Tracking an Acura TL: Comfy, Fast and Fun

By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

Track driving—if you’ve never experienced it, you simply have no idea what you’re missing out on. This past Saturday I had a track event at Pocono Raceway doing some instructing. My student was my buddy Brian in his girlfriend’s 2006 Acura TL. About a month earlier he had expressed interest in hitting the track and asked if I could help out. Obviously the answer was yes, as I live for track days. He was concerned, however, about the car, that being the aforementioned Acura. In all honesty, I was pretty curious myself as to how Acura’s sporty four-door would run.

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Brian picked me up at about 5:30am and we drove the 90 miles up to Pocono Raceway. The Acura was actually pretty cool—typical Acura/Honda build quality, nice comfy seats as well as having the added bonus of being equipped with a six-speed. Now at any track event you are bound to find all manner of automobile, from full-on race cars to highly tuned street cars to everyday daily drivers like the one we were in. In fact, the only modification done to this TL was a set of aftermarket rims, and this was only due to some type of mishap that involved a curb and some over-anxious maneuvering. Oh yeah, the tires were mismatched as well. We had Toyos up front and Falkens in the rear, not too sure why, though.

Upon entrance onto the track the first thing I noticed was that this thing was WAY too quiet. In fact my buddy bounced it off the rev limiter a few times. So did I… Whoops. Suspension wise I have to say that the TL actually handled great. Coming off the back straight and pitching it into turn one at 90mph resulted in very little drama. In fact I was actually able to pull down a C5 Corvette. I’ll pat myself on the back for that one… But in all seriousness, this thing moved. We managed to run five full sessions with the TL, each time beating it to death harder and harder. My buddy Brian was merciless on it, doing full throttle power shifts out of every turn, it was actually a pretty funny sight to behold.

By the end of the day though I think the ole TL was pretty tired. The brake pedal was wicked spongy and we totally fragged what was left of the tires. But we did manage to have a hell of a lot of fun. In the end, the best part was that the Acura got my buddy hooked on track driving, to the point that he is now actively seeking a new ride. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have ever thought about going on the race track, but thought, for whatever reason, you couldn’t do it, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. It’s easy, relatively inexpensive and something that I can guarantee will fulfill that adrenaline rush that we all seek.