The 2014-2015 San Francisco International Auto Show provides visitors many opportunities to engage in the car culture. From hybrids, SUV's Trucks, sports cars and vintage cars. Also there is usually a chance to actually get behind the wheel and blast down the street.
That's what I did.
The car I found was the 2015 Scion FR S. This little car had really good paper specs and what is a car without 'Papers'?
Some cars will quickly bite the untrained or unwary driver, but this sporty FR S leaves me with the impression that it is a friendly car that doesn't have that kind of bite.
Impressive numbers and a good looking car.
The FR S comes with a 2.0 Liter, 4-Cylinder, Boxer Engine Displacing 1,998 cc; developing 200 hp @ 7,000 RPM; delivering 151 lb.-ft @ 6,600 RPM; sporting a DOHC, 4-Valves per Cylinder with Dual Variable Valve Timing top end, backed by a Compression Ratio of 12.5:1; just to push its 2,758 Lb. Base Curb Weight down the road. Oh yes right. It also has neat paddle shifting, just like the big boys.
The test was real world driving, right out on the busy streets of San Francisco during mid day traffic. The little Scion gives fair outside visibility and good seating position. With the Auto-Paddle shifters I was able to fall back on my left-foot-braking allowing for quick stopping response in the busy unpredictable city traffic. In all fairness the car had 3 people in it which, even with the impressive numbers can effect the throttle-acceleration response.
The route was around the block in San Francisco, which means 2 intersections each way because of the 1-way street configuration.
Fair enough more tarmac under the tires.
Nothing was an annoyance that would cause me to point it out. Everything in the car was easy to deal with allowing me to work the traffic, follow the turn-here commands from the FR S's keeper sitting on the right side. Even with all this happening I could find the opportunity to check out the engine and braking responsiveness.
The most interesting 2 things that came to my attention were the sound and the paddle shifting. I commented on the engine sound to the test ride guide and his response was, the engine sound was channelled into the interior, giving the driver a 'racy' feedback. Something that the younger driver likes. The driver hears the 'hot' motor he is commanding, but the neighbours are not annoyed by a loud exhaust. This should make everyone happy.
The paddle shifting was quite responsive but in my short, traffic induced drive, selecting gears via the paddles mostly changed the volume of the roar from the engine. Little drama much 'roar'. Granted again the little 2 litre Scion had 3 male adults weighing it down.
My conclusion is that this is an ideal car for the young driver. It has all the spec. numbers, sound, features and styling to show itself and driver to be in the performance category without bring so much power to the show that an over eager right foot will immediately cause the car to leap out of control.
This brings me to a conversation I had with a fellow that, in my youth, I looked-up-to back in the early 1960's. On meeting him one day when he was driving a VW Beetle, I sad; "Hey Ron why are you drive a Beetle? I thought you had that cool Porsche 356." Ron answered; "I can drive the Beetle a hard as I want without having to keep an eye on the mirror for cops. I could not drive that way in the Porsche".