An Embarrassing Moment
 

Last night on the way home from an all-nighter on the strip, my girlfriend and myself were enjoying the top down on an early vegas morning. This guy in one of those new family-trucksters dodge stationwagon-on-steriods was reving his engine. Obviously had at least an exhaust system in it.

my girlfriend BEGGED me not to race him, stating "RICHARD! He's in a STATIONWAGON, for god's sake". Well, as she put it, my ego got the best of me. And while I know that these cars are not stop-light racers, i figured i would have him on weight to HP ratio. That thing was a PIG.

Well, we smashed the throttle and all i saw was his tail lights. Unfortunately, The race was over (literally maybe lasted 1/10th of a mile) before i could pass if (if indeed i could have). He was in front of me by a car length from the start, but didn;t pull away after that. Oh well, my girlfriend laughed all the way home (not nice).

Take my advice, don't race these cars. Nothing feels worse than getting spanked in a Porsche by a family-wagon. :(

That was a well worth remembering, very funny and well written.

My wife laughed at it also, but I feel she felt as your girlfriend did...:)

Scott

I guess that's a good thing to remerber... in a strait line... there's a lot of competition from SUVs to vettes to rice rockets... one twisty two lane back roads... Porsche has little competition.

Ouch! :eek:

You must now race every Dodge wagon to regain your girlfriends respect. :D

Those Dodge Magnum wagons are pretty cool. I dig 'em.

All of that torque coupled to an automatic tranny means that you better be awake when racing those things. Weight means nothing if it has enough torque to get it moving (which it does as you found out).

Did you drop/feather the clutch at around 4K rpms or did you just do a normal street start? If the latter, try the former next time.

dropped the clutch @ 3500. i doubt it would have mattered either way. My little 3.2 could not compete without some mods -- multiple. :( oh well, i know dodge makes a V6 version of the car as well, and luckily my girlfiiend doesn't know how to tell the two apart (i do). So i will wax one of those babies, and wink at my girlfriend as i pull away giving her the "my car wasn't running right before" story. :D

the rags only got high 13s/low 14s out of those magnum wagons, I figure that's relatively close to boxster S range..

EDIT: The fastest magnum wagons make 340hp, 390tq and weigh 4142 pounds. FWIW.

Yes well, i figure i could have gained on him -- which i might have if the race was 1/4 mile. But out of the gate, its a monster -- although i figured it would have topped out pretty quickly.

yeah 390tq + rwd + auto will make a stoplight monster of a wagon lol. Its a shame you didn't have a little more room and a deserted road to wind it out, would've made things a little more interesting.

What with First gear so long you don't shift until 40MPH, at low speeds you get spanked by lots of boring cars- and then at high speeds you get spanked by all those other models Porsche makes.

Why on earth do we put up with these cars!?

Oh yeah - fastest production car in the world through the slaloms (for under a million dollars) It's fun to be best at something.

Next time try thinking with your brains instead of with your cojones! That stunt is not embarrasing it's stupid and dangerous. Grow up think of the consequences. I don't mean to admonish you but this happens to lots Boxster owners daily driving as people pull up next to you to race you ie Bimmers, Hondas, Acuras, and so on. Take the high road ignore them, and to further piss them off smile at them, remember you have the Porsche and they don't.

Way to kill the party, pilot. :) actually, you assume a lot -- i do not do this all the time, i am grown up and i do think of the consequences. A 150 foot stop light romp at 4:30AM on an empty street certainly is not the smartest thing inthe world, but it is hardly enough to make judgements upon someone's character.

But thanks for the advice, dad. I will take it for what it's worth. :cheers:

Screw that. You MUST seek revenge. :matchup: LOL!

Next time drop the hammer @ 4.5K rpms. Get into the peak of the torque band. ;)

Disclaimer: bench racing ahead...
I did a little research on those Magnums and they run a published 0-60 in 6.3 seconds. 1/4 in 14.7 seconds. An S should be able to wax them...even with a mediocre start.

Of course, with American iron it's very easy to get more power so you might've run a modified one. Regardless, it's all good. You win some, you lose some.

I said not "admonishing you" but I am always vigilant over the squadron:cool: Words of wisdom from "dad" next time you engage do it on your own turf maybe you get to enjoy seeing him wrapped around a tree.;)

dodge makes some impressive cars/trucks when it comes to acceleration. i see alot of porsches and bmw owers say "no biggie, i beat a truck or a station wagon" but those dodges wax camaros and mustangs pretty regularly. i have a friend who has a 5.9rt magnum truck that kills stangs and camaros off the line and all the way up to 112 (limit), i've raced him several times and it's always been equal (and i have a 2.5) although i get a better launch due to his problems hooking up (light on the rear wheels). did u have a hard time hooking up because you should have handed him has a$$ with an S. i saw this pic on the net.

Well put. If you don't give them a reason to think the Boxster is underpowered, they won't think it.

:chicken:

I think 14.7 is a little inaccurate... the boxster S has approx 11.28 pounds per hp, the magnum has about 12.18 pounds per hp with a ton more tq.

Now assuming each passenger weighs 160 pounds that changes the boxsters pounds/hp to around 12.68 and the magnum to 12.65 (w/ 1 driver, 0 passengers) or 13.12 if he had 1 passenger.

Not to mention the magnum having a TON more tq per pound and an auto for the better launch, it really should be a close race. I dont see how any magazine could pull a 14.7 out of a car with that kind of power/weight ratio. I've seen dakota R/Ts get times close to that with 90~ less hp.

I lost to a Z06 once - they have a real nice exhaust note up close at full throttle. :D

I hear a lot of people quoting hp/weight ratios for two different cars as if that was the ONLY determining factor in a race/drag/whatever. Now, im no genius -- moreover probably in the running for the dumbest person on this board -- BUT shouldn't aerodynamics, weight distribution, suspension (stiffness), tires, etc play a HUGE factor in determing the outcome of a given race (with equal drivers)?

Quote all the numbers you want with HP/weight ratios, but the bottom line is that -- like most dodge's, is pretty much of a cube (read: wind brake) with 4 ****************ty tires, a soft suspension and unequal weight distrobution. I would think that would play a factor against a S's very sticky tires, stiff suspension, arrow-like shape.

Now i lost that race -- could have been because it lasted for 150 feet, which didn;t get the S's rev's up long enough to get into the power -- had it been a 1/4 mile, maybe the outcome would have been different.

Maybe he had some mods.... i know he had an exhaust -- maybe headers? He had a wicked sick trucker hat on and a beard that would have made Kenny Rodgers (circa: 1979) jealous as hell.

maybe that helped. :confused:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Subanez
[B]Well put. If you don't give them a reason to think the Boxster is underpowered, they won't think it.

If you take them to where the Boxster will excel then you would not have to worry about the car being underpowered, if that is your hangup.
By the way I'll take my :chicken: BBQ thanks for offering. :)

Nope, no hang-ups here, are you kidding me? I love everything about my car. 0 complaints, and I do mean that. Just saying that for people that really care, there are better things to think about.

The BBQ is on the way, fries with that? :)