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The IS350 makes its debut at the Big Bend Open Road Race in the 110 mph speed category. One IS owner did it and only had praise for the IS350. He said that the IS350 took corners at 100+ mph with 40 mph warning signs. Base model Vettes were complaining of losing traction and being forced to slow through certain corners while the IS350 remained stable over the entire course. I wish I could have been there! Here's a photo from the Big Bend Open Road Race page - http://bborr.com/2007/jkerr3.html Want to see the in-car video? It's 700 mb, so give it some time to load. http://www.melintime.com/BBORR07.MOV Or go to this page and do a "save as" - http://www.melintime.com/

IS350 vs. GS400 at the 1/4 mile track (5 Mb video)

IS350 vs. Red Pontiac GTO at the 1/4 mile track - The IS350 smokes the GTO (22 Mb video)

IS350 vs. Silver Pontiac GTO at the 1/4 mile track - The GTO driver has a better reaction time, but the IS350 comes back with a 13.8 quarter mile (29 Mb video)

Here's a submission from Glen Collison, analyzing the accuracy of the Lexus "Gravity" or "Defies Gravity" commercial.

Have you seen the Lexus commercial where 1 Lexus is dropped from a point 1/4mile up in the sky at the same time a different Lexus is full-throttled toward the drop zone of the first (mentioned above.)? I thought the commercial intriging, exciting and maybe a bit suspect on physics. The commercial says, with video clips, "This car will accelerate you greater than 1g constantly for at least a continuous 1/4 mile." So being an engineer, I decided to calculate the specs for this run. Before we start, let's make some assumptions: 1) Friction forces for air and rubber are not ever considered in either case. 2) This is a calm day weather-wise. No winds at all. OK, the equation used to find the speed of each Lexus at the 1/4 point (exactly right before the vertical one is destroyed) is v(f)^2 = v(i)^2 + 2 * a * d . Solving for final velocity, v(f), with initial velocity, v(i) = 0, a=32.17ft/sec^2 (a constant) and d=1/4 mile or 1320 ft, this yeilds v(f) = 198.7mph! Adding air friction in should reduce to say, 190mph. That's still blister fast. For time, I used... D, dist trvl'd = .5*[ v(f) ] * (time). Solving for time when D=.25 mile and v(f)= 190mph. This calc's to a 1/4 mile time of 9.5 sec! Incredible by all means.

Hence the question to you. Have you known of a stock Lexus of any kind that can run a 1/4 mile in 9.5 sec at 190+ mph? I'm a bit of a motorcycle guy and those numbers aren't even achievable on high performance sport bikes (read 1000cc and up). The GSX-R1000 is listed in Cycle World with 9.6sec @ 148mph. This time is darn close but the velocity is woefully low. This bike generates over 150 horsepower and is about 375 pounds. That's a power to weight ratio of about .40 (+/-). A stock 2006 IS350 has a power to weight ratio of 306hp/3527lbs = .09!

Counter-analysis by Robert J. Butler, Ph.D., P.E.

As an IS350 owner, I initially wondered out loud about this commercial knowing that the IS350 isn’t capable of accelerating at 1 g! I believe the error in the contributor’s analysis deals with the assumption that the distance traveled is only ¼ mile. If the distance is greater than ¼ mile, the falling vehicle would reach a terminal speed of around 100 mph, while the accelerating IS350 would continue to accelerate to its top speed of 142 mph. At some distance (greater than ¼ mile), the accelerating IS350 would indeed beat the falling vehicle. Regardless of distance, in any analysis, you need to include the aerodynamic drag of the falling object. Test numbers for the IS350 already have the aerodynamic drag built into them.

Additional counter-analysis is provided by Greg Jones:

The past few days a few of us guys at work have been discussing the gravity vs lexus is350 commercial. Its been a while since I had seen the commercial and I ended up finding your comments on it and the video. We computed that is would be impossible if it were a quarter mile (even if the gravity car had a terminal velocity of 120 mph) because it would only take gravity 4.5 to 5.5 seconds to accelerate it to its terminal velocity of an arbitrary 120 mph. Now we know the lexus is350 exit speed in the ¼ mile isn’t even 115, so to catch the gravity car is impossible. Now we all thought that the distance was a quarter mile, and lexus did such a good job of making it seem to us and to you that is was a quarter mile, but it isn’t, its 4000 feet. Almost 3 times that distance. Now this is possible depending on the terminal velocity of the gravity car. Now notice in the commercial that the car is falling flat (to produce the lowest terminal velocity). So, is it propaganda? I bet it is scientifically correct. I think that the terminal velocity of the gravity car is lower than the actual top speed of the ground car, and if that is correct, it is just a matter of time or distance that the ground car will pass up the gravity car. Lexus could have made the distance ¼ mile, but instead they made it 4000 ft. That distance doesn’t make any sense to pick, other that it sounds like a ¼ mile, and that perhaps the math actually supports the commercial. Now the question of the day: What is the terminal velocity of a is350 falling flat? ...

Want to see the commercial? Here are two links - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1044812007219366880&q=lexus+commercial and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX6Uph9aoRY