Club4AG and Friends FRS Launch Event at Penske Scion of Downey(pics)

[Exhaust]

Moto-P, im glad we have you on these forums!

[zoomzoomers]

Thanks for the pics! Looks like it was a good time. Now only if them Subie's will get here already...

[GT-R]

Looks like you had fun

[chate]

Who's FRS has the Gold Rims?? I wanna do that What kinda rims?

[86'd]

Aww too bad I couldn't go. It looked fun!

These pics are making me think I should get white after all....

OT: I haven't been to Stonewood in forever! I didn't know that Penske was here. I think it used to be a Ford dealership?

[r4m3n]

Moto - do you have pix of the 5AD spoiler on your car from the side? I want to see how it looks with the stock wheels.

[Guff]

Looks like one hell of a party!! I can't wait for a national meet!!

[bestwheelbase]

Looks like fun!

Anybody else spot the rccars in the first pic?

[xravexboix]

Originally Posted by Moto-P

I am having this planned right now, and trying to get a LFA from HQ for us to follow along the drive.
That can't happen this month but likely sometime next month.

I call shotgun

[Moto-P]

Originally Posted by SUB-FT86

You and Moto love the automatic so I know its gotta be a good tranny. :happy0180:
Also did the engine seem smoother than other i4 engines? I don't mean the sound but the feel from the pedal. Is it buttery like a I6?

I've drawn the line on where you should decide on the MT/AT issues before in other threads now buried lol! Pretty lengthy too.
But here is the thing, the AT on this car has seen just as much development time or more than the MT, to not spoil the fun factor while adding a multi-role task to this car.


I'd break it down for you in the following checklist:

Choose Manual:


If you are a very strict track guy who has resources and wishes to play with final drive differnential gear ratios, and absolutely hate to not have a 3rd pedal to run though gears.

If you love shifting even in traffic, just to be that much proficient and aspiring to become an all-around performance driver, especially if you are new and not without the high level or history of racing cars in competition.

If this is a part-time car that you have an alternate car for daily use.

If this is something you want purely as replacement of what the original AE86 had to offer in direct adherence to intrinsic nature of cars.
If you are making a race car.
If you do want to learn how to drift, or making a drift car.
If you want to learn how to clutch-kick your tail loose, and eventually breaking a tooth or two in the driveline, in doing so as an amateur and riding on so called Performance Tires.
If you are a pro-drifter who can and NEED to clutch kick to win Formula D, and sponsors are flipping the bill for broken trannies.
If you can't ever be seen with a AT among your peers.

Manual is in essence the ultimate driving experience, bar none, no argument there!

Choose Semi-Automatic Digital Shifting AT.

If you have a multi-role task for this car with commutes, and even lending the car occasionally to folks.

If you appreciate modern drivetrain that is much more sophisticated than older traditional MT.

If you want to learn how to drive exotic cars like Lamborghini or Ferrari, and even LFA's as those are now mostly e-shft cars as well. And let me add that the FRS's AT system/software/actuation is so precise and intuitive that despite the torque converter design being very differnt mechanically from those of twin clutched e-Shifts on exotics, the actual driving feel and timing is very similar and quite useful in the raceway as well.

If you want to drink coffee in your car.

If you want to learn how to drift. (yes I said this again, because this AT in full-no-nannies mode is very much capable of sliding gracefully into corner apexes and doing donuts around cones with Torsen LSD equipped on all FRS)

If you have a dumb foot that can't seem to learn how to heel/toe under FULL braking, sliding on all fours, and during your flight to an apex (or into a wall of Turn 10 at Laguna Seca, at alarming speeds) in a MT despite your best efforts.

If you like having the third button on your center console than a blank piece of plastic by your shifter.

If you already had your share of learning to drive competitively, and you know what the heck you are doing on a racetrack.

If you don't know what the heck you are doing but you want to look better on the racetrack.

And you have the time to explain what the hell I am writing in detail here, to every damn person that asks "YOU OF ALL PEOPLE got and AUTOMATIC????" LOL!!!
__

Unlike the normal traditional AT, this one is bred of performance driving, and as such, in one of the 5 modes of programming combination of VSC, TRC and shifting, the car will become fully manual to the point where you can ride the rev-limit and destroy your engine just as in a MT. And not shift till you tell it to. It will also allow downshifting with more precision than in a manual, and with less driveline shock, which may be of benefit for those already seasoned in performance driving.

And for me, this is my first FRS, and one which I will drive EVERY DAY for daily use of all reasons I have a car for in my life to get to places. It is not my dedicated race car, which my old faithful AE86 will now be able to become because of this car's arrival. And when it is time for me to build a track dedicated FRS in the future, I will buy one in a few years, used, and out of warranty as I will hack that to my desires and really make use of the platform that is so excellent.

I don't have a need to pretend being a 1980's driver, when all modern F1 and WRC Rally cars also have no clutch pedals and relies on digital programmed brains and hydraulics to make things go faster. Especially in a car that is born in 2012.

Still, I will buy and have both eventually, as FT86 siblings are something I have been working on with the Chief Engineer Tada for the last 5 years, if very little as speaking my opinions, and having him listen, and answering questions he may have had. And as such, it is possibly the first and the last car that I had such opportunity, as a common folk...living outside of Corporate R&D labs.

This is why I chose the Automatic. It's something appropriate in 2012, and for many of us, a more advanced and versatile form of a manual transmission to allow many things without much compromise at all.

Lastly, you may have noticed that the AT has a much taller gear at 6th, and wider gaps in those gears under it. While in theory, (for the numerical stats geeks) it provides for a more ideal way to deliver power, you need to remember that closer the gears are packed, the more busy you are on the track shifting through them.

I found the MT almost challengingly busy on the raceway, and unless I have driven this thing for weeks, my body's natural muscle memory lacking was a handicap for the one day I only had on the track. This explains why most journalists at the event were also posting similar or faster laps with the paddle shift mode of the AT. And I'm no foreigner to MT shifting on the track, having won a few shiny sticks on wood in SCCA with many cars.

With this smart AT, one can concentrate on the delicate balancing of the contact patch on this very peaky and ultra responsive car if you can let the transmission do its thing, as long as the AT is doing it well enough according to your intuitive timing on the track. And this one does.

The ratio from 1-4th are pretty close to the MT, and if you know racing on tracks with 200hp lightweight cars, 1-4th are the only gears you'd use for racetracks anyway, outside of very big tracks like Laguna Seca or Super Speedway based infields. So argument about 5th and 6th being away from 4th is sort of a moot point for most enthusiasts as well. At medium speed Spring Mountain Racepark, where fastest trap in the straight was about 104mph, it was still in the middle of 4th gear and only for 2-3 seconds before dropping to 3rd again. Get what I mean?

Also on the more mundane side of the deal, the ultra tall 6th gear proved to be very quiet on the highway, revving almost 800rpm less in cruise than in the MT at 85mph (the usual Interstate rural highway speeds in the USA). And fuel consumption also will reflect this as well.

So there you have it. You can perhaps print this out and keep it in the car, if you choose what I call this a "SPORTS SMART Semi-AUTO" in case you run into a muscle head who gives you crap about that PRND-M on your center console.

[/B]

[SUB-FT86]

Wow!!! I love that write up.

[Moto-P]

Originally Posted by chate

Who's FRS has the Gold Rims?? I wanna do that What kinda rims?

That is a Toyota Pre-Production demo car worked on by TEIN USA. They've started compatibility testing on the FRS to make sure their parts developed in Japan has no issues for some slight differences in weight balance left to right, with Left hand Drive cars, as naturally many components found its way left and right, in the process.

Now the wheels on the car is ENKEI MT-03 series, in bronze/gold, 18x7.5 and with about 35 offset, 100x5 pattern. (Something they had around from an old Subaru Impreza application, hastily put on the car for the event, as they picked up the car just 48 hours before)

[Moto-P]

Originally Posted by r4m3n

Moto - do you have pix of the 5AD spoiler on your car from the side? I want to see how it looks with the stock wheels.

I'll go shoot some more pics later this week. I got to get back to the pile of work I have from not doing much besides this FRS for the last week!

[Moto-P]

Originally Posted by ESBjiujitsu

yes but on a tight course you cant use them because they are attached to the wheel and when your really working the steering there is no way to keep both hands on the wheel and work the paddles. But on say mountain roads and 90% of everything a person would really use it on.... the paddles are NICE! very responsive and you can hear and feel the throttle working with you to help smooth things out and cut time down between shifts. Very fun and interactive. I love paddle shift setups so im still on the fence.... if i see some nice AT upgrades come through....then maybe! But as far as Autos go..... this is the best setup i have felt and i have driven a good bit of paddleshift setups. Very exciting!

On the tighter autocross at Press Event, I just used the stick lever that also as +/- gear selector, if the paddles spun far enough to lose control of it in tighter corners.