Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

The Griffin TuneFlex is a great all-in-one iPod solution for any car.

We couldn’t leave well enough alone, seeing how perfectly the Griffin TuneFlex dock would fit into the OEM ashtray hole.

Mood lighting, anyone?

When you grow accustomed to stereos that can play MP3s by the hundreds right off the disc, going back to a normal format with fewer than 20 songs per disc is pretty frustrating. Teenagers seem pretty on the ball, and they like their portable MP3 players, so why shouldn’t we?

Actually, Scott is the last member of the staff to give in to the portable MP3 craze–JG had a mount on his scooter, for goodness sake. And despite Scott’s loathing of most things Apple, he wasn’t too stubborn to recognize that the iPod is still the superior product on the market. Especially if you want to do anything with it other than listen to the headphones.

Since Toyota/Lexus won’t let go of the tape deck, we did have a nice alternative to tearing apart the dash and cutting wires to make an auxiliary input for sound. The Griffin TuneFlex provided the rest of the solution.

The TuneFlex is an all-in one mount/charger/tape deck adapter that runs about $50. Plug the unit into a spare cigarette lighter (or accessory jack if you got screwed out of a proper fire-creation device) and slide the tape adapter into the proper hole in your dashboard. If you did it right you’ll have tunes by the gigabyte.

The TuneFlex has two output levels, and on our stereo both were actually too strong, with distortion on the high notes. Switching the tape adapter to the iPod’s volume-adjustable output (set to about 50 percent volume) did the trick.

When we put the unit in we noticed that the TuneFlex dock was almost exactly the same width as the IS 300’s ashtray housing. The temptation to fiddle was too strong. Unfortunately for this application, the TuneFlex’s robust support hose was too rigid to bend in the way we needed. We broke out the diagonal cutters and carefully clipped the mild steel coil and then the VERY strong spring steel coil. A Dremel with a fiberglass cut-off wheel made short work of the plastic swivel where the support hose was glued into the adapter.

After wrapping electrical tape around the bits that were exposed by the surgery, we had a cool, low-key mount for our iPod. When we flicked on the headlights we got a pleasant surprise; the ashtray had a light in it, and that light was illuminating the clear TuneFlex mount. For some reason we have a color wheel of theater lighting samples, so we picked the one that most closely matched the OEM orange lighting and cut out a bit of the transparency to tape over the light. We’re going to add a second layer of diffuser to keep it from being so bright, but it was a happy surprise.

Right now some high-density foam keeps it in place, but we’ll cut up a wood block and mount it more firmly when we get the urge.

On the way home from the dealership.

A few months back we added a sporty daily driver to our fleet in the form of a 2004 Lexus IS 300. We wanted a car that was comfortable, quiet, and great for highway trips, but that wouldn’t put us to sleep when we wanted to crank up the fun factor. BMW 3 Series are often chosen for this kind of duty, but for whatever reason the IS 300 kept popping up as an off-the-beaten-path candidate. As soon as we test drove a 5-speed example we knew we had found our car. Now we had to find the right example.

Finding the combination of goodies we desired wasn’t easy; the 5-speed cars with the factory Torsen limited-slip differential are few and far between. We looked a several examples that had been rode pretty hard. Neglected leather seats, heavily worn Alcantera, scratches, rusty underhood bolts and faded paint on northern cars were all off-putting. Still, even the neglected cars all seemed to be in great shape mechanically, so that was a good sign for long-term reliability.

Finally we found our winner, a low-mileage 2004 example at CarMax in Orlando. It came with the grippy Alcantera seats, a moonroof, a limited-slip and the five speed. Being a Lexus, it’s got a full battery of goodies, lacking only the optional nav system. Aside from a few well-covered paint chips, it was cherry. It also still had more than a year of factory warranty on it, and the new Yokohama AVS ES100s were an indication that the previous owner knew a thing or two. Sold!

In the months since, there’s been no buyer’s regret. The IS 300 doesn’t have the “most” of anything in its class, but it’s by no means lacking. The 2JZ-GE engine (shared with the normally aspirated Toyota Supra) provides silky-smooth thrust with absolutely no fuss. It’ll light up the rears in first or second if you want to test your drift skills. When we changed the oil at 3500 miles, it hadn’t burned a drop and the oil was still clear. Toyota can build a clean engine. Our one complaint would be the mileage, which is sub par. We’re seeing in the low 20s most of the time, with a best of 27MPG on a tank (mostly spent at 50 mph in fifth in the Florida Keys).

It’s comfortable, lots of fun to drive, lights up the night like crazy with HIDs, has a terrific 240-watt OEM sound system. And you can give BMW drivers guff for not having a dual A-arm front suspension. While this car has a good bit of motorsports potential, we’re going to avoid doing things that would ruin its near-perfect street manners.