Originally posted by Manaray
Just a few hours ago, my homie and I took his WRX out for a spin...

Originally posted by Manaray
Dr. Rick - Hehehe..yes, I have homies...you think I'm some rich kid from Beverly Hills or something?

Speaking of my homie, he just put some 18" Prodrive's on his WRX and it looks very nice...he's going to get some coilovers now (probably Tein SS Coilovers)...

I can't wait to track that thing! I love getting a sick 4 wheel drift through the turns...hopefully, we can salvage his motorcycle on-board video camera system...

Speaking of tracks, anyone who likes to "drive" (like Canyon runs) should DEFINITELY take their car out on a track...no cops, no on coming traffic, so pedestrians, just ***** out racing. You can't beat it....

Here's the times from the last track day I attended...my class (EX...basically, the oddballs!) only had 4 people in it...I was the only one who had never been on that track before...I think I did ok...

Bone stock on OEM tires (the ones that came on my 16" GS wheels!)...hehheheh...stock brakes too (man they SUCK ***!)...I give that girl in the EK civic some MAD props for cutting up with the guys...

Originally posted by Manaray
I would LOVE to do Nurnburgring...I mean ABSOLUTELY love it...but I would have to do it in a Porsche...being in Germany and all (I'll take a GT2...)

Next time I visit Germany, I'm going to rent something decent and drive Nurnburgring as many times as I can before they kick me off or I run out of toll money...

The last street race I was in before this was in Albuquerque. Out here in Gaithersburg, I just don't have much need. I get to rag on cars for a living, and have had more than my fair share of high speed "tuning runs" so I try to keep a very low profile when I am driving my car because I know I am due for another ticket.

Anyway I am leaving work the other day. Totally pissed off that I have to yank this motor again and throw some cams in to really make the setup work as planned. At the time I was fresh off the dyno and disappointed with my 17psi numbers (345ft/lbs 305hp)

To recap we (Turboxs) installed an EJ20/25 hybrid motor in my car as a development project. Who doesn't want another .5L of displacement? We used stock EJ20 heads that had been port matched; just cleaned up really, because we wanted to see what would happen.

You always know that when you do something for development that it takes some time to get things totally right, but I really expected that even though the stock cams were pretty sad that I’d still be able to do better on low boost like this. Sure the motor is built for 35+ psi of boost, sure I have n2o on the car, sure I can throw in the race gas, but the truth is I was pretty disappointed in the shape of the torque curve.

In any case I was pretty mad and before I left the shop I decided to crank the boost a little to take my frustrations out on the car.

So I stomp on it when I get to the main road going out of the airpark here in Gaithersburg (Turboxs is in the Gaithersburg air-park). 22psi! Wow, that feels good... if 17psi was 345ft/lbs, I have to wonder what 22psi will make on the dyno. Since all you feel is torque, the car feels like a monster. I know it's not all it should be, so I just hammer on it a bit. Shifting a dog box transmission is good for letting you take out your frustrations. There are no syncros to slow you down, and you can literally bang gears as fast as you can move the lever. The is little need in using the clutch.

So I finally get to the main road heading away from the airpark, and while I was feeling a little better, I was still in a sour mood. I mean wouldn't you be pissed if your car only made 300whp on 17psi of boost?

I am sitting at the light looking at my laptop (checking the data-logs of those 22psi runs), when this guy next to me starts revving. I look over and notice that he is driving a new eclipse gt. The guy is giving me all sorts of attention, so I roll the window down and he says, "Do you want to run 'em?"

An interesting question... I mean what’s the point right? My car on 7 psi would blow this guy in his sorry excuse for an eclipse away, but for a second I hesitated. You see, I was a little pissed off that day, and I needed some poor sap to vent on. I looked around, really I did, and I wanted to find some other car that was a bit more worthy to "pick-on." At that moment I was thinking "please God provide me with a vette, a cobra, anything but this POS sitting across from me." Alas, nothing else was around, and I shook my head yes. The guy replies "lets do it from a roll."

Normally I would tell him to bite me. I am firm believer that a race starts at one line and ends when either you cross another line, or on the street, when one car has been totally crushed. Today, however, I just pointed ahead and nodded.

About this time the light changes, and this guy actually takes off kind of hard (for a POS FWD that is missing all the good things about the previous eclipse) spinning his tires and all. I think in his own way he was sort of like a gazelle in the Serengeti. He was jumping up and down just to show the lion that he is athletic and "not worth the chase."

I rolled out of it as best as I can manage with my 6-puck clutch. I shifted to 2nd gear and got next to him at about 3000-3500rpms. In my mind I am already feeling bad about this. I had that same feeling I had in Jr. high when I was with a girl that was well... lets just say she wasn't the greatest thing in gym shorts to look at, but boy was she fun to make out with as long as none of your buddies were looking.

So here we are sitting at 3500rpms and the guy looking at me like he is about to have the race of his life. At this point I almost backed out. I mean there were people around and no one should have to witness this, but alas I guess he had it coming to him. He starts to get all jumpy and I just point ahead. My window is still down, so I yell out "any time you're ready, go for it."

He gets this intense look on his face. He's right up on the steering wheel and then I hear his buzzy exhaust note, which is followed by slight forward progress on his part. For a brief second I was just staring at awe at the power of the 3rd gen eclipse. There it was at all of its glory. This overweight pig of a V6 that even at WOT didn't seem to be able to get out of its own way.

About the time I am at his rear bumper, reality hits, here I am in a race with this punk. In essence I am about to kiss the fat chick... in public. Well, if your going to do that you might as well make it something to remember.

So I slam the gas down, and the car comes up on boost instantly. The whole car starts to go sideways, and I am thinking, crap now I am going to hit the fat chick. I manage to control the car as I am coming up on his door. I look sideways out of my window at him and he gets an ear full of my open external gate. The look on his face is priceless. It was a mix of fear, admiration, and humility.

I get a good car length in front of him and short-shift into 3rd gear. This is the final nail in his coffin; the sound of my rather loud blow-off-valve goes off like a shotgun blast. I let off at the top of 3rd a good a good football field in front of him. In truth I think he let off soon after I shifted into 3rd, but I figure if you going to do it do it right.

After it was all over, I felt surprisingly good. I guess it's useful to vent every now and then. I guess making some solid 300+ at the wheels is not so bad after-all.

Originally posted by Manaray
Hehehe...what is it with NA Eclipse owners? They think they have a VR4 or something!

The more I drive that WRX, the more I like it...I suppose I could upgrade the turbo and then dynamat the doors