20 Minutes of Adrenaline driving the new GS300 AWD
02-11-05, 02:53 PM
#1
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
20 Minutes of Adrenaline driving the new GS300 AWD
I had a fortunate opportunity to drive the new GS300 AWD this morning after our dealership training session was held. This was the third time I had a chance to experience the GS in person but this was the first opportunity I've had behind the wheel.
We generally gawked at the interior, under the hood where we removed the engine cover, the trunk area and inside all of the cavities. There are a lot of impressive details to unearth. The instruments and center dash along with the perfectly positioned center console and armrest all reminded me of the cockpit of some corporate jet. The display screen seems bigger than the Nav screens in the other models by the way it is framed. This car did not have the Navigation/Levinson upgrade but it didn't matter because it had Bluetooth phone and already had been upgraded to XM satellite radio which was a good test of the sound system. The instruments have a brushed metallic finish and will change automatically between 7 brightness levels depending on ambient light. I was getting more and more envious of our service rep having such a perk to play with. He has a Black/Black with Walnut wood AWD which is nicely appointed with the G-Spyder 18" wheels and Z rated runflats. These are a port installed upgrade or they can be purchased through Parts. They have a Graphite polished finish which looked like a custom rim.
Our rep was nice enough to take all the interested parties out for a drive. I waited until they were all finished. Before the car went to detail to get all of our fingerprints waxed off we got the key fob and took off! The Start button has a green light when it is ready and all you have to do is just push it once and it cranks until it fires up. The first thing I noticed was the steering. It is very fast and might feel light compared to previous generations. It doesn't run off of a conventional power steering pump and drive belt. It is pure Electric powered bliss. I pulled out of the dealership and gave it a little gas and hooboy it likes to go. I took the first available turn and didn't take my foot off of the gas and it deftly took the corner. That felt secure so I needed more. The next turn was a wide bottom of a small hill so I hit the gas all the way through and it just ate up the pavement which had a little sandy patch on it. The VSC beeped to tell me it had just intervened for a second. I headed for a little park that has some nice smooth windy sections that I have driven everything including Porsche Boxsters and an SL55 AMG. I looked at the Odometer which showed 1404 miles so I wanted to try out the acceleration. The first to second shift happened at 6,000 RPM's and the second to third occured at 6,300 RPM's. Redline is just below 6,400 R's, The engine starts to sing at 5,000 and up and you want to keep it there because it hits the notes like an opera singer without any strain. The next turn put us on a road that the residents had lined with speed bumps and we were behind a tow truck anyway. The suspension just followed the contour of the road no mattter what I did and even the speed bumps were hardly noticed. I finally turned onto the Parkway and noticed that it held the gear I was in without me putting it in the sequential shift slot. This transmission is smarter than any previous Lexus so they have definitely tweaked the software. It is silky smooth and fun to shift or just let it do its job for you in AUTO. We got to the section of the drive I call the Roller Coaster ( another one of my fetishes) . We launched over the drop and the only thing that changed composure was our stomachs. Whew! That was fun. We went through some small radius S turns and I was already in love. I told my two associates that we just had to turn around and do that again. They were enthusiastic so the GS just crushed the turns and I saw the roller coaster ascent up ahead and floored it. I was expecting a slow motion General Lee launch into the air but the GS just hugged the pavement without any rebound or squat. I just couldn't make it lose its composure. I hadn't found the limits. The last section we drove I call the Giant Slalom as it is a downhill with long radius turns. I just kept accelerating and the GS just carved through the arcs like Bode Miller. My heart was thumping as I left the woods and went back to industrial Rockville. I turned onto Gude drive and cranked up the sound system. The sub woofer made its presence known as the rear view mirror would blur everytime it hit the bass as Usher wailed. The stock 10 speaker set up is excellent and has the now familiar controls on the color touch screen display. A word of warning : Do not put any Windex or such cleaner on the info screen. And don't put anything under 91 Octane in the fuel tank or it will Knockety Knock. This engine was tamed with 96 Octane when they were developing it. The 11.5 to 1 compression is race ready. The next time I take a hot lap I'm going to put some Octane booster in and see what it does......Oh yeah.........
We generally gawked at the interior, under the hood where we removed the engine cover, the trunk area and inside all of the cavities. There are a lot of impressive details to unearth. The instruments and center dash along with the perfectly positioned center console and armrest all reminded me of the cockpit of some corporate jet. The display screen seems bigger than the Nav screens in the other models by the way it is framed. This car did not have the Navigation/Levinson upgrade but it didn't matter because it had Bluetooth phone and already had been upgraded to XM satellite radio which was a good test of the sound system. The instruments have a brushed metallic finish and will change automatically between 7 brightness levels depending on ambient light. I was getting more and more envious of our service rep having such a perk to play with. He has a Black/Black with Walnut wood AWD which is nicely appointed with the G-Spyder 18" wheels and Z rated runflats. These are a port installed upgrade or they can be purchased through Parts. They have a Graphite polished finish which looked like a custom rim.
Our rep was nice enough to take all the interested parties out for a drive. I waited until they were all finished. Before the car went to detail to get all of our fingerprints waxed off we got the key fob and took off! The Start button has a green light when it is ready and all you have to do is just push it once and it cranks until it fires up. The first thing I noticed was the steering. It is very fast and might feel light compared to previous generations. It doesn't run off of a conventional power steering pump and drive belt. It is pure Electric powered bliss. I pulled out of the dealership and gave it a little gas and hooboy it likes to go. I took the first available turn and didn't take my foot off of the gas and it deftly took the corner. That felt secure so I needed more. The next turn was a wide bottom of a small hill so I hit the gas all the way through and it just ate up the pavement which had a little sandy patch on it. The VSC beeped to tell me it had just intervened for a second. I headed for a little park that has some nice smooth windy sections that I have driven everything including Porsche Boxsters and an SL55 AMG. I looked at the Odometer which showed 1404 miles so I wanted to try out the acceleration. The first to second shift happened at 6,000 RPM's and the second to third occured at 6,300 RPM's. Redline is just below 6,400 R's, The engine starts to sing at 5,000 and up and you want to keep it there because it hits the notes like an opera singer without any strain. The next turn put us on a road that the residents had lined with speed bumps and we were behind a tow truck anyway. The suspension just followed the contour of the road no mattter what I did and even the speed bumps were hardly noticed. I finally turned onto the Parkway and noticed that it held the gear I was in without me putting it in the sequential shift slot. This transmission is smarter than any previous Lexus so they have definitely tweaked the software. It is silky smooth and fun to shift or just let it do its job for you in AUTO. We got to the section of the drive I call the Roller Coaster ( another one of my fetishes) . We launched over the drop and the only thing that changed composure was our stomachs. Whew! That was fun. We went through some small radius S turns and I was already in love. I told my two associates that we just had to turn around and do that again. They were enthusiastic so the GS just crushed the turns and I saw the roller coaster ascent up ahead and floored it. I was expecting a slow motion General Lee launch into the air but the GS just hugged the pavement without any rebound or squat. I just couldn't make it lose its composure. I hadn't found the limits. The last section we drove I call the Giant Slalom as it is a downhill with long radius turns. I just kept accelerating and the GS just carved through the arcs like Bode Miller. My heart was thumping as I left the woods and went back to industrial Rockville. I turned onto Gude drive and cranked up the sound system. The sub woofer made its presence known as the rear view mirror would blur everytime it hit the bass as Usher wailed. The stock 10 speaker set up is excellent and has the now familiar controls on the color touch screen display. A word of warning : Do not put any Windex or such cleaner on the info screen. And don't put anything under 91 Octane in the fuel tank or it will Knockety Knock. This engine was tamed with 96 Octane when they were developing it. The 11.5 to 1 compression is race ready. The next time I take a hot lap I'm going to put some Octane booster in and see what it does......Oh yeah.........
Last edited by Rockville; 02-11-05 at 09:06 PM.
02-11-05, 02:57 PM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Originally Posted by Rockville
I had a fortunate opportunity to drive the new GS300 AWD this morning after our dealership training session was held. This was the third time I had a chance to experience the GS in person but this was the first opportunity I've had behind the wheel.
We generally gawked at the interior, under the hood where we removed the engine cover, the trunk area and inside all of the cavities. There are a lot of impressive details to unearth. The instruments and center dash along with the perfectly positioned center console and armrest all reminded me of the cockpit of some corporate jet. The display screen seems bigger than the Nav screens in the other models by the way it is framed. This car did not have the Navigation/Levinson upgrade but it didn't matter because it had Bluetooth phone and already had been upgraded to XM satellite radio which was a good test of the sound system. The instruments have a brushed metallic finish and will change automatically between 7 brightness levels depending on ambient light. I was getting more and more envious of our service rep having such a perk to play with. He has a Black/Black with Walnut wood AWD which is nicely appointed with the G-Spyder 18" wheels and Z rated runflats. These are a port installed upgrade or they can be purchased through Parts. They have a Graphite polished finish which looked like a custom rim.
Our rep was nice enough to take all the interested parties out for a drive. I waited until they were all finished. Before the car went to detail to get all of our fingerprints waxed off we got the keys and took off! The first thing I noticed was the steering. It is very fast and might feel light compared to previous generations. It doesn't run off of a conventional power steering pump and drive belt. It is pure Electric powered bliss. I pulled out of the dealership and gave it a little gas and hooboy it likes to go. I took the first available turn and didn't take my foot off of the gas and it deftly took the corner. That felt secure so I needed more. The next turn was a wide bottom of a small hill so I hit the gas all the way through and it just ate up the pavement which had a little sandy patch on it. The VSC beeped to tell me it had just intervened for a second. I headed for a little park that has some nice smooth windy sections that I have driven everything including Porsche Boxsters and an SL55 AMG. I looked at the Odometer which showed 1404 miles so I wanted to try out the acceleration. The first to second shift happened at 6,000 RPM's and the second to third occured at 6,300 RPM's. Redline is just below 6,400 R's, The engine starts to sing at 5,000 and up and you want to keep it there because it hits the notes like an opera singer without any strain. The next turn put us on a road that the residents had lined with speed bumps and we were behind a tow truck anyway. The suspension just followed the contour of the road no mattter what I did and even the speed bumps were hardly noticed. I finally turned onto the Parkway and noticed that it held the gear I was in without me putting it in the sequential shift slot. This transmission is smarter that any previous Lexus so they have definitely tweaked the software. It is silky smooth and fun to shift or just let it do its job for you in AUTO. We got to the section of the drive I call the Roller Coaster ( another one of my fetishes) . We launched over the drop and the only thing that changed composure was our stomachs. Whew! That was fun. We went through some small radius S turns and I was already in love. I told my two associates that we just had to turn around and do that again. They were enthusiastic so the GS just crushed the turns and I saw the roller coaster ascent up ahead and floored it. I was expecting a slow motion General Lee launch into the air but the GS just hugged the pavement without any rebound or squat. I just couldn't make it lose its composure. I hadn't found the limits. The last section we drove I call the Giant Slalom as it is a downhill with long radius turns. I just kept accelerating and the GS just carved through the arcs like Bode Miller. My heart was thumping as I left the woods and went back to industrial Rockville. I turned onto Gude drive and cranked up the sound system. The sub woofer made its presence known as the rear view mirror would blur everytime it hit the bass as Usher wailed. The stock 10 speaker set up is excellent and has the now familiar controls on the color touch screen display. A word of warning : Do not put any Windex or such cleaner on the info screen. And don't put anything under 91 Octane in the fuel tank or it will Knockety Knock. This engine was tamed with 96 Octane when they were developing it. The 11.5 to 1 compression is race ready. The next time I take a hot lap I'm going to put some Octane booster in and see what it does......Oh yeah.........
We generally gawked at the interior, under the hood where we removed the engine cover, the trunk area and inside all of the cavities. There are a lot of impressive details to unearth. The instruments and center dash along with the perfectly positioned center console and armrest all reminded me of the cockpit of some corporate jet. The display screen seems bigger than the Nav screens in the other models by the way it is framed. This car did not have the Navigation/Levinson upgrade but it didn't matter because it had Bluetooth phone and already had been upgraded to XM satellite radio which was a good test of the sound system. The instruments have a brushed metallic finish and will change automatically between 7 brightness levels depending on ambient light. I was getting more and more envious of our service rep having such a perk to play with. He has a Black/Black with Walnut wood AWD which is nicely appointed with the G-Spyder 18" wheels and Z rated runflats. These are a port installed upgrade or they can be purchased through Parts. They have a Graphite polished finish which looked like a custom rim.
Our rep was nice enough to take all the interested parties out for a drive. I waited until they were all finished. Before the car went to detail to get all of our fingerprints waxed off we got the keys and took off! The first thing I noticed was the steering. It is very fast and might feel light compared to previous generations. It doesn't run off of a conventional power steering pump and drive belt. It is pure Electric powered bliss. I pulled out of the dealership and gave it a little gas and hooboy it likes to go. I took the first available turn and didn't take my foot off of the gas and it deftly took the corner. That felt secure so I needed more. The next turn was a wide bottom of a small hill so I hit the gas all the way through and it just ate up the pavement which had a little sandy patch on it. The VSC beeped to tell me it had just intervened for a second. I headed for a little park that has some nice smooth windy sections that I have driven everything including Porsche Boxsters and an SL55 AMG. I looked at the Odometer which showed 1404 miles so I wanted to try out the acceleration. The first to second shift happened at 6,000 RPM's and the second to third occured at 6,300 RPM's. Redline is just below 6,400 R's, The engine starts to sing at 5,000 and up and you want to keep it there because it hits the notes like an opera singer without any strain. The next turn put us on a road that the residents had lined with speed bumps and we were behind a tow truck anyway. The suspension just followed the contour of the road no mattter what I did and even the speed bumps were hardly noticed. I finally turned onto the Parkway and noticed that it held the gear I was in without me putting it in the sequential shift slot. This transmission is smarter that any previous Lexus so they have definitely tweaked the software. It is silky smooth and fun to shift or just let it do its job for you in AUTO. We got to the section of the drive I call the Roller Coaster ( another one of my fetishes) . We launched over the drop and the only thing that changed composure was our stomachs. Whew! That was fun. We went through some small radius S turns and I was already in love. I told my two associates that we just had to turn around and do that again. They were enthusiastic so the GS just crushed the turns and I saw the roller coaster ascent up ahead and floored it. I was expecting a slow motion General Lee launch into the air but the GS just hugged the pavement without any rebound or squat. I just couldn't make it lose its composure. I hadn't found the limits. The last section we drove I call the Giant Slalom as it is a downhill with long radius turns. I just kept accelerating and the GS just carved through the arcs like Bode Miller. My heart was thumping as I left the woods and went back to industrial Rockville. I turned onto Gude drive and cranked up the sound system. The sub woofer made its presence known as the rear view mirror would blur everytime it hit the bass as Usher wailed. The stock 10 speaker set up is excellent and has the now familiar controls on the color touch screen display. A word of warning : Do not put any Windex or such cleaner on the info screen. And don't put anything under 91 Octane in the fuel tank or it will Knockety Knock. This engine was tamed with 96 Octane when they were developing it. The 11.5 to 1 compression is race ready. The next time I take a hot lap I'm going to put some Octane booster in and see what it does......Oh yeah.........
Great review, I felt I was there!!! And this is a STOCK GS!!! Imagine adding beefier sways, lowering it, etc
Got pics of the diff rims? We have not seen them yet.
02-11-05, 03:19 PM
#3
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
Rims and mods
I am impressed with the car as driven. The sways are very effective stock. It is a race setup yet not harsh. I am now awaiting the arrival of the GS430 which is another animal entirely made of Admantium.......I have seen the G-Spyders on CL somewhere..... They are a $2450 port upgrade from the 17" runflats around here. Worth every penny. The GS430 18"stock rims are the bomb and enough said....
02-11-05, 03:21 PM
#4
Lexus Connoisseur
Great review. Your review still proves the naysayers wrong about the GS300 being a mistake to release. 
02-11-05, 03:32 PM
#5
Lexus Connoisseur
G-Spiders look great. CL Vendor Sewell Lexus aka www.lexus-parts.com has a special for CL members:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...4&page=1&pp=15
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...4&page=1&pp=15
02-11-05, 03:56 PM
#6
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
That's them !
The 18" stock rims on the GS430 are a half in wider than the GS300's 17" so I was wondering if there would be any differences especially on the AWD. Nope. They're the same upgrade for either model but the GS430 already has the 18 in tires so it is less costly. We are using Dunlop All Season 5000 sport runflats here in the East. The car I test drove had Bridgestone Potenzas and they were sweet.
Trending Topics
02-12-05, 04:45 PM
#12
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
New Tag line
Lexus GS....The Next Phenomenon...You will start to see teaser ads next week and the new Start/Stop button will be prominently displayed. Also print images where the car is stationary but the reflection is blurred like it is in motion,
My advice is drive it, you will NOT be disappointed.
My advice is drive it, you will NOT be disappointed.
02-12-05, 05:17 PM
#14
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
New information Screen same as GEN 4 Nav.
Originally Posted by CaMsGS3
nice review, any chance in getting some pics of the display screen - what does it actually show you w/o the nav?
02-15-05, 07:19 AM
#15
Lead Lap
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Greenville + Orangeburg, South Carolina
Posts: 539
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I also had the opportunity to test drive the gs300 at my local dealer here in SC.. All I can say is that Rockville pretty much left no stone unturned with his review. Guys this car is awesome. THe pics on the internet truly doesnt do it any justice. I fell in love with immdediately when i saw it. My sales manager sd they just took it off the truck about an hour ago and that I was the first one to drive it. I was quite impressed with this car especially the v6..Lexus really hit the mark with this one. The one i drove had some different 18inch lexus wheels that made the car really stand out..It had a 7 spoke design that were polished and hyperblack.. All i can say is that I want one!!!