turbojimmy
Supporting Member
- Joined
- May 26, 2001
- Messages
- 5,560
Even though I complain a lot about my car, what with it leaking every single fluid possible, the valve train rattling and the stupid rich idle (did I mention that it's a new engine, too), it's nice to be reminded of just how quick it can be.
I chased down a later-model Lightning yesterday that I knew wanted to play. I know he saw me - I was first at a red light and he had the green. He made a left onto the highway in my direction, fishtailing it a bit and taking off. When my light turned green I took off as quickly as I could to catch up (during which time I demolished a punk in an old turbo Celica in such a vulgar mismatch of power that it's not even Kill Story worthy). As fate would have it, the Lightning was first at the next light. He was in the right lane and someone was next to him, so I lined up behind him.
When the light turned green he took off hard, but not real hard. In retrospect it was probably to put some distance between him and the first car at the light so I could get in the left lane next to him. I'm just not that smart sometimes and stayed in the right lane behind him. When he saw that I was going to stay behind him, I saw the tail of the truck drop and it was on. Sort of. I went about 3/4 throttle and had to let up to keep from getting Ford all over the front of my Buick. I oscillated the throttle to bounce the nose so he knew I had a lot more. The BOV was actually venting while I stayed glued to his bumper with him at WOT. He let up for a second or two, then the back dropped again. Same thing. I could've easily gone around and passed him up while he was at WOT, but there was no sense in adding insult to injury.
We both slowed to a more reasonable speed and eventually the highway split. He waved, I waved back. As I turned off my drag radials picked up a bunch of crap and scattered it into the wheel wells. I must have spun them at some point to get them hot and sticky. The weird, scary thing about them is you can't hear them spinning. I can never tell that they're spinning until the car starts going in the wrong direction.
So, it's very rare that I get to run up against something even reasonably quick anymore so it was a nice confirmation that, despite the way the car runs at idle, it does what it needs to do off idle. I can't wait to get to the track. Hopefully I can find time this year to get there.
I still need to take the engine back out to seal up the heads and front cover, but I'm going to wait until winter. It's too much fun to drive even with the leaks.
Jim
I chased down a later-model Lightning yesterday that I knew wanted to play. I know he saw me - I was first at a red light and he had the green. He made a left onto the highway in my direction, fishtailing it a bit and taking off. When my light turned green I took off as quickly as I could to catch up (during which time I demolished a punk in an old turbo Celica in such a vulgar mismatch of power that it's not even Kill Story worthy). As fate would have it, the Lightning was first at the next light. He was in the right lane and someone was next to him, so I lined up behind him.
When the light turned green he took off hard, but not real hard. In retrospect it was probably to put some distance between him and the first car at the light so I could get in the left lane next to him. I'm just not that smart sometimes and stayed in the right lane behind him. When he saw that I was going to stay behind him, I saw the tail of the truck drop and it was on. Sort of. I went about 3/4 throttle and had to let up to keep from getting Ford all over the front of my Buick. I oscillated the throttle to bounce the nose so he knew I had a lot more. The BOV was actually venting while I stayed glued to his bumper with him at WOT. He let up for a second or two, then the back dropped again. Same thing. I could've easily gone around and passed him up while he was at WOT, but there was no sense in adding insult to injury.
We both slowed to a more reasonable speed and eventually the highway split. He waved, I waved back. As I turned off my drag radials picked up a bunch of crap and scattered it into the wheel wells. I must have spun them at some point to get them hot and sticky. The weird, scary thing about them is you can't hear them spinning. I can never tell that they're spinning until the car starts going in the wrong direction.
So, it's very rare that I get to run up against something even reasonably quick anymore so it was a nice confirmation that, despite the way the car runs at idle, it does what it needs to do off idle. I can't wait to get to the track. Hopefully I can find time this year to get there.
I still need to take the engine back out to seal up the heads and front cover, but I'm going to wait until winter. It's too much fun to drive even with the leaks.
Jim
