That must be one hard car to get. I wonder what the markup is on that

 

and… “offline” Lol
yeah great idea. Thanks to Steve’s suggestion and of course Dave for the go!

 

Yeah they are, mine are stock for the most part.

 

They have a metal coil in the front (facing the coolers) that when heated expands and lengthens enough to move the shaft they are connected to that closes valving inside the unit. When closed it provides a fluid lock and spins nearly 1:1 with the water pump pulley speed but still allows some slip so it doesn't drag down or shock the engine. It also will slip if you bring RPMs up super high quickly

E-fans do everything better and even weigh about the same but cost far more and aren't as reliable. I usually take mine off since with the exception of the Jeep they don't need the mechanical fan. The Jeep actually doesn't come with one unless you have the tow package but even with it the 4.0 engines overheat in temps above 90 with AC on if you sit still. You have to drop it in N and hold revs at 2500 till it cools every 8 min or so

 

Got my tires installed today! So far so good. I picked the car up in a huge thunderstorm, and I had to run home for a 5:30 call. The shop aired them to 45! The spec is 35 and I had been running 31. Even at 45 they rode great. After my meeting I aired them down to 38 and went out for a ride. Balance is perfect, ride is great and same stretch of highway I note a 1-1.5 dB improvement in noise at 75 MPH. I got 59 before the change, and am getting 57-58 now. The handling is much better, turn in is much better being a UHP tire instead of a grand touring tire.

I will check the pressures again tomorrow morning when they have cooled down and air them to 35 (the factory spec) and see how I feel about that and see if I need to run them any lower.

The front tires were so bald at the shoulders that on an onramp/offramp it felt like you had to pop the wheel out of the curve line, very strange sensation.

Couple pics:

Front:




Rears, nice that the sidewalls are exactly the same, I've had issues with that with Michelins...

 

Very nice! I'm glad you like the increased turn in response, for me when I went from GTs to UHPAS tires it turned my car into a totally different one handling and response wise.

 

Yeah I'm driving it to WV for the 4th, I'm looking forward to it. I'll take Route 60 in and try them out on the backroads

 

Nice, I would air them so when hot they are at 36-38 psi for max grip. Generally speaking UHPs lose grip if they get to 40 when you really start pushing them. I'm not sure if you will be able to feel it in the S class though since I'm sure it hides a lot

 

Which Lexus?

 

The 430/460/350 and the RX when I had it are all on stock parts expect tires and the 430 has a tune.

The RWD cars both go sideways and light up the tires if you want them to and easily hit 130+ and sound quite good if you push them over 4-5k rpm. I've got the 460 down to 5.1-5.2 seconds to 60 with the tires I'm running and I am gradually getting parts for an LSD conversion and much better suspension.

Still, they are somewhat slow vs my other car. My A8 hits 100 before the 430 is at 70

 

So you are claiming that these cars are muscle cars?

 

Yeah, considering the 460 in particular outruns 5.7 challengers and chargers and has superior handling and can hold up against 6.1 SRTs it would say it qualifies. You get a nice interior and ride quality on top of fairly good performance. They are a muscle car that is also nice, that why they cost 3x as much new.

A 385hp RWD car is what the 460 is. You say you drive a near 400hp RWD and people make assumptions what that is and automatically classify it as something.

 

I don’t know how you can call a Lexus LS a muscle car.

Definition of a a muscle car is even in the dictionary apparently….Even in the encyclopedia

 

Neighbor just traded his X7 into a M 760i, thing is insane......one of the 4 V12s here now.

 

Whatever. Guess a Hellcat charger doesn't qualify for you?