Like I mentioned in my "Umm..." thread, I caved and bought a '17 GT350R. It's my wife's Christmas present to me. I had to pick it up in Baltimore and drive it back home. It was about a 6.5 hour drive. Here are a few initial impressions.
OMG this thing is bouncy!! And that's with the dampers in Normal mode. On some expansion joints, I would let out an audible grunt from being slammed into the seat. I can't imagine what the Sport and Track modes would be like. If they're firmer than Normal mode, they should've named them all "OMG!", "Chiropractor On Retainer", and "Bone Grinder". I've seen a few videos where the reviewer states "If you want a GT350, don't drive the GT350R first!" I'm guessing they're talking only on track. From my very limited experience, I would surmise that the GT350 must be a street car for the track, and the R is a track car for the street.
Nighttime rearward visibility is horrible. The wing sits right in the middle of my sight line. So if a car is right behind me, I can't even see it. A car was following me for I don't know how long, and I didn't even know it until I saw the silhouette through another car's headlights. Which, that's one plus. It blocks headlights from reflecting into my face. The rear quarter windows might as well not even be there. I haven't driven it in the daytime yet. I barely missed getting caught in the rain when I was almost back to the house. So it's been parked in the garage since I got it home in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
I was never a fan of how the engine/exhaust sound based on what I've heard in videos. It sounds much better in person. The exhaust in Sport mode is wake-the-dead loud. You might not notice it as much if you're driving in a lot of traffic. I was driving in the middle of the night with virtually no one else around. Even with the windows up, I could still hear the exhaust echoing off trees and buildings while going through the gears. Think of the most obnoxious '03/'04 Cobra exhaust you've heard. It's kind of like that. Cruising along, the exhaust is pretty quiet, even in Sport mode. The GT500 exhaust still sounds better.
The road noise is a little high, but that's to be expected with these tires. Michelins are not quiet tires, especially when they're worn down. Wind noise was low enough to not be a problem for even the most picky person. (Subaru should collaborate with Ford to learn how to reduce wind noise.) Most of the drive was on the freeway, so I can't speak much about the handling yet. From the handful of decent curves heading to the house, it felt good. I will say, comparing it to my modded GT500, it's exactly as I feared would be the case if I bought one. My GT500 actually feels lighter, more nimble and more rigid than the GT350R. That said, I still wouldn't call my GT500 confidence inspiring. I'm sure it's current capability is far beyond what I trust it to be. The jury's probably going to be out on the GT350R until the roads in the mountains warm up again next May. I'm definitely going to be driving it on the "warm" days this winter, but I won't be driving it aggressively.
I can't and won't say that I'm in love with my new GT350R yet, but I will say that I am VERY happy that I have it now. If Ford releases a sweet enough GT500, I'll probably trade my current one in for it. Right now, I'm glad I didn't trade it for the GT350R because I would've missed it dearly. The R simply isn't a replacement for my GT500 as modified.
Now a question for the track rats who have experience with aero grip. I hit triple digits passing a car on a country road and found myself "stuck" on the wrong side of the road. I was trying to get back in the right lane, but the car wouldn't move! At least, not without a lot more steering effort than I felt was normal. When I added more effort, it felt like it was going to dart over and either shoot me off the other side of the road or go into a skid. I had to slow down to get back into my lane. Is that indicative of aero grip or was something else afoot? The event was on a patch of road that had a bunch of rubber asphalt crack seals, so that might also have added to the problem or been the sole cause of it. The car was tram-lining over that, too. What do you think?
OMG this thing is bouncy!! And that's with the dampers in Normal mode. On some expansion joints, I would let out an audible grunt from being slammed into the seat. I can't imagine what the Sport and Track modes would be like. If they're firmer than Normal mode, they should've named them all "OMG!", "Chiropractor On Retainer", and "Bone Grinder". I've seen a few videos where the reviewer states "If you want a GT350, don't drive the GT350R first!" I'm guessing they're talking only on track. From my very limited experience, I would surmise that the GT350 must be a street car for the track, and the R is a track car for the street.
Nighttime rearward visibility is horrible. The wing sits right in the middle of my sight line. So if a car is right behind me, I can't even see it. A car was following me for I don't know how long, and I didn't even know it until I saw the silhouette through another car's headlights. Which, that's one plus. It blocks headlights from reflecting into my face. The rear quarter windows might as well not even be there. I haven't driven it in the daytime yet. I barely missed getting caught in the rain when I was almost back to the house. So it's been parked in the garage since I got it home in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
I was never a fan of how the engine/exhaust sound based on what I've heard in videos. It sounds much better in person. The exhaust in Sport mode is wake-the-dead loud. You might not notice it as much if you're driving in a lot of traffic. I was driving in the middle of the night with virtually no one else around. Even with the windows up, I could still hear the exhaust echoing off trees and buildings while going through the gears. Think of the most obnoxious '03/'04 Cobra exhaust you've heard. It's kind of like that. Cruising along, the exhaust is pretty quiet, even in Sport mode. The GT500 exhaust still sounds better.
The road noise is a little high, but that's to be expected with these tires. Michelins are not quiet tires, especially when they're worn down. Wind noise was low enough to not be a problem for even the most picky person. (Subaru should collaborate with Ford to learn how to reduce wind noise.) Most of the drive was on the freeway, so I can't speak much about the handling yet. From the handful of decent curves heading to the house, it felt good. I will say, comparing it to my modded GT500, it's exactly as I feared would be the case if I bought one. My GT500 actually feels lighter, more nimble and more rigid than the GT350R. That said, I still wouldn't call my GT500 confidence inspiring. I'm sure it's current capability is far beyond what I trust it to be. The jury's probably going to be out on the GT350R until the roads in the mountains warm up again next May. I'm definitely going to be driving it on the "warm" days this winter, but I won't be driving it aggressively.
I can't and won't say that I'm in love with my new GT350R yet, but I will say that I am VERY happy that I have it now. If Ford releases a sweet enough GT500, I'll probably trade my current one in for it. Right now, I'm glad I didn't trade it for the GT350R because I would've missed it dearly. The R simply isn't a replacement for my GT500 as modified.
Now a question for the track rats who have experience with aero grip. I hit triple digits passing a car on a country road and found myself "stuck" on the wrong side of the road. I was trying to get back in the right lane, but the car wouldn't move! At least, not without a lot more steering effort than I felt was normal. When I added more effort, it felt like it was going to dart over and either shoot me off the other side of the road or go into a skid. I had to slow down to get back into my lane. Is that indicative of aero grip or was something else afoot? The event was on a patch of road that had a bunch of rubber asphalt crack seals, so that might also have added to the problem or been the sole cause of it. The car was tram-lining over that, too. What do you think?
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