I have an '06 GT convertible. Every year I’ve had it, shortly after Thanksgiving it went under the cover and I drove my old Blazer until I took it out again in late March or early April. This year however my daughter can drive so she is taking the Blazer.
So, even with about 180lbs of river pebbles in the trunk (will use for landscaping in the Spring) I’m terrified of how the Pirellis will stick in even the slightest amount of the slick stuff.
However, it is obvious to me that God is a Mustang lover… we have had the warmest, least slick winter that I can remember. I now think I may actually make it without being towed out of a ditch.
Camry’s a second slower to 60 and a second slower in the quarter mile, though. Heavier car and FWD.
But this is exactly my point about modern cars. Got to love 'em. Put some real meat on the wheels and you might, maybe, pull half a second off both.
(The Camry can and will chirp rubber in the first three gears. Interestingly, it’ll do it in two places on the power band if you’re not careful, point of shift and point of approximately max torque.)
True, but the GNX is Boosty. They numbers may be similar, but it will feel, proportionally, like more Hell is breaking loose FASTER with the Buick. (and a Second in the quarter mile is a coon’s age. Especially if we’re talking 12 seconds to 13 seconds, rather than 15 seconds to 16 seconds.
Besides, imagine a Camry in the quarter mile…would it look like this?
Get some winter tires on that car, STAT! Your Pirellis are designed to be sticky between 80 and 150 degrees. Around 32 degrees, they’re about as soft as a cueball!
Man I love those Grand Nationals, although the body style hasn’t aged too well to me. 12.1 in the 1/4 mile? Jeez, that’s fast. That Camaro was slow by comparison. Even an SS Camaro can’t hit 12.1 in the quarter…though its probably pretty close.
GNXs weren’t 12-second cars out of the box, more like 14 stock. For the day, though, they were no slouch. Plus, people have built the snot out of some of them because the 3800 can take a hell of a lot more boost than stock; I think there are some 9-second Grand Nationals out there.
yeah, the GNX had way more torque which the Camry’s gearing has no hope of making up for. Plus, it’s an open secret that the GNX had underrated hp and torque numbers.
I thought it was more like the regular Regal Grand Nationals were running 14’s stock and the GNX’s were running 13’s. In the video posted the guy claims mostly stock “with a few bolt-ons” and tramps to an almost 12 flat 1/4 time. Impressive.
Not a dig at you, and probably not relevant to the thread, but I’ve often asked for evidence that muscle cars were ever underrated for any reason, and I’ve never seen any. The notion seems absurd, since the reason commonly given (to reduce insurance costs) belies an ignorance of how insurance actually works (boring actuarial tables). I know this is a little bit of automotive “common knowledge” but it seems like an old wives tale.
I also fully endorse ** E-Sabbath**'s post. I read an amusing blog entry awhile back that was musing about the chap who got busted by a speed camera for doing 147 in a rental Sonata. His defense, you see, was that the Sonata’s top speed was only 127. The author referenced the 1948 Jaguar XK120 as a car whose top speed was so impressive at the time that they incorporated it into the name of the car. And now anyone can rent a car that will do 127, and it’s not even a particularly nice car (this was a couple generations ago).
My minivan (Sedona) will do a confirmed 110, and I’m sure it can brake and corner better than the old Jag too.
Cars today are nuts. Which makes it extra annoying when I’m helping pick out sports cars for people who don’t seem to understand that a normal Miata has more performance in it than they know how to use (or can even safely use on public roads), so no, they don’t need a Z06.
IMO bengangmo is correct. I think there are a lot of cars out there that should not be sold without including a performance driving lesson for the new owner. In England, the insurance companies will not insure performance cars for drivers under a certain age. I think that is a brilliant driver.
We give our young adult sports heroes a salarly that allows them to go out and buy a fast Porsche (or motorcycle) without enough driving experience. It’s really handing them a deadly weapon. It is so easy to kill yourself and others if you do not know what you are doing or the risks involved.
Another IMO, all new drivers should be given a lesson/demonstration in the importance of good brakes and tires. These two item are so very important and yet they often get no more attention than the make/model/color of the car the new driver is going to have.
Even people that know what they are dealing with can make mistakes though. Take Kyle Busch. Anyone familiar with him knows what he can do in a car. Watch highlights from last nights race to see what kind of talent he has. He lost his driver’s license last summer for doing 130+ in a 35mph zone.
Most expensive cars are out of the price range for most normal younger people. Sure, I had a Mustang GT at 19 (and most of my friends had Trans/Ams and Camaros at that age or younger), but most people end up in a Ranger or Focus until their mid 20’s. I also doubt I’ll get creamed by a 21 year old superstar athlete in a Ferrari in my day to day activities.
The only thing that boggles me is motorcycles. When I got my permit, it was a 10 question exam and that was it. I didn’t even have a riding portion. After that, I was cleared to ride whatever I wanted. I could have taken 4 or 5 thousand and bought a used, older liter bike and had a 180mph 9 or 10 second rocket with no experience. I was 21 at the time and actually bought a 225 cc dual sport to learn on. After I was comfortable, I bought a 600 cc bike. That was about 7 years ago and I’ve still got the 600cc bike.
In GM’s case, it was a policy of not wanting any other car to have as much or almost as much HP on paper than a Corvette, even though in some cases like the 4th gen F-bodies the engines were identical. Other marques do similar things.
“Horsepower” is a pretty woolly thing anyway, especially back in the days of muscle cars when it was all “gross” horsepwer. I think people at the time sort of realized this and generally used things like 1/4 mile times for their bench racing instead, but today when everyone plays video games has all kinds of numbers at their fingertips and most cars sold in the US have SAE J2723 certified power ratings it’s fun to talk about it again.
I’ve got a Nissan Altima Coupe, and I’ve gotten it fast enough to scare me on backroads before. It’s only the 175hp 4-banger, not the 270hp V6, so it’s not terribly quick to 60, but once you get up to speed, it’s surprisingly responsive on the throttle, especially with the CVT transmission’s manu-matic mode giving an instant downshift whenever I wish.
I’ve had it over 110 on some straight, but narrow backroads near my house, where you can see traffic in all directions so it’s safe to punch it for a stretch, and I’ve had to back it off because I just wasn’t quite comfortable at that speed on two-lane blacktop. I can’t imagine how fast the V6 is.
Other than that, I’ve been a passenger in a car doing 125 before - years ago, my brother had a piece-of-crap blown '70.5 Camaro, jacked up with cheater slicks in back, and when it was running, it was sickeningly quick, but handled like a boat. That car definitely scared the hell out of me - if felt like it would rattle apart any time it got to 90 or so.
Like I said, I doubt I could cut up a Cobra to build a… Cobra, but the 4V under the hood looks sweet. Not to mention the power of a supercharged 4v 4.6.
Wait…4V 4.6? So you mean the head is swapped out, right? Did Ford ever make a 4V head for the 4.6L engine? I thought it went from 2V to 3V (like in my Mustang) and then transitioned to the 5.0L engine in the current iteration of Mustangs. Was there a 4V head in say the 2009-2010 models or is this a bolt-on aftermarket part?
The SVT Cobras all had a 32V 4.6, either supercharged or not, plus the Mach 1, a bunch of Lincolns, and the Marauder. The heads are gigantic and they look awesome wherever they are.
Yep, Cobra! Mine has a Teksid block too, which adds somewhat to my wanting to use it in the future.
I’ve also had a 2v and 3v. The 2v felt like it had more grunt off the line, but there was no way it was keeping up with the 3 or 4v up top. For racing, I’d much rather use a 3 or 4v, but for a hooligan car that’s fun to act up in, my 2v with 4.30 gears was a tire spinning blast.
:(:mad: