Kaz

Car got lots of compliments at the 76 gas station leaving Newport Beach around 1:30 AM.. Had an uneventful hard run between the OC and LA holding speed between 95 to 100mph. Towards the end of that run the owner of what seemed to be a heavily modified Subura STI entered the freeway, spotted me and sized me up for the kill. I slowed a bit but not too much since that car is pretty light. I heard his turbo spool, I dropped the hammer and that was that. To the top of third was a strong pull, 4th gear was ugly.

drnick

i get to about 125mph in 3rd in my 86, what did the sti top out at??!

Garth S

Kaz - for shame, for shame! - picking on a poor 'little STI, thrashing it, and then using it to wipe the butt of your nasty S4
Don't mind me, it's just a case of WOT envy - as it's snowing here and the cars are two weeks into hibernation ....

chaadster

I hear ya', Garth! I hate having my car garaged, especially since this is my first winter with my first 928. I'm so tempted when the roads are dry--we haven't really gotten anything more than a dusting of snow--but the road crews have been salting, so the dust is still out there and it's still corrosive, so I wait. I suppose I should be happy for saving on insurance, too....

Kaz, how did that STI fare? I'd have thought they'd be pretty quick on the top gear jump from 90-120 or so. Wasn't a WRX, eh?

Kaz

Nick, I never looked at the speedo! I was watching the road, tach and him. Since I was shifting manually, I glanced down to see where I was in relation to redline, held it about a grand shy for a second. I glanced in my right mirror for the STI, saw that he was still trying (highway was clear) and then went to fourth and pulled for maybe another 2 seconds before shutting down.

We went from the 405North to the 10East, he pulled alongside and just looked at the car. Freeway was still relatively clear, I went back to third and chivarously held out my hand to give him a length and a half or so. He shook his head no and smiled, the guy was definately cool. I just don't think he knew what to expect with an old 928. Had I been in my stock Audi S4 I would've had a lot of problems with him, but then again he'd have probably left me alone in the first place.

Chad my experience with the STIs in the canyons and freeway is they are great between a dead stop and 120mph or so. Even going from 80 to 120 but they just run out of steam. The Mitsubishi Evo is even worse, it has nothing north of 110mph it seems.

I can't speak for what gear this guy started in only that he declined on the second go around when he would clearly have his preferred gear choice. Based on the first go I actually let my speed fall on the second attempt to about 60mph or so as I was sure I could reel him in should the car jump more than anticipated. He left it alone, so I left it alone.

IcemanG17

Years ago a friend of mine had a heavily modified Eagle Talon Tsi AWD...bigger turbo + lots of other stuff = about a 12.8 1/4 (in 1994) so it was quick, but gearing was its weakness....145mph @7000 rpm & 22psi is scary...the car was strong right up to about 140...but just isn't geared for top end....& Talons (Eclispe) are fairly aerodynamic...an Evo (same engine) or Sti would be worse at high speeds...

Kevin Michael

kaz,
what luck! i can't even get one to play! i think since i installed the rmb with the cat bypass chaadster sold me, i think the sound scares most of em' off.
kevin

Gretch

You guys really should pick on grown up cars.......Gretch munches on corvetts as her favorite snack food....

I will admitt to taking on a WRX once with my 996 C4.....I was surprised how quick the subie was, but it runs out of lungs at anything over about 120.......

mspiegle

that's pretty good... those STi's aren't slow. I took one from a slow roll (20-30mph) up to around 80-100.. and he wasn't too far behind me.

mark kibort

How do you get 125 in 3rd? The S4 or (Like) transmissions top out at 115 or so in 3rd, and about 150ish in 4th.

anyway, dont get too caught up in the gear ratio differences as its mainly a factor of the closeness of the ratios. most all street cars are pretty close in ratio closeness, even 6speeds like the vet. generally, you get a 1.3/77% drop from gear to gear. Its really about ave hp of the car you are racing and its weight. our cars are great in 3rd gear and 4th gear as long as the race is to 150mph. if its to 125, certainly there are other cars that have 125 as a max speed/rpm in 4th gear. this is a tough target speed for a 928 , unless you have a GT or 79 gear box, or make the S4 engine rev to 7000rpm.

take your target speed of the battle and hope you can get to redline. otherwise, you are leaving power on the table.

as far as the STI or WRX, whatever, these cars are 300hp and are probably as aerodynamic as our 928s, as we are not as aero as we would first seem.

mk

blau928

Hey MK...

Ummmm, I've seen 145 +/-5 indicated on my speedo at the 6,200 +/- 100 in 3rd gear on my 4spd auto... Well, I won't mention bumping any limiter as a reason for looking at the gauges, but unless the speedo is wrong, I'd say totally possible... Um the 4th gear does go to 160+, but it takes a bit to get there, and the car won't redline, as it runs out of grunt...

With that said, I'm thinking that if you have about 345-350hp at the crank (my dyno of 270-275), you could get to redline the 3rd gear no problem... 4th gear, I'm thinking you may need about 450 hp at the flywheelto redline the Auto due to the 2.2 rear ratio like I have...

Hmmmm... Now I wonder if you put an overdrive say 28% with that 2.2 rear, auto trans, and crank up the power to say 500-550 at the crank.... How fast will the sled get to then....? Hmmmm... me thinks I need to calculate....

mark kibort

Operative word is "auto". didnt think that maybe it could have been an auto. if so, the spacing is worse, and that gives the 5-6 speed a big advantage. also, i would think that 3rd in the auto would be close to 4th in the manual.(a guess) have to look at the spec. the rear end is only a factor (ie 2.2;1) but the real information is in the ratio numbers for the auto. so, 2.22 is no real hinderance to top speed, as it really dependson the target top speed. (heck, with my car, they did clock over 180mph at Nardo in mostly stock form with close to 285 at the wheels )
Right now, a 2.2:1 S4 trannie could fetch 210mph at redline, and a 28% further overdrive would catch 278mph. but you better bring 1000hp or more to reach that! the devek car has already reached the 210 mark with their 500+hp white car. so, it looks like the S4 2.2 trannie ratios are perfect for that run and target speed. however, at Road America, i hit 6400rpm on 3 of the long straights which is 155mph (approx) in 4th gear. had my race required any more speed, i would hope i had an engine build for higher rpms and the hp to get to them in 4th. a longer track like the nurburgring, would require a shift to 5th, where you get a 50% drop in rpms and torque. racing anyone that doesnt have that unfair drop, would result in a big acceleration disadvantage. In othewords, in racing, S4 5th gears are USLESS, however, good for the drive home. in open road track events, they are actually just a little less than optimum, but do save the engine from running at 160-170mph at redline as you would have to run with a GT or GTS.

mk

drnick

mark, like richard said!

speaking of fast cars, i overtook a bentley continental GT the other day and the driver decided to 'flex his muscle' - might have something to do with the blond sitting next to him - anyway, that thing really had some shove. it literaly picked up and shifted down the road like everything else was standing still!

chaadster

Hey Kevin,

Did you get some playtime in with that exhaust setup before the snow came down? Whaddya think?

Oh, if you roll around on 1/4 throttle or less, you can sneak up on 'em, then go WOT and really scare the bejeebers out of 'em!!

heinrich

Seems you guys are on the ball with this one ... a long time ago when I posted that I had had no problem staying with a WRXX STi, one of the locals seemed to have a real problem believing me.

Good job ... it's so fun, isn't it? I came up against a brand new GTO this weekend. Very interesting "overboost" sound to the car. He kept up with my '85 but certainly wasn't able to trounce her ....


Heinrich