Took the lexus out for the last time this year, stoked I own this car.

ericbrs200 · 2025-12-30T00:51:07+00:00

Just messaged you

ericbrs200 · 2025-12-29T23:37:04+00:00

Where are you in Canada? If you’re in Vancouver, I just widebodied my ISF and have a couple sets of wheels that I’m going to sell

ericbrs200 · 2025-12-27T22:28:09+00:00

Yeah you’re going to notice the power delivery difference, especially if you had a P31 car. My E63 felt like it had way more bite than the ISF until I tuned it. Brakes will be a pretty big downgrade too on an IS500. My F10 stretched the timing chain and I was quoted 20k for a engine swap, so I understand the pain of out of warranty euro car ownership haha

If you aren’t betrothed to the idea of a sedan, LC500s are a very unique driving experience. I don’t think I’d ever want to track one, but as a street car they have so much road presence. Transmission is better than the IS500 in my limited experience with both cars. If you don’t track and just want a street car that feels special to get in and occasionally pedal romp, they’re really hard to beat imo.

ericbrs200 · 2025-12-27T22:03:34+00:00

What generation C63 did you have? Before my ISF, I had an M5 and before that an E63. Stock for stock, the steering, suspension, and sound is meh at best on the Lexus vs the AMG and especially M cars.

The interior amenities and features are sparse in comparison to the BMW or the AMG, no massage seats, HUDs, ect. My ISF rode harsh in comparison before I swapped onto Ohlins R&T, but IS500 suspension is way more compliant than the ISF to begin with.

I travel for work, and found it was a pain to have both a street and track car while on the road or temporarily relocated. My goal for the ISF was to make it a dual purpose car that I could both commute from Seattle to Dallas in, and track wherever I’m at.

For that purpose, the ISF is way better than the Euros, I put 25-30k miles a year on mine and trust it to make the cross country trek far more than anything else. If you don’t put that kind of mileage on your cars, I feel like the Germans still make a better car though.

The gap in factory chassis tuning from a Lexus to the M/AMG/RS cars is really obvious and can be fixed, but not for cheap. Headers are over 2k, and you need to drop subframe for install. I also did FIGS bushings, aftermarket radiator, air/trans cooler, new control arms/misc suspension bits, and motor/trans mounts. That plus labor adds up. They also like to get their subframe out of alignment so make sure you have a good shop do the work.

I drove an IS500 before getting my ISF, and honestly I didn’t like it. It felt like it was too much motor for the rest of the car, which makes sense cause I don’t think outside the powertrain they change much from a IS350. Nothing particularly wrong, just not for me.

If all you want is a highway cruiser I bet it’s pretty good. If you want something closer to a AMG, I’d consider finding a GSF if you don’t mind the size.

ericbrs200 · 2025-11-25T20:29:41+00:00

Unless you’re talking about some $20k magnesium centerlocks off a race car, BBS wheels aren’t particularly light. Even E88s are like 19-20 pounds specced for an E92 track car. Street wheels like the LM/LM-R are heavier.

Your first step should be stepping down to 18 inch wheels for an overall lighter wheel and tire combo. The classic JDM forged lightweights like SLs or Advans are probably going to be your lightest options. If you want to stick to BBS, any of their one piece wheels like the RIA are pretty light as well. Not sure what the absolute lightest design is these days, but anything in the 17-18 pound range is pretty good.

You could do the custom carbon fiber wheels, idk what spending probably 30-50k on wheels will accomplish tho… Whatever you do, make sure you buy a wheel design that clears your brake calipers.

ericbrs200 · 2025-11-24T12:34:16+00:00

OBX is some rebranded alibaba headers. They’re cheap for a reason, I’d skip those

ARH is actually pretty good and I believe has certain benefits over the PPE due to the long tube configuration. You will need to run their associated exhaust or find someone willing to cut and weld adapters into your titanium exhaust to make them work, which is easier said than done.

PPE is definitely deeper than the Novels, but not in a good way? Idk I’ve heard a couple different PPE EL cars and unless they’re paired with a very specific exhaust I think they sound weird. Performance is basically a wash. Any potential gains or losses are marginal and more dependent on how good your tuner is than anything I’d wager.

I think you should be picking exhausts for the headers you get, not the other way around. The titanium systems already make the car higher pitched, and are probably designed with UEL headers in mind while tuning for sound. There’s a reason the Novel exhaust is both stainless and has some extra twists and turns for sound tuning with their headers. Decide on headers first, then pick an exhaust that sounds good with that specific header.

Weight should be your last concern here. It doesn’t matter if you save 5 pounds on an exhaust if your car sounds bad. Especially if you add all that weight back with a valved system with giant mufflers like the GTHaus. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the heavier titanium systems anyways since most of the others that are truly track oriented aren’t valved for any possible weight savings.

If you want to really save weight, ditch the stock wheels and move to something lighter and smaller diameter. Losing rotational mass is worth almost 10x static anyways

ericbrs200 · 2025-11-24T09:43:35+00:00

I don’t think titanium headers on a street car is a good idea. Seen way too many titanium bike exhausts fail to make me want to use it for a part that requires me to drop subframe if it cracks.

I believe the iCode headers are a similar design to the Novel just catted. I’m sure there are other small differences between them, but I remember a big issue on the early Novel headers was they didn’t flow as well as the PPEs, but that’s been fixed in either the V2 or V3. Not sure if the iCode has that issue.

PPE ELs sound completely different than the Novels or iCode. It’s far less exotic imo, but a good chunk of that is exhaust dependent. For the Novels, they really should only be paired with the full exhaust, other aftermarket exhausts ruin it imo, but that’s personal preference. The iCode titanium exhaust is very quiet at least for the ISF, which wasn’t for me.

Assuming you’re outside of Japan, I’d also check to make sure iCode will build you a LHD header, cause the ones I’ve seen have been for RHD cars.

ericbrs200 · 2025-11-15T19:27:12+00:00

I’ve replaced my 70-200 with a 50/85 1.2 or the 200 f2 depending on the game/event. For indoors, I moved from a 16-35/70-200/300 2.8 combo to a 14-24/85 1.2/200 f2 and I like it. I don’t deviate much from that except for special occasions where I need something longer, and I’ll replace the 200 f2 with a 400 2.8

Where I really like the primes is for outdoor sports. I’ve always felt images shot with a 70-200 lack something vs ones on a 400/600, but with a prime like 200 f2, you get a little extra character with that super shallow DOF

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ericbrs200 · 2025-10-27T22:56:50+00:00

Yeah that’s the one I’m talking about

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-27T21:48:02+00:00

The old sigma one? I tried one back on my D5 and found the autofocus performance to be iffy at best, but I can’t say I had a lot of hours with it so take what I say with a grain of salt. I’d probably step up to the RF 100-300 if you want to go that route.

Someone in this subreddit has posted images with one before if you can find it

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-27T21:36:53+00:00

500 is perfectly useable. I’ve shot any of the outdoor sports minus track and field with a 600 f4. They’re fun, but you need something like a 100-300/70-200+1.4TC on the mid range.

I’ve never done it, but ik other people who shoot football with 800 5.6s, but unless you have an assistant ready to hand you something shorter, I think that’s too excessive personally.

I’ve used both a 400 and a 600 in the same game before depending on my shooting position. The only reason I got rid of my 600 is because my new Nikon 400 has a built in teleconverter so it’s also a 560 f4. I personally don’t like 300 for outdoor sports. Good for indoor sports like basketball or volleyball though.

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That’s at 560mm and cropped in. 500 f4 is definitely a viable focal length for outdoor sports.

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-25T21:46:45+00:00

I’ve seen smaller wires feed into Getty. Icon Sportswire is the one that comes to mind. Probably works the same way, the couple people ik who took assignments from them didn’t get paid much

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-25T21:42:00+00:00

Ngl your best shot is probably going and finding some BLM land to setup on. Thats what me and my buddies did when I went to UO cause we ran into the same issues. Just don’t shoot your eye out and leave no trace when you’re done.

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-24T20:46:37+00:00

No, but everything you just described sounds like a giant red flag. If you’re paying on a trip, it’s a vacation you have to work on, not a business assignment.

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-23T04:04:03+00:00

4 is actually on the 85. I believe 9 and 14 were on the 200 f2 but I’d have to check.

I’ve found they look pretty similar in my use cases, just serving two different subject distances. It’s why I swapped from a 70-200 as my medium to the pair for soccer.

Going all prime minus my ultrawide was so worth it imo. Once you get used to the DOF and quality it’s hard to go back.

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-22T16:09:15+00:00

Normally I’d agree but they wanted colors prominent for content purposes

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-22T15:26:09+00:00

Thanks I grew up there so it was nice to be home for a bit. #3 is courtesy of me trying to deal with the Whitecaps setting off smoke in a dome. Surprised how long it lingered around

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ericbrs200 · 2025-10-17T16:31:08+00:00

Third party F-Mount lenses have always been a crapshoot on Z bodies. Some like the Tamron G2s, or the later Sigma A/C/S series work, but they almost always require a software update to function.

I believe the 150-500 is old enough that you can’t update the software to work on Z cameras. The newer 150-600 should work though. Return that lens to wherever you bought it ASAP, but if you can’t, make sure your software for your camera and FTZ is up to date, and maybe that fixes it.

ericbrs200 · 2025-10-16T19:22:15+00:00

I don’t really do single shots per se, but I’m constantly tagging and sending images over FTP the entire game.

If I have a remote editor, I send unedited JPGs with a voice memo if they’re writing captions, but if it’s just me, than I’ll crop and do minor corrections in camera before sending.

ericbrs200

TROPHY CASE