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"The new Lexus IS might wear a flashy new suit with that spindle grill on its nose and sharp-creased sheetmetal on its flanks, but the musculature underneath is familiar. If you could flip the Lexus IS onto its roof you&amp;#039;d see many of the hard parts are common to the larger GS sedan. Though Lexus has gone to great lengths to keep the weight in check, the 3593-pound IS 350 is around 130 pounds heavier than a 3.6-liter Cadillac ATS and 50 more than a BMW 335i. But the Lexus doesn&amp;#039;t carry those extra pounds like a muffin top; this is lean muscle and bone that adds solidity to the chassis.  Waste no time with lesser models, the IS 350 F Sport is the one to have. Just like the F Sport version of the GS sedan, spin the rotary knob past &amp;quot;Sport&amp;quot; all the way to the right to engage &amp;quot;Sport Plus&amp;quot;. The futuristic TFT gauge package now glows white to confirm the move. This mode cinches down the chassis, quickens the steering, sharpens the throttle responses and wakes up that 8-speed automatic for rapid-fire downshifts.  But the F Sport isn&amp;#039;t all sport. The interior is perhaps the most finely crafted in this class. And it&amp;#039;s spacious. This is the first Lexus IS that four dudes could take from LA to Vegas in civility.  Saw into a set of tight switchbacks and the F Sport turns-in with deftness and carves a clean arc with no body roll. The brake pedal is firm and the calipers clamp with right-now immediacy. There&amp;#039;s weightiness to the variable gear ratio steering that you can feel through that thick-rimmed wheel. Back on the boulevard, click over to &amp;quot;Normal&amp;quot; mode and the adaptive suspension relaxes to provide a smooth, quiet and isolated ride. They should just call it &amp;quot;Lexus Mode&amp;quot; because when you roll through a minefield of potholes you will neither hear nor feel any of it.  The F Sport seats are uniquely crafted-not just cushions wrapped in hide. Instead Lexus injects liquid foam into a faux leather shell. The bolsters of sports seats are typically hard (and get harder with age it seems) because the leather is stretched so tautly over them. This new seat process keeps the outside material soft, allowing Lexus to make the foam bolsters more supportive.  Overall, we dig the design of the new IS. But the headlights and taillights are just odd. In profile, the extra-pointy taillights extend too far down the fender. And the body color material that separates the new headlights from the LED strip below them looks as though it&amp;#039;s a just a cover. Perhaps someday be removed to reveal the rest of the headlight? It&amp;#039;s weird.  If we&amp;#039;re honest, the new Lexus IS 350 F Sport doesn&amp;#039;t exactly weld itself to your soul. The 306-hp sport sedan will almost certainly post impressive numbers when hooked to test gear or hot lapped around a road course. But its speed comes, at least in part, from the cold robotic accuracy of computers. And they create a subtle distance between driver and machine that dampens some of the fun. Still, you want those electronic brains because they transform the F Sport from a mere Lexus into a real sport sedan-one that&amp;#039;s equally at home on track, country road or freeway commute. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a4102/drives-2014-lexus-is/?src=global_footer>