thank you so much for your update. i love it. really appreciate it.Despite a pretty rainy 36 hours I have managed to put 500KMs on the new FL5 including 100 of them on the track and thought some might like to hear my initial impressions. The chassis is superbly responsive and precise. I also have a fully track prepared and caged FRS and manage a race track so I do have a bit of frame of reference to compare to. The track videos to date had me a bit concerned so I just wanted to provide a little bit of my driving impressions today. The track and tire temps were very cold so less than ideal and I did respect the break-in and kept to only 50% throttle and under 4500RPM, this required extra shifting but with the amazing transmission in the car that was a treat. I know many of the track videos thus far show what looks like a bouncy ride and I can tell you that is much more a factor of the track and not the car at all. Calabogie, where I ran is buttery smooth and the car was so firm, planted and with laser sharp turn in. No bucking bronco rides like some of the videos show. Weather permitting, I will do my best to get back out with the GoPro to get some footage to demonstrate how smooth the ride can be on a nice track surface.
Road manners are great with irregularities being felt more than a non-sports car but not overly harsh in comfort mode. In my opinion, +R mode is not designed for the street unless you're on a freshly paved stretch I would avoid it altogether.
Keeping the rains on this thing and under 4500 RPM is an exercise in incredible restraint to say the least, the car just wants to go from that point and I cannot wait to unleash the beast. I know no one loves piped in fake engine sounds but when keeping the car at lower RPM during this break-in period the sounds it makes on rev match are, dare I say, nice with a deep tone and not really fake sounding. From videos the upper rev range may be a different thing but for the lower RPM stuff I have experienced so far I personally like it and have found myself rowing up and down the gearbox just for fun.
I will leave it at that for now but if anyone has any specific questions, fire away.
When I first seen these photos a couple months ago I thought they were altered to give that silky pearl look but I washed my car today and under my garage lights there is definitely a nice smooth pearl to this paint.
