Joined
·
949 Posts
Well, I got the chance to do a little over 120 miles of track today, in both the wet and dry. All I have to say is wow. This car, hands down, smokes the US VIII and IX's around our 12 turn track.
It takes a bit to get used too though. The car feels a bit out of control at first, and your tendency is to try and do correction steering, like you would with a RWD car, but the reality is this only makes things worse. If you do make any adjustments, when the ECU swings your back end out and starts vectoring around a turn, the result is you end up losing the line that would have been held, perfectly, if you had made no adjustments. Once you get over this though, you are in for a very special treat.
Every turn in this car brings a huge smile to your face. And just when you think you have found the limit, you test it by turning in a little steeper to find that the vehicle has even more to offer. I truly believe this cars capabilities, in stock form, is greater then 95% of the people that will ever drive it.
The other thing you find with this car is that there is no under steer. This was especially noticeable in the chicane, where in my VIII, I would feather the throttle to maintain a line, and unwind the steering and drift wide, as the car refused to turn in. With the X, you simply point in the direction you want to go, and the car goes, exactly on the line you point, good or bad. This took me the longest to get used too, as it is by far, the most radical change over the previous models. I can only imagine what it must be like to drive the lighter, and potentially more agile, JDM versions of the VIII and IX that came with the ACD/SAYC setup. I am now truly jealous.
The brakes held insanely strong on the X as well. I have the optional brake cooling guides on the car, and I found that I didnt have any brake fade on the car throughout the entire day. This was truly amazing to me, because on the much lighter VIII, brake fade was very common around the 15 minute mark of a track event. I even had a couple cases of boiled brake fluid, on those hot summer days, which made my track sessions end early
![]()
I can see that this problem has been resolved on the X, and now maybe I wont have to put new brake fluid in after every event
![]()
Overall this is a much improved machine over the previous US Evo models. Everyone on the track couldnt help but notice the cars unique way of gliding through the turns, and everyone that rode in it was simply blown away. The X is definitely living up to its high standards of supreme handling in stock form.
On a closing note, I did not find any issues with the handling in the wet. The car performed beyond my expectations, and I had little to no traction issues. I found that the car outperformed my previous car, in every way accept acceleration, in both the wet and dry. I also found that I had to disable the AWC system in order to get better times. However, I didnt do the "hold the button for 3 seconds" disable, I just simply hit the button to disable it. In this mode, the PCM no longer did a fuel cut when it detected traction loss, which was a huge issue for me at first. The AWC on mode is too defensive in my opinion, and robs the car of its most enjoyable aspects around the track. Also, +1 to the new tires, they handle phenomenally!
I am compiling all the video, and will have links posted soon!
It takes a bit to get used too though. The car feels a bit out of control at first, and your tendency is to try and do correction steering, like you would with a RWD car, but the reality is this only makes things worse. If you do make any adjustments, when the ECU swings your back end out and starts vectoring around a turn, the result is you end up losing the line that would have been held, perfectly, if you had made no adjustments. Once you get over this though, you are in for a very special treat.
Every turn in this car brings a huge smile to your face. And just when you think you have found the limit, you test it by turning in a little steeper to find that the vehicle has even more to offer. I truly believe this cars capabilities, in stock form, is greater then 95% of the people that will ever drive it.
The other thing you find with this car is that there is no under steer. This was especially noticeable in the chicane, where in my VIII, I would feather the throttle to maintain a line, and unwind the steering and drift wide, as the car refused to turn in. With the X, you simply point in the direction you want to go, and the car goes, exactly on the line you point, good or bad. This took me the longest to get used too, as it is by far, the most radical change over the previous models. I can only imagine what it must be like to drive the lighter, and potentially more agile, JDM versions of the VIII and IX that came with the ACD/SAYC setup. I am now truly jealous.
The brakes held insanely strong on the X as well. I have the optional brake cooling guides on the car, and I found that I didnt have any brake fade on the car throughout the entire day. This was truly amazing to me, because on the much lighter VIII, brake fade was very common around the 15 minute mark of a track event. I even had a couple cases of boiled brake fluid, on those hot summer days, which made my track sessions end early
Overall this is a much improved machine over the previous US Evo models. Everyone on the track couldnt help but notice the cars unique way of gliding through the turns, and everyone that rode in it was simply blown away. The X is definitely living up to its high standards of supreme handling in stock form.
On a closing note, I did not find any issues with the handling in the wet. The car performed beyond my expectations, and I had little to no traction issues. I found that the car outperformed my previous car, in every way accept acceleration, in both the wet and dry. I also found that I had to disable the AWC system in order to get better times. However, I didnt do the "hold the button for 3 seconds" disable, I just simply hit the button to disable it. In this mode, the PCM no longer did a fuel cut when it detected traction loss, which was a huge issue for me at first. The AWC on mode is too defensive in my opinion, and robs the car of its most enjoyable aspects around the track. Also, +1 to the new tires, they handle phenomenally!
I am compiling all the video, and will have links posted soon!
