The V8-powered Lexus IS 500 F-Sport won’t come to the UK

To get straight to the point, this is a Lexus IS powered by a 475bhp, naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8. It’s on the ground in the US, officially launching in Japan in August, and has a UK release on... hm. About that.

As far as we can tell, a right-hand-drive IS 500 might be a genuine, bona fide Japanese Domestic Market automobile. And, as that on its own is enough to prick quite a few ears up – and send at least one TG photographer into cataplexy – let’s find out what kind of car he’ll be privately importing in a few years’ time.

Well, it’s a Lexus IS, which you may be familiar with from its brief stint as a small RWD luxury car and its much longer stint as a platform for oversteering hooliganism. Either that, or you grew up in a nicer neighbourhood than we did. Kudos.

And it’s also a Lexus IS with a naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8, a formula you may be familiar with from the old IS F. In fact, it’s the same basic engine as you found in the IS F, but that’s hardly a bad thing, given it’s also the one you’ll find in the RC F and LC 500. Say what you will about a V8-powered anything in 2022, there’s a certain wayward determination in saying, “No, this is still something worth making, worth putting out and worth putting our name on".

As befits an engine without forced induction, there’s no wall of low-down torque as per anything German and turbocharged; the peak figure of 395lb ft doesn’t arrive until 4,800rpm. And for those fed a glut of turbocharged (or electric) low-down surge, it’ll probably feel antiquated or even anaemic. But this is the old school of engine performance: if you want power, you have to go and get it.

Which makes the standard-fitment eight-speed-auto... strange, to say the least. Yes, we know, we’re flying the flag for the manual gearbox again, like Real Car People™, but surely something as anachronistic as a four-door saloon with a 5.0-litre, free-breathing V8 would be the natural home for something equally outmoded? There’s a proper mechanical limited-slip diff, rear drive, a peaky V8 with peak power delivery arriving at a heady 7,100rpm... and an automatic. Cue the confused YouTuber face.

Regardless of drivetrain handicaps, nought to 60 is a low-fours affair, and should you somehow a) find one, and b) find a place to give it its head, you’ll see 240km/h on the dial. Because it’s Japanese, of course. That’s just shy of 150mph, in case you were curious.

If we were to be flowery about things, we’d say it’s a car out of its time, a product of a tried-and-tested recipe that people have lost the taste for. Or, to put it another way, it’s a Lexus you can’t have... and, with fuel prices as they are, you probably don’t want. How’s that for straight to the point?