Fun in Wife's Minivan
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 24
From: Manchester, CT
Fun in Wife's Minivan
I've been driving my '91 SHO daily, but the other day in the rain I drove my wife from CT to NJ in her '06 Grand Caravan. On on entrance ramp, there was a newer Mini behind us. He didn't suspect my MiniVan had a slightly modded suspension...
Needless to say, not only did I pull away in the corner, but I nailed it to get ahead of merging traffic and left the Mini far behind!
Other Mini stories:
My winter driver is an '01 Dodge Stratus ES V6/Autostick (192K miles on it). The Summer tires are the old summer tires from my SHO, Sport T/A 215/55-16's. In my work parking lot is a Cooper S, and he heads home the same way I go. He has yet to out corner me, and he's about the same 0-60 as me.
The only time I autocrossed the SHO and there was a Mini-S there, I beat him every run, in spite of him having a separate set of rims/tires and me on the Sport T/A's. I've now switched to another tire 225/55-16, but have yet to AutoX it in 2012.
Other items:
Rented a new Camaro V6 in the Spring of 2010 with Paddle Shifters (been a while since I've been on the board - working 60+ hours/week these many months!). Anyone know why when you downshift the friggin' thing goes to neutral for 2 seconds THEN downshifts? Scared the crap out of me when going into a corner hot! Liked the car, neutral in the corners, even pulled a 4-wheel slide once, decent performance with all the gears helping out. Rear visibility is worse than a 2009 Mustang I rented or the '78 Camaro I owned, but the side mirrors kind of made up for it.
TankII
'91 SHO+, 225K miles
'01 Stratus ES 192K miles
'06 Grand Caravan SXT 129K miles
And no car payments!
Needless to say, not only did I pull away in the corner, but I nailed it to get ahead of merging traffic and left the Mini far behind!
Other Mini stories:
My winter driver is an '01 Dodge Stratus ES V6/Autostick (192K miles on it). The Summer tires are the old summer tires from my SHO, Sport T/A 215/55-16's. In my work parking lot is a Cooper S, and he heads home the same way I go. He has yet to out corner me, and he's about the same 0-60 as me.
The only time I autocrossed the SHO and there was a Mini-S there, I beat him every run, in spite of him having a separate set of rims/tires and me on the Sport T/A's. I've now switched to another tire 225/55-16, but have yet to AutoX it in 2012.
Other items:
Rented a new Camaro V6 in the Spring of 2010 with Paddle Shifters (been a while since I've been on the board - working 60+ hours/week these many months!). Anyone know why when you downshift the friggin' thing goes to neutral for 2 seconds THEN downshifts? Scared the crap out of me when going into a corner hot! Liked the car, neutral in the corners, even pulled a 4-wheel slide once, decent performance with all the gears helping out. Rear visibility is worse than a 2009 Mustang I rented or the '78 Camaro I owned, but the side mirrors kind of made up for it.
TankII
'91 SHO+, 225K miles
'01 Stratus ES 192K miles
'06 Grand Caravan SXT 129K miles
And no car payments!
Registered User
Joined: Nov 1998
Posts: 11
From: Milledgeville, GA
Re: Fun in Wife's Minivan
I think it's more fun doing it in a car that isn't supposed to be able to hustle.
On Youtube I recently saw a turbo 2000s-era Town Car that runs deep 11s. That's got to be a blast to drive on the street.
On Youtube I recently saw a turbo 2000s-era Town Car that runs deep 11s. That's got to be a blast to drive on the street.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 40
Re: Fun in Wife's Minivan
My wife's 2010 Mazda CX9 AWD weighs around 4500 lbs but that thing will haul A**!!!. I love driving it. Ive ran a car or two( mostly tuners) that got a huge surprise when this 7 passenger SUV left it standing. These new SUVs and minivans actually have some power for what they are. So the old saying" don't judge a book by its cover" is very true now days.
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