StHalcyon

I never thought the day would arrive, but it finally did yesterday on my way home from work!

So far, it seems like there isn't much to gain after getting near 5000 rpm. I guess I'm too used to the Spec.B's turbo having that head snap feeling between three and four thousand RPM.

Although I've been saying good things in my past reviews, I think now that I'm ripping it up, a lot of bad things are slowly revealing themselves.

First up: I have got to get rid of the stock Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 tires. They are an atrocity in terms of performance even under moderate work out. I guess that's to be expected. Even a mildly hard stop gentling into a curve made them squeal like hungry piglets. Even moderate acceleration from a hard stop would cause one or a few tires to scream. It wasn't like I was hitting it hard with full throttle.

Second: What is up with the SH-AWD? I have felt a couple times during hard acceleration that I would first get a torque steer for almost a second, before things right themselves. I thought the torque vectoring is supposed to adjust within milliseconds? Or perhaps the tires poor performance just provided bad input to the SH-AWD's algorithm? (In IT terms: garbage in, garbage out.)

Third: Once I started punishing the car, the heft is definitely felt almost tenfold. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since I did know this baby is pushing 4,000 lbs. And the stock suspension, while performed superbly during the break-in period, needs serious adjustments. Too much body roll for my taste, but I'll have to wait for the bank to grow a bit before doing the tein mod.

Fourth: The rubber pedals and the relatively distanced brake and gas pedals are not h-t driving. Quite grabby to my soles too. I've been looking for aluminum pedals, but all of them seems to require screwing into the existing bare metal, with the screw head visible. Too tacky for me. I guess there isn't a viable option in this regard. Anyone can recommend something that is really useful but tastefully installed without screw heads visible?

Fifth: Not necessarily performance related, but it seems like the MID's torque and mpg bar graphs have a relatively big delay. My Spec.B's analog needle and MID graph bar for the MPG were instant and sensitive, but the TL's reacts too slowly. Not a big deal, as I shouldn't be looking at my instrument gauge cluster while driving anyway, but I was really curious about the MID's performance.

Overall, I still think it is a fine car for what it is in its class and definitely the price range. Still don't trust the car in wet weather though. So I started thinking about easy mods to get the performance up to speed, namely tires and wheels. I already know what tires I'll be getting in my mind, but as for the wheels, I was thinking about the 19 inchers from Acura. The diamond cut definitely looks nice, but I can't believe each weighs 30.32 lbs! Can't possibly aid the performance, can it? At a price of $415 each? Ouch!

Treblig

Only thing I can add is regarding tires. Hearing exactly what you have experienced with OEM tires, I had the dealer swap mine out before delivery. I went with Continental ExtremeContact DWS's. Can't offer you a comparison but can tell you that they handle the wet and the dry quite well.

I haven't seen any pedals without the exposed mounting screws. I would certainly be interested in a set too if they exist.

BEAR-AvHistory

I think most brands suffer from OEM tires. I swapped out my OEM Bridgestone RFT for up sized 245/265 stagger Conti ExtremeContact DW summers on the 335 as soon as the car was broken in about 1200 miles. Major all round improvement in handling, traction, impact, resistance & sound.

On my 3G 6MT with factory summer tires I went with Yoko 255's to replace the stock size. Only my Ford SUV still has OEM tires on it. That being said, I read someplace that even over the counter tire shop tires with the exact same name/size are better then the OEM versions. have no idea if its true but have seen it in more then one place

Edward'TLS

Unless aftermarket and OEM versions have different markings on the tires, otherwise I don't think it's true.

Because without distinctive markings, the aftermarket tire shops might just be getting the exact same OEM version tires from the suppliers, even though they thought they were getting the better ones.

FanaticFan

Yeah, don't expect a performance tire stock On a new car unless it's at the $85-$250k range, then you'll get Michelin Super Sports, if it's a performance car, that is.

If money and optimal tire performance for weather were the goals, post-OEM I'd get the Michelin Super Sports or Bridgestone Potenza S-04s for warm weather in Chicago; then a separate set of say 17" rims with Bridgestone Blizzaks on 'em for the cold season. The latter won't look as cool, but the combo of winter tire and higher wall profile is just smart for the bad road conditions that exist between October and April.

The TL is definitely a heavy car, and does great for its size and weight. If I were looking for a true sports car, I'd have gotten an Elise, the epitome of what happens when you tune weight down radically and provide great engine power. To expect a 4k lb. vehicle to drive like an Elise is unrealistic.

I've got the Eagle RS-As on our TL, and they are the epitome of adequate. noisy as heck, though, I thought something was wrong with the wheel bearings at first, yikes.

BEAR-AvHistory

Of course the codes would be different but this is pretty common even on after market tires & most people don't know or or can't read the codes. Does a Y93 or Y94 on the side of a tire mean anything to most people?

My 245/35/19's come in load capacity 93Y-1433lbs tire & 98Y-1653lbs per tire, the 265/30/19's 93Y 1433lbs per tire & 94Y 1477lbs per tire.

The higher load range tires cost more for the same tire then the lower load range. For a manufacturer selling say 40K cars $5 cheaper a tire times 4 tires is $20 per car times 40K cars. The company “makes” $800,000 by just going with a lower load capacity tire all else being equal.

Anyone buying tires really needs to go to school on what is involved in tire branding & specs. I has a long running debate on the 3G form that my 255 Yokohama tires had an inch more tread width on the ground then Firestone F1 255’s.

Finally we took pictures of the tires sitting on a ruler & even though both manufactures listed the same tread width the Yokos put an inch more on the ground. Difference was where the two manufacturers decided the tread began & ended because there is no recognized standard for the measurement.

Edward'TLS

I believe you.

Some time back when I was shopping for tires for my 2G, I actually had five different models of 225/45/18 high performance summer tires all lined up for my tread width measurement. To my surprise, the difference between the narrowest and the widest was as much as 1/2 an inch.

Even the two different tire models (both labeled 225/45/18), that belonged to the same tire brand, had vastly different measured tread widths; let alone tires from across different tire brands.

This has to do with the corresponding tire construction for each tire model. Tires with more rounded shoulders tend to have narrower tread width, while tires with more squared (sharp right-angle) shoulders tend to have wider tread width.

This is also why some members have rubbing issues even though they are using the same tire size and wheel offset as others who don't, just because they are using a different model of tires.