Detroit 2007: your guide to the show - Lexus

Anything you can do...
You might be familiar with sporty versions of Audi, BMW and Mercedes cars - you know, things like RS4s, M3s and C63 AMGs.

Well, now Lexus wants a bite of the cherry, and it's introducing a new F treatment for its cars, with the IS compact executive the first to have fire breathed under the bonnet.

It's been given a lot of fire, too - a 5.0-litre V8 engine powers this car and develops over 400bhp. It gets the eight-speed automatic from the LS luxury car, and leaps from 0-60mph in less than 4.9sec.

How good will it be?
It goes on sale in the UK early in 2008, so hopefully we'll be able to tell you definitively later this year.

We hope the IS-F will have much tighter steering than existing models, but we do know that Lexus has tuned the suspension.

If the company is as successful at making a fast car as it has at trouncing its German rivals in reliability and customer satisfaction, Audi, BMW and Mercedes will have something to be seriously worried about.