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Any of you guys attended or watched a "LeMons" race? If you ever have the chance to work the pits/drive/watch/whatever...you should do it! Sooooooo much fun!
No but I have watched the Grand Prix @ Long Beach. It was so addicting to watch it especially the drifting competition... Damnnnn these drivers especially some Japanese dudes know how to drift the **** out of the 2jz engines lol. Damn, those race cars were soooo damnnnn loud too. I guess you have watched the LeMons race? Report back your experience.
Hey FsportIS, hope you don't mind me piggy backing off your thread but I just wanted to keep the autocross topics consolidated.
Went to my first Auto-X 2 weeks ago witih the BMWCCA club of NJ. It was rainy VERY hard during the first heat, so my focus mainly was on not crashing rather than getting a great time/developing a line. The second heat was sunny and floor dry, so was able to push the car more. Vehicle is a 09IS250 AWD, lowered on S-techs. I have 4 mismatching 17" tires (blew out my oem tires one by one on potholes) with little thread left so grip was a constant struggle. Definitely will get new tires before the next race in August.
Isn't it a big no no to run mismatching tires on an AWD? And did you turn the traction control off or keep it on?
FSportIS, great to hear that you had fun on the track! That autocross track setup looked really fun.. they actually have autocross events in my small city too, and it seems to be a lot cheaper ($20 to $40 to register), but I'm sure the track is much, much smaller. I should go check out one of these events sometime.
Do you think you would have done better if you had disabled the traction control by doing the pedal dance?
^prob a no-no for mismatching tires, and should be avoided. The thread is around the same for all 4 however. New tires are on order anyways.
Traction is off (held down traction button for 5 seconds to get the yellow light in addition to the 'traf off' message to appear). ECT mode NOT engaged, it makes the throttle too jumpy for smooth driving. Think my biggest improvement would be to get new tires first, then maybe sways and coils. Regardless, it did pretty well and was best in the non-BMW class against a mustang GT and cooper.
pmanliu, wow that looks fun. I'm glad you autocross too. I'm glad to see our community getting more involved in autocross/track. Good run and you probably had ton of fun right. An upgrade that is worth more than anything else is the "TIRES", yep, i mean it. No matter how powerful or great suspension you have, the tires is the final contact that translate the horsepower into actual car movement.
You should get something like Michelin Pilot Super Sport if you autocross often. Don't go with racing tires as they are too expensive and last too short. Also, you learn more about the IS350 driving on sport tires especially car control and its limit.
I know my IS350 can hang with BMW 335i with some mods but not M3 nor Porsche though hehe. It seems like these lightweight coupes in general perform better on autocross since it is mostly depend on car suspension agility due to lots of turns with not much long straight.
I think i could have done better with traction control off. In all 12 runs, I keep hearing the TCS barking at me beep beep beep beep when I power slide it a bit. The IS350 with F Sport suspension (springs/shocks/rear sway bar) is very very tail happy. I can induce an oversteer quite easily with turn and rev with the IS350, not the IS250. Counter steering is also needed to keep the car balance. Even with TCS on, I was still able to slide the rear here and there.
I really like the IS350 F Sport handling, it is very balanced with a bit of oversteer. The only cons is that it is quite heavy . If couple hundreds pounds is shed off, this car can perform on par like a high end Porsche.
Visit US and register the Porsche autocross event, they have all across the nation. I think the CA one has bigger track than other one though.
Regarding the pedal dance, I tried couple times on my car but i can't get it to work. I saw the video but it doesn't work for me lol. Any tips?
Originally Posted by sm1ke
FSportIS, great to hear that you had fun on the track! That autocross track setup looked really fun.. they actually have autocross events in my small city too, and it seems to be a lot cheaper ($20 to $40 to register), but I'm sure the track is much, much smaller. I should go check out one of these events sometime.
Do you think you would have done better if you had disabled the traction control by doing the pedal dance?
Regarding the pedal dance, I tried couple times on my car but i can't get it to work. I saw the video but it doesn't work for me lol. Any tips?
Well, every '06 IS350 I've encountered they've all been able to remove the T/C with the pedal dance. I was even at the drag strip when another IS350 I've never seen before showed up; started talking to the owner and mentioned the pedal dance. He let me disable the T/C on his car using my method as follows :
*With the car off, engage the E-brake.
*Depress the brake pedal, and start the car. Leave foot on the brake pedal during the next step.
*Depress and engage the E-brake three times; on the third time let the E-brake remain engaged.
*Depress the brake pedal and release three times; on the third time leave the pedal depressed.
*Repeat the above steps until the T/C light illuminates on the cluster.
^^
It was mentioned in another thread that you can swap out the 06 Traction Control ECU for an 07+ and you will no longer need to do the pedal dance. If I had an 06, that would be a mod worth doing!
Originally Posted by FSportIS
I think i could have done better with traction control off. In all 12 runs, I keep hearing the TCS barking at me beep beep beep beep when I power slide it a bit. The IS350 with F Sport suspension (springs/shocks/rear sway bar) is very very tail happy. I can induce an oversteer quite easily with turn and rev with the IS350, not the IS250. Counter steering is also needed to keep the car balance. Even with TCS on, I was still able to slide the rear here and there.
You should consider saving up for the '12 IS-F Steering ECU. If you do, you'll quickly notice that the TCS will be much less intrusive than it currently is. The F-Sport front sway bar would also help with your tail-happy oversteering issue (if lap times are a concern for you). I once had the exact same F-Sport set-up as you (springs/shocks/rear sway bar) and while the tail-happy hooligan behavior is quite fun, it's also very taxing on the rear tires and trying to maintain good momentum around the corners.
redspencer, very good suggestions. I would definitely save money for the ISF steering ECU because this will improve the steering accuracy and feel. However, I will probably not get the front sway bar because I like the car to oversteer a bit.
I personally think that some oversteering with the right control will actually give better lap time because you can rotate the car to head the direction so you can be on gas pedal earlier. It is similar to the concept late apex where you sacrifice some of the entry speed but you can straighten the car out more so you can be on throttle sooner than if you take the traditional racing line. This is emphasized a lot in Gran Turismo simulation as you will see that many of the top drivers usually do trail breaking with late apex and car rotation in cornering.
I've had this car for 5 years and I still am thoroughly entertained by the power of 1st and 2nd gear. It's so obnoxiously excessive for anything I might "need" to do on a public road that I call it "douche mode" when I go for it
I used to accelerate hard in 1st gear often when I first got the car, but nowadays I do it more sparingly.
By the way here's data from Road and Track's test of the IS350 several years ago. As you can see it's very capable. 0 to 60 in sub 5 stock is fairly rare even today. Basically the IS350 and 335i will do it as far as luxury sport sedans/coupes go. The G37 is a shade over 5, and the C300/C350 is comfortably over 5.
0 to 40 MPH in 2.7 seconds (basically the IS350's 1st gear) is extremely rare.
For comparison, here are the stats for the 2003 Lamborghini Gallardo, which will hit 40 MPH just .2 seconds faster than the IS350. Not bad.
Now granted, once you get to 70, 80, 90 and above the Gallardo will leave the IS350 in its dust but it's a Gallardo so that's expected. The fact that the IS350 can actually conceivably compete 0 to 40 should be a mark of pride for IS350 owners.
06-10-14, 12:56 PM
An upgrade that is worth more than anything else is the "TIRES", yep, i mean it. No matter how powerful or great suspension you have, the tires is the final contact that translate the horsepower into actual car movement. 
. If couple hundreds pounds is shed off, this car can perform on par like a high end Porsche. 
