Suspension Upgrade (Part 2)

Anyway, after I finished drooling over the red LC500, I let them take the IS-F in to have the OEM Tokico dampers replaced with the late model OEM Sachs (ZF) dampers.  I was keeping my fingers crossed, because although the guy on the ClubLexus forum swore it was a worthy upgrade... well, the Internet is only as true as you believe it to be.

This time, no GS-F loaner car. However, they did let me borrow this for the day:

IS300h. 

I still don't like how the rear end looks. Oh, and the wheels look tiny!

The interior... well I DID like the LFA inspired dash...

As I had a few chores to run, I actually drove the car into Tokyo. It's a decent highway cruiser, but after the IS-F, I need more POWER!  As expected, the build quality was great, but without the Mark Levinson stereo, the sound quality was just mediocre. Really!

The next day, when I went to pick up the IS-F, I saw THIS parked at the dealer...

No no, keep it!

 The techs had loaded up all the used parts into the back of my car's trunk:

I like the way that, even though my car has an aftermarket rubber mat, they still "wrapped" everything they loaded up with the large white foam sheet. So Japan...(ZF = Sachs)

And the results? The moment I began to drive to leave the dealership, I immediately noticed the difference. Firm, but way softer. Then, I driving home I noticed how the car was able to absorb small bumps much much better.  

Finally, a few days later on the expressway the car was AMAZING on the curves, the tighter it got, the better. What I mean is that, the car before was stiff. Just stiff. So the car would bounce excessively on bumps, and at speed a loss of confidence as it felt a bit unpredictable. Now however as a curve approaches I can feel the outside front wheel "bite" as the weight transfer happens to the outside. This "bite" gives better road feedback and thus more of a sense of what the car is doing. The car feels flatter too, strangely, and better planted to the road.

Don't get me wrong, the car is still very firmly sprung but I suspect the spring rate is a bit reduced and there is longer suspension stroke, at least in the rear.  So, a very worthy modification if you insist on keeping OEM and don't care about ride height.

Update - I just googled and found this article from Edmunds analyzing the changes made to the IS-F suspension. I am pretty sure that when the dealer did the alignment they did NOT give the car the rear  camber adjustment as per the 2011 model, but I will ask next time I take the car in...