I just got back from a 3 day trip where I took on "Hells Canyon" a stretch of curvy mountain roads from Enterprise OR to La Grande OR, and also the Washington Side of the Columbia River gorge (at night). All in my new TL Type S. The TLs felt down out Neutral to drive. While I didn't push to hard... Doing 80 on all of the 25mph to 45mph posted corners felt dam right fine. While my Apex maneuvers were hampered from having to drive in a lane. The TLs quite stunned me. Made me feel like I was driving my S2000 through the same hills (but not quite). It then really felt like the S2000 since all of the drivers were flashing me... Dam HID...

I honestly thought to myself a few times that this car did not feel like a FWD car although it did not feel RWD like the S2000.

Next time... I'll have springs on and new tires for the track... I estimate this alone will dramatically effect the cars handling. The track will bring out more of the FWD flaws when I push it to the limits.

It is SO nice to drive at 75mph at 2K rpm and really have a lot of pickup when I stomp it. In the same token I would be running around 4K rpm in my S2000. The S2000 is the ultimate track car and I firmly believe the TLs is the ultimate cruising performance car (for the money, M5's are high on this list to )!

 

P.S. I averaged 30 mpg

 

Nice post.

I can't believe the mileage is consistently this good either. 260 HP and 30 MPG, what a combination.

 

Sounds like a really nice trip. The more I drive mine, the more I like it (7800 miles now). I'm surprised that I haven't had much problem with the HID bothering others. The beam seems to be very well defined and aimed perfectly.

I'll really be interested in your opinion after you've added springs and new tires. Which springs are you planning to add? Are you going to keep the sways stock? I've heard from some that have done it that the best first mod for handling is sways, then I've heard others that say springs. My inclination is to go with the Comptech Springs and leave the sways bars stock.

 

I'm going to try and go with al Comptech items if I can. I've never been the type of person to have stickers on my car but I am apt to put a small comptech sticker on the rear. Comptech is well respected and its the one emblem I would put on my car. I'm not sure about the tires. It sounds like I need to get new wheels to get a wider tire.

 

Wider tires...

I'm still not sure after having read several posts on this forum, what the max width is that these wheels can safely support. From my experience, I doubt that the average dealer knows either.

Comptech is definitely my choice for springs, from everything else I've heard and seen here.

 

I'm not so sure about THOSE statements!

 

80 in 25 mph to 45 mph posted turns? I can see doing 80 in a 45 posted, but 80 in a 25? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that by saying that there's no way that such a turn should be posted at that low a speed. There are reasons why certain turns are rated at such low posted speeds, and if you took that 25 mph turn at 80, then that turn could probably use a higher posted speed. Who the heck does the road engineering surveys up there?

Other than that, nice ride post!

Tony

 

Well, true, the sharp 25MPH curves I shifted down into and had to slow down. I found that the TLs stayed right on the line that I asked it to take. there were a few incidences of floating" but those were mainly on a strait line when accelerating hard. I think the drop will help these.

 

Great review!

I do agree that the TL and TL-S is a great cruising machine.