Featured Car – mikefate
November 16th, 2005 by Elusive Media
I S Finesse
Text: Eric
Images: Eric
Shots taken at Edison, NJ
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October is fast approaching and the streets will soon be filled with the new generation of IS300’s. With the emergence of the new IS model, IS250 & IS350; will the 2001-2005 IS300 be forgotten? Mike says, “No way!”. A quick glance at his IS and one can see why. The modifications have been chosen carefully and the work is flawless to preserve the classic look and feel of the IS300. From the L-Sportline bodykit to the Axis rims, his car just seems to retain what the IS300 is all about.
It all started when Mike drove his ex-girlfriend’s 2001 IS300. It was a stripped-down dealer special, 5spd manual w/ cloth interior, non-heated seats, no sunroof, no lsd, and no frills whatsoever. “It didn’t take much for me to like it”, Mike says. “The suspension was crisp, the steering was precise, and the look and feel of the car really impressed me”, he adds. He would sneak out and drive the car for hours on end, for no reason, that is how much he enjoyed the car. His first encounter with is300.net occurred when he made his first thread, which was trying to figure out how to disconnect the odometer to avoid problems with the lease. Then tragedy struck, his then girlfriend crashed the ’01 IS. Mike quickly went out and started his search for his own Lexus, carefully searching dealership upon dealership for the exact car – 2003 millennium silver metallic, fully loaded, including torsen limited slip differential. And as they say, “The rest is history”. He cannot forget what happened during the second day of owning the car. He went to go pop the trunk of his new IS looking for the spare tire and couldn’t find it. He called the dealership and unleashed his rage on his salesman who sold him the car. When he got to the dealership, the parts manager showed him where the spare was. He didn’t realize that the black plastic tool tray was covering the spare tire. An apology was exchanged, and they had a few laughs on Mike’s account.
Mike then quickly returned to is300.net to research his early modifications. is300.net was a big help and supported him with any questions he had about the IS300. When asked, “Whom do you remember helping you out the most?” Mike says, “Marc (tsopranomb, then northeast forum moderator) was a really good motivation when I first popped into the is300 scene. He has been a positive support since we met, and a great influence on my decisions.” After countless days of reading reviews and opinions on is300.net, Mike bought his first modification, an HKS Carbon-Ti exhaust. The mod bug bit him hard. Next came a swift racing technologies intake with race ecu. They were hard to find, and he actually had to drive down to Maryland to pick the intake system up. While there, Mike struck a good conversation with owner Mo Choudrey, who offered to go ahead and install the intake and ecu in-house. After a couple hours, the anticipation got to Mike. No sooner after Mo closed the hood and backed the car out of the garage did Mike shake hands, and got rolling for the 3-hour trip home. The growl of the intake coupled with the HKS exhaust surprised him, and gave him confidence no other car had before. Shortly after the returning home, Mike again had the mod bug in his ear, and ordered a prolex performance short shift kit, which was installed in his office parking lot because he couldn’t wait to get home. Mike wasn’t done with his engine modifications until he spoke with Josh at turboeast and decided on their header and race pipe too finish his free flowing naturally aspirated quest. Josh had the header and race pipe at Mike’s doorstep within 24 hours of the conversation and the install was complete within 48 hours. With most of the engine modifications completed Mike did a few minor details that pride’s himself on, the attention to detail if you will. Some of these items include a set of TRD Japan license plate bolts, valve stem caps, oil and radiator caps, prolex performance passenger plate, chrome climate control knobs, and a few warning cover-up labels supplied by a fellow member of the is300 community, FlatlineIS.
The stock 5spd suspension was good to begin with but Mike decided that he needed the suspension to be tighter. First came a polished JIC front strut bar via close friend and fellow enthusiast, Marc Berger. Second was a set of TRD yellow sway bars, followed by Tein S-tech springs, and then the most recent additions, the Pro Lex performance rear strut tower bar, and rear trunk brace. Within a few weeks, Mike decided to swap out the polished front strut for a more refined carbon fiber one, which mirrored his overall style of the car. Adding the strut braces really made a huge impact on how the car handled. The most major impact that Mike noticed was how the rear end sticks much better to the ground, the only really flaw about the IS300. The IS300 in stock form seems to be tail happy when pushed to the limit, but, Mike says, “After adding the rear strut bar and trunk brace I felt that the car feel more solid when pushed to its limits”.
The lines of the stock IS are already impressively unique. Each curve in the body flows and compliments the other nicely. When Mike began looking at different bodykits that are available, he quickly fell in love with the simplicity of the L-Sportline bodykit. By far, it was the most expensive modification he had done. It took over 16 weeks to get the complete bodykit from Carson Toyota and it took another two sleepless weeks until Mike saw the final product, thanks to Terry Autobody Design in Whippany, NJ. “Holy (Fill in the blank) is that my car!?”, are the exact words that came out of Mike’s mouth when he went to go pick up his car. After careful inspection the paint match was dead-on and the bodykit lined up perfectly despite everyones criticism of that particular kit. Along with the L-Sportline kit, a TRD carbon fiber grill was added and shortly after a Seibon carbon fiber hood was added as well, thank to ChinaOne, another fellow IS300 enthusiast. Mike did not keep the stock hood prop when he installed the carbon fiber hood. He called in the resident expert for a custom hood prop, which was supplied by Fig’s. It eliminated the stock hood prop and made working on the car as well as showing the car a lot easier.
In spring 2005, Mike and Danny Ashraf took a trip to HIN Boston were he met De, a moderator on the is300 forum. During the show, Mike was introduced to Bobby Haleluk, one of two owners of DTC Designs. Shortly after HIN Boston, Mike began his friendship with Bobby and his staff where they extended their support to Mike. DTC helped Mike decide on which wheel/tire package to get. The Axis Reverb caught Mike’s eye, coupled with a set of Falken Azenis tires. It doesn’t hurt at all when DTC extended their hands and offered Mike partial sponsorship. Mike happily accepted the offer and is now cruising on an 18×8.5 & 18×9.5 staggered wheel setup.
This past month, Mike entered his first car show where he received his first throphy for the “Judges choice” award. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears has been put into the car, but its not over yet”, Mike says. He plans to take advantage of the partial sponsorship and has a lot of tricks hidden up his sleeve. Starting with a full custom audio/video setup in the works. Mike is also planning on entering the darkside, where ALL IS300 owners would like to be someday, the world of boost. He has not decided on which tuner to go with, but, plans on getting involved in a lot of the install and fabrication. So, stay tuned and keep an eye out for Mike’s IS, because the 2001-2005 IS will not be overshadowed by the new generation IS250/350.
Mike says, “Special thanks to Bobby and John at DTC, Mike Fig, De, Eric, Mo from SRT, Gordon from Carson Toyota, and the whole North-East family”.
