turbojimmy
Supporting Member
- Joined
- May 26, 2001
My brother and I headed out to the local auto parts store to pick up some parts for the GN yesterday. I got new upper control arm bushings and a caliper hardware kit to stop the annoying rattling of the brake pads.
On the way out of the lot an early ‘90s 3rd generation Z28 noisily passed by. It was in decent shape (not great though) for a 15+ year old car. The exhaust system was hanging off of it. I was on it like white on rice.
I had solved my fuel delivery problem the day before and hadn’t really had the car out since then. The guy in the Z28 knew what I was up to and hopped on it. I did the same and was able to easily stay on him from about 30 to 60 MPH. We ran into slow moving traffic and slowed down. I was able to get ahead in the left lane and he cut behind me. It was wide open in front of me so I nailed it from about 40 MPH to 75 MPH. Expecting this thing to be a distant memory, I was dismayed to see it stubbornly stay in my rear view mirror. My brother said “dude he’s hanging with you”. Indeed he was. I may have been pulling away verrrrryyyyy slowly but not like I should have. I checked boost: 17 PSI. Alcohol pump at 7 (“drown” mode). I had forgotten that I had turned down the boost and turned up the alcohol to compensate for my fuel delivery problem. Now that I didn’t have a fuel delivery problem it just made the car slow.
As fate would have it, we caught a light side by side. The passenger asks me about the car, complements me on it, etc. The driver did nothing but stare at the traffic light. I was going to ask what was in it, but I figured the answer would be a stock L98, or worse the 305 and it would piss me off. While I was waiting for the green I turned the alcohol way back and spooled the turbo up against the brake.
The MTs bit hard and this time the Z28 was a distant memory by 60 MPH. My brother said it was billowing black smoke so maybe he had some modifications that helped him at the top end but had him bogging at launch? Maybe he had nitrous but ran out at launch and was running rich? Don’t know. He flew by me once I had let up at 60.
My brother commented that my car wasn’t pulling very hard on that roll. I hope it was just my state of tune and not some other problem. A trip to the track will tell for sure.
Jim
On the way out of the lot an early ‘90s 3rd generation Z28 noisily passed by. It was in decent shape (not great though) for a 15+ year old car. The exhaust system was hanging off of it. I was on it like white on rice.
I had solved my fuel delivery problem the day before and hadn’t really had the car out since then. The guy in the Z28 knew what I was up to and hopped on it. I did the same and was able to easily stay on him from about 30 to 60 MPH. We ran into slow moving traffic and slowed down. I was able to get ahead in the left lane and he cut behind me. It was wide open in front of me so I nailed it from about 40 MPH to 75 MPH. Expecting this thing to be a distant memory, I was dismayed to see it stubbornly stay in my rear view mirror. My brother said “dude he’s hanging with you”. Indeed he was. I may have been pulling away verrrrryyyyy slowly but not like I should have. I checked boost: 17 PSI. Alcohol pump at 7 (“drown” mode). I had forgotten that I had turned down the boost and turned up the alcohol to compensate for my fuel delivery problem. Now that I didn’t have a fuel delivery problem it just made the car slow.
As fate would have it, we caught a light side by side. The passenger asks me about the car, complements me on it, etc. The driver did nothing but stare at the traffic light. I was going to ask what was in it, but I figured the answer would be a stock L98, or worse the 305 and it would piss me off. While I was waiting for the green I turned the alcohol way back and spooled the turbo up against the brake.
The MTs bit hard and this time the Z28 was a distant memory by 60 MPH. My brother said it was billowing black smoke so maybe he had some modifications that helped him at the top end but had him bogging at launch? Maybe he had nitrous but ran out at launch and was running rich? Don’t know. He flew by me once I had let up at 60.
My brother commented that my car wasn’t pulling very hard on that roll. I hope it was just my state of tune and not some other problem. A trip to the track will tell for sure.
Jim
