Take all of this lightly I'm just frustrated and ranting here more than anything else not yelling at any one person. It's getting rather frustrating number one, a different person on this forum once a week asking if there's a tune available for 2018+ when there's 20+ other posts asking the same thing. And two, companies seem to be glossing over the 2018+ range as if those of us who have them don't care to modify them so why try and crack the ECU to offer a tune or anything else.

D3 states they can tune, however no one has seen any dyno testing to back up their claims. Take that all with a grain of salt, I'm not criticizing or bad mouthing them, just that the only proof is people saying that their throttle input seems more responsive.

RR-racing stated over a month ago (8-18-2022) that they were close to releasing a 2018+ tune and would provide an "update" -not an actual tune so I'm not adding words here- "between now and 30 days" (their words not mine I can link the thread) and yet have stated absolutely nothing otherwise since then, not even on their website.

If RR-Racing would crack stuff and offer the supercharger for my 2020, I would put in an order tomorrow for it. I feel there's at least 3 or 4 others on this forum that would do the same. Instead they seem hyper focused on the ISF platform and getting as much power out of that as possible rather than moving on. They're obviously involved in other brands so perhaps we're the least of their concerns so "what does it matter making a very small amount of people upset when we've got so many other happy customers?" Type of thing.

Again, not calling out any one person or one company. To sum it up, there's a myriad other posts all with the same answer: D3 states they can, VRTuned says no go, and RR-Racing saying they're working on it.

-Shane

 

Shane,

I hear your frustration but this isn't the sort of thread we'd sticky. Discuss it? Absolutely!

What I suggest might be useful information to @RRRacing is for the other 3-4 (and hopefully more) to chime in with your sincere interest and commitment. Frankly from a business perspective, I'd guess just a couple of folks interested in something isn't a lot of incentive to light the fires when there is a bigger audience for other competing products.

 

No problem about the sticky part, it is just rather irritating to see every other day it seems someone post up about how they just got a 19 or 20 (or whatever year) IS and "what tune can I get??" As if there aren't other posts inquiring, and ultimately concluding, that there are none available.

It seems RR-Racing is so sparse on this site but if they just scrolled a couple days worth of posts they would see the same thing that there are tons of people that are interested. So yeah perhaps moot point in my post, but again, just frustrated with the amount of people that can't use the search function paired with the lack of availability for 4 years of a vehicle that clearly showed interest in modification in earlier editions.

- Shane

 

I agree. Its annoying on all fronts. From the inquirer who won't "search" to the vague responses from RR and D3 etc.

 

It would be great to see tunes for 2018+ cars, I agree. This topic actually just came up in my local Lexus group chat. A member just got a tune for his 2nd-gen IS 350, and then I lamented the fact that none were available for my car or the several other 2021+ IS owners.

Honestly, I would like a little more consistent, more immediate throttle response in the mid-range, that's really the only sore spot of the drivetrain for me.

 

It's amazing isn't it? How many people just jump on and immediately think "hey absolutely no one else has asked this question so I will" Even not searching the forum specifically but searching Google would yield tens of responses. And the nonchalant responses from any of the vendors starts to get annoying as well.

I mean I don't think anyone is asking for the moon when it comes to tuning. But given the amount of posts here alone, there's very obviously a market for it.

Don't get me wrong, I have no idea what goes in to making an ECU available for tuning, I'm not a software engineer. But one would think that if you created a tune for 5 years of model from 13-17, that want doesn't just end when a new model comes out. And I would really like to think that after 4 years of said new model being out, *someone* would have been able to open it up for tuning abilities.

- Shane

 

Response from RR Racing...

1. We are not sparse on this site. You may not see as much of us in the 2gr/4gr forums as the members tend to want/need less of our assistance. Find us in the 2UR forums frequently.

2. I get more calls for the 2018+ tunes than just about anything else. Fact is, we needed a car for a long time. We have had many people agree to come in and then not show up or cancel. It takes a little time to develop so we need the car for more than a morning like most people want to volunteer. This is a topic around here all week long. Our efforts do not go stagnant for any amount of time. We are working closely with developers but they take time as we are not their only priorities.
Recently, I purchased a 2018is 300 AWD (for the wife) and we were going to use it. She ended up getting in a bad accident so that stalled. We replaced it with another '18 and have been working to read the ECU and find a corresponding device. This is all still current. We are still interested in working with a 2018+ customer here locally as well.

People sometimes promote, advertise and claim the ability to do things and either back out or fail to provide evidence as you suggested. We try to never be those people. When our tune is ready, it will come with real evidence of its value to you. I could probably sell 20 S/C's in a month when this breaks so we are highly motivated in the pursuit of this.

-Justin
RR Racing Sales

 

Lexus makes the ECU files more difficult to access every year. If it was doable, we would have absolutely done it many times over. We are not software engineers either, we are automotive performance part engineers.

 

Let me just first off say I hope your wife is OK with the accident and all, I never wish that on anyone.

We all greatly appreciate the update though. And honestly that's a lot of what most of us want is just some correspondence on where it's at. It sucks for those of us that want to move on some modifications to have this little nouget of information dropped and then don't hear anything else for 6 months again.

I kno I'm chomping at the bit to be able to get that supercharger but for those who simply just want the tune I know you guys will have a rough day when it drops with the orders placed.

Thanks again for the info and we all look forward to it.

- Shane

 

I have 2022 IS350 and as I plan to keep engine stock for next couple years, I would be very interested in some tune for the future or maybe even supercharger (or turbo kit if that’s even possible) to get some more power from it! I really hope that’s doable and someone will figure out how to do it.

I’m wondering if there are any shops that can make custom tune for 3.5IS right now 🤔

 

*sigh* I don't mean to come off as a real a-hole, and I really tried not to make any one person feel singled out with this post, but this is the problem that caused me to create it. This whole thread is about how there's absolutely no one who can tune these vehicles and people like yourself continue to think that a random shop can do a one-off tune. If there's full companies that have the time and resources dedicated to trying to open up the ECU and they still haven’t done it years later, what makes you think that you can find a company that just so happens to be able to do it?

- Shane