Here's Which Engine The 2024 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Has (And How Fast It Can Go 0-60)

For those looking for a wonderful blend of luxury and reliability, one name you will always have come up in conversation is Lexus. The luxury division of Toyota routinely tops lists of the most reliable car brands in the world alongside its sister company, and it doesn't have to sacrifice any of that in order to deliver a vehicle that is sleek and packed to the brim with modern technological features. Alongside both of these factors, you can also find a Lexus that is able to deliver pretty impeccable performance as well. Case in point: the Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance sedan.

Lexus first introduced the IS in the 1999 model year, but this 500 performance version first hit the market for the 2022 model year. Although it hasn't joined the ranks yet of the company's best-selling vehicles like the RX or ES, it is still a totally solid luxury performance vehicle that will satisfy a good number of people who already love what the IS is. While every other version of the IS right now is powered by a 3.5L V6 engine, the IS 500 F Sport Performance and its Premium variant have a 2UR-GSE engine under the hood. 

One of the most reliable engines Lexus has ever produced, this is a 5.0L V8 that can generate up to 472 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque. That is quite the impressive step up compared with the standard 311 horsepower of the other IS models.

Despite the other Lexus IS models — such as the 300 F Sport or 350 F Sport Design — having that smaller 3.5L V6 engine, they still make pretty decent time when it comes to going from 0-60 miles per hour. They tend to average around 5.6-5.7 seconds across the board, with the one outlier being the IS 300 F Sport, which gets there in about 6.1 seconds. These are perfectly sensible times for a great number of cars out on the road. The Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance, meanwhile, is able to get things done quite a bit faster.

For both the Performance and Performance Premium models, the 2UR-GSE engine is able to get the Lexus IS 500 from 0-60 miles per hour in roughly 4.4 seconds. While this doesn't compare to something absurd like the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 with its Hemi V8 engine — which can get to 60 mph in just 1.66 seconds — this is still quite an impressive performance for a luxury passenger automobile that isn't meant to be on a racetrack. 

Out on the road, you may not even find the need to reach 60 mph in 4.4 seconds or hit the maximum speed of 149 mph, but if the occasion ever arises where you do, the Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance has you covered.