Alright here's the setup:

I've got the graveyard shift at work an it's around midnight so I'm closing up. A friend and his buddy come in and we chat it up for a while, I lock up and as we're walking out to the parking lot I see a brand new black 6 speed Saab 9-3 Vector parked right next to my black Formula. It's a sweet looking car for sure, but it's no dragster.

Anyway the guy proceeds to tell me how he was neck and neck with a new body style Mustang GT just a few hours before and that he was sure he could take my car. I of course got a little offended by this and said "That's a hell of a nice car but it's not meant to drag race. You name the place, time, conditions, speed, and you even take the jump and I'm pretty sure that I'll handily walk you."

Guaranteed every non car guy that drives a turbo car thinks it's the fastest thing in the world, but I rode along with him and it definately isn't. Anyone had any experience with one of these? How bad will I put the hurt on him?

For reference- I have a 94 Formula that trapped 97mph in 100* weather on a 2.4 60 ft (Yes I can't launch, and yes I picked the worst day to go to the track)

 

IF he's stock, you will absolutely wax his ***, regardless of whether you can drive or not. That thing (stock) is a mid to high 15 second car, running LOW 90 mile/hour trap speeds.

Turbo's will often give people an inflated sense of how fast their car is (or isn't) because of the "kick in the pants" feeling. Similar to how LT1 guys "felt" that the LS1 wasn't any faster than the LT1, because it didn't "feel" any faster. We all know that isn't how it goes down in the real world, despite how the butt-dyno responds.

BTW, a true Graveyard shift doesn't close up at midnight. My brother works graveyard shifts at a nuke plant (same place as me) and his hours are 11:00 pm until 7:00 am. Now THATS the graveyard shift.

 

Yeah, i have a friend with a turbo II rx7, and he kept saying that once i got my car he would run me up and down the street, but once i got it he wouldn't dare race me.

 

BAH! Own him...

 

You're thinking of the Saab 9-2x which shares the same chassis/powertrain as the WRX. Saab bought the rights to use it

 

GM owns Saab, and is part owner of Subaru. The new Saabs are also called the Saaburu's

Take the WRX, put a Saab name on it, get rid of it's "boy racer" looks and give it an upscale Euro look and you have the 9-2.

So how did the race turn out?

 

Hasn't happened yet...I'm getting the "ricer backpeddle"

He's now saying that he'll race me after he gets his intake and chip. I said, " Why don't we just do it now and I'll race you with my a/c on"

He didn't like that.

 

Well it finally went down...I put two cars on him by the end of the intersection and when we shut down it was buslengths. He gave the usual "I had no traction", "it was uphill" arguments and said that we should go from 60. I said, you name the time I'm there.

Another race tonight too, a black STi with turbo back, fmic, and upgraded turbo. I hung right with him

No joke neither of us gained any ground up until we shut down at about 100.

I was blown away by my basically stock LT1's performance

 

Nice runs!

 

Its not that fast but its a fun car to drive, I woudln't mind having one

drove one at autoshow in motion with the paddle shifters, but like you said no dragster.

 

What kind of modified STi's are you racing that can't beat a "basically stock" LT1? With those mods it should trap at a minimum of 110 mph which should leave you in the next zip code.

 

good run!

 

I know man! But I heard him blowing off and banging gears right next to me. Either his turbo is so big that it takes him ten minutes to get into boost or he had some masonry in the trunk but I'm just as dumbfounded as you are.