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yupididit
yupididit UltimaDork
9/4/24 8:22 a.m.

Those RCSB F150's with the Coyote are way too fast lol. 

Then when Midnight gets their hands on them. 

jharry3
jharry3 Dork
9/4/24 9:01 a.m.
Mr_Asa said:

Once, while in the military, I got in an argument with an idiot.  This was 2010ish.  

She claimed that her fox body, which was an auto and had a fresh stock engine rebuild, was racing a brand new GT and she whupped him.

"Thats not possible.  They weren't racing you."

"You weren't there, what do you know?"

"You said you were on 85 in Ft Walton?  No one races there. Cops are all over the place.  You were just speeding."

"What do you know!? Youre just a three level!"  (Sidenote for those not in the USAF, jobs have several levels of proficiency. 1 means you are in school, 3 means you passed school but need to be supervised, 5, 7, and 9 are the other levels and this isnt that important to the story)

"WTF does that have to do with anything? We don't street race in our job..."

"Shut up!"

 

She was the only person Ive worked with that I ever actually got close to hating.  Not for this encounter, but it didn't help matters.

I have reached the point in my life that when people spout nonsense I say "cool" and either walk away or change the subject. 

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
9/4/24 11:06 a.m.

I've got some thoughts on this. 

Back when I was still a budding gearhead, I remember picking up an issue of Motor Trend in the school library and seeing an ad for the then-new 1993 Camaro Z28. 



275hp??? A 6-SPEED manual??? WHOA!!!!

This melted my brain. It melted a lot of others, too. At the time, this was a huge deal, as it had WAY more power than both the outgoing 3rd Gen cars and the Mustang GT. A few years later, they could be had with the SS package (or the Ram Air WS6 package in Pontiac flavors) and 300+hp. Now, the 4-and-6-cylinder pony cars make well north of those numbers, and that's not enough for people. Unless something has 500+hp on paper, it' not "fast" anymore. 

Yes, modern V8 stuff can be fast and makes a ton of power, but most newer regular commuter cars on the roads today can wipe the floor with many of the hero cars from back in the day. Does that make newer cars more fun? Fun is subjective, of course, but I find that older stuff is fun in different ways. I still have a blast driving old trash, regardless of whether its doors would get blown off by a Camry Hybrid or the like. 

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
9/4/24 12:52 p.m.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

The goal for my Foxbody is 300hp; it will still be slow. LOL

budget_bandit
budget_bandit Reader
9/4/24 1:10 p.m.

In reply to yupididit :

Did you see Cleetus's? RCSB, 4x4, put a blower on it, makes almost 1000k HP and runs 9.1X in the 1/4 or something stupid. And your grandma could take it to church with the A/C blasting

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
9/4/24 1:11 p.m.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I stopped by a local Cars and Coffee with the Targa Miata a year or two ago. The car doesn't see much local action other than track time, and that's a different group of enthusiasts than the ones that show up at C&C. So it was the first time some of the locals had seen it, including some young Miata owners. One of those looked at it and said "only 500 hp? Well, I guess it's light..."

Perceptions have changed. 

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) MegaDork
9/4/24 7:04 p.m.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

If 500hp isn't enough, you are on a very boring road/course.

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
9/4/24 8:48 p.m.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

And we have this very conversation here; how many times ahs someone said you can't go to a track day with 140hp car........meanwhile many of us are.

Editors Note: I would kill for 140hp.

buzzboy
buzzboy UltraDork
9/4/24 9:16 p.m.
Tom1200 said:

Editors Note: I would kill for 140hp.

Before the current surgery my track car sat at 38.2lbs/whp. I'm on board for 140whp!

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
9/4/24 10:30 p.m.

In reply to Tom1200 :

You know what's really fun? Going to a Miata track day full of 140 hp cars in one with roughly 4x that power level. It's like having all the cheat codes in a video game :) I actually had to watch out coming over T1 at Laguna because the cars on the other side couldn't see me when they'd entered the straight.

But I've done big track days in the past 5 years in 150 rwhp cars. Still fun. Just gotta weld that throttle pedal to the floor.

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
9/5/24 12:06 a.m.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I get it; my old D-Sports Racer was much the same exepriance. I was turning GT-1/ Trans Am lap with it. At local time trials I was lapping the entire group in 3-4 laps.

I just seem to enjoy the other end of the spectrum more. When I road raced motorcycles I rode a 125 Gran Prix bike. You had to ride like a compete animal to get a good lap time............that appeals to me.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
9/5/24 2:29 a.m.

In reply to Tom1200 :

That's fun too. It's just that sometimes it's fun to have the beast. Especially if you built it yourself. Drive that like an animal and stuff happens. Any vehicle is fun if you're working it.

ddavidv
ddavidv UltimaDork
9/5/24 6:46 a.m.

Low powered cars that you have mastered can still be a lot of fun. My '86 Audi GT had a whopping 130-ish HP...after spending thousands on a 2.3 upgrade with a cam and exhaust. 20 more than it came with, woo-hoo! But with the suspension improvements it would tear up twisty roads. It didn't translate well to the track, where there were too many straights and not enough Miatas to play with. I was constantly pointing people by. But on the back roads of PA there wasn't much that could keep up with it. It was truly a great GT car, but not a good track car for the most part. I drove it for 12 years though, and it evolved into the best it could be without going whole hog with a turbo swap or coil overs. Only at a track day did I feel it was disappointing. 

However, when I sold it and got an E30 to go actual racing, I learned that there is always something better out there. The BMW was superior in most every way other than looks. When I quit racing and replaced it with an E36 M3 I again could turn substantially faster lap times. But the speed didn't equal the fun factor of the older, slower cars. The M3 was the fastest car I've owned, and I learned I really don't have a desire to go that fast anymore. "Slow car fast" is a real thing when it comes to the fun factor, for me anyway.

Antihero
Antihero PowerDork
9/5/24 7:07 a.m.

At the wife's craft fair there was a car show, nothing spectacular but some cool cars so some car guys are around.

 

Guy comes over bragging about his 78 Camaro " he's making into a z28" and how he's building a " high output small block" that is gonna be " 300hp, should get me into the 10s in the quarter and still be a family car".

 

Also goes onto say that he can't put more in it because " the wife will be driving it". He says this to my wife and her friend ( another woman)that shares a booth with her. They both lapse into customer service voice and he eventually goes away.

 

Now I've never driven a 78 Camaro and frankly was never enough of a fan to actually know much about them but it's probably a 3500ish pound car? I don't think 300hp is getting you into 10s.

 

When he left my wife told me that she bets the Rampage is faster lol

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
9/5/24 8:50 a.m.

3800 lbs

No, it will be a slug by modern standards.

People don't understand that HP is torque x rpm.

Want to post high HP numbers? Spin it faster. A SBC can do that.

Want to impress me? Big torque that comes on around 1500 rpm and stays there to redline.

Spearfishin
Spearfishin Reader
9/5/24 9:13 a.m.

Also translates to trucks. My base model '21 F-150 with the smallest engine choice (3.3L NA) and the heavy GVWR package, puts it, on paper, roughly equivalent to an early 2000's F-250 with the 5.4L V8 in terms of towing capacity (and HP, for that matter).

My truck has integrated trailer brake controller, trailer sway detection/"control" and some pretty aggressive engine braking in the transmission programming when in Tow/Haul. Yet, I get treated like I'm insane when I pull a 6,000lb load behind my truck when the same people wouldn't blink if an '02 F-250 gasser went by pulling same trailer. I'd rather have the new tech, even if (to Shawn's comment above) I do have to keep her at 4k RPM to do it. Once you get used to cruising in 7th instead of 10th, it ain't so bad!

budget_bandit
budget_bandit Reader
9/5/24 9:18 a.m.

In reply to Antihero :

crying the misplaced confidence is real....that car will be struggling to get into the 13's!

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
9/5/24 9:23 a.m.

In reply to budget_bandit :

The baddest thing you could buy from Detroit in 1981 was the Turbo T/A.

210hp, 345 lb-ft of torque. 3.08 gears, 3800 and change lbs. mid 14's in the quarter mile.

I remember that a Pontiac Vibe would do it in the 13s.

06HHR (Forum Supporter)
06HHR (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
9/5/24 11:42 a.m.

In reply to ShawnG :

My uncle had an 80 Indy pace car turbo T/A, we thought that thing was the fastest car on wheels.  It would struggle to keep up with a 2001 Sedan DeVille (nee DTS) much less a modern Camry.  Damn if it didn't look cool and sound awesome though. 

EDIT: I had a 1997 Formula Firebird, LT1 with the 4L60-E, from a dig it would struggle to keep up with the big Caddy, although it would smoke it on the top end.  (I think I had a 2.73 rear gear, would do 150+ if you had enough room though)  either way, before I sold it in 2006 I was wary of Accord and Camry V6's and conducted myself accordingly.  It still felt fast though, and it made those sweet V8 rumbly noises.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a43619088/1980-pontiac-firebird-turbo-trans-am-by-the-numbers/

Antihero
Antihero PowerDork
9/5/24 11:47 a.m.
budget_bandit said:

In reply to Antihero :

crying the misplaced confidence is real....that car will be struggling to get into the 13's!

It was a strange conversation, it's like he saw 2 girls and wanted to brag and picked the wrong crowd.

I mean, there are Camrys out there with more power (barely) than that nowadays.

 

I don't think he really knew much because he was mostly excited about the color he picked and when the wife showed him a pic of the Rampage, he seemed to have no idea who this Shelby guy was and why anyone would care.

 

I'd have to find the Challenge results, but I'm fairly certain the Rampage is faster too 

Antihero
Antihero PowerDork
9/5/24 11:50 a.m.
ShawnG said:

3800 lbs

No, it will be a slug by modern standards.

People don't understand that HP is torque x rpm.

Want to post high HP numbers? Spin it faster. A SBC can do that.

Want to impress me? Big torque that comes on around 1500 rpm and stays there to redline.

3800lbs and 300hp isn't much, definitely not a lot to brag about.

Her base '13 Golf might actually be faster really.

 

I really don't think he realized how much is needed to get from 14ish to 10ish really 

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
9/5/24 12:55 p.m.

In reply to Antihero :

A second is a LONG time in drag racing.

budget_bandit
budget_bandit Reader
9/5/24 1:02 p.m.

In reply to Antihero :

the sloppy LS guys make 500+ at the tire and run in the 10s for the most part...300 from your "hot small block" isn't gonna cut it lol

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
9/5/24 1:31 p.m.

A 300hp SBC in a 2nd Gen Camaro will make fun noises and that's about it. Might be good for mid-15's in the 1/4 if they can drive. Being a regular late 2nd Gen Camaro (and not a Z28) and being "that guy" means he's probably got a hold of an 80's 2-bolt truck engine with a smattering of Autozone chrome aisle accessories and MAYBE an Edelbrock Performer intake sitting on top, all while retaining the stock 2.41 ratio open diff rear end. I've seen "that guy" at the track get walked by first timers in their mom's Accord. 

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
9/5/24 1:40 p.m.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Yeah my Fox body sounds awesome and I will eventually get it to 300hp.

At that point it will just keep up with an ND Miata down the straights.

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