Incendiary

Not sure exactly what your point is. That's a different comparison than the one above. And yes, while the car may be the same tester, and probably has the same upgraded tires, why would you assume the IS350 had the all-season tires? Do you read Japanese? Do you have the video of the comparison in question? Or do you think the people who arranged the comparo would be so biased against Lexus as to allow the G35 and the TL to have summer tires while running mere all-seasons on the IS?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Well, let's see...Acura does not list the tire in the video as an option for the TL-S. They show Tire Rack says the RE030 is an OEM tire for the TL with 6 speed manual (see above.)

xpditor claims the TL-S was on all season tires. I do not believe they rented Willow Springs on different occasions to run two nearly identical TL-S cars with different tires and the same professional driver. Renting Willow Springs - big track or streets - is not cheap, and magazines generally are very cheap. They depend on lots of gratuities to make ends meet in a fiercely competitive business (notice the Lexus is registered in California to a private owner, so no doubt it was borrowed!) So, I seriously doubt the TL-S was on all season tires and beat the IS and G around the big track.

Regardless, I stand by my original statement. The car on the best tires at Willow Springs on the day of the comparison won hands down, and now I am quite certain they were not all season tires.

DrUnBiased

So now that we know that the TL was wearing 'ultra-high-performance summer tires,' going by your reasoning, we should conclude that the TL was at a disadvantage since this was not a typical 110F Willow Springs summer day.

DrUnBiased

If the IS350 had the OEM Bridgestone Potenza RE050, then it had the advantage over the TL, tire wise. It is ranked higher in dry-handling.

From TireRack.com

"The Potenza RE050 is a Max Performance Summer tire designed to complement the performance of sports cars, sports coupes and sport sedans. While the Potenza RE050 is used as Original Equipment on the supercharged Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG sedan, a Potenza RE050 Scuderia version is used on the 12-cylinder Enzo Ferrari supercar, and a Run Flat version is used on the BMW Z4 sports cars and 5-Series sedans."

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Read the reviews. Everyone raves about the RE030 in the dry. It just sucks for mileage and wet traction. That's why it is rated lower by the owners. Plenty of reviews by TL owners say the tire is awesome. I did read them all...

Besides, this is track use, not street use. Marketing speak (the BS) stops when the green flag drops. If anyone can get the most from a set of tires, Keiichi Tsuchiya can. And besides:

This is just plain wrong. No doubt the IS in the picture is privately owned, but we don't know if it had Dunlop Sport Maxx or RE050s on it. And we have absolutely no idea what was on the G35. It's hard to imagine that the G, being the lightest of the group, would also be the slowest, which again, screams lesser tires on that track on that day. Don't you also find it odd the two cars on 18" & 19" wheels are slower than the car on 17" wheels?

DrUnBiased

Okay, well then read the reviews again because I think you missed that the IS350 Potenza's ARE rated higher than the TL-S Potenzas in DRY handling. No one is talking about wet handling here. You seem to be contradicting your self... so the IS had 18" wheels now? You were saying it had 17" a few posts ago. Again, your basing the results of this test on YOUR assumptions. Lightest does not equal fastest. Your argument holds no ground until you can prove that the TL-S had the best tires for that day for those conditions. Until then, this is as valid of a test as you are going to get between these three cars.

P.S.
The G35 comes with the same OEM tires that come on the TL-S. They both have the SAME tires.

newr

The TL-S one in the video (with high performance tires) is different from the TL-S in the comparo (with all-season tires) which explained why the one in the video had much faster time.

TL-S in the comparo with all season tires: 1.36.67
TL-S in the video with high performance tires: 1.32.88

So had the TL-S in the comparo have high peformance tires, it would have been a slaughter and the outcome would have been even worse.

What are other excuses can people come up with other than accepting that fact that the less powered, heavier TL-S beat the more powered and lighter RWD competitors IS & G.

newr

This proved again that the TL-S did not have an advantage in the tire department so the theory that the TL-S had the best lap time because of the best tires is out the window.

Incendiary

Poor lobux. His theory so hopelessly and thoroughly debunked.

xpditor

xpditor

Here is a clip/copy from www.acura.com re: specs of TL's

P235/45 R17 93W All-Season | BASE | TYPE–S

P235/45 R17 94W Bridgestone® Potenza RE 960A High-Performance (summer) tire (available option) | TYPE–S

-----------------------------------------------------------

R030 is not the High-Performance tire option. The RE 960A is.

That info is the basis for what I posted.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Hardly. Debunked? No way. Been to the track far too many times to believe in magic suspensions.

Incendiary

What? You don't believe in magic? Haven't you ever been to McDonald's?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Where do you get this information about the cars being different? According to the print article the comparo was on the big track. The video is unquestionably on the streets of willow, not the big track. That alone accounts for a significant time difference.

So there were two blue TL-S's at the track with the same driver, and he drove one for the video on the streets of willow springs and the other with the all season tires on the big track for the comparo? I'm not buying that. Look at the pictures from the print article. Same wheels as the car in the video. Sorry, I don't believe for a second there were two identical cars with different tires.

I've been to Willow Springs a few times supporting motorcycle racers (including a couple of 24 hour races.) I know (after drivers/riders) tires make the biggest difference on the big track with all other mechanical things being close (and on these cars, everything else is reasonably close - weight, power, & aerodynamics), and power is a very close second to tires because of turn 8 & 9 leading onto the quite long front stretch.

So, somehow, a car with more weight, less power, and less grip managed to get around Willow Springs big track faster than two other cars with more power and more grip? How? Suspension design differences? Seriously?

S8B

I'm a bit surpriced how people are taking this comparo seriously.

The way it was executed was... eh.

How about we see a run with all 3 at the same time? How about we leave the Drift King out of the race, just to be fair?



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