Close your eyes and imagine a medium-sized, 250kph performance car with rear-wheel-drive, lots of cylinders, and a level of quality and driving dynamics born from serving the most demanding and discerning buyers on the planet. Not hard to answer, is it? It’s got to have a small round badge on the nose, divided into either three or four equal-sized segments…

Wrong – it’s neither. It comes from Japan. Its badge is a stylised ‘L’ and there’s none of this gentleman’s agreement on restricting top speed to 250kph. The Lexus IS-F (claims Lexus) is good for 270 before the limiter reigns in, making it one of the fastest four-door production sedans on the planet, an advantage which should set BMW and Mercedes-Benz salesmen quivering in their pointy, highly-polished Winklepickers.