Disclaimer: I do not condone street racing but try to enjoy this story knowing that we were not racing anyone, and both my friend and I have an excellent understanding of the traffic patterns in central NY late at night.
INTRO:
So this weekend I went to visit a college friend who is living north of Itaca, NY (where we went to school). He just bought an 87 Porsche 944 (non-turbo) and wanted me to help him with the car stereo. This kid is notorious for driving fast. If you know the roads in central New York then you know its very hard not to speed.
The whole time I was in the process of buying my car he kept telling me I should buy a sports car. He did not believe me when I told him the P5 handles like a sports car, its just missing a few horses under the hood.
So I show up and he immediatly starts making fun of the fact that its a wagon. Then I take him for a ride and he admits that is a nice ride, really cool interior, and it accelerates close to what his porsche does (the porsche has a 4cyl 150hp engine for reference). Then I take his porsche for a spin. I'm new to the manual tranny so I was a little choppy in his 16 year-old porsche but it accelerated nicely, held the pavement flawlessly, but had some body roll. My P5 revs much higher, and has more low end torque so I had to give it more gas than I was used to to start and had to remember to shift sooner.
THE RIDE:
We spent all saturday working on his system: a fiberglass enclosure for 10" subwoofers in the tire well along with a false floor. (I'll post pictures after next weekend when we're finished) Then we decide to make the 30 minute ride to ithaca for dinner, we didn't get out until like 8:00 though.
Me: I'm driving!
Tim: **** you, I'm driving!
Me: Alright, but I'm driving on the way back
Tim: excellent
Me: BUUUT, we're taking my car.
Tim: awww, alright I guess, but I'm going to drive the way I want.
Me: Keep it under 80, thats my only rule.
So we're on our way, Tim driving and myself sitting shotgun. The entire trip is composed of 55mph back roads with slower marked turns. We get out onto the main road and he guns it which immediatly produces a smile on his face. We hit the first sharp turn (marked 30mph) at about 55 and the car sticks like glue.
Tim: Holy s***.
Me: I told you.
Tim: This car has no body roll!
Me: I know.
...
Me: Yo! Keep it under 80!
Tim: oh, sorry.
So by this time, he has realized that this car can move. The few cars we saw on the road we pass immediately and he stopped slowing down for the turns (which he knew like the back of his hand). He's bouncing between 3rd 4th and 5th like the weekend before when he took his porsche out on the track at Watkins Glenn. I can't describe every turn but one comes to mind. Its a broad right hander on a steep decline followed by an imediate sharp lefthand turn over a 100ft bridge (marked 25mph), a sharp right hand at the end of the bridge, then up a hill with a gradual left-hander.
We are rounding the wide turn at about 65mph, in 4th. A car is coming up the hill so he cuts the wheel a little more and we go into a 4-wheel drift around the remainder of the corner. He drops it into 3rd, whips the wheel to the left, floors it over the bridge, makes the the sharp right no problem, and floors it again to make it up the hill before shifting back into 4th. . .then 5th onto a straight away.
Amazing. By now, my friend has a huge smile on his face and the only word out of his mouth was "damn" . We finish the ride and stop in at Viva for some mexican food. The whole time he wouldnt shut up about how this front wheel drive wagon just showed up his porsche and several other cars he has taken on the same trip. Besides the drift and the following lefthand turn, there was no tire squealing throughout the trip. . .and he was pushing it pretty hard.
THE RIDE BACK.
By the time we finally left Ithaca, it was close to 1:00am. This time I'm driving. I managed to chirp the tires going into 2nd after I took a wrong turn before leaving the city. (I got stuck on autopilot from when I used to work close to where we were). I didn't know the road we were taking but Tim took upon himself to be my copilot. He startd calling off the turns to me "hard right followed by a gradual left"...."over this hill medium left, aim for the other side of the road"...and I managed to match his time on the way back. There were some scary turns that I would have never attempted in any other car.
When we got back he congradualated me and said
"nice choice on this car, real nice, you did your research", to which I replied "I know"
The end.
Next weekend he's coming to MA so we can finish the system. I'm going to take him for a ride through Boston
My territory.
I'll post pictures of his car when its done.
INTRO:
So this weekend I went to visit a college friend who is living north of Itaca, NY (where we went to school). He just bought an 87 Porsche 944 (non-turbo) and wanted me to help him with the car stereo. This kid is notorious for driving fast. If you know the roads in central New York then you know its very hard not to speed.
The whole time I was in the process of buying my car he kept telling me I should buy a sports car. He did not believe me when I told him the P5 handles like a sports car, its just missing a few horses under the hood.
So I show up and he immediatly starts making fun of the fact that its a wagon. Then I take him for a ride and he admits that is a nice ride, really cool interior, and it accelerates close to what his porsche does (the porsche has a 4cyl 150hp engine for reference). Then I take his porsche for a spin. I'm new to the manual tranny so I was a little choppy in his 16 year-old porsche but it accelerated nicely, held the pavement flawlessly, but had some body roll. My P5 revs much higher, and has more low end torque so I had to give it more gas than I was used to to start and had to remember to shift sooner.
THE RIDE:
We spent all saturday working on his system: a fiberglass enclosure for 10" subwoofers in the tire well along with a false floor. (I'll post pictures after next weekend when we're finished) Then we decide to make the 30 minute ride to ithaca for dinner, we didn't get out until like 8:00 though.
Me: I'm driving!
Tim: **** you, I'm driving!
Me: Alright, but I'm driving on the way back
Tim: excellent
Me: BUUUT, we're taking my car.
Tim: awww, alright I guess, but I'm going to drive the way I want.
Me: Keep it under 80, thats my only rule.
So we're on our way, Tim driving and myself sitting shotgun. The entire trip is composed of 55mph back roads with slower marked turns. We get out onto the main road and he guns it which immediatly produces a smile on his face. We hit the first sharp turn (marked 30mph) at about 55 and the car sticks like glue.
Tim: Holy s***.
Me: I told you.
Tim: This car has no body roll!
Me: I know.
...
Me: Yo! Keep it under 80!
Tim: oh, sorry.
So by this time, he has realized that this car can move. The few cars we saw on the road we pass immediately and he stopped slowing down for the turns (which he knew like the back of his hand). He's bouncing between 3rd 4th and 5th like the weekend before when he took his porsche out on the track at Watkins Glenn. I can't describe every turn but one comes to mind. Its a broad right hander on a steep decline followed by an imediate sharp lefthand turn over a 100ft bridge (marked 25mph), a sharp right hand at the end of the bridge, then up a hill with a gradual left-hander.
We are rounding the wide turn at about 65mph, in 4th. A car is coming up the hill so he cuts the wheel a little more and we go into a 4-wheel drift around the remainder of the corner. He drops it into 3rd, whips the wheel to the left, floors it over the bridge, makes the the sharp right no problem, and floors it again to make it up the hill before shifting back into 4th. . .then 5th onto a straight away.
Amazing. By now, my friend has a huge smile on his face and the only word out of his mouth was "damn" . We finish the ride and stop in at Viva for some mexican food. The whole time he wouldnt shut up about how this front wheel drive wagon just showed up his porsche and several other cars he has taken on the same trip. Besides the drift and the following lefthand turn, there was no tire squealing throughout the trip. . .and he was pushing it pretty hard.
THE RIDE BACK.
By the time we finally left Ithaca, it was close to 1:00am. This time I'm driving. I managed to chirp the tires going into 2nd after I took a wrong turn before leaving the city. (I got stuck on autopilot from when I used to work close to where we were). I didn't know the road we were taking but Tim took upon himself to be my copilot. He startd calling off the turns to me "hard right followed by a gradual left"...."over this hill medium left, aim for the other side of the road"...and I managed to match his time on the way back. There were some scary turns that I would have never attempted in any other car.
When we got back he congradualated me and said
"nice choice on this car, real nice, you did your research", to which I replied "I know"
The end.
Next weekend he's coming to MA so we can finish the system. I'm going to take him for a ride through Boston
My territory.I'll post pictures of his car when its done.
-sorry, getting close, getting psyched.
