It's been a busy, and amazing (almost) week!

Tuesday - F-Type R Coupe delivered
Wednesday - ClearPlex window film installed
Thurs/Fri - Paint Protection Film installed on the entire front end, rockers, mirrors, and A pilars
Saturday... (see below)
Sunday - Clay/polish/Opti-Coat all panels not already covered by film

 

That's a different approach to break-in. Needless to say, you had a great time?

 

Nice, another Bay Area F Type. Hope you see you around. How did you like it at Sonoma?

 

Odd that you would have to clay a brand new car. Thats pretty harsh on the paint.

 

I actually purchased it pre-owned, with about 2,300 miles on it. So whatever break-in that should have occurred is complete by now.

Had a great time at Sonoma. I've driven it several times before so just had to figure out how this vehicle behaves, and wants to behave. At such an unforgiving track (walls everywhere with very little if any runoff) coupled with rain in the morning, it was really a learning day and not one that was going to result in a new personal best time. 2:03 was all I did in the Coupe R.

Initial impressions about the car are:
- Turn in is excellent, as is overall steering feel
- Brakes are surprisingly good for such a heavy car (superformance, not even carbons)
- The traction control is a bit invasive in off-camber conditions (ended up turning it off)
- The chassis is nice and stiff, and quite balanced even with traction control off
- As one would expect, you have to modulate the throttle quite a bit to avoid over-driving the front tires or oversteer
- The tire pressure monitoring system is really annoying when you're running pressures below the street spec. It doesn't appear to allow you to recalibrate to the pressures of your own choosing, or even to the pressures defined in the manual for "closed course" operation.

Clay is harsh on the paint? Not really. It's essentially exfoliating the clear coat. As long as you apply something afterward (like wax or Opti-Coat in my case), the result is net positive. You extract contaminants while also improving the look/feel of the finish.

 

I agree, the brakes are surprisingly good for such a heavy car (I also don't have the carbon ceramics). What tire pressure were you running? I ran 33psi last time and it felt much better. Think I probably can do down another 1-2 psi.

 

I tried to run low 30's while hot, but the TPMS nag screen kept popping up on the dash, blocking my view of the gear I was in! I'd press "OK" to make it go away only to have it reappear a few turns later. Very annoying. Is there a solution to this?

Seems that we need to figure out how to re-code a few options to fix nags like this.

 

Nice car and extra nice that it was already broken in so you could hit the track right away! Just hit 2,000 miles on my car and ready to let loose.

 

This weekend I mostly drove through a local set of tunnels with the windows down.

Repeatedly.

 

I want a tunnel! Any tunnel!!!

 

The first thing I'm doing when I get my R is heading to downtown LA and driving through the 2nd and 3rd street tunnels. They are the ones you see quite often in movies and they reverberate one hell of a noise.

 

There are some great tunnels under the National Mall in Washington, DC. I enjoy them almost every day.