High Praise heaped On The Upcoming 6MT SH-AWD Vehicle
05-01-2009, 04:40 PM
#1
I feel strongly both ways
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High Praise heaped On The Upcoming 6MT SH-AWD Vehicle
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=132226
The competitor cars each featured a manual transmission, the sportiest configuration currently available, and aftermarket brake pads that would stand up to an afternoon on the racetrack. The cars included a 2008 Audi S4 Quattro manual; 2008 BMW 335i Sport; 2008 BMW 335xi Sport and a 2008 Infiniti G35s.
We'd go out, run one lap, two hot laps and one cool-down in lap. Then we'd come in and switch cars with our press colleagues and repeat until all five cars were sufficiently flogged. We repeated the round robin twice and were given the opportunity to revisit any two or three cars we thought we hadn't had enough time in.
The 2010 Acura TL SH-AWD 6MT kicked serious butt. And we're not talking tenths of a second on a 1.6-mile racetrack, but instead 2 seconds (a light-year on a short racetrack like this) separated the TL from the next quickest sedan, the Audi S4 Quattro, on the challenging Dynamics Handling Course. This Alan Wilson-designed, 13-corner course is a laboratory instrument, and it dissected the strengths and weaknesses of these five cars with an array of fast/slow, compressed/unweighted, opening/closing corners.
The Lab Results
We rapidly came to some conclusions. Here's how we ranked the cars after our testing.
1st Place: While the 2010 Acura TL SH-AWD 6MT might not have the horsepower to keep up on the straight with any of these other sport sedans, it works best by far in the corners and made up time over its competition in speed at the apex and at the exit. At nearly every corner, the SH-AWD was so astute and intelligent that you could literally slap the go pedal to the carpet and let the all-wheel drive sort out how best to put the power to good use. And yes, these optional 245/40ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires (the largest and stickiest of any of the tires in the entire group) really help, but it was in combination with the SH-AWD where the rubber really made a difference. This car carves the corners.
2nd Place: While the 2008 Audi S4 Quattro would seem to hold an advantage by the sheer fact that it hangs a 340-hp V8 over its front wheels and offers the traction of all-wheel drive, it is hampered by stubborn understeer on the entry to slow and moderate-speed corners. The steering remained light and precise throughout the course, as did the feel of the light-effort clutch and shifter. The S4 was the only car here other than the TL that was able to put the power to the pavement before the apex of the corners — a real advantage thanks to all-wheel drive. Poor weight distribution keeps it from getting close to the TL.
3rd Place: The BMW 335i maintains its composure even when driven extremely hard, yet it feels surprisingly slow and out of place compared to the TL and S4. Of course, putting power down with just the rear wheels means the front wheels almost needed to be straight before the throttle could go all the way to the floor. The throttle response from its twin-turbo 300-hp inline-6 is only happy and snappy in the upper rpm range, and the steering feels indirect and slow in comparison. Great brakes, but this wasn't enough to make up the 2.7-second gap to the TL. It's just too slow to react.
4th Place: Hoping the BMW 335xi's all-wheel drive would allow the 3 Series to put its 300 hp to better use, we discovered that it only further snubbed the responses of the sedan. The steering became less direct, the throttle response grew worse and the understeer became more pronounced. The added weight of the car was obvious, especially in a high-speed corner with an apex at the crest of a hill.
5th Place: To be honest, the Infiniti G35s didn't even get a second drive in the comparison. From the second corner of the first hot lap, it was painfully obvious that the heavy effort and lurching response of the clutch pedal (it turns out they're all like this), the heavy-effort shift action and an inability to keep its rear tires hooked up on anything less than a dead-straight piece of track kept the G35s from being able to put up a good fight. On this track, it required constant vigilance just to keep the G35s on the pavement.
The competitor cars each featured a manual transmission, the sportiest configuration currently available, and aftermarket brake pads that would stand up to an afternoon on the racetrack. The cars included a 2008 Audi S4 Quattro manual; 2008 BMW 335i Sport; 2008 BMW 335xi Sport and a 2008 Infiniti G35s.
We'd go out, run one lap, two hot laps and one cool-down in lap. Then we'd come in and switch cars with our press colleagues and repeat until all five cars were sufficiently flogged. We repeated the round robin twice and were given the opportunity to revisit any two or three cars we thought we hadn't had enough time in.
The 2010 Acura TL SH-AWD 6MT kicked serious butt. And we're not talking tenths of a second on a 1.6-mile racetrack, but instead 2 seconds (a light-year on a short racetrack like this) separated the TL from the next quickest sedan, the Audi S4 Quattro, on the challenging Dynamics Handling Course. This Alan Wilson-designed, 13-corner course is a laboratory instrument, and it dissected the strengths and weaknesses of these five cars with an array of fast/slow, compressed/unweighted, opening/closing corners.
The Lab Results
We rapidly came to some conclusions. Here's how we ranked the cars after our testing.
1st Place: While the 2010 Acura TL SH-AWD 6MT might not have the horsepower to keep up on the straight with any of these other sport sedans, it works best by far in the corners and made up time over its competition in speed at the apex and at the exit. At nearly every corner, the SH-AWD was so astute and intelligent that you could literally slap the go pedal to the carpet and let the all-wheel drive sort out how best to put the power to good use. And yes, these optional 245/40ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires (the largest and stickiest of any of the tires in the entire group) really help, but it was in combination with the SH-AWD where the rubber really made a difference. This car carves the corners.
2nd Place: While the 2008 Audi S4 Quattro would seem to hold an advantage by the sheer fact that it hangs a 340-hp V8 over its front wheels and offers the traction of all-wheel drive, it is hampered by stubborn understeer on the entry to slow and moderate-speed corners. The steering remained light and precise throughout the course, as did the feel of the light-effort clutch and shifter. The S4 was the only car here other than the TL that was able to put the power to the pavement before the apex of the corners — a real advantage thanks to all-wheel drive. Poor weight distribution keeps it from getting close to the TL.
3rd Place: The BMW 335i maintains its composure even when driven extremely hard, yet it feels surprisingly slow and out of place compared to the TL and S4. Of course, putting power down with just the rear wheels means the front wheels almost needed to be straight before the throttle could go all the way to the floor. The throttle response from its twin-turbo 300-hp inline-6 is only happy and snappy in the upper rpm range, and the steering feels indirect and slow in comparison. Great brakes, but this wasn't enough to make up the 2.7-second gap to the TL. It's just too slow to react.
4th Place: Hoping the BMW 335xi's all-wheel drive would allow the 3 Series to put its 300 hp to better use, we discovered that it only further snubbed the responses of the sedan. The steering became less direct, the throttle response grew worse and the understeer became more pronounced. The added weight of the car was obvious, especially in a high-speed corner with an apex at the crest of a hill.
5th Place: To be honest, the Infiniti G35s didn't even get a second drive in the comparison. From the second corner of the first hot lap, it was painfully obvious that the heavy effort and lurching response of the clutch pedal (it turns out they're all like this), the heavy-effort shift action and an inability to keep its rear tires hooked up on anything less than a dead-straight piece of track kept the G35s from being able to put up a good fight. On this track, it required constant vigilance just to keep the G35s on the pavement.
05-01-2009, 05:17 PM
#2
2015 TLX SH-AWD ADVANCE
That is a great article. I would love to be able to have the 6MT only when I felt like shifting. I am afraid I must be getting too old for the MT. Too much shifting for me. :-)
05-01-2009, 05:26 PM
#3
Three Wheelin'
The new 6MT looks to be a seriously good tranny. Not sure about its durability though. Too bad Acura couldn't develop a dual-clutch tranny for the TL and have the best of both worlds.
05-01-2009, 06:35 PM
#4
Senior Moderator
iTrader: (1)
This is a repost: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...hlight=2010+TL
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