Lexus IS 500 F Sport

Most of the IS 500 reads as restraint. A tidy sport sedan, five seats, the kind of profile that draws no second glance in a Fifth Avenue South valet line. Then the 5.0-liter V8 wakes, and the registers change. There is no turbo to muffle it, only displacement and revs, building toward a top speed of 149 mph with the linearity a forced-induction engine can never quite imitate.

It rewards the long route home. The 0-60 arrives in 4.4 seconds, but the IS 500 is less about the number than the way it gets there, the throttle answering directly, the note hardening near the top of the range. Yellow keeps it from disappearing entirely. Inside, it remains a usable sedan, room for four passengers and the day they came for.