Port Hope is a small Ontario town that overlooks the restless blue waters of Lake Ontario. If you walk the main street of Port Hope today, you can’t help but notice the rows of preserved 19th-century stone and brick buildings. In fact, with over 270 heritage-designated buildings within its municipality, the small town of Port Hope has the best-preserved 19th-century streetscape in all of Ontario. Today it’s a tourist draw and an attractive site for filming period movies like IT. But it had to age into that appreciation. In between the time when these buildings were new and when they were appreciated as classic architecture, they were just old buildings.

The 2022 Lexus IS 500 has a chassis that debuted in 2013, a transmission that first saw life in 2014, and an engine that can trace its design back to 2007. But is the Lexus IS 500 a modern classic or a bit outdated?

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

The IS 500 name denotes a 5.0L V8 in the IS chassis. That’s why we’re reviewing it. The previous-generation ISF had a V8 in 2007 but that was discontinued in 2013 and the IS has been V8-less from then until now. The big ticket item with the IS 500 is of course the V8, but you also get a power-bulge hood to house that monster motor, quad exhausts to help it breathe, and black window trim. It’s a pretty subtle package for the amount of performance it offers over an IS 350.

The IS 500 has a base MSRP of $72,900 and my test car was a special Launch Edition model which retails for $77,650. Just 500 Launch Editions will be sold in North America and of those, just 50 are coming to Canada. The Launch Editions get special lightweight 19″ Enkei alloy wheels that are 0.5 kg lighter in the front and 1 kg lighter in the rear per wheel versus the standard IS 500 wheels. You also get an exclusive grey paint colour, and a numbered plaque on the centre console.

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Photo by Clayton Seams

But when you buy an IS 500, you’re really buying one thing: The engine. That engine, lyrically called the 2UR-GSE by Toyota, is a very special piece indeed. We grew to love it as it was installed in the RC-F sports coupe and later the LC 500 GT car. It’s a 5.0L quad-cam V8 that makes 472 hp and 395 lb-ft of torque. But the really special numbers show you where it makes that power. Peak power doesn’t arrive until a positively screaming 7,100 rpm and peak torque can’t be accessed until 4,800 rpm. That’s because the IS 500’s V8 uses no turbos, superchargers, or electric motors to achieve its power — just old school engineering and revs. Lots of revs. The engine has titanium valves, high-lift camshafts, and dual-length intake runners. The RWD IS 500 also ends up weighing just 5 kg more than the AWD V6 IS 350.

That engine loves to be revved out to the very end of the tach and then shifted to the next gear to do it again. The sound of a high-revving naturally-aspirated V8 is something that you can’t buy in a lot of cars in 2022, for any amount of money really. The engine feels racy and in a way, it’s almost timeless. The rest of the car… err, not so much.

Take for example the in-dash CD player. It’s a glaring reminder of just how old this chassis is. The infotainment mercifully has CarPlay and Android Auto but the native system was likely designed when Nixon was president. But the single most onerously outdated part of the car has to be the AA81E eight-speed automatic transmission. Eight-speed autos are very common in sports/GT cars now and some of them are excellent. But this one has its roots in a design from 2014 and it feels ancient compared to its contemporaries. The upshifts are sluggish and the downshifts are weaker than wilted lettuce. The car also has hilariously long intergalactic gearing so that you don’t get to enjoy that engine at redline unless you are going way above the speed limit. A shame. There’s no way around it: this transmission lets the engine down in a big way.

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

Other parts of the driving experience want for improvement as well. The steering feel doesn’t feel like much and the brake pedal was so squishy I initially thought the previous tester had burned out the brakes. Nope, that’s just how it feels. hardly confidence inspiring when you have so much power on tap.

But age has virtues as well. The entire car has a feeling of solidity the likes of which I haven’t experienced since the 1980s Mercedes diesels. Every part of this car feels like it will last a long time. The interior looks very nice and elements like the analogue clock give an air of class in the cabin. It’s also almost entirely comprised of real, well-marked buttons so it’s very easy to find and use things like the heated seats. This kind of functional simplicity has pretty much disappeared from cars in the past five years. As a bonus, most of the controls are chunky enough to be able to be used with gloves. The steering wheel is also almost perfectly shaped and made with very nice materials.

android, car review: 2022 lexus is 500

There are other things to like as well, the ride is very comfortable, and the car is great at just eating up the miles on the highway.

Port Hope’s buildings are revered as classic because walking the Victorian Main Street is an experience you simply can’t build new today. Likewise, winding out the IS 500’s wonderful V8 is a timeless joy. I’m not going to go all #SaveTheManuals on you but with such a dreadful automatic as the only current option, a lot of what ails the IS 500 could be forgiven if it had a six-speed manual. The IS 500 ends up being a great engine looking for a car. The engine is a classic, admired by almost all who drive it. But the car its installed in? It’s just an old building.

Keyword: Car Review: 2022 Lexus IS 500

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