First canyon/twisties drive

[ST675R]

Background – I’m not a car guy. Prior 2 cars were a Mk7 GTI (MT) and a Civic EX-L (MT). But I am a motorcycle guy. Ridden since I was 6yrs old with almost 100k miles of sport riding in the mountains of NC, GA, TN, VA and WV. Also a decent amount of rider training: MSF Advanced Rider Course, Total Control Riding Clinic, Cornerspeed school at VIR. Books like Total Control and Twist of the Wrist II.

Route: Approx 230miles. Odometer started at 570 miles. Charlotte to Spruce Pine to meet my dad for lunch. Specifically picked Old 18 and Hwy 181 because I love those 2 roads, it avoids the interstate and it’s a mostly direct route. My girlfriend was with me. I’m very lucky she lets me have fun and doesn’t get car sick. The pace was more 7/10ths vs. 8/10ths if I was solo.

Love this car!

The chassis is amazing. Came nowhere close to exceeding the grip and it excels on uneven pavement in comfort suspension. Steering is extremely precise. Superb on tight twisties and roads like 181 that are higher speed with several tight knee dragging turns (181 is a hill climb where you get an extra lane 3x to pass any traffic). On one back mtn road (Crabtree Rd) my dad was following in a Mini Cooper S. He knows the road better and has a 400lb advantage. But we suddenly lost him in some tight switchbacks. He commented on how well the ITS soaks up the uneven pavement while the Mini bounced him all over the place and he had to back off.

Power: Car has more power than needed for these roads. I think the power is close to perfect, but the saying “more fun to drive a slow car fast” has merits.

I’m still getting used to the engine characteristics. Engine feels very tight and maybe a little buzzy at higher RPMs. (I’m no stranger to buzzy on motorcycles). I think this will improve as the engine breaks in more. I learned that I have the 5k-6k rpm dash rattle/vibration which was a distraction. I’ll have more fun playing at higher RPMs as I get to know the engine.

Transmission: Excellent shifts. I really like the rev matching. (I’ll need to get the Acuity pedal spacer for me to play with heel-toe). Engine braking is almost non-existent, but that could be a car vs. bike thing. The GTI had better engine braking. On the bike I like to wind up the motor for the engine braking / immediate power when playing on a tight road. In the ITS, gear selection was minimal engine braking and mostly to stay in the power band.

Seats were comfortable all day and provide enough support. The seats don’t hug you, but they’re good enough.

Learned that I do not like adaptive cruise control. We took some interstate on the way home. You’re sitting too far back to communicate that you’d like to pass and others are happy to fill the gap. The auto braking makes you brake when not needed and not good when needing to pass on the right …personal preference thing, but I’ll turn it off.

Overall, I’m very impressed and happy with the car. Look forward to bonding with the engine better, but that’ll happen with more miles. I've kept prior cars 100k-150k miles. Know I'll enjoy this car for a long time.

 

[optronix]

Interesting write up, great perspective and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was a "bike guy" for all of about a year. Started with a Hyosung 250, "outgrew" that one very fast but thought I was ready for a brand new 2009 R6. I was not prepared for what that bike tried to do when it got past 8500rpm at WOT (literally take off from under me...). I'm not afraid to say I got scared lol. In any case, that's when I kind of knew maybe the bike thing wasn't for me- and karma delivered on that sense with FORCE by having the bike get stolen just as I had decided I was ready to sell it.

I will add though that my time riding made me an infinitely better driver- you establish far more awareness to other drivers and happenings on the road when you're so exposed. Also I feel like my bike ownership experience was tainted in the sense that I had yet to discover the art of actively going out for a ride/drive on "fun" roads. I was kind of just putting around town on boring everyday roads and didn't get the full experience. I can't lie and say I can't walk past a nice bike and not want to hop on take a spin though...

Anyway. I think I know what you mean about the "buzziness"; mine had the infamous "wastegate rattle" and it really was a significant distraction for the first 1500 miles or so. I can still hear it occasionally but it's either a) the noise has severely diminished, b) I've just grown used to it and actively tune it out, or c) a little bit of both. In any case it doesn't bother me really at all anymore, and that goes for other attributes of the engine too. Now at 3500 miles it just feels smoother.

Not sure I follow on the engine braking element. I have no complaints. FWIW I don't bother with heel-toe, and never will now that rev-matching exists. Works fine for me, although I did have to get used to the relatively low redline but 7000 isn't that bad.

The adaptive cruise control may be an acquired taste, but you can configure it to follow more closely. I think the default setting is the farthest, which would make sense. If you haven't played with that yet, give it a shot and it may be more to your liking. For long trips I do enjoy the fact that it's there and feel that it's well implemented but that said I don't use it all the time. I never use the lane keep assist, that's too much intrusion for me.

Glad you're enjoying the car.

 

[bruejam]

100% with you on the adaptive cruise complaint. The closest setting isn't close enough when approaching a slower vehicle to let them know you want to pass, and while you're sitting there shaking your head and deciding to turn off adaptive cruise to close the gap, another car will cram in causing the adaptive cruise to panic brake. Matching speed at 3-4 car lengths, unfortunately, is not intrusive enough to the slower driver to get them to move out of the way.

It's certainly not unique to the ITS... all of the Honda/Acura systems I've ever used have this shortcoming. My guess is that it's a combination of technical limitations (allowing the system enough time to react in the event of a sudden brake) and mitigating liability.

I DO appreciate it on longer road trips when I'm running in the right lane in light traffic. If I approach a slower-moving vehicle and can't immediately switch lanes to pass, it's nice to have the speed automatically adjust and then go back to the set speed once I do move to pass.

Great writeup, though. I haven't really had a chance to turn mine loose and I'm looking forward to doing so. I can definitely feel the potential.

 

[Fanatic]

Sweet. Good to hear.

I ride motorcycles / sport bikes as well although I could always use more of your training and experience. : )