The Acura TLX Type S is frivolously refreshed for 2024 with principally beauty upgrades. This is a automotive that Brad drove in 2021, so I wasn’t anticipating a massively completely different automotive. What I hoped for was a while with the TLX Type S in low-grip situations the place I may really feel round for a way the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) works.
Full Disclosure: Acura needed me to drive the TLX Type S, so that they dropped one off at my home for every week with a full tank of fuel.
But first, let’s get via the updates. The Type S will get a brand new grille, and the TLX stays a looker from the skin. The inside remains to be nicely put collectively and feels trendy, however the infotainment system remains to be managed by just a little trackpad which, as a result of there are redundant bodily controls for lots of stuff, is much less annoying than you’d assume. Finally, the gauge cluster and middle display are new, now measuring 12.3 inches, and also you get a ten.5-inch head-up show and a surround-view digicam.
The entrance seats are nonetheless glorious, however the rears are just a little tight so far as leg room and head room. Everyone likes a dramatic roofline till they’re the tall particular person sitting underneath it. And positively strive strapping your child seats in there earlier than you signal something on the seller — my boosters labored superb general, regardless of being considerably tough to buckle.
Ok, that’s the vital stuff executed with. A couple of years in the past I had pushed the non–Type S TLX and got here away impressed with the general package deal, particularly the stereo, which is current within the new TLX Type S. We had been doing a bizarre interview-format overview factor again then, and I advised Andrew Collins: “I wish I’d had a chance to drive it in the snow to get a better sense for what’s really happening with the AWD system. At road speeds, it’s hard for me to tell exactly what’s going on as it’s happening.” So, a couple of months in the past when Acura provided us this refreshed TLX Type S, I signed up and hoped for snow, which we lastly ended up getting.
Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz all construct their high-performance luxurious sedans with longitudinal engines. The Acura is an outlier with a transverse mounted engine, which is a mark in opposition to it amongst some lovers. Do those self same lovers look down their nostril on the Volkswagen Golf R and Toyota GR Corolla? Is {that a} truthful comparability?
Not actually. Despite the transverse mounted engine and all-wheel drive similarities, Acura’s SH-AWD isn’t the identical factor as both of the AWD setups you’ll discover within the VW or the Toyota, which is clear in the way in which it behaves on slick surfaces. When I drove the TLX initially, Acura emphasised the system’s capacity to ship 70 % of obtainable torque to the rear axle, and one hundred pc of that torque to only a type of rear wheels. That concept is a SH-AWD hallmark, and the feeling is noticeable on dry pavement. When you speed up out of a nook, the skin rear wheel begins turning quicker than the opposite three wheels, and you are feeling a pleasant rotation sensation — sort of like a rear-drive automotive, however not fairly. Here’s what Acura has to say on the matter:
Driving round in Sport Plus mode within the snow, it’s possible you’ll resolve to hold the rear of the automotive out just a little on a nook exit. When you do, the system will very briefly attempt to catch you, then understand what you’re attempting to do and allow you to grasp the rear out a bit earlier than truly catching you. SH-AWD will sense yaw and intervene, attempting to provide the massive on-power exit feeling. Even with the traction management off the automotive typically feels reluctant for a fraction of a second earlier than it realizes you’re attempting to do parking zone donuts, after which it does the “one-hundred-percent of seventy-percent of the power to the outside rear wheel” factor and provides you all of the oversteer you need.
SH-AWD is a system that very ably recreates sensations that everybody loves about driving a well-balanced rear-drive-biased automotive, but it surely doesn’t make the TLX right into a well-balanced rear-drive-biased automotive. There’s nonetheless an enormous motor hanging over the entrance axle. Where a automotive like a BRZ or Camaro will behave very persistently on the restrict, which is approachable at very low velocity within the snow, the TLX Type-S is one other story. There’s loads occurring, and it’s occurring within the service of maintaining you pointed straight forward with all 4 tires between the traces. It’s nonetheless enjoyable and it’ll nonetheless oversteer, however typically you need to work just a little to get the automotive doing what you need.
I used to be very pleasantly stunned by the Pirelli Cinturato P7 all-season tires that had been mounted on my TLX. All-seasons are by no means an appropriate substitute for actual snow tires, however these labored method higher than all-seasons ought to. Acura will promote you copper coloured wheels with these tires for $2,228, or those self same wheels with Pirelli P-Zero PZ4 summer season tires for $3,360.
The excellent news is that away from the restrict, like on a moist however not snow-covered again highway, the TLX Type S requires no technical clarification — it’s only a hoot. The turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 makes 355 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque, and it produces an amazing sound with out getting foolish with crackles and backfires. The Sport Plus mode was reconfigured for higher throttle response, based on Acura, and the 10-speed automated reliably selects the suitable gear for you. Acceleration is brisk, however not quick quick. This isn’t a automotive meant to go up in opposition to the full-flavor Blackwings, RSs, AMGs and M vehicles, anyway. The TLX Type S is priced at $58,195 together with vacation spot, so it sits with the common V collection and mid-tier efficiency vehicles from the Germans.
The steering effort felt good to me, however I’ll be sincere, I didn’t see dry pavement and may’t actually say how communicative it was. Brakes had been equally nicely calibrated from a really feel standpoint, however I didn’t get to push them such as you would on a observe. On these tires the Type S could be very settled over damaged and even severely damaged pavement. You can actually simply bash away with it, and the SH-AWD system shines, pushing you thru corners.
Brad mentioned he loved his time lapping the Type S at Laguna Seca, and I imagine him, however this isn’t the automotive I might purchase if I used to be taking a look at common observe time — not when the identical firm would promote me an Integra Type S. If I used to be commuting and blasting round backroads, I may make a case for the TLX, particularly when you think about the sub-$60,000 value.
Source: jalopnik.com