is right in line with my future car purchase, though I’m planning on the GS hybrid.)

With four modified Lexus IS-Fs expected at SEMA this year, it’s only a matter of time before each and every one of them makes an Internet appearance. We’ve already seen the Fox Marketing/Artisan Performance IS-F, and now Import Tuner Magazine has posted some work-in-progress photos of their project car, including the shot above of an entirely gutted interior.

They also outlined their goals for the car, and included a digital mockup:

…reliability is key. We’re going to go light on the engine mods (it does come stuffed with a V-8…stock) and heavy on the chassis and suspension. Cue Tein. A lot of our efforts will also be spent on lightening the vehicle to improve its power-to-weight ratio and tuning the suspension components.

To test the capabilities of our IS F, after SEMA, our Lexus will compete in the Street Class of the Super Lap Battle time attack finals at Buttonwillow Raceway, CA.

There’s been some new(ish) details released regarding the Fox Marketing/Artisan Lexus IS-F that’s scheduled to be shown at SEMA. As is my tendency these last couple days, let’s outline the mods in convenient bullet-points:

• The engine will be pumping out an abundant 600hp (estimated) due to a twin-turbo setup using compressed air, JE pistons, Crower rods, a Mishimoto radiator, and an exhaust made by Artisan themeselves.
• The one-off bodykit includes custom front/rear bumpers and new side skirting.
• The rims are by iForged, with 20×9.5″ in front and 20×11.5″ in the rear. The rubber is Toyo T1R tires.
• The orange paint is Glasurit Sunset, and made by BASF.

The plan is for the Artisan exhaust to go on sale in October, followed by this car to make its appearance at SEMA in November. More custom IS-Fs are expected as well, stay tuned!

[Source: Autoblog]

Although it seems like a rehash of known information, German Dutch magazine Autotelegraaph reports that Lexus will not only release a coupe/convertible version of the IS in 2009, but that work continues on a lightweight IS-F. Motor Trend summarizes:

Autotelegraaph reports that Lexus has been channeling Lotus and already has a lightened test model running that applies a variety of techniques to bring down the weight and thereby bring up the performance. Unfortunately, Lexus also confirmed that there will be no GS-F or IS F convertible. The IS 350 C will be getting a hard top convertible, and Lexus hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a diesel powered IS.

Not that I don’t applaud the continued efforts into performance-oriented vehicles, but when you take into account the supressed sales in the US, I would think the focus would be on higher-volume models. Still, this could very well be a continuation of the IS-F’s grassroot beginnings, and there’s no real harm in boosting the performance profile of the company, that’s for sure.

[Source: Motor Trend]