In the wife's 182HP Saturn L300 !!

Still, though - I was surprised.

This little silver Celica w/ the "obligatory" Alltezzas was playing hot rod & weaving out of traffic.

So, I get right behind him at a light and figure I'll show him how what domestic iron is all about.


We are both in the right lane of a 4 lane divided street.

Light turns green - he takes off (as expected) - so do I. I move into the left lane as soon as I pass the poke that was there.

Took me 'til 80 to pull up past his rear bumper !

By that point, the next light was approaching rapidly, and he puts on his turn signal to move over to the left.

I hit the brakes, and let him over.

He & I both turn left onto a street known for cops, so I let him go - if he wants a ticket, that's his business.

Anyway, I was surprised - I figured that he had a 4 banger, and I would have creamed him.

Any thoughts ?

Britt

 

not all 4 bangers are slow

there's 2 models, GT (slow) and GT-S (faster)

gt -140/125
gts - 180/130 (6spd tranny)

 

he had to have been mod'd. i have absolutely destroyed numerous new gts cars when i lived in san francisco- from a dig, from a low-speed roll, from a freeway roll... they ain't all that much stock. now, i have heard that they will turn low 14's with basic mods, although i've never cared enough to go look for time-slips to confirm or deny this.

 

with 182HP saturn, you are lucky if you can pass him at 80 (GTS celica)

with a 300HP f-bod, he does not stand a change

slap a turbo in a celica, with a stock engine, it's still slow

 

the newer celica GTS' are *** slow because in 00 or 01 so many owners mis shifted their cars, toyota made the rev limit BEFORE redline on the newer ones, they're like high 15's low 16s haha

 

My bud has an 02 GTS. They run mid-high 15's

 

A friend of mine has the same year. He has ran a 15.4 at California Speedway with filter, exhaust.

I got to drive it once. Average 4 cyl pull until about 6000 rpm where it hits pretty good till 8000. I did not know about the engine before driving it and thought it had a turbo that kicked in at 6000. He ran another friend of mine in a 89 5.0 that typically runs a 14.0 and hung with him from 80-120. And he smoked me over Carbon canyon, a windy road perfect for auto crossing in the So Cal area.

I was fairly impressed!

 

A 15.4 second car keeps with a 14.0 second car from 80-120? That makes no sense at all. What do both of these cars trap at? He can run this 14.0 second car and we'll see if he can hang from 80 to 120 .

 

It does kinda make sense tho. The GTS's have what honda calls V-TEC.. variable valve timing. The car makes about 80 horsepower until 6000rpm, then it makes 180hp. Its actually a pretty good kick. If I race him in that range from a roll it actually takes some time to walk away. But racing from a stop I Pull about 10 cars instantly. Its a joke.

 

Mustang traps @ 95-96 Celica hits 89-90.


I also find it funny that this same Mustang and I have raced 2 times and split. He traps 4-5 mph lower than me though. With your logic this is not possible. I should own him but his gearing and 5 speed allows him to pull me through 1st then I slowly catch him.

Now the GTS ran that spinning through 1st so it's capable of running a bit quicker. The gts also has to go 4000 rpm after he launches before he hits his peak power. So what if on the freeway the GTS was already in its peak power band and since it is a 6 speed that tops out near 130-140 probably keeps pretty close to his power band at those speeds.

Why would my very competitive mustang friend admit to not being able to pull the Celica. Why would I mention getting owned on the twisties. Why would I brag about a car I don't own (an import). They also raced from a stop several times with me in both cars. When the celica is in it's power band it stops the mustangs pull. But everytime he drops below 6000 the mustang pulls. With me in the Celica the mustang was out about 5-6 lengths. With me in the mustang and the mustang missing missing second gear resulted in a 1.5 car loss to the celica.

Next time you tell me what I saw make sure you are there. Again why would I lie only to be proved wrong when somebody else tries the same race? Think about it Steve.

 

Woah. I am not calling bs. I am not saying you are lying. I am just trying to understand how this car can hang with the Mustang from 80-120 but lose it's *** in a 1/4 mile race.

 

Thanks KeVMan for the explaination. This is exactly what I witnessed.

 

To be honest Steve. I had a hard time believing it. We thought something was wrong with the Stang but turned out to be fine. But it did happen how I explained.

 

I've noticed on more than once occasion that certain lightly modded 5.0s gearing is set up so that they get through the 1/4 rather quickly but then lose steam immediately after. Now obviously in the case above, after hitting 95mph the 1/4 is over for the 5.0 so those numbers get thrown out; from 95-120 his gearing must be set up so that is has no top end pull, while the GTS see's more of it's power at these speeds vs. a dead-stop 1/4 drag where it has to run in the low, no-power-at-all RPMs.

For example, it's kind of the same logic why a well-driven Evo could easily take down a stock LT1 in the 1/4, but racing from a roll would make it a much closer race between the two. There is so much involved in racing that going strictly by the numbers can never quite account for.

 

I like that navy blue metalic, brian. your car is purdy