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.

It’s been an up and down couple days for the Targa GS 450h — after completing Day 1 with zero errors, Team Lexus fell back to 15th place on Day 2. And now, yesterday, they surged forward and ended the stage in 8th position. This is quite a feat, though driver Marc Lachapelle stays humble in his latest blog post:

Don’t worry; we are not letting this good result get to our collective heads. There are still two full days of hard, fast and sometimes treacherous rally stages to complete before getting to the finish line in St-John’s. Our goal has not changed. We want to bring our car there in perfect shape, with a happy crew.

I’m really enjoying the race blog, and still getting a kick of these short little video clips being posted on Youtube:

(Also, be sure to check out the Facebook page.)

The race-modified Lexus GS 450h has returned to the Targa Newfoundland race after competing last year. Running from September 13-20, the team behind the hybrid racer is keeping a great blog over at Autonet. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s post, after completion of the Prologue stage:

And for our first pass through the much tighter and trickier Torbay stage, I promptly forgot to deactivate the systems before taking off at the start. Cars running before us had spewed quite a bit of sand and gravel on the course, so the VDIM system beeped merrily several times while jerking the car back on what its silicon chip brain considers the best trajectory. The car felt tighter and more stable but the ‘electronic nannies’ as enthusiasts often call these systems, still made the handling feel somewhat disjointed and unsynchronized.

The third run, over the same course but with the VDIM duly shut off, was the charm. Everything flowed together nicely. For the first time at Targa, I was able to pick what I considered the best line through the sections covered with sand and gravel, give it some throttle and keep the car’s attitude consistent. I even - lo and behold - COUNTERSTEERED for the very first time at Targa – ever so slightly – through one of the liberally peppered corners.

Alan also zoomed up to command center to find out about our starting position for tomorrow (Monday) morning. There, even though these numbers don’t count, we discovered that we had racked up the 6th best composite times out of the 65 cars entered in the Targa competition this year, 3rd best in Modern.

It’s great fun reading about the experience of racing in Lexus’ sport sedan, and the writing is fantastic. Great to see them doing so well, more on this as the race progresses.

The IS-F will be making Lexus-sponsored appearance at SEMA again this year, this time in collaboration with the Fox Marketing & Artisan Performance.

The person-in-charge of the modified version is Brian Fox, who’s been posting photos of the work-in-progress to his CarDomain pageand dropping hints here and there on the direction, including an announcement that Artisan will be releasing an IS-F turbo kit.

Another piece of info I found very interesting was this:

We will help Lexus market, position, and brand the IS-F to appeal to a savvy, European type buyer. Look for our version of the IS-F to debut very soon in the Lexus booth at SEMA Show 2008.

After reading that, my first thought was that we might be looking at more “sleeper”-looking revamp, but from the work visible in Fox’s photos, that doesn’t look to be the case. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to fun following along.

The Fonz is trading in his motorcycle for a Lexus RX 400h, as Henry Winkler is making his way across Britain on a children’s book tour to support the government’s 2008 National Year of Reading:

Winkler, world famous for his role as “The Fonz” in the hit television show Happy Days., is now the author of a best-selling series of children’s novels about a boy called Hank Zipzer, the World’s Greatest Underachiever. Winkler based Hank on his own experiences as a boy with dyslexia.

The tour kicked off on 30 June and will continue until 10 July. First News and Winkler are visiting 11 schools* during their tour and stopping off at branches of W.H. Smith in Kingston upon Thames, Birmingham and Manchester along the way, where Winkler will be signing copies of his books.

I’ll be honest, I had no idea that Winkler was a successful children’s author, but I do know that this is my second “Celebrity drives hybrid in Britain” story today, and that definitely counts for something.

[Source: Autoblog Green]

The Lexus-sponsored Alicia Keys tour wrapped up last night in New York, and Advertising Age has an article describing the company’s presence at the concerts:

In exchange for the paid sponsorship, Lexus installed lounges at each concert, exclusive VIP areas heavy with appetizers and a bar, and randomly selected a section of the auditorium to get Lexus-branded chair pads and “concierge service,” including free popcorn and soda. Lexus also gave free parking and VIP passes to any attendee arriving in one of its cars.

Concert-goers who spent time in the Lexus lounge could register for a seat upgrade by providing some personal information. Organizers chose a handful of the folks with the worst seats in the house and gave them spots in the front row.

Webisodes with concert footage will become available June 30 on LuxuryAwaits.com, a website highlighting the marketer’s alliance with the singer.

It’s an interesting angle, this preferential treatment, and Lexus has used it in a number of different applications, from the owner lounges at car shows to parking at baseball games. On one hand, it’s a good way to connect with their current customers, but I wonder how non-Lexus owners would feel about the exclusivity?