[quote]Originally posted by Jim Nowak:
<strong>I drove many Eclipse turbo's, sold a bunch too, and none of them could do more than 140 mph and at that speed they were not very stable. After 100 mph, you should leave them in a virtual standstill.
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I'll drink to that!!! Considering I'm a 944 NA owner and doing that same thing!!!

 

I know of some(Eclipse) that run well into the 11s in the 1/4, but all of those also do not do much over 140-150, of course they are all far from stock and have a habbit of destroying transmissions. For some reason I think they would put up a damn good fight against any NA Porsche up to 130 or so.

 

Guys,

Do keep in mind that today's "state of the shelf" is light-years ahead of 25 year old "state of the art". If you have any doubts, go see what kind of horsepower people are reliably getting out of 3L sixes. Or what BMW and MB get out of smallish ~4.7L V-8 motors.

Read the import tuner mags, filter out the hype and BS (just like you should when you read "excellence") and you'll find more than a few cars that will eat a 928 for breakfast in many scenarios. Drive some of those cars. Some of them are actually quite good.

If the platform is solid, all you need is money and you too can have a car that exceeds the capabilities of most roads and most drivers. And if you own a car that company "x" built 50,000 of every year, somebody else has figured out how to make money selling you parts to make it go faster.

I love my 928. I don't want a Supra/WRX/Vette. I like not seeing a car just like mine every 10 minutes ('vettes every 5 minutes). I love the balance of performance, comfort and practicality.

But I also know that in a straight line, from 0-howeverfast, it is all about $ and technology. The more you spend, the faster you go. There was a point in time when that ability to build speed was held in the hallowed halls of Porsche, Ferrari, etc. Mere mortals with Hondas and Toyota street cars need not apply. That time is over. The democratization of HP/brakes/suspension happened. Any good teenage motorhead can do some research, order parts over the web, and build a 302 Ford, 350 Chevy, or Turbo Supra that would make a Porsche engineer from the 70's green with envy. Just like computers, today's cutting edge tech will be tomorrow's "well, it was great back in the day".

Our 928s were way ahead of their time. With a little tuning, they can keep up with the times. (Which is truly amazing if you think about it. It would take a lot to make a 'vette designed in the early 70s competitive, eh?) But really, there's a world full of cars that can keep up in a straight line. Or even, (heresy), pull ahead. At least for a while, anyway.

Greg

 

Greg,


I completely agree! <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />


I'm doing most of my mods to keep up with the newer AMG supercharged Mercedes', Z06's, Vipers, and Aaron's rice friends.
Yes, the mods are very expensive but then again good quality mods are expensive on any car. Chevy mods are cheaper than Porsche mods but each engine can be made to produce a whole hell-of-a-lot of hp. Money is the determining factor in making any engine perform much better than its original design.


Jim Nowak <img src="graemlins/burnout.gif" border="0" alt="[burnout]" />

 

And Greg nails it. So true - yet so wonderful that we love (to the point of obsession) our 928s for reasons other than techno-mobile competition.

I sold my GS-R, and my Supra, and my 240SX. I will never sell the 928.

The visceral feel, the warmth and the humanity that comes from this rare, beautiful, well-engineered gem is a gift.

The more grease under your nails and the more hours spent under the hood, the stronger the bond. If that time is spent trying to increase performance, all the better. It's an engine, after all, and it can be tweaked, prodded, and improved.

But short of building ourselves a White Car, we won't compete with the twin-turboed Supras of the world. This, I think, is quite alright.

Few gaze lustily at an Accord, or wake up in the middle of the night just to look outside and make sure that yes, you actually do own a Subaru.

I've done both, moved by the soul of the 928.

Make it go faster, make it handle better - it's part of the quest. End of the day, it'll still be a 928, and that's more than any of the current crop of import rockets can ever say, even if they turn sub-10 sec. quarters.

Man, I'm all misty now...

 

Oh man, now I did it and got myself associated with the ricer crowd I think that is worse than being associated with the Mustang crowd, which I am part of to some extent even though they seem to look at us "turbo mouths" as the black sheep ...

 

Sorry Aaron for the Rice seed. Didn't mean to plant that one. There is a bond with our cars as some of you put so well. Crossed the path of another 928S this afternoon. Seen him at almost a 1/4 mile. Each of us waved and smiled (no ricer gang sign or nothing) just a hey buddy nice car.
After 11 years with my car, I can say you better come packin if you want to run down the road ahead of me. Maybe my 78 is pumpin more than advertised.

 

Every couple of weeks I will see two other 928s on the road while heading to work. No waves, however with one we are going opposite directions on the freeway and the other I usually see cross a street in front of me. I do drive by someone's house who is on the mailing list here every morning and see his red 928GT sitting out there.

Joe, perhaps it is putting out more or perhaps you do not come across a lot of highly modified cars like I seem to, of course those also are the only ones that ever try to do anything racing wise on the street with my 928. I have been driving my car off and on for 11 years, been my daily driver for a couple now, before that my mother drove it daily I just grabbed it from her when she switched to a new car since I did not want to see it get sold to a stranger. My big problem is I came from driving a car making close to 500rwhp to the 928 so I am just used to tons more power on tap, I got spoiled