SYR->BTR->SYR in an FR-S

[MuseChaser]

I wrote up our road trip from Syracuse, NY to the outer banks of North Carolina some months ago. Turns out that 11 straight hours of driving in the car one-way wasn't enough for us, so this past weekend we headed out to Baton Rouge to visit my son and daughter-in-law. The trip was about 22 hours each way, not taking the one-hour time zone difference into account. Except for gas stops about every four or five hours and stopping for 45 minutes for an actual "sit down" dinner on the way home, we did both trips non-stop. Left our home Wed night at about 8pm, and got back home on Sunday at about noon. A lot of driving; I did most of the 44 hours, but my wife spelled me for a total of about 10 of the hours.

Some more observations..

1. The visibility, assuming the side mirrors are adjusted properly, is absolutely top notch. Cars flowed from the rear-view to the side-views to direct sight-lines without a gap anywhere, and you can change lanes and avoid oncoming and apporaching traffic with complete confidence while always facing forward; zero, and I mean ZERO, blindspots.

2. No snow, very little rain, temps above 40 deg F in SYR up to upper 80s in BTR. Referencing the other thread re/ snow vs summer tires for this trip, we went with the summer tires and, thankfully, it paid off.

3. Hit one bad stretch of extreme fog. Fortunately, the state it was in (don't remember, to be honest.. sometime during the wee hours of the night somewhere) takes fog seriously and had installed those incredibly AWESOME raised reflectors between lanes and along the fog lines. It was like playing the world's easiest video game or flying a HITS. How come NYS can't figure out how to install those? Yeah, OK... they can't be raised because our snowplows would dig'em up on the first snow fall.. but still.... there's gotta be SOME way to get some serious reflecting material embedded flush in the roadway. LOVED'em. How is this related to driving an FR-S? WHO CARES! I LOVED the darn things..

4. Back on topic - driving position. This car must have been designed for me; I don't sit in it, I WEAR it. The car feels like an extension of me, almost like some futuristic form of enhanced capability. I hate to sit still, and almost never sit down at home or work during the day except when playing piano (my profession). Yet, in this car, 22 hours sitting in pretty much exactly the same position didn't really bother me; stretched out at each gas stop a bit, but after the weekend trip I still felt great.. no soreness or other physical issues except for just being a little tired. From the standpoint of sheer driveability, I have found no better car so far.

5. Here's a negative that really made itself known and more obvious after doing a trip of this length. This car is LOUD (ours is completely stock), and 44 hours of loud road, wind, and engine noise really did detract from the joy of driving the car. Around town or on short hops (five hours or so), it never really bothered me. However, I found myself not listening to the radio or the flashdrive mp3s onboard simply because my ears had been assaulted enough. Conversations between my wife and I were reminiscent of those comedic greeting cards depicting chronologically enhanced folks attempting communication.. "It's Thursday..." "I'm thirsty, too"... "I thought you were 34.." etc. We both said "What?" and "Huh?" more than anything else. We're both jazz and classical musicians who've babied our hearing throughout our lives; upper 50s in age, but our hearing is still quite good. We want/NEED to keep it that way, and the car worries me a bit.

6. Gas mileage, while still excellent, suffers significantly as speed goes aboe 65mph. On our trips to NC, there's some 70 mph zones, but there's also long stretches where the limit is 50 mph (Delaware, I'm talking to YOU.. what the heck is WRONG with you?!!?). On those trips, we average 38-40 mpg. Down to LA, the limits are usually 70mph, and almost never below 65mp. I do about 4 over, and my wife goes about 7 over. We only averaged 34.5 computed by hand or 36 indicated by the car this time.

7. Although I pretend to not care about it much, it really is pretty fun to own a fairly rare car; we only saw one other twin on the entire trip. I tooted my horn and waved, and was totally ignored. So much for the fraternity...

8. People suck. OK, most don't. The ones that do, however, suck so much that it ruins my enjoyment of people as a whole. I've gotta work on that. What am I talking about? There are FAR too many reckless, inconsiderate idiots behind the wheel. The sheer number of folks driving well over 100 mph, weaving in and out of traffic that was already going 10-15 over and making it look it was standing still, riding literally 6" off my back bumper at times... for WHAT?!?!? Fun?!? You know, if someone has a deathwish, I tend to want to talk them out of it so they can enjoy a long life, but hey, if I'm unsuccessful, at least I tried and if they die, it's their choice. HOWEVER... these @#$# are definitely going to take a few innocents down with them eventually, and that is totally inexcusable. I've lost people (as I'm sure most of us have who've been on the planet a while, and many who haven't yet, too), and preventable deaths are so difficult to accept. STOP DRIVING SO SELFISHLY, whoever you are. I drive like I preach.. it's a team sport. Stay out of the passing lane unless you're passing. Move over to allow merging traffic to get onto the highway before the merge lane disappears. Move over for stopped cars and emergency folks. Use signals. DON'T pass someone in such a way that would prevent them from getting out of merging traffic's path or moving over for stopped vehicles (THIS IS A BIGGIE). Common sense.. yet it seems to evade most folks. The worst offenders? (ALERT.. ALERT... GENERALITY AHEAD) Pickup trucks, especially white ones, beat up minivans, Acuras, and small tuned up Japanese cars in general. Fortunately, given the visibility pluses of the FR-S detailed earlier coupled with it's great handling and decent quickness, we didn't have any close calls. I DID have to delete some untoward language that escaped our lips from the dashcam footage, but that was about the extent of the damage.

9. On a more positive note, major KUDOS to our brothers and sisters behind the wheels of all the transport vehicles and 18-wheelers in general. Without exception, these guys/gals were all pros this trip. THEY drove like we're all supposed.. as a team. I stayed out of their way down hills, they helped me out similarly on steep uphills, and they reminded me that yes, Virginia, there ARE folks who are considerate out there. One of the main reason I love to drive through the night; most of the folks on the highways at 3 AM are pros. Yes, there are exceptions.

10. I love, Love, LOVE the electric steering in this car. It tracks straight like it's on rails effortlessly, and pointing it down the road is virtually effortless. Great feedback on turns, just the right amount of resistance.. I can't say enough good things about the steering.

11. I never noticed it before, but I miss the lack of handgrips above the door windows. They're nice to use an alternate arm position for a while, or to help stretch occasionally.

12. I know there's no room, but I still miss having a sunroof/moonroof.

I guess that's about it. After a year and half and 27,000 miles of driving (close to 50,000 on the car now), I can say that this car is the most enjoyable to drive of any car I've ever owned, and that's saying something. I'll probably buy another one when this one dies, if I'm still alive.. I tend to keep cars until they completely fall apart. I DO wish it was quieter, had handgrips, and a sunroof. Guess there's no such thing as a perfect car. This one is about as close as I've found.

Best to all..

Barry

[MuseChaser]

Oh.. and Alabama comes in a close second only to Pennsylvania in two categories... "You named your town WHAT?" and "Random speed limits that everyone ignores for construction zones without construction."

PA has such cool town names as "State College" and "Jim Thorpe." Alabama has "Baptist" and "Pumpkin Center." I'm going to name my town "Thomas Spoon Dog."

[jcutner]

Great writeup! I'm glad you mentioned the visibility/blind-spot. My lease is up in the summer, and I want to get an FR-S, but the only one I've test driven so far, I had the sales associate ride with me, which is no way to properly feel out a car that you want to buy, but even on our designated trip from the dealership and back again, we hopped on the freeway and as I didn't do any major tweaking of the mirrors, I noticed that visibility/blind-spots were poor, but I am coming from a little hatchback with a backup camera.

I'm hopeful that when I can test drive another, I can spend more time tweaking the mirrors so I feel comfortable in a coupe with potentially limited visibility.

[MuseChaser]

Thanks for the reply. I hear you about the test drive; I took two very limited test drives in two different FR-Ss, then bought mine from a dealership 5 hours from my house and immediately drove it home. The blind spots felt huge when I did head checks to the rear.. I was really uncomfortable driving the car for a while. During the ride home, I kept messing around with the mirrors and found that they really do a GREAT job. When cars pass you on the left, watch as they leave the view of your rearview mirror and adjust your side mirror so it picks up the car before it completely leaves the rearview mirror's field of view, then check and make sure that your peripheral vision picks up the car out your left window before it completely leaves the sideview mirror's field of view. Do the same thing when you pass on car on your right; adjust the right side mirror similarly. Most folks (including my wife.. it's an ongoing point of "discussion" between us) drive with the side mirrors in way too far, adjusted so that they're almost to the point where you can see the side of your car. Why? The side of your car ain't goin' anywhere... You want to adjust them so you can see what your rearview mirror can't see, but is not yet line-of-sight visible. Works GREAT.

There ARE line-of-sight blind spots, and they're pretty severe. The mirrors solve it. I'm kind of short (5'7"), and I have trouble seeing curbs and things around the front A-pillars at times in parking lots and neighborhood streets. Other than that, I find the visibility surprisingly good for a low car.

[bkharmony]

Visibility was a big concern for me. I'm coming from a 2013 TC, which had the worst blind spots I'd ever experienced in a car. The 86 is somehow better, despite the smaller rear window.

Also, the backup camera is standard now for 2017, and I've come to really rely on it. I have a feeling backing up would be a struggle without it.

[Vracer111]

What I've found that helps for hearing, but is not good for conversation, is Shure in-ears...I have the SE215 because am not a huge fan of in-ears for listening to music and they are the least expensive which work great with a near 36dB reduction. They work great for car, concert, and even gun range use as hearing protection, you won't feel fatigued like you would without them. My car is much louder than stock too...kind of a necessity for hearing protection in it. If wanting conversation ability, there is always the headset units that driving instructors use with students.

The visual awareness you get from an FR-S is top notch - definitely the best I've experienced in a vehicle, and I've custom fit convex race mirrors on both drivers and passenger side, which allows me to see three lanes over on both sides while still being able to track a vehicle from directly behind to right beside using only the mirrors. Absolutely ZERO blind spot in the car! Trick to adjusting the mirrors is to put your head against the drivers side window and adjust until you just see the side of the car and put your head over the center console and do the same for the passenger side. And vertically, the horizon line should end near the top on the inside of the mirrors, no more than 1/4 from the top...no reason to be looking at the sky, just need enough to see the vehicles and have them be at the very top of the mirrors when almost beside you.

Glad the stock seat works for you, but it absolutely sucks for me...very uncomfortable for anything over 30 minutes. Stock seats were made for Japanese sized people, not a 6'2" American. It's the thigh and butt area along with way too flat an angle that was being a literal pain in the butt for me. And the lowest stock seat position is still way too high for me, can't see traffic lights unless I bend down and look up - my eye level is right near the top of the side windows and hair in constant contact with headliner. Hated long trips in it until I finally saved enough and got the Recaro Sportster CS seat. Though I barely reduced the seating height (less than 1/2" drop with custom build brackets) and the seating position is still not optimal for bottom rake angle, comfort is immensely increased - the most comfortable seat I've ever had in a vehicle (and my previous drivers seat was a Recaro Ergo mounted in '98 Toyota Tacoma.) Finally can take long distance trips in comfort. Went to the 24 hours of Daytona earlier this year, ~1200 mile trip each direction and in complete comfort. The FR-S is a most excellent long distance cruiser... provided you have hearing protection and a comfortable seat.

[gravitylover]

At 5'6" and ~160# the drivers seat fits about as perfectly as a seat can fit, it wouldn't bother me though if the base was about 1" longer or the front 1/3 was adjustable and had a bit more padding .

About moving out of the "passing" lane - I find that moving in and out of the right lane can be the wrong way to play it a lot of the time. I tend to run 4<>7 over and it sucks when you have to slow down below the limit to let someone doing slightly faster pass then get on it hard to get back up to speed. I prefer to roll in the left lane most of the time at as steady a speed as possible and continually pass the right lane cars doing near the speed limit and move over when necessary. I hate that getting stuffed and jammed up feeling.

Re: Noise - When I finally went away from the stock tires it got a lot better. I do anywhere from 3-12 hours a day in the car 10 times a month on a wide variety of pavement types (sometimes dirt roads too) and the noise with the original rubber was unbearable. Conti DWS FTW

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

...
Re: Noise - When I finally went away from the stock tires it got a lot better. I do anywhere from 3-12 hours a day in the car 10 times a month on a wide variety of pavement types (sometimes dirt roads too) and the noise with the original rubber was unbearable. Conti DWS FTW

Thanks for the tip. My OEM tires are nearing the end of their useful life and I was about to commence researching suitable replacements; I appreciate the lead very much. I've had great luck w/ Contis on other vehicles.. good to know they're a viable choice here too!

[PetrolioBenzina]

Earplugs are the answer and reduce noise induced fatigue as well on long trips.

[Bearcat86]

If you plan on keeping your car for so long and don't mind adding a slight amount of weight you might want to consider adding some sound proofing insulation. There are plenty of useful threads on here about how to do it. Even paying someone to do it might be well worth it for musicians who depend so much on their hearing. Earplugs may work great for most of us but for every day driving for years until the car falls apart you may as well fix it the right way.

[humfrz]

Thanks for sharing ......


humfrz

[PetrolioBenzina]

Doing something simililar in June. OR to CO to MT and back. Might include ND as well I should do a trip report or something.

[Doubletap]

Probably not going to help much with the noise (but every bit helps) have you plugged the sound tube hole on the passenger side? Also in addition to some sound deadening material, get a trunk lid liner from a Subaru dealer, might reduce the noise from the back as well.

[PetrolioBenzina]

Earplugs are cheap, and solve the long trip noise problem.