F1nALMSfan

Hey everyone. I wanted to take some time and share my experience of a recent 2,200 mile, five day road trip with my RC F. I had the opportunity to take my car on a business trip to visit a number of clients in the Southeast, and take an extended trip home, up through the areas around the Tail of the Dragon and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Below is a brief review of the car, from an owner’s perspective, followed by a short description of fun part of my road trip.

Link to full photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=15cde452da

So, 2,200 miles is a lot to put on a car, especially in the better part of five days. Luckily, the RC F is more than up to the challenge. For disclosure, I am not driving a stock RC F, as my car has been fitted with the front only, Swift lowering springs, and the Joe Z PTS exhaust. Both of these aftermarket additions make notable impacts on the driving characteristics of the car.

Compared to all the other cars I have owned, the RC F is the most comfortable I have experienced for pounding large stretches of pavement. The cabin is well laid out, with controls where you’d expect them to be. The seats are incredible, with plenty of comfort, yet tons of lateral support for a person of my size (5’10, 170 lb). Never did I feel uncomfortable or cramped. The ride is quite good as well. The car soaks up most bumps without too much fuss, communicating to the driver subtle jolts, but never disturbing the comfort. Over some very buckled sections of concrete, the car will tend to buck a little, but I have found this to be the case in every other car I have owned. Even with the front Swift springs installed (which lowered the front end of the car about 1.3”), the car maintained a wonderful, and smooth composure. The overall ride is stiff, but by no means, harsh. I’m very happy with this current setup.

My car is equipped with the Mark Levenson sound system, and I found this to be quite good. I created a playlist of some 600 songs in Spotify premium, and the 320kps playback sounds awesome. The songs were very crisp, the bass was strong, and the fidelity of music was fantastic. I was very impressed with not only the cars sound system, but how awesome Spotify worked, highly recommended at $10/month. Road noise is moderately loud, but in line for are car running Michelin Pilot Super Sports, and nothing too obnoxious. The car has some fairly decent sound insulation, better I would say than the ISF had. Additionally, in my case, the Joe Z exhaust provided a constant hum in the background, but for the most part, doesn’t let you really know it’s there until you get on the gas. One point of criticism with the exhaust setup would be the drone that is heard, or maybe it is more a resonance that is felt, when you accelerate from low rpms in a high gear, such as 7th or 8th gear, accelerating from 70-80 mph. There is a loud drone/resonance present in the cabin at those rpms for the time acceleration is occurring. Those familiar with most aftermarket exhausts will know what I mean.

The cabin is not without its faults. The trackpad used for the infotainment system is somewhat cumbersome and imprecise, and many times I found myself taking my eyes off the road to see what I was actually doing. In my experience, the Lexus app suite is spotty at best, with many times my iphone and the car would simply refuse to communicate (no issues with straight Bluetooth connections though). Lastly, the blower motor on the seat cooling is pretty weak and could use some more oomph.

Outward vision is good, with plenty of sightline forward and aft of the car, although the blind spot monitoring system will be your best friend in crowded traffic. I think it would take some time to drive a car without BSM now. It has become something I really have learned to rely on.

The engine/drivetrain in this car is, for the most part, fantastic, but not perfect. The engine loves to rev, and the power comes on smooth, in a way that I think is almost deceiving. You don’t really feel like you are going as fast as you are. A stark contrast to how I felt in my ISF or TT RS. Hard acceleration runs get you into law breaking territory very quickly though, the results of which are quite grin producing.

The transmission works fairly well too. In manual mode, hard acceleration is met with quick up shifts, never delaying power delivery. Again, hard driving will also produce quick downshifts, accompanied by a very nice rev match throttle blip. This is even more satisfying coming from the Joe Z exhaust. The multiple drive modes (eco, normal, sport, sport +) work to transform throttle and steering response, and loosen up the stability control intervention. For my use, I am either in eco mode, for highway travel, or sport +, for having fun. I was pleasantly surprised to see eco mode return 28.4 mpg (indicated 30.1) between fill-ups on a stretch of my trip.

The engine/drivetrain has a few problems. Those quick downshifts seem to only work when going down a gear at a time. Requesting multiple gear downshifts, say from 6th to 3rd, seem to take an agonizingly long time, as the car needs to cycle through each gear, something of which does not occur in automatic mode. The thing is, you will need to make those downshifts from time to time, as this car is lacking in low end torque. Below 3,500 rpms or so, the car can feel quite anemic, begging for a kick in the ***.

So there are my thoughts on the car, having clocked in over 7,000 miles total not since July. I have to say, overall, the RC F is the best all around car I have owned/driven. It does almost everything well, is comfortable as a daily driver, and is easy to have a blast in when the right road presents itself.

Once I was through with the business portion of my trip, I left Greenville SC (beautiful city btw) to head to Bridal Veil Falls in Highlands NC. I love this spot, as you can drive underneath a waterfall and get some cool pictures of your car. The roads around here are fantastic too. The pavement is relatively smooth and constant turns and elevation changes provide a nice thrill.

After stopping at Bridal Veil Falls, and checking out a few other waterfalls nearby, I headed out on my way to the Fontana Dam. This stretch may have been my favorite of the trip. The roads were very twisty, and hugged the rocky hillside. The sound of the Joe Z exhaust reverberating off the rock walls with every upshift, downshift and decel was so addicting. This exhaust really transformed the car and has given it the proper V8 sound it was so needing. I couldn’t be happier with it.

Well when I got to the Fontana Dam, I realized my GPS had taken me to the base of the dam, not the top where I intended to go, but nonetheless, I still used the opportunity to take some great pics.
From here I made my way towards the famous Tail of the Dragon, for 318 turns in a matter of 11 miles. It’s an incredible road, and I highly encourage everyone drive it, and the surrounding roads, sometime in their life. They may not compare to what Europe has to offer, but I would bet they are some of the best you’ll find here in the US.

The RC F felt much more controllable, more nimble than I remember my ISF feeling on this same stretch of road. The steering was so fluid, and the car followed my intended path without any hesitation. I don’t think the smile left my face for those 11 miles.

After the Dragon, I made my way Northeast and headed for the Smoky Mountain National Park. Here the roads were a little less rewarding than before, but they more than made up for it in the views. We don’t have mountains in Wisconsin, we have hills, so I was in complete awe of the beauty the Smoky’s offered. I can only imagine how great everything will look in a couple weeks time as the colors really start to change. I took some very cool pictures of the RC F with backdrop of some incredible vistas.

I headed on out of the Smoky Mountains just as the sun was coming down, as I made my way up to KY for the night. In that day, I covered 433 miles, in about 10 hours of driving, and enjoyed every moment. I think the true testament of a car is the feeling you have when you aren’t in it. For me, I am always looking forward to that next drive. I can’t wait for the next road trip.

Sorry for the long-windedness of this post. Let me know your feedback and share your stories of some great road trips in the RC F.

Kevin

Joe Z

iTrader: (10)

Great write up & review Kevin..!!

Photos

Love your honest feedback & details about the entire car


Joe Z

AKA5

awesome write up, and pics!

JCtx

What a relief to hear the seats are comfortable for the long haul. I'm almost like you (10# lighter), so it shouldn't be much different for me. The seats feel stiff under my butt, and most reviews I've read criticized them for that, so was a bit skeptical to embark on a long trip before driving it for a shakedown trip of less mileage. Will probably do the latter tomorrow (with my wife), and see how it goes. Thank you for that great report.

JT4

Great review and nice pics.. And quote above from your review sums it up for me, because this is exactly how I feel everytime I get out of my CTS-V..

Beautiful car, keep enjoying it.. It may be my next car, IF I can break away from my V..

F1nALMSfan

Yea, I have seen the same reports of the seats being uncomfortable, but I was never wishing for any change to them. They are definitely less cushy than other cars I have had, but in my opinion, are still plenty comfortable. Between last Thursday and Friday, I spent close to 20 hours in them too.

F1nALMSfan

Thanks, it was a great trip. There have only been a few cars I have owned that have made me feel that way too. The ISF and the NSX were hard to stay away from. My M3 would have probably ended up being that way too, if I had enough of a chance to drive it; it found itself in the shop three times in the eight months I owned it.

The CTS-V is an awesome machine, and I am even more impressed with this newer generation of ATS/CTS-V cars. Cadillac has a very desirable lineup there.

F1nALMSfan

Thanks Joe. The exhaust played a great part in the overall enjoyment of my drive. Windows down, radio off; listening to the exhaust note bounce off the mountain side is the best kind of addiction. I received many compliments from other drivers/bystanders too.

keithS

Great review and pics and more balanced than most I've read by the major mags. I also agree, I look forward to driving this car more than any other car I have owned. For me, the seats are extremely comfortable and I can't get enough of the cranked up Mark Levinson (road noise, what road noise?). I'm also very surprised at the mileage I get which has been way above what EPA says, and I step on it as much as I can get away with. My only cons are the track pad and the brake dust that seems to accumulate even sitting still in my garage. Looking forward to taking a road trip like this one.

F1nALMSfan

Thanks. I know the car is not perfect, but the sum of it's parts makes it a standout for me. I was surprised by the positive mpg as well, especially on this trip, but I also found the ISF to be fairly surprising too. As far as brake dust, hmm, I don't have any because I am braking by downshifting too much to hear the engine

Glad you're enjoying the car as well.

BPauto

Awesome review. Not only did it provide good info and feedback, it was really well written haha. You sir have a talent for writing .

The review itself was awesome since you had so much time behind the wheel. I've noticed too many reviews of people driving to their local grocery store or driving around their neighborhood. While short trips can sometimes provide some decent info, you really get a better sense of the car and how it feels during long trips.

Thanks for the share!!

F1nALMSfan

Thanks for the kind words. I wanted to give an honest perspective of the car, and share some of the fun of my drive.

Meraki Autoworks

iTrader: (8)

Wow beautiful... and thats some amazing Mpg!

BPauto

Yeah actually those MPG's were awesome. In your opinion was that due to your own throttle control? I'm assuming you had some winding up and down hills right? Either way, I'm surprised (in a good way) at the gas mileage you got.

johnnyreb

^^^^THIS! Thanks for Sharing