Really difficult to do when they are wearing a driver’s suit and a six-point competition harness. Impossible if you are also in the harness. When travelling at 160 mph it is not wise to distract the driver.
1972 Holden Torana with a 350chev motor was the hands down most scary thing on wheels. The chassis felt like it was twisting! This car was mean and beat big V8s with it’s 186 160hp six cylinder but with a 300hp small block 350 in a 1,000KG car was very scary!
[URL=“http://www.carsguide.com.au/images/uploads/Holden-LC-Torana-SL-1971-Ron-Jackson-13W.jpg”]
I’ve had several Mustangs and currently have a Cobra with a supercharger and full suspension. You can’t drive it in the rain and can barely drive it if it drops below 40 degrees. I have to swap out my rear tires for drag radials to take it to the track. I’ve also had friends with all kinds of F-bodies and Vettes. One of the meaner ones was a C5 Z06 with a big cam, long tubes, and a Procharger.
The absolute fastest thing I’ve ever been in though was a COT NASCAR stockcar. It was at Texas Motor Speedway and I rode with the pro that was driving that day. We supposedly entered the corners at 170mph. He wasn’t hitting the brakes, just tossing it in and letting the banking slow it down. We actually missed turn 3 once and washed pretty high up the track. He was real late getting back into it again because of it. I loved it because it showed that we weren’t just riding “on the rails” like a roller coaster. We were really on the edge of control. That long, wide track gets short and narrow when you get up to speed. I have no clue how 43 cars can race and do 2 and 3 wide at times. I still smile thinking about that ride.
You realize the Matrix does the 1/4 in 16 seconds and the Evo does it in 13? Your average Honda Accord is faster than that Matrix… It quite clearly wasn’t racing you…
Wikipedia claims the Matrix XRS produced 180hp with an engine taken from the Toyota Celica GTS and that the compression ratio was 11.5:1 (still high, but not the ridiculously high 14:1 E-Sabbath said it was).
E-Sabbath, was this some special variant that Wiki doesn’t cover or did you have an engine from an Elise put into it?
It also has a whopping 130 lb-ft of torque. Nothing wrong with that, but it ain’t even in the same league as the evo, not even close. I don’t want to get into the Camry vs the mustang wackiness.
Don’t be so sure. I have a 98 C5 Corvette with a Magnuson Supercharger in it. It is WICKED fast. Most of the time.
If I’m on the highway doing 65 mph and stand on it, it’ll downshift into second and blaze off like a bat outta hell. If I’m doing 70, it will only downshift in to third and the acceleration isn’t quite as amazing. It was a conscious decision on the part of the kit builder so they wouldn’t have folks destroying transmissions all over the place.
It also heat-soaks like a mo-fo. If it’s 24 degrees out, it’s a hoot…if it’s been sitting in 92 degree heat in stop n go, where the temperature near the asphalt is closer to 105…it’s pretty sluggish, even with the intercooler.
I’ve also found that whoever gets the drop first can often make up for a BIG power differential, simply because they’re making power longer than the other person. There’s a BIG difference in optimal fastest-even-if-it-hurts-the-car for the car magazines, and what Joe sixpack sees on the street…with cars that have old tires…in hot conditions…with old gas.
Lotus used the 2ZZ engine from the Celica GT-S/Matrix XRS in the Elise. The Lotus version was slightly modified to make around 190hp. Of course, the Elise weighed about half a ton less than the Matrix, and no production version had a lofty 14:1 compression ratio.
Nevertheless, I’m sure the Matrix would do 130, which is probably as fast as the Evo driver was willing to go. Cojones are usually the limiting factor when driving on the street, given that your average Hyundai Sonata will probably do a buck 40. I actually have a pretty tired screed against sports car drivers – if I can keep up with you “aggressive driving” in my minivan, then you probably don’t have the balls or the need to own a sports car in the first place. But then, guys will do what they can to justify getting the “manly” Z06 instead of the Miata that is probably much more appropriate for their skill level.
The problem is that even the most pedestrian car these days is incredibly capable. When all the cars on the highway are doing 85, there really isn’t enough speed and distance to prove a point in a higher horsepower car…not in any safe or sane manner.
Sure, you can pull away from that Camry on your ass…but you’ll have to be doing 115, and there’s just no cause for you do be doing that on public roads.
Add to that the fact that auto manufacturers are doing everything possible to disconnect the driver from the driving experience. It’s nothing to have a 5000 lb Pickup doing 85…with the kids watching a DVD in back, Mom streaming her music on Pandora, and reading texts on her phone.
Wait…you have this AMAZING machine…and its an automatic?
:eek:
Shame on you!
That one is. I have more than one amazing machine. I have ANOTHER amazing machine with an automatic that’ll give any stirstick car a run for the money, too. (Had I know what it would cost to get it there, I’da gladly swapped in a ZF-6)
But both daily drivers have clutches.
I feel your pain here. My Mustang GT is stock and its pretty dicey driving it in the rain, and extremely unpleasant (and very risky) driving it in any amount of snow, as I recently experienced when we had just under an inch of snow unexpectedly that stuck to the roads just a little.
I was white-knuckling it all the way home from work, with people flipping me off behind me because I refused to go faster than 30mph in a 40mph zone. The rear end is just so prone to getting away from you in those conditions.
Well, don’t keep me in suspense…what is this other amazing machine you speak of?
And I am a huge lover of Corvettes, but since I have two small boys in my custody even my musclecar purchase had to include some semblance of a rear seat, such as it is, so the Mustang it was. I can’t afford a Corvette anyway…especially when it comes to things like tires. Mother of God a set of four for a recent Vette is more than two thousand dollars! As it is the 18" BF Goodrich G-Force T/A’s that are on my car now are going to cost me $1500 to replace if I get the same tires, but I probably won’t get those as I don’t care for their propensity to track with every groove and uneven part of every road. Plus they are horrible tires in the rain.
ETA: my “if I win the lottery” car is a ZR1. Now THAT is a ridiculous, amazing car!
PM sent. 
Schwing!
The stable is a combination of Pre-bust money and an inability to ever sell anything ever. The tires on the vettes are older than my kids. And they’re -9-. I may have to sell one car to put tires on the other.
If I’m ever in your neck of the woods…you have to give me a ride.
And speaking of Vettes…have you ever seen this video? Its pretty hilarious.
“I think he’s scared”
“Holy Shit!”
And its not a Lingenfelter Vette, but its still pretty badass…
Mine’s not a Lingenfelter, it’s just got Lingenfelter parts. 
Originally it was a 250 hp stocker and I figured 450 hp would be a good target…took 8 years to get there and by then you could buy that from the factory. I then gave up on HP…it’s expensive and the bragging rights aren’t worth it.
That is an awesome car to drive. I never went full out in it because it wasn’t my toy to play with, but what a toy! It just sucks up the pavement on a banked turn.
I’ve never even driven a Mustang in the snow. I have no desire! I always put 4.30 gears in my GTs and they were really sketchy in the rain, especially with worn out Nittos.
One night I could see a storm coming in the distance and was trying to get home on the interstate before it caught me. I was passing cars like they were sitting still. About halfway into the 30 miles drive, the bottom fell out of the sky. After swerving across 3 or 4 lanes, I pulled over to the shoulder to do 30mph and all those cars I flew by got to pass me by.
My next mod is 4.10s. My 4V 4.6 has a lot of top end with 11psi, but it has some lag getting into the upper RPMs. I figure the gears will make it undriveable without ET Streets, ha!