BMW E90 M3 vs. Lexus IS-F | Driver Battles By Driving Line

Welcome back to another episode of Driver Battles. We are at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, one of our favorite tracks in Southern California. And we are here with two of my friends and two very special V8 powered cars behind us. Scott and Will. E90 BMW M3 versus IS-F. That's right, IS-F on driver battles.

V8 sedans. It's kind of funny because the IS-F is a Japanese car. They're not used to putting big, burly V8s in their cars. And then the E90 BMW Chassis, they put a very rev happy V8, which is really not kind of what BMW does. It's a kind of quirky build, so these two cars kind of blended each other.

And now they're out here at Driver Battle. But enough about me talking about them. Scott, tell me about your car. It looks pretty dang tame. It looks really nice.

Walk me through what's been done to it. Yes, so this is a 2011 BMW E90 M3. I specifically wanted a red one because I'm trying to match all my cars, and red is racing. So to find a four door red M3-- and this is the last year they made the four doors-- was super hard. I ended up going all the way across the country to Virginia.

Road tripped it back home. Wow. And it's been my daily driver. So all it has is an exhaust, stock suspension with lowering springs, camber plates, wheels and tires. The works.

Wow So it's a pretty simple build. What about transmission? 6 speed? No, this is the dual clutch. Dual clutch. OK. So I know a lot of the purists are six speed or bust.

But the moment you drive a car where you don't have to worry about a clutch and shifting-- and the dual clutch is a really good transmission. It does exactly what you asked it to-- Yeah. -- it lets you focus so much more on the driving. I think it's a little faster around the tracks. Nice.

Yeah. I've heard that before. Yeah. Will, you have something pretty similar. Yeah.

But also totally opposite in the same regard. Yeah. Bigger engine. Walk me through this IS-F. And also, you have tracked in IS-Fs before, right? Yeah, so I own one.

This isn't my car. This is a friend of mine, Sean's. He actually bought it because of mine. So I won a car in a raffle for like $120, my IS-F. Yeah.

And was like, eh, I'll take it to the track. See what it's about. Took it to the track and was immediately blown away. I was like, this thing is so much fun. It's so different than everything I'm used to because I'm used to driving Hondas with no power.

And this things got a torque. You can be any gear and pull out of a corner. Yeah. And paddleshift, just like Scott was saying. I turned into an IS-F salesman.

That was my second job. So I brought it over to the shop and let all the guys drive it. And Sean was just like, dude, I'm buying one. And he literally bought one a few days later, which is this one. Right here? Yep.

So do you know what's been done to it? Yeah, it actually has my old coilovers on it because mine is now getting this crazy build. This is the mild version. So this is my old coilovers. It's just got KWs. It's just two bushings in the front.

And everything else is basically bone stock. He did some cooling mods, which these need very little. But you do those, and you're set. You could just drive. And it looks like some mild aero work Yeah, yeah.

The hood and then the splitter, and just some wheels, obviously. The tires. Nice. And so tires. What tires are you on? NT01s from Nitto.

Best tire to set up a car on, honestly. I set up all my cars on those tires. Yeah. And you're also on the NT01s? Yeah. Yeah.

I think we're both on the same size, so we're running a 275-35-18 square setup. Wow. So the cars are pretty evenly matched as they sit. So very closely matched cars. I think when these cars came out everyone was ragging on the IS-F like, it's not pure enough.

It's actually a really good car. So they came with 225 front tires. The first thing you do is you just put fat tires on it. It solves almost all the problem. Wow.

And then you change one bushing, and it's done. The best part about these cars is the reliability is there. You can run this motor. Mine has 200,000 miles on it, and I track it like I don't care. And you just get in it, start it, go rip.

Transmissions are fine. They're super good on the track. It's like Scott's saying. It's not a BMW that will break. So with the reliability, the bigger tires, and you owning an IS-F, and tracking it, do you feel confident in beating this German piece of perfection? Hold on.

This is the ultimate driving machine. Right. Do you think you can beat it? I think it's a good battle. I think it's close, and Scott's a good driver. But I think we could edge it out for sure.

Scott, ultimate driving machine? Yeah, I mean, the conditions are working against us here. Oh, here we go. Hold on. I can get the dealership on the line. You want to order the vanos now? Yeah.

I was actually going to just tow it back and do rod bearings after this. Right. You already scheduled your service appointment after the track day? Sure. Makes sense. So with all that, you're feeling confident against the IS-F? Yeah, I mean, I'll do my best.

I know Will's a fast guy. So I think Will edges me out as a pure driver. But I think the M3 might edge out the IS-F current setups here. So it's going to be neck and neck. And you guys have driven on Chuckwalla before, right? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. This is my favorite track, I think, in SoCal. I actually had the front wheel drive record here in my CRX. Oh wow. So I'm very familiar with it.

OK. He holds the front wheel drive record on this very track. Naturally aspirated. Naturally-- OK. We have to add that, right? Naturally aspirated front wheel drive record in a Honda CRX.

Look it up, internet trolls. Yes, CRXes are fast. And now you have the ultimate driving machine. So can your ultimate driving machine beat the ultimate time in a front wheel drive CRX today? We're going to find out. We'll see.

That's right. Just use your blinker so I know which side to pass you on. No, that doesn't work on the BMW. I didn't think so. Can you show me where that is? For those of you just watching, we run these time attack style.

These guys have all day long to get the fastest lap time they can. Keeps everybody safe. Keeps less cars on the track. And it really just puts the drivers against themselves to see how fast they can go. Are you guys ready to run these time attack battles? Let's do it.

OK. May the best man win. Let's see. All right, guys. The day is done.

You had some time on track all day long. We're tired. We're sweaty. You got a bug on your shirt. It's off now.

But do you guys want to find out who won? Yes. First of all, before we get into that, how do you guys feel about the day? How was it being out in Chuckwalla? Walk me through the day. Scott, you go first. It was hot. It was hot? First and foremost, hot.

I have a laundry list of excuses, though. He's ready. Yeah. So-- Write them down before you come here. In case I lose, I've got a lot of excuses.

But if I win, it's because I came in the better car, I was the better, more prepared driver today. I got a lot of stuff for that too. Yeah? Will, you heard a lot from Scott just now. In fact, I don't remember any of it. How do you think you did today? Pretty good.

The car's pretty stock, and they're closely matched. So I honestly have no idea. Yeah? Yeah, no idea. OK. It felt good.

It was a little loose the whole time, but that's fun. It's not necessarily fast, but should be fun. And the cool thing is, these are basically your run of the mill, every day cars, right? We just put a really rad set of tires on them, and said, how fast are they around the track? These aren't race cars, these aren't track cars. No, you could daily these, both of them. Yes.

These are big sedans, big power, big V8's. That's really what they were. And the funny thing is, these two cars get compared to each other a lot online. So let's put them on the track and see who won. But it is driver battles after all, and there has to be a driver who won.

So you guys ready to find out who was the faster driver today? Yeah. Yeah. I'm building the suspense, because it's big news. If I was more certain that I won, there would definitely be a wager. I have no idea.

How many cars do you own again? Four. And you own? Seven. OK, so maybe there will be a car swap between the two here. I'll swap any car of mine with any car of Scott's. A Civic for NSX right now.

Oh damn, never mind. Oh. Take backs. All right, before we get into it. Here we go, final drum roll, please.

With a time of 2:06.350, Will. Oh. Yeah, he's questioning, why 2:06? I thought I was faster, oh my gosh. I see the wheels are turning. Scott, you think you were better than 2:06? Have you taken the E90 to Chuckwalla before? I've only taken this car to Streets.

Have you taken the E90 on NTO1's before? I have not. All right. Yeah. So it was completely new territory for me. But your boy Jeff helped me out a little bit in figuring out what to do with the tires.

So I don't know, I thought I went fast. I thought I Ricky Bobby'd it. But we'll find out. So you did go fast. In fact, you won with a time of to 2:03.543. Yew, winner.

Will, how did he beat you? What's going on? I could go through a list. I've got a clipboard, give me the list. Honestly, I drove Scott's car, and I would say that that thing is super fast. Scott's a very capable driver, so congrats. That's an awesome time.

Yeah. All joking aside, this was so much fun. And it's even more fun when you get to do it with cool guys. Yeah. Yeah, totally true.

We're all buddies on and off the track. So to see any of us succeed at anything, it's a win for everyone. Even if you're now trading an NSX for a Civic, it's still a win? Yeah. Na. It's a pretty cool Civic, so.

It is a cool Civic. All right, well, that's it for this battle. If you guys like what you saw and you want to debate these two cars in the comments, go ahead and do it. If you think you're faster than these two in an IS-F or an E90 or any car that you have, drop us a comment, like and subscribe. Let us know what you got.

We want to see you on the next "Driver Battles. " These guys want to race against you, and we will see you on the track.

Source : Driving Line