The IS was fun. Hell of a car for track days. Would have preferred Lexus had put the 6-speed gearbox from the MK-III Supra in it, as the 5-speed wasn't all that special, and the clutch was felt a bit disconnected, but at least I had one of the few unmolested 3-pedal IS-300s out there.
I've been lucky enough to have owned some really amazing cars, at all 'reasonable' price points. Some of the highlights:
- 88 Honda CRX Si - owned it in my mid 20's and built a track day/autocross weapon out of it. Full coilovers at all four corners, intake/header/catback, beafier injectors and fuel rail, sticky Kumhos at for shoes, an aggressivly reground cam, and a bunch of other little things. Car was super quick, handled like go-kart, and sounded like a pissed off hornets nest. Only made about 120hp at the front wheels, but I had the weight down to about 1800 lbs. Didn't have a top speed of more than about 130 (downhill with a tailwind) but stoplight to stoplight, or on a tight, twisty road, nothing could touch it. Unfortunately, no digital pics exist of this car.
- 02 Nissan Sentra SER SpecV - Wife and I bought this as our first brand new car. This was quite a sleeper for it's day. Big 2.5 inline-4 (much less common back then) Nismo tuned suspension, and an extremely sweet Getrag 6-speed. 180 hp and 180 ft/lb of torque propelled the car pretty good, and was best in class in 2002. Best part was, as it was a 4 door sedan, it was a bit of a sleeper, unless you knew what to look for. It handled surprisingly well for its size and weight (was also the heaviest of all the performance compacts). It's only major downfall was excessive torque-steer. My wife used it as a DD, while I took the CRX as a DD because it was barely streetable in its track configuration. Unfortunately, no pics of the SpecV either.
- 95 Miata 'R' - this replaced the CRX when PA winters finally took their toll on the Honda's wheel wells. As small sports cars go, the Miata was the total opposite of the CRX. It was poised and gracefull to drive, and damn near refined by comparison. It really rewarded smooth throttle and steering inputs, and could make even the average driver look like a hero on a twisty road. Power output was low, but you never had to get out of the throttle much when hot-shoeing it, instead just modulating power through the corners. Every driving enthusiast should own a Miata at least once in their life, it's that much fun to drive. It was also my first foray into RWD sports cars, and quite frankly, might be one of my all time favorite cars to drive (haven't gone back to FWD since). Saw a lot of autocross and track day events with it. Unfortunately, I had to give it up when we had kids, since it's not really practical as a family vehicle. You'll have to excuse the pic, as it was taken after the car was backed into by my neighbors SUV.
The IS followed the Miata (we've gone over that)
- 08 BMW 335i - This was actually the wife's DD for 4 or 5 years, but my weekend toy after giving up the Lexus. Powertrain was the venerable N54 motor, which was the twin turbo, 3L straight six, and it had the sport package, which included a better tuned chassis, paddle shifted automatic, and really well bolstered seats. Also had an M-sport intake/exhaust package, and a reflashed ECU, which took it from the stock 300hp to an estimated 370 (the N54 is notoriously under rated from BMW, and really easy to open up power with very little effort). This car was a freaking rocket ship on wheels. Turn all the electronic nannies off, and you could smoke the tires off all day long, or powerslide it around a corner at any speed. On a road course, I could stick the nose deep into any corner I wanted, and then power out of the exit at warp speed. It was scary fast. Unfortunately, it just got too expensive to maintain - typical of all later model Bimmers. Wife replaced it with an 07 Mercedes c300 a nice car, but not nearly as much of a drivers car.
My current DD is a '15 Ram 1500. The Lexus was starting to get long in the tooth at 350k, and Pittsburgh winters were starting to eat the body (we use a ton of road salt in western PA). Plus, I needed a truck to haul and tow. Love the Hemi in it, but no more 'fun' cars for me and the wife for a while (though I'm still heavily involved in SCCA as a race official).
Pic taken on our cross country trip to the Grand Canyon last summer
My other toys have always been motorcycles. I've probably had 20 of them in the last 35 years. My first was a KX 80 when I was 10 y/o, and I've been on two wheels since. Owned every imaginable type, from dirt bikes to sport bikes, cruisers to vintage Japanese standards. My current stable consists of a 90 Kawasaki ZX-10 (affectionately known as the "Death Machine") and an 03 Kawi Mean Streak. Once some other things are taken care of, I'll be looking to add something a bit more vintage to the garage, as I want to build a proper cafe racer from a good 500-750 mid-70's UJM. Gotta invest some money into the house and kiddo's education first, so it'll be a few years.
I've had lots of cars and bikes over the years. Some noteworthy, some not so much - these are just the highlights. But very few have been boring, and very few have remained stock. I think I might have a problem.... LOL