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? :)

No salt just ketchup!!;) That's what I like to hear we concurr.

Racing a Dodge Magnum is not fair unless he has a surfboard, guitar, guitar amp, and a ladder in the back like the commercial where one passes an Espirt Turbo up hill :rolleyes:

Anyway, on the rare occasion that I get duped into taking somebody on, I always seems to get beat off the line and then reel them back in pretty quickly. This has been true with the couple cars and sport bikes I've come across. I would imagine a Magnum would get pretty squirrelly above 80 mph seeing that almost every angle on the car is at 90 degrees (reference Truss)

PS: There is a guy who works in the same building as me who has the V6 Magnum and it looks like a total piece of junk, he doesn’t even have the alloy wheels. This guy totally got talked into buying a piece of junk station wagon, too bad the sales man couldn’t talk him into getting the faux wood panels on the exterior.

Well aerodynamics play a big part above 60-70mph or so, but the race didnt go that high so scratch that off.

Weight distribution plays a big part, but more importantly how much weight is over the powered wheels is what you're looking at as far as traction goes. The more weight you have over the powered wheels when launching the more grip you will have. Seeing as how the magnum weighs 1200-1300 pounds more than the boxster I have a feeling it has at least as much weight over the back wheels as a 2900 pound boxster w/ 50/50 distribution. Either way the point is moot because it doesnt sound like you launched agressively enough to ride 1st out at the traction limit of your rear tires and with 390 tq and an automatic he doesnt have to do jack crap to launch the hell out of that car.

Tires play a big role again but from the way your story reads you weren't driving/launching agressively enough to really use the extra traction you *may* have from having stickier tires (i'm not sure what tires you're running or what the magnums come with stock, the magnum SXT at the grocery store had relatively wide tires so I would imagine the R/T would be at least as well equipped).



I fully believe if you launched more agressively and ran to the 1/4 you would've won the race but if you sleep just a little at the light the auto+tq+big power of that heavy ass wagon will be enough to make you play catchup for a while. I'm not saying the boxster S is slower, its just slower if you're not really trying.

My friend lost to a cavalier in his prelude vtec once because he gave it a 1/2 ass launch. The cavalier wasnt faster (as a later race proved...) but it was close enough that the tq of the cavalier was enough to overpower him at the launch and get a jump.

*shrug* lol

agreed. :) im sure had i done a better job at launching / the race lasted longer, i would have won. It wasn't long until he was not pulling anymore... funny though, when he stopped pulling, he turned off.

wish i had another shot at him (of course on a drag strip with all the appropriate safety gear installed). :D

FWIW,

The top of the line Magnums are impressive on the Autocross circuit.

No Boxster, but impressive for a 2 ton vehicle. Keep in mind, the Germans have their hands on this vehicle now and it is a Benz in structure.

I'm curious to see what happens in the next three years with the Magnum.

Now, I agree getting roasted off the line does happen in the Boxster, but you can reel them in in short order. When you get off the straights and into the curves, get out the paddle and start spanking.

Dave

of course.......
lol

When I had a 944 I raced some dude in a Mustang 5.0 painted a cheezy nasty tone of sparkly blue after he kept revving his engine at a light. He blew me away but at least I had a nice looking car. Now my dad has a friend that raced some guy in some american car (don't know what) in his Ferrari Testarossa and broke a gear and the guy he was racing came back and got him and had to give him a ride.

Love that story, that goes next to Rich's story.

LOL- gives him a ride.........

Scott

i also cant help it if i am pushed at lights... i dont really wanna go for it, but i dont know i guess it just gets the better of you... lol

mind i choose cars very carefully.. i wont light ot light ricers or boy racers i have no respect for them. I would do another porsche / merc / audi ect...

nothing wrong with lights to lights but the trick is knowing when to stop and not carry on.. :)
remember the boxster its at its peak going through the gear 2nd 3rd 4th there is no better....