JakeRobb

Last Friday (8/12), I was driving across the state on the highway. Along the way, I passed at least ten Talons, Eclipses, etc. A quick bit of research indicates that they were having a track event that weekend.

I've had my Z28 for about three weeks now, and I thought it would be fun to play around. A driver in a red car (can't remember which model, and I don't know DSM model years) flipped me off as I went by, but I'm a good sport so I just grinned at him and revved the engine as I rolled past.

I kept driving past the group, and one guy in a red Talon (Michigan license plate "ILL EGL") made it pretty obvious that he wanted to race. So, from 70mph, I pulled third. He was maybe 30 feet behind me (no room for us to be side-by-side), and by the time we were at 90mph and I was going for 4th, he was right on my ***. His car was obviously a lot faster than mine. I was coming up on traffic, and with him so close, I didn't want to hit the brakes hard, so I let off at that point.

I had about 300 pounds of stuff in the car (I moved last weekend), but I don't think that would have made enough difference. Nothing went wrong on my car, and I'm making no excuses. The Talon was strong, and he earned my respect. He didn't do anything stupid like cut me off and put on his hazards.

So I went to dsmtuners.com, which is a major forum site for Eclipses, Talons, and Lasers. I signed up and posted a topic describing what happened and asking who the guy was. I wanted to give him props for a surprisingly fast car, and I'm curious about his mods.

After posting, I did some searching, and found some pretty strong evidence that one of their members is indeed the owner of the car in question. Not positive confirmation, but the guy lives in the right city, owns the right car, and mentioned the text of his custom plate in a topic about custom plates.

Next thing I know, a moderator from those forums posts this:

"Welcome to DSMtuners. We do not street race here, nor have conversations about it."

And then he locked the topic, thus blocking me from giving proper credit to the guy.

So, apparently, the people in charge of those forums are in denial. Just thought I'd share my story and point out the oddity.

-Jake

myslowcamaro

they must also handle the britney spears website. shes still a virgin on their i imagine.

Mikie

Alot of forums have police that browse these sites and it probably looked suspicious that you were looking for him.
They probably thought you were trying to proposition a race to entrap or find out thier racing spots.
There was this one local Charlotte site called www.undergroundracing.net
a while back that got busted from the cops posing as potential street racers and talking smack to get the racers to commit to a place and time.

80TA

There are freakin fast dsms out there just like there are freakin fast f bodies. Bone stock they are pretty slow..bone stock meaning just stock boost and stock turbo. But easy to crank up even the stock turbos to around 300 hp or so and they are fairly light..the awd are around the 3100 mark the fwd are several hundred pounds lighter. I got low 15s out of my bone stock ,stock boost 97 talon awd ,I got like 16s out of an auto turbo 96 that I test drove and tazzoed.Its like a gtech. But with some mods on my 92 awd turbo it got low 14s pretty easily about as fast as an stock lt1 cars.
To really get these things to scream you need to do a bit more than raise the factory boost level. You need to go bigger pump,bigger injectors,add front mount intercoolers,do exhaust,intake stuff. And usually to be fast they need to be run on race gas for max boost and speed.
Now once you start going to big aftermarket turbos the power they can make with supporting mods goes way way up there with 400 ,500 even 600 whp being possible .The engines are very strong.Trannies are so so kind of weak and the rears in some years is strong but was weak in 90 to 91 cars.

And if I sound like I know what I am talking about I have had and still have dsms. I also have always been an f body guy and plan on continued to have fun with both. Drive a turbo awd dsm if you get the chance or a turbo awd subaru even. Heck even a turbo fwd car can be lots of fun. Awd has the advantage of being fast in bad weather and makes a great all season driver.

And if it means much the fastest street car comp in our area in the import class had a talon running 11.8 at 126mph. Track is at 1700 feet altitude.
Buddies 413rwhp 99 SS on nittos only managed low 12.2 or so at like 116mph with a 2.08 60ft think it was..talon had like a 2.0 60ft as that one was fwd but running drag tires. They can be made very fast and its not really that expensive or hard to do it.

Joe 1320

Until they start breaking parts. DSM eats parts, period. Don't bother asking how I know...... let's just say been there, done that, got the t-shirt, returned it for a refund.

Patrick kelly

i'll let him know...

or try here
http://wishihadatalon.proboards33.com

80TA

The dsm are not great for hardcore quartermile racing at big power over 400whp without getting things like better manual tranny but the engines are very tough ,of course quality forged parts around 800 US for good forged pistons and rods are good insurance. The 4 bolt rear ends found from 92 on are quite strong ,especially when compared to the weaker 3 bolts found in the 90 to 91 cars.
Our fourth gens have pos rears and pretty weak auto trannies. Our engines are decently tough but also failure prone when put under boost or nitrous due to having hyercrap pistons. I have several souvenirs of buddies f body
pistons from blower and turbo application.
I have not had very many problem reliabiltiy wise with my 96,97 or 99 tas or my 96z28. I had little problems with my 92 talon either. Most common is belt breakage from improper installation of it or failure to replace it or the balance belt or tensioners at the proper service interval. Being an interference engine
valves hit pistons on the dsm when the timing belt breaks.! Not good thing.

But the dsm can be a bit more high maintenance but would hardly call them
unreliable. I know lots of them many with quite high mileage still running great.
My 92 had over 130,000 miles and ran great.

JBird33

I think most of the problems with our motors being "failure prone" when being put under boost is the fact that they have 10.5:1 stock compression and everyone who gets forced induction can't resist the urge to turn the boost up.

And yes, DSMs are unreliable. I have more than enough experience to vouch for that.

80TA

Well hear the fourth gens are unreliable too..window motors suck..headlight motors suck..optisparks are crap,intake manifold leaks in the lt1, glass rear ends in the fourth gens..
Whatever..I love my fourth gens most days and my talon as much or more than my fourth gen and I have had several dsms and so have other people I know.
So what is the big unreliable thing on them..Be a bit more specific..
yes the timing belts break if you don't change them as specified and sometimes sooner from balance shaft hitting it or improper installation.
Yes the trannies don't like to be powershifted and do tend to break much past 400 HP. The engines are plenty tough and the 4 bolt rear ends are pretty strong..Spiders can break in the transfer cases..
But whatever.. I will keep driving my unreliable talon..and according to some people POS f bodies..and they can have their reliable honda and toyotas or whatever..

John M

Neither a DSM nor an F-body can have a "gas and oil only" kind of maintanance schedule if you mod it. However, I couldn't imagine owning a car without a personality -- without a soul. So what if the guys at AutoZone know me like family. I'm a car guy dammit! Even if the car was running fine I'd still be tinkering. It's what I do.

Silvershark

dsm's = damn stinking motor vehicle.

My old 91 AWD TSI talon was broken more than I drove it. I mean that literally. I owned it for a year and it was on stands more times than I can think of.

It had Supra intercooler, a Big 16G tubro, 255pump, bigger injectors, and 18psi of boost. That car was by far the worst car I have ever owned for modifications and reliability. If they are kept stock they are extremely reliable.

80TA

I had a 92 talon awd and put big mods on it. And had it for a couple years.
I did basic maintenance stuff and a bit more when I got it. Put in some new knock,o2 sensors and new tps sensor and the car had 130,000 miles on the clock and speedo cable was broken when I bought it so could have had quite a bit more than that.
I put huge turbo on it,new injectors,fuel pump ,adjusable fuel pressure reg to support the big turbo,new exh man,new o2 housing with higher flo.
The only problems I had was the driveshaft rubber steady bearings were worn out,the alternator died on me and a wheel bearing went and took out some of the rear end stuff.
The car was easy to work on and most parts for them are easily available off boards and there are lots of big dsm boards and quite a few of the first gen
dsms out there for parts now. Other than that the car ran great and have several other guys with them that have good luck with them.
Many break from things like neglecting to change the timing belt when specified,from the balance belt breaking and hitting the timing belt, and lots from neglect and abuse. Many are owned by young guys that drive complete hell out of them,who up the boost without support and tuning and who powershift and wreck the synchros.
I loved my 92 and only sold it to move up to a 97 talon awd tsi. I think the reliability thing on the dsm is not highly exaggerated but if you can't or won't work on your own cars and are stupid enough to go to the dodge or mits dealerships and buy parts at full retail then yes they can eat a big hole in your wallet.
Of course they also will break more when highly modded up. You can expect to maybe have to buy stronger trans, etc.The motors even stock are actually very tough and will take over 400 whp usually easily. The rear ends in the 92 or so are much stronger than the weak 90 to 91. You can swap a stronger rear into the 90 /91 cars. The six bolt earlier engine is also the better one and can be swapped also into the late 92 and later cars.

Anyway I would rather own a dsm than many many other supposedly more reliable but gutless cars..hondas,toyotas,nissans etc. And there were not many cars that would touch my talon awd off the lights .Buddy had several subarus and while supposedly very high quality and reliable he has spent fortunes on those subarus and they are not easy to work on at all . Dealership time with those and big buck bills.


So not sure what went wrong on your car Silvershark. Even when timing belt breaks usually just put in some new valves and good to go. I can take a head off easily in an afternoon. They are not hard to work on.

Silvershark

I am by no means a rookie to cars. I rebuilt my current car motor, replaced clutch etc... My fbody should be around 420rwhp. Car specs are in my signature.

My talon was just a piece of junk. I drive my cars like I stole them. It's no fun if you cant drive it like it was built to be driven. My talon had bad oil leaks when I got it so the stock turbo went out when I first bought it due to the owner previously not checking the oil. I then replaced it with a Big 16G turbo, did all the work myself bigger injectors, SAFC, Supra Intercooler, Manual boost gauge, dsmlink... I had all the tools, the tranny's on them cars are just glass.... My synchro's got so bad I had to replace the tranny twice that I owned it. I was also running a spec stage 3 on it? Maybe it was a different manufacturer. I just remember it was stage 3. It's been 3 years.

The car would always just break down on the side of the road due to popping fuses, electrical problems, electrical problems and more electrical problems. I may have had a bad experience with that particular car and just be bias'ed.

My website was www.mydsmsucks.com Lol! I had pictures of where mitsubishi installed my oil filter... they didnt take out the old filter correctly so when they put the new one on it didnt fit all the way. Needless to say at 18psi at boost driving it like you stole it, I blew the oil filter completely out of the housing. I had to have their company due the $1,200 dollars in labor for free due to their idiot mechanics.

It just seemed that car was always on jack stands.

80TA

What year did you have..? I guess you had a lemon for sure as when I checked warranty on my 92 with 130,000 miles it did't get any warranty work at all. I had zero problems except alt dying and no electrical although the ecu can short out from capacitators leaking. My tranny worked fine but wasnt overly hard on it although did have a bit turbo. I don't slam the shifter like an old muscle car so maybe thats why it survived don't know.
I did blow a coolant hose and have to get it flatbedded but that was just age of the hose and shut the engine down soon enough to not hurt anything.
My original old 14 b turbo was working fine.. I guess thats why I bought a 97 but it is down right now. Not sure if spun a bearing was doing back to back tazzo runs a few days before it happened but at stock boost no mods.
I am just throwing in a forged 2.4 engine now and not worried about the 2.0 7 bolt. Its a six bolt 2.4.

Patrick kelly

you'll love the tq. you get from the 4g64 (i know i do)