Well I got so frustrated with the low end torque on our F. I have always driven around town in sport +. So, the last few days I have done my daily driving in Sport S+. That pretty much did the trick in lowering the torque band. Does anyone else drive daily in this mode? It is as if I added an APEXI controller I guess from what I have read about them. Any thoughts on the mode as a daily setting?
airlaird

 

Have a RCF instead of a some lame car for a reason. Love to drive a little spirited sometimes when traffic and conditions allow. If I did not use Sport+ at least some of the time, I would of bought a RC350 F-Sport instead of my RCF. This car is built to be driven is a sporty fashion, so use it , or you wasted money!

 

I don't daily my RCF, but when I take it out its always manual plus sport or sport +. I find the sweet spot for this engine is between 3-4k, so I like to keep engine there. Theres just enough torque there to keep me happy. In contrast, my daily is a CLS550 with 443 lb/ft available at 1800 rpm. I never need to go above 4k in that car. If you drive the RCF like a typical American NA engine with low redlines and gobs of low end torque, you will be disappointed as well.

 

I don't daily drive mine. It is driven occasionally, but yeah, sport+/manual and TVD in slalom mode is the best combination even driving in city traffic. My wife tries to persuade me to drive in Eco, but even puttering along in city traffic is a lot more fun with sport+/manual. The Invidia exhaust also sounds louder in sport+ mode (with windows slightly rolled down). Not sure why?

 

all the modes are there for you to use them. Use the one you enjoy most. Also, I don't believe it is lowering the torque band. It is an electronic throttle and it is giving it greater % of throttle called for earlier making it feel "quicker". It should also be holding gears longer and not racing to 8th and doing its best to stay there. The harder you drive, the more speed you carry into braking the more aggressively it will hold the lower gear. Only seems to do it in that mode as it assumes you must be track driving. The way one might drive a manual honestly.

 

I feel you man! Also mainly drive Sport S+ in city or if I'm out cruisin, get that extra intake sound piped in, snappier shifts, heavier more responsive steering...drinks the fuel more quickly but I'll sacrifice 2-3 mpg avg on a tank to hold lower gears in higher revs for that acceleration on demand I want from my V8. I figure this thing was built to do all day at the track holding 5K+ RPM for extended periods of time no sweat so I shouldn't be worried crusing near 3K vs 1.5K-2K like it'll do in the lesser modes.
While Sport S has the sharper throttle response over Normal it still essentially shifts the same (except holding gears when it senses heavy acceleration or steering input) and will go to the highest gear possible for efficiency sake so that's where I leave it on freeways/highways.
Normal is basically like an Eco+ mode in my eyes, only use it when the wife is in the car to keep my driving in check.
Eco mode is lame. Used it once or twice to prolong a low tank till I filled her up.

 

i daily my RCF and find Sport S+ a little too responsive in traffic. It holds gears too long when trying to accelerate quickly and doesn't come out of 5th unless you are doing 70mph+. It's a beautiful mode for when you want to take some names but for day to day driving in rush hour traffic, it doesn't work. Sport + gives you quick downshifts and extra low end power without sacrificing normal driving habits.

 

This exactly for the GS F as well. S+ is too aggressive with the gear holding and the only solution to that is M mode.

 

Lol... I feel the same way... there’s few time that I’m so annoyed how it hold the gear for sooooo long..and yes the solution is the M mode..

 

Those same gear holding tendencies date back to the SPDS in ISF and LS460. Sport + is somewhat equivalent to PWR ECT in mine where the gear holding, depending on the grade of the road can be a bit of an annoyance. I usually ended up slapping it into M mode for and upshift when that was happening. Now I mostly daily in PWR and paddle row 95% of time in that mode. Eco mode makes the throttle really numb and I only use it to stretch fuel when I wanna cruise at the speed limit.

 

I have less than 3k miles under my belt driving mine. The hole gear holding thing scared me. I started reading and found a lot on it to realize it's "normal". As far as the Sport S+driving. Mine is not a daily drive so.. Why in the hell would you drive it any other way :P

 

I think Sport plus really can only be driven in manual on twisty roads. Sport plus with traction off which is expert mode also needs manual shifting. Like others said, I feel it can hold gears to long and also it can down shift hard at the wrong time and unsettle the chassis in corners while in automatic. Sport plus is great when going up a twisty mountain road.

Sport setting is a pretty good all around setting and makes the car feel lively and can be left in automatic on any road. This probably should have been the normal setting. I love this setting. When I just want to cruise a back road at a good clip or I am driving a twisty road for the first time this setting is perfect.

I think Normal and Eco are about the same and could have been combined and the car has just 3 modes instead of 4. Normal seems pretty similar to ECO. I do use Eco on long freeway drives. I think normal sucks because it feels like it goes to sleep. Normal needed to be slightly more aggressive for passing, getting down a few gears faster. If I am on the freeway and I see I have to pass some trucks or something I will switch to sport, floor it a little, get the revs up and then pass and then go back to normal or Eco. Should not have to do this.

 

THIS. I've learned to anticipate it now, but when you first get the car - you are wondering what the hell it is doing. If this were a manual you would have fed in the clutch and the revs to avoid that. RCF just drops it hard. I will also go ahead and put some of that unsettled feeling on the stock mushings (bushings) that make the car squirm around in places it should be tight. This is the entry cost for Lexus luxury over sporty.

 

Well I appreciate the responses which are all positive. I only put 400 miles a month on it so that is my new driving mode. Sport S plus from now on. It is a whole new daily driving experience and my frustration in the low end is gone. Thanks guys!
airlaird

 

If I am understanding it correctly, it is how the transmission would suddenly downshift mid corner while powering out. Manual mode is the best in these scenarios.You downshift to the lowest gear before entering the corner. With a car like RCF that has a long rev range and relatively tall gearing, you can carry through a long sweeper in just the same gear while feeding in the power (which in turn, will make the TVD rotate the rear through feeding in the power). This allows to corner fast staying in the best gear. As one is in high revs through the whole turn, it also keeps the VGRS steering and throttle response at the sharpest. As soon as you exit past mid-corner, you go full throttle exiting out and shift at rev limiter to the next gear up. The V8 is screaming in very high pitch through the turn, but it is so much fun to listen to the note change as you feed in the power and then suddenly go full throttle past mid-corner.