The 2024 Lexus IS500 Is a Friggin’ Dinosaur, but One With a Glorious V-8

You always know when you’re doing something for the first time, but you almost never know when you’ll be doing it for the last. When it comes to driving the 2024 Lexus IS500 F Sport Performance, though, there’s a finality to every rip, growl, and purr emanating from the exhaust of its naturally aspirated, 5.0-liter V-8. The IS500 has to be the last V-8-powered Lexus sedan ever. Lexus won't be making another car like this, right? There’s no way.

In recent years, the eight-cylinders powering so many modern era sports cars have been replaced by V-6s, four-bangers, a turbocharger or two, and hybrid systems, with greater resulting power and performance than any of us could have dreamed. No doubt it’s a good thing, too, because internal-combustion V-8 engines are pretty damn inefficient, and doubly so without the aid of forced induction and electrification. One look at the IS500’s paltry fuel economy numbers (17/25/20 city/highway/combined mpg) makes that clear.

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Eight-Piece Orchestra

But put numbers (and reason, logic, and rationale) aside for a second. There’s an incoherent joy in firing up a performance V-8 as your first noise of the day. The deep, bassy vibrato that fills the cabin and tingles your synapses, the guttural crescendo that roars as the revs climb and rattle your chest, or the sucker-punch bark that greets you with each downshift. That’s the good stuff. That’s why we celebrate this Lexus, which has the absolute gall to continue to exist as V-8-powered performance sedan.

As with any statement piece, however, it’s how you accessorize around it that can really make it shine. In this case, both the powertrain and suspension have been tuned more for comfort. No matter the drive mode, the IS500’s transmission shifts with an impressive nonchalance, and with its plush seats and brake pedal that’s more pillowy than urgent when pressed, it’s tough not to feel as though you’re driving a V-8-powered couch.

Honestly, it’s terrific. For the past decade or so, the performance car market has been swept up by an unfortunate wave of overcompensation, where cars that should not be riding as stiffly as they do seem to have been designed as though pelvic dislocation was the intent. The IS500 rejects that and instead walks a more relaxed path. It doesn’t take itself so seriously and would be more than happy to be your cosseting chariot from New York to Los Angeles. This is what has always been correct about Lexus.

But it all changes when you stomp on the throttle pedal, that V-8 awakens with a tremendous snarl, and the IS500 springs to life. The whole car leans back for a beat on its coiled muscles as the front wheels scrabble for purchase—dear Lord, we’ve missed this visceral reaction to acceleration. Electric cars, AWD cars, and AWD electric cars all have a very elastic quality to their acceleration, like you’re being pulled rather than pushed. Like any other high-powered RWD car, the IS500 gives you the distinct sense you’re being shoved forward, with momentary slaps of interruption from the shifting gears. Man, it feels good to laugh.

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Frozen in Time

It’s hard not to write about the IS500 and not mention the IS F, may its soul rest in peace. Though the IS500 is merely an F Sport version and not a pure F, we can still safely count it as something of a successor. And as a descendant of the IS F, the IS500 can count Mercedes-AMG, BMW M, and Cadillac Blackwing (née V), as rivals. But whereas the relevant C-Class and M3 no longer have V-8s, and the CT5-V Blackwing is in an entirely separate performance category of its own now, the Lexus remains basically as it was: naturally aspirated, 5.0-litered, rear-driven, comfortable. Trouble letting go of the past? Get into one of these. And at around $65,000 to start, it’s a gosh-darn steal. Lexus itself has said recently that it wants to make its cars sportier and more rigid, further underscoring how cars like the present IS500 aren’t long for this world.

Rose-tinted glasses off, however, and you could make the case that the only reason to get the IS500 is for the engine. The current gen IS debuted back in 2013 and hasn’t really enjoyed a meaningful update since. Its strange, touchpad-based infotainment system remains (bad), but at least there are still a ton of buttons for everything else (good)—it’s the interregnum between the very first screens of the 2000s and the touch-based everything of now. The paddle shifters are plasticky on the fingers. The overall cabin and trunk are claustrophobic. It’s like stepping into a time capsule from 10 years ago, to a world where Daft Punk hadn’t broken up yet.

Nevertheless, to pick a naturally aspirated V-8 performance sedan in 2024 is to make a very deliberate choice, as contemporaries have largely moved on—unfavorably so, if the loud keyboard warriors on the internet are to be believed. We all want computers and phones with more processing power than ever, but when it comes to enthusiast vehicles, a Neanderthal V-8 is what makes folks like us happy.

This isn’t one of those stories that ends with us encouraging you to buy the car in an effort to save it. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Lexus won’t make a new IS500 after this one goes. It’s a dead car driving. So, instead, we’ll just say if you want one, you should go out and get one before it’s gone for good.