bhvrdr

Greetings,

I thought i'd share a recent lap day that I attended at Palm Beach International Raceway with the IS350. I've only had the car for a couple weeks and wanted to see how it behaved at its limits. Here are some notes from the event.

The suspension was damped very well but with too much body roll. The filtering out of bumps made grip easy on uneven surfaces. The only real issue I had was that the roll control made rapid transitions (chicanes) and trail braking an obstacle. For this I wouldnt mind a simple sway bar upgrade when they are released. I’m not sure I would put a coilover upgrade on this car as I would be worried to ruin the ride and the excellent damping.

The drivetrain was also a mixed bag. I’ll start with the positive. The engine has an excellent powerband up high where it is needed for spirited driving. It may not be a torque monster but it makes great power mid to upper rpm range. The 8 speed transmission also did a reasonable job trying to find a lower gear during braking. It wasn’t perfect. There were many turns where the car should have been in second gear but found its way into fourth but otherwise it performed well.

The downside was poor manual mode operation. I got very sick of hearing the “beep beep” warning that was trying to let me know the transmission cant downshift to another gear despite mechanically being able to go down a gear without redlining. Of course the auto upshifts were a bother. Just when you want to shift…oops…it did it for you and now you have shifted two gears instead of one. That was a minor annoyance compared to the transmission safeguard.

It started after 25 minutes of hot lapping. “Transmission Fluid Reached Maximum Temperature.” It didn’t go into a full limp mode but it did stay on the driver information display and it did continue to warning tone. After cooling the car for one hour, it allowed for 20 to 25 minutes of hot laps again until it warned of impending tranny doom. That was disappointing and would hopefully be remedied by a secondary transmission cooler.

Finally, let me add something about the brakes. The brakes on this car exhibited no fade whatsoever. This is over 15 laps constantly going from 130mph down to 60mph. I noticed a small oddity about them. Part of it I liked. The brakes grab right away. I love grabby brakes so I give it kudos there. Some like a more progressive pedal. I'll take grabby any day. What was interesting thoughwas when I kept constant pressure on the brakes coming down from 130mph... at about the 80mph mark the brakes started to clamp again harder and activate the abs. It was a kind of neat sensation. It probably shouldnt be considered an attribute, but I didnt mind it. I'd be hard braking with my head leaning away from the headrest and all of the sudden it would brake even harder and i'd be leaning forward tighter against the belt again.

I came out of this with a new appreciation for my grocery getter. The car turned from a luxurious cruiser to a reasonably well sorted sports sedan and it was a blast enjoying the transformation. Usually I would reserve the Boxster or the Spec Miata for lap days but I may just bring out the IS350 again…it was that fun.

Mike

CharlieVo

If i were you i would use better trans fluid. I'm going to take my Is350 F-sport to Willow springs soon and test out 2 different fluids. I will let you know which work better.

bhvrdr

I appreciate the advice. I need to know the spec of the OEM fluid. I'd have to guess it is a high quality synthetic in such a transmission but who knows. I will look forward to your results.

mike

nayuta

I wonder if the IS350 F-Sport's transmission tweaks would do any better. I don't recall if the standard IS350 had the exact same software layouts for all the modes, or VGRS and the G-meter.

JDR76

There are no transmission tweaks between the regular and F Sport versions. The difference is in the suspension settings (Sport + mode).

JDR76

bhvrdr, thanks for posting your experiences. I enjoyed your great pics.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

I will be tracking mine towards the end of the month

bhvrdr

Thanks very much. I will post the professional ones from the track photographer next week or so when he is done with them.

Mike

Im2bz2p345

Thanks for this followup post on this track day Mike. I was anxious to hear about how it went.

The transmission issues you mentioned were exactly how I figured the car would behave once this car was on the track.

Not sure if you have tracked the G37S that you own, but I would be curious to hear back how the Lexus compares in relation.

Greatly appreciate your post,

~ Im2bz2p345

Larry96815

Thanks Mike, great write up. I wonder how much difference with the F sport and the Sport + mode???

Aloha,
Larry

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

did you disable traction control?

carderoni

Thanks for the great writeup. Was really interesting to read this about a non F-Sport model, too.

IS350S2K

Good info. Thanks for posting. How were the brakes? Did they hold up during the day?

bhvrdr

Thanks guys.

In truth I sometimes with I had gone with the FSport package as well. I wonder how the suspension would have managed.

I drove with the traction control enabled and disabled and surprisingly the car does well with the traction control on. It does help in certain situations where you think in might hurt. It doesnt allow for quick exit speed but it prevents mess ups if you are like me and end up going in too hot at times.

I should have mentioned the brakes. The brakes were excellent. I'm going to edit my original post to include it.

Mike

LexFather

That is awesome... I will be taking the yellow bandit to PBIR or maybe Homestead soon. I took my GS F-sport there and it handled fantastic for such a ig car.

I really enjoyed your write-up!