Takeeon:
My daddy always used to say, "If you drive like an old lady, you'll end up with an old lady's' car."
Now, granted, the low-end torque's alright... until you put your foot down, even a little. Then -- on my specific vehicle, at least -- the engine sputters, misfires and becomes virtually undriveable until I limp over to the shoulder and do a complete 'cold reboot', as outlined in my previous post.
For anyone who'll consider my findings:
1. Less drivetrain computerization is required, not more. There's a seat-of-the-pants sport car in this thing and imma find it, even if it hairlips the Governor!
I'm about 95% there, right now; I just can't trash 'muscle cars' the way I used to in my 2,400 lb. FiST, cuz Inertia is a Universal Law and responsiveness/'suddenness' is all about weight-to-power ratio. I doubt we'll see any Ed Block or Pros vs Joes videos featuring a GT N-Line.
(NB: I also doubt I'll ever be able to approach the FiST's performance in the GT, without significant and costly engineering-level mods. The HGTN-L just weighs too much at 3,500 lbs. -- see, 'Universal Law', above -- with the same HP and torque as the FiST, but no factory-standard 30-sec turbo overboost to 230 HP/210 ft-lb; but it's fast enough to do all the things I need it to do, given the right driver. Meaning, me.)
2. I'm not saying you should drive the car aggressively at all times. Rather, that it should driven as aggressively as is prudent for longevity in the vehicle, whenever you get the chance -- like, when entering a highway or making a passing/overtaking maneuver.
My goal when driving is to get to my cruising speed (speed limit plus 10%, e.g., 77 in a 70) as rapidly as possible and then make as few adjustments to speed as practicable thereafter. It keeps the car running right... or, as right as possible given the apparent computer problems this manufacturer has throughout their lineup. Why pay for and drive a titular sport car, if all you really need is a squirrel-in-a-cage, 86 hp/56 ft-lb FWT putter-buggy?
3. On my 108-mile roundtrip daily commute, I always accelerate up to </= 6K RPMs (sub-7K-redline), but fewer than 7 occurrences, for 30 seconds or less each time, in my total 2 hour drive (i,e., between 2 and 3 total minutes of 'hard acceleration' over a 2-hour timeframe). The rest of the roundtrip, I'm chillin' in cruise, Normal mode and full-auto DCT, letting the computer do most of the highway cornering, pulling about 2.5K RPM and making 35-37 MPG, depending primarily on headwind/tailwind factor. And I'm doing that on mid-grade 91 octane.
ADVICE: Dumb the car down, as described in previous post. ...It's already too smart for its own good...
Parenthetically
-zed