Taste Of Lexus

markatty · September 19, 2005

Just went to the Taste of Lexus in NYC. It was a lot of fun and if you get a chance its worth going. At Belmont Park in LI they had 3 courses set up; one for heavy cars ES, GX, SC (it really is heay), the IS course with a BMW 330i for comparision and the RX-400 course.

For me it was a blast, where else do you get to really push a car in a safe enviroment. It wasn't autocross and if you hit a cone, they said they would throw you out, but I squeled some tires and the only complaint I got was about almost coming to a stop, because the ES I was driving had almost caught up to the GX-470 that started before me.

The other fun party was that they had golf pros that gave putting lessons inside and videotaped swing analysis outside. The pros really knew what they were doing and they email you a link to a videotape of your swing analysis. If you play golf its worth it just for this.

If you go you might want to eat before hand. The "taste" part of the "Taste of Lexus" was small hors d'ouevres that when you read the card were "inspired" by great chefs. Lines for food were long and the soda was only slightly chilled, but if you want food go to a restaurant. The other down side is that there were no Lexus engineers there. The whole thing is run by AMCI and they do a good job and some of the people are professional drivers, but if you are looking for really technical details this is not the place.

Personally, I like driving anything better than waiting so I just hopped in the shortest lines rather than wait an hour to drive a protype of the about to be introduced IS350. The 400h was actually fairly nimble through the cones, since they had the course set up tight so there was little time for it to develop severe body roll and the electrics really help. I laughed when I looked at the consumption screen, 9.8 mpg for 40 miles. The 5 minute mpg bars looked like a puddle on the bottom of the screen. Just remember slow hands on the wheel and start setting up your next turn as you enter the present turn. :D

ReXus · September 19, 2005

Just went to the Taste of Lexus in NYC. It was a lot of fun and if you get a chance its worth going. At Belmont Park in LI they had 3 courses set up; one for heavy cars ES, GX, SC (it really is heay), the IS course with a BMW 330i for comparision and the RX-400 course.
For me it was a blast, where else do you get to really push a car in a safe enviroment. It wasn't autocross and if you hit a cone, they said they would throw you out, but I squeled some tires and the only complaint I got was about almost coming to a stop, because the ES I was driving had almost caught up to the GX-470 that started before me.

The other fun party was that they had golf pros that gave putting lessons inside and videotaped swing analysis outside. The pros really knew what they were doing and they email you a link to a videotape of your swing analysis. If you play golf its worth it just for this.

If you go you might want to eat before hand. The "taste" part of the "Taste of Lexus" was small hors d'ouevres that when you read the card were "inspired" by great chefs. Lines for food were long and the soda was only slightly chilled, but if you want food go to a restaurant. The other down side is that there were no Lexus engineers there. The whole thing is run by AMCI and they do a good job and some of the people are professional drivers, but if you are looking for really technical details this is not the place.

Personally, I like driving anything better than waiting so I just hopped in the shortest lines rather than wait an hour to drive a protype of the about to be introduced IS350. The 400h was actually fairly nimble through the cones, since they had the course set up tight so there was little time for it to develop severe body roll and the electrics really help. I laughed when I looked at the consumption screen, 9.8 mpg for 40 miles. The 5 minute mpg bars looked like a puddle on the bottom of the screen. Just remember slow hands on the wheel and start setting up your next turn as you enter the present turn. :D

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Thanks for the post; glad you enjoyed it. How'd you find out about (and get invited to) this? I waited 2 years on a list and dropped 50 large on a Lexus RX400h and they never told me about it.

lexus411 · September 19, 2005

Lexus sent out invitations to some past buyers that they felt were in the market and also to prospective new buyers. You could have also signed up at www.tasteofluxury.com . That was mentioned on here a few times.