Last weekend, I decided to bring the IS F out to the weekly Friday Night Meet in Alhambra, CA. I invited my friend SanseiGS43 to bring his new Mercury Metallic IS F out. Clark and I joined up with Phil (CrazyMPG) with the rest of the Friday Night Meet regulars. Prior to our the arrival, I had a chance to test out the Tom's LTS (Linear Throttle Control System) on Clark's IS F. At first I was a little skeptical but i'm impressed with the instant results.
The unit is completely plug and play and connects to the throttle pedal module just under the dash board. the LTS display unit can be mounted anywhere within reach. The LTS in Clark's car was mounted just below the driver's side left air vent just above the coin holder and button blanks. I was able to play with 3 modes. Economy which was regular. Sport 2 which is like having Sport Mode on in regular D mode, without pressing the actual button and Sport 3, which transforms the F into a whole different beast. I tried all of these modes in both normal and SPORT modes in different scenarios in and around Downtown LA and here's what I experienced:
DRIVE & Econ = Regular
DRIVE & S2 = Like having SPORT mode on.
DRIVE & S3 = Like having SPORT and M mode on, but full automatic shifting.
DRIVE w/SPORT & Econ = Normal operation.
DRIVE w/SPORT & S2 = Quick throttle response, initial throttle lag not as apparent, half of what it is stock
DRIVE w/SPORT & S3 = Quick throttle response, throttle lag is almost non existent, shifts are very quick.
M-Mode w/SPORT & Econ = Quick as it normally is.
M-Mode w/SPORT & S2 = Very quick, some throttle lag, but half of what it is normally. Shifts are quick.
M-Mode w/SPORT & S3 = Super quick, no initial throttle lag, shifts feel a lot quicker and responsive.
The next day Clark installed the Joe Z Intake and Exhaust on the car. With the obvious gains of the Joe Z intake/exhaust setup and the addition of the Tom's LTS, the IS F feels like a whole different car. Even revving the car at idle. You can definitely feel and see the difference in throttle response in the Sport modes of the LTS. The LTS system does not increase or modify your horsepower, but instead alters and eliminates throttle response lag from the oem parameters. Think of this unit as a way to electronically "adjust slack" from a conventional throttle cable.
There was no time to do any measured testing at a track, but hope to do this in the future as time permits.