Martin
Enthusiast
I finally had time today to put it through its paces, and overall, it's a really great car. The road temps were too low to push my luck, so things stayed very tame.
Here are some random impressions:
1) Stock exhaust has got to go - it sounds way too muffled.
2) Seat lowering kit is a must for me - I found myself hunching down to look out the windshild. I got the feeling I was looking through the view-slit in a gun turret.
3) Even with an extra 150HP, the car feels much less 'brutal' and raw than my GTS. The ACR is actually very refined feeling.
4) Throttle response is definitely slower than on my GTS - the drive-by-wire setup isn't getting any big points with me right now.
5) When driven hard, the car doesn't seem to scrape on the ground anywhere near as much as my GTS. The GTS gave out horrible scraping sounds every time I'd go over a dip at speed. The ACR didn't - although I was slowing down a little bit to avoid them since the splitter is, what, $8,000 or something crazy like that to replace...
6) Steering feel isn't quite as 'connected' as in my GTS. The GTS lets me feel every pebble in the road - and the ACR seems to filter out a lot of the noise. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I definitely noticed it.
6) It's amazing how much of the original GTS character that is carried over to the ACR. Little things like the feel of the seat and driving position, the sound of the door closing, the sound of the lifters and injectors tapping in the engine compartment were all very familiar.
7) The sharp "humps" over the front tires are much more angular and pronounced from the driver's view than on the GTS. Overall, I think the view out the front is at least as good as the GTS.
8) The clutch seems to engage much later than on my GTS. I found myself over-revving when shifting because I was used to the clutch engaging much earlier. Clutch feel, though was much lighter than i expected - and definitely lighter than on the GTS.
Overall, you can tell there's a beast in the car waiting to be unleashed, but overall I find it to be much more of a 'normal car' than the GTS. I actually think I could live with the ACR on a daily basis - and if the standard Coupe is a notch down from the ACR, I could definitely see living with one of those every day. The GTS always seem to want my attention when I drive it, the ACR seems to just patiently wait for me to ask for something, and it does as its asked.
In usual form, the car is covered with dust, dirt, water spots, and some oil streaks already. So, no pictues until I have the time to clay-bar it and detail it nicely. I will say that the GTS Blue against the black center band, black wheels, black carbon wing, and black rear and diffuser really is a great color combo. It looks mean and classy at the same time - and not too over the top. My goal was to get something that didn't stand out too much (well, it already stands out too much even if it were painted in camo), and this color combo really works well. I thought about yellow (second choice) or Black with the red driver's stripe - but I like to stay under the radar as much as possible.
Pics to hopefully come soon!
Here are some random impressions:
1) Stock exhaust has got to go - it sounds way too muffled.
2) Seat lowering kit is a must for me - I found myself hunching down to look out the windshild. I got the feeling I was looking through the view-slit in a gun turret.
3) Even with an extra 150HP, the car feels much less 'brutal' and raw than my GTS. The ACR is actually very refined feeling.
4) Throttle response is definitely slower than on my GTS - the drive-by-wire setup isn't getting any big points with me right now.
5) When driven hard, the car doesn't seem to scrape on the ground anywhere near as much as my GTS. The GTS gave out horrible scraping sounds every time I'd go over a dip at speed. The ACR didn't - although I was slowing down a little bit to avoid them since the splitter is, what, $8,000 or something crazy like that to replace...
6) Steering feel isn't quite as 'connected' as in my GTS. The GTS lets me feel every pebble in the road - and the ACR seems to filter out a lot of the noise. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I definitely noticed it.
6) It's amazing how much of the original GTS character that is carried over to the ACR. Little things like the feel of the seat and driving position, the sound of the door closing, the sound of the lifters and injectors tapping in the engine compartment were all very familiar.
7) The sharp "humps" over the front tires are much more angular and pronounced from the driver's view than on the GTS. Overall, I think the view out the front is at least as good as the GTS.
8) The clutch seems to engage much later than on my GTS. I found myself over-revving when shifting because I was used to the clutch engaging much earlier. Clutch feel, though was much lighter than i expected - and definitely lighter than on the GTS.
Overall, you can tell there's a beast in the car waiting to be unleashed, but overall I find it to be much more of a 'normal car' than the GTS. I actually think I could live with the ACR on a daily basis - and if the standard Coupe is a notch down from the ACR, I could definitely see living with one of those every day. The GTS always seem to want my attention when I drive it, the ACR seems to just patiently wait for me to ask for something, and it does as its asked.
In usual form, the car is covered with dust, dirt, water spots, and some oil streaks already. So, no pictues until I have the time to clay-bar it and detail it nicely. I will say that the GTS Blue against the black center band, black wheels, black carbon wing, and black rear and diffuser really is a great color combo. It looks mean and classy at the same time - and not too over the top. My goal was to get something that didn't stand out too much (well, it already stands out too much even if it were painted in camo), and this color combo really works well. I thought about yellow (second choice) or Black with the red driver's stripe - but I like to stay under the radar as much as possible.
Pics to hopefully come soon!
)
