kitra

I wrote once before as the Dealer said I was driving my car too easy saying I could end up with carbon build-up issues. They tried to tell me "I can't hurt it". Well tonight a Guy in a 335i wanted to race. He was making a scene so we got to a stretch of sparse traffic and I gave it all it had. I really couldn't watch the speedo or tach but at a glance it was close to 7K RPM. We made a couple more runs around town. The final score, 2 wins for me, 1 for him. He seemed quicker off the line but then from about 40 on, he was behind. So the win for him was during a short sprint.

Now, the question of the day? Does anyone think I could have hurt my car driving it like a mad-Man? At least it's certified for a few years. I am really liking this car so hope I didn't do harm to it. It's amazing how quick it is. It can be anything from a city errand runner to a performance sedan.

Dkp1111

Street racing is not even cool. Now you are worrying about your car instead of the people that you and the bmw guy might harm?

kitra

Not a good idea to street race (agreed) but we did have wide-open lanes. So no cars to worry about. But being a victim of being slammed into twice by people texting on their phones is much worse in my opinion. Street racing is bad but at least I'm very attentive while doing so.

Texting on a phone doing 45 MPH is the best way to kill someone since they have no idea of their surroundings. I've been slammed into twice by drivers texting. Neither had insurance. So now I live in pain 24 hours a day and they are free.

My original question was durability of Lexus hardware? My SAAB has been bulletproof.

ssmoked

You sure it wasn't a 328i? I know for sure 335i is faster than IS 350 and GS350. The GS350 is also 250 lbs heavier and those 3.0 turbo engine output equals about 330 NA hp.

Better hurry and sell the GS, it engine is gonna blow up tomorrow. Jk man, I redline all my vehicles on a daily basis and never had an issue or carbon and sludge build up

kitra

I am amazed over the greatness of this car. It seems to do everything well. I'm pretty sure is said 335i on the trunk. Maybe he was trying to not make me feel bad and let me win. I backed off way before he did. So I suppose he could have won all rounds since I backed off early. I bet he got to near 80 MPH and I shut it down at around 50+ in a 40 zone. What seemed weird is when I killed the throttle, it downshifted and the tach jumped way up.

puffdaddy

The car has a red line for a reason. Anywhere below that is a safe operating zone for the engine as long as it is properly warmed up before revving to higher RPMs. No harm done.
The 335 SHOULD be a much quicker car. They run sub 5 second 0-60 stock all day long. With a simple tune for the turbos, even quicker. He may have taken it easy on your, or not known how to drive it well.
The transmission downshifting is the logic in the car thinking... you are driving hard and slowed suddenly so you may want to accelerate quickly at some point, better select a lower gear for max acceleration. Totally normal for it to downshift aggressively. I think Lexus get the transmission SPOT ON with this car. In sport mode, it has perfect shift points for hard driving. I have had a couple of BMWs and they lagged at low speed and hesitated on downshifts occasionally. The Lexus knows sometimes a 2 gear downshift (probably what you felt) is needed. I rarely got that out of the BMW
Bottom line, have fun with the car!

kitra

Puffdaddy, thanks for the feedback. As you've read I was in love with my old SAAB. I now have learned that this GS-350 is a wonderful car. The fit, finish, comfort, driveability, rigidity, performance, brakes, and the list goes on, are all amazing. I'm discovering little engineering details weekly on this car. I drive it very conservative 99% of the time. Today was the first serious romp of full throttle (Lexus had been operated for 45 minutes so warmed up) and I shut down early on the sprints, for safety and maybe some fear on how quick it accelerated. I'm thinking the BMW driver may have been giving me the edge or he just wasn't the best driver. My neighbor has a new Audi (4 rings of death) and Audi offered a track day for new owners. He said it was a blast at the Portland International Raceway. I've heard Lexus has done something similar but my car is used (2 years old) CPO so maybe not applicable. This AWD will be perfect here in the great Northwest. I believe I have been converted to a Lexus fan. Bought the extended Platinum warranty so it's good until 6/2025. Thanks again.

Dallasguy1

Exactly what I was thinking coming from a bmw the N54 twin turbo engine is any day faster then our GS and actually a tuned one can give a competition to GSF also. People who have kept a bimmer knows what I'm talking about.

Afrosheen

I floor my car to pass on the highway all the time, and sometimes from a stop light. These cars are built with engineering limits in mind, they're not Lamborghinis that will implode or burn to a cinder if you push them hard. That is to say, there are failsafes all over the place including a rev limiter on the engine. You'd have to be extremely stupid or unlucky to break one.

ssmoked

maybe the 335i doesn't have DCT and the driver doesn't know how to launch and shift. I seen guys run high 13 and low 14s with the MT simply bc they can't shift. Or the water pump was leaking or electrical issues... Who knows

murdoc

My 2 cents, no matter what the car... driving it hard is always a good thing. lol. Then again I don't buy cars to baby them.

2nd, I'd be surprised if it was a 335. Honestly the GS is slow as *****. The 335 is still pretty slow to me, but I reckon it's definitely faster than the GS. Now if it was a 328 then that'd be an easy kill. Unless it's the new 328, those buggers are surprisingly pretty quick for what they are.

spoogenet

(trying not to comment on the street racing thing, and totally agree texting while driving is about the stupidest thing a driver can do, ranked right up there with drunk driving but in some ways much worse)

People covered a lot of the basics, and there's a bit more to it than that. The redline & rev limiter are there for a reason: prevent the engine from suddenly blowing by exceeding the timing/control capabilities of the motor. For the occasional redliner, meaning the few times a day driver, it shouldn't be a big deal over the life of the car. But if you were doing it frequently, like at the race track, you need to be careful about the oil and frequency of oil changes.

Many products are designed with a 'nominal' operating range and have a maximum, in which case they're not designed to run at the maximum for their service lifetime. The harder you push a motor, the more maintenance it will require. Similarly, always operating them below their nominal range can be just as bad (like the stories you hear of carbon build up, sludge, etc.). Think of yourself -- you can be hot or cold for a little while and no big deal, but too hot or too cold or for too long and it's a problem.

kitra

Spoogenet, excellent write up. I guess from my younger days, I remember my performance big block Mopar's. I always remember breaking something, axles, pistons, rings, spun a few bearings in the day, etc. Worst event I had was spinning number 1 rod bearing on my 1955 - 331 HEMI. Needed a new crankshaft and couldn't find one or the money for the rebuild. It spun due to lack of oil. Too much oil was going to the rockers and I didn't install the restrictor in time. I loved that old New Yorker but it went to someone else. So when I was romping on the GS, afterwards, I had those flashbacks of broken hardware. Then to think the oil is so thin (0w-20). Seems to be a tough engine on the Lexus. Very smooth too. Far as texting and driving, I am a victim of this bad behavior. Texting is against the law here but it's not enforced.

mrpink13

street racing is never cool ever. ive seen **** happen on wide open lanes too. most people fail to scan ahead and do not know how to recover a a RWD car that has lost grip or any car. even if youre a pro at both, just dont do it, at least dont expect people to agree with it. but anyways the engine is japanese which are generally high revving engines for the most part. not some unrefined american crap box that has a 5k redline and explodes.

tc1728

only race that my GS has ever won is the reliability race...