Lexus IS220D on UK Eibach springs

[Pagnobito]

I need to take some new pictures of the old girl, but I have some here;

 

Arty shot

 

 

Arty shot again (for the reflections)

 

 

With new wheels, and also clear front and side indicator lenses (but you obviously can't see the front)

 

 

She is Forest Green metallic. It took ages to source the wheels, I thought it important to get originals as it is near impossible to find the correct offset on replicas, the fronts being +65mm! These came from a fellow 928 owner that took 18 months to find them, and then bought a '79 so he will be fitting teledials to that, which mean't these came up for sale. He posted the offer at 10:15 and I emailed him at 10:24 as soon as I saw them for sale! They were originally fitted to the first GTS models, but also to the 968 club sport where these actually came from.

 

I will get some more pictures at some point!

[Tony]

Looks superb......Lucky you.

 

Hows the handling on the new wheels?

[Pagnobito]

It hasn't been very clever outside to be able to find out about the handling really but it does feel a little stiffer. Maybe I should check my tyre pressures on something other than the petrol station gauge!

 

I expect roll off to be better as the tyres have gone from 16" to 17" with lower profiles, and are also a little wider, on the rear going from 8J 245 tyre to 9J 255. I think the fronts have gone from 7 to 7.5J but still uses a 225 tyre. It still lights up the rears very easily, but then that is no surprise, the V8 has a fair amount of torque all the way through the range! The auto box by default starts in 2nd gear, however on mine it has been adjusted to always pull away in 1st so off the lights it is pretty quick and as it bangs into second I get a wiggle as the LSD locks up struggling with the power and then I am doing 60 already.

 

One of the first things I did after getting the car was update the suspension, get the brakes checked and get the geometery checked/adjusted so I have never had any issues there. I do think that having new tyres on the front and older ones on the rear on my old wheels affected the handling on the track days, although not by much as only the tweaked or lightened or supercharged 928s overtook me. I wasn't out to race though, just enjoying the car and finding the limit, which I didn't really as the cars limit was higher than mine, except in a couple of cases where I wasn't able to power out of the slide. Hammering it round the track does show up any weakspots, and a tank slapper during the last visit to Castle Combe killed my fuel pump for some reason. The great thing though is it didn't spoil my day as I was able to get some passenger rides in other cars. It is organised as a 928 day, but we tend to get some other cars there too. I had a ride in a GT3 RS which was amazing, a real track day tool with astonishing grip. It made my car feel like an old bus in comparison, but then mine was not designed for the same job, rather a fast GT car for banging down the autobahn in comfort at 150mph all day.