I ain't afraid of no WRX

[OC Cruzer]

A pretty cool opportunity came up just by chance a few days ago.
My wife and I were driving home on an interstate and I got over in the far right lane, which was an access ramp onto another interstate.
It's one of these nice long, gently curving, one lane ramps.
Well I'm going along at a pretty good clip and end up behind this slow moving pickup.
I glanced thru the rearview and coming up fast behind me is this WRX. He ends up riding my a - - , about 3 feet off my bumper. You could see the guy squirming around in his seat. In a big hurry.
Anyway, I figure as soon as we get to the interstate, he'll fly around me on the left side, trapping me behind the pickup.

sooo, I slowed down to put some space between me and the pickup, so as soon as I got the chance, I could speed up and beat him to it.

When we got to the interstate, I gave it about 3/4 throttle and cut over into the lane just to the left of the pickup.
Sure enough, as I was doing that, so was the guy in the WRX.
But I guess he didn't want to be behind a slow PT cruiser, so he ended up in the lane to my left.
We might have been doing 50ish and I couldn't see him in my inside rearview, but I saw him in the drivers outside mirror, sorta, kinda beside me.
Well, back on the ramp, I had shifted back to 3rd ( auto ) it was still in 3rd and I floored it.
Guess he did to.
Anyway my little Stockum powered PT steadily walked away from the WRX.
It was great.

I don't know how fast we ended up going, but he was an 1/8 to a 1/4 mile behind and I let up and braked some to slow down, knowing that right ahead was a place where radar is set up alot.

We continued on about 3 or 4 more miles at 70ish and the WRX never tried to close the gap.
When I reached my exit he came by me in the left lane and wouldn't even look over.

How humbling, Having your WRX beat, by nothing less, then a PT CRUISER .
I love it.

[MX-5]

You need to get on the dragstrip!

The WRX around here run consistant 14.7s in the 1/4 mile.

They are faster than the 15.2-15.4 of the turbo GT Cruiser, and faster than my 15.29 NOS Dreamer.

My supercharged with NOS Mazda takes 'em all day long. It's only a 1.8L motor!

[Pipes]

Your WIFE was in the car while doing this type of driving ???
So whens the divorice ?

[at58]

Wish I would have seen it. I have spanked 1 or 2 of them in the last couple of weeks........

[MsBoop]

great story.

[OC Cruzer]

Originally posted by MX-5
You need to get on the dragstrip!

I guess. but it's my only car and I need to take care of it, so I just enjoy messin around on the street.
This PT has ALWAYS run great and seemed to be pretty quick just stock.

BTW--- the video showing the rolling start race of a Hahn turboed car against a GT on Bob Stockums site, was my car.
At the time it had a Hahn turbo, a Ford Probe intercooler and if I remember right was running 8 to 9psi boost. That was about it.
www.bstockum.com
The video was made BEFORE Bob did all the engine work and before I clipped the ole green and yellow wire ha,ha.
Also the trans. clutches have since been worked on to make it shift quicker.

[Ant]

Originally posted by OC Cruzer


Also the trans. clutches have since been worked on to make it shift quicker.

Whoa, wait a minute, back up Al. What did you do to thr tranny? I need details here!!

[OC Cruzer]

Originally posted by Ant

Whoa, wait a minute, back up Al. What did you do to thr tranny? I need details here!!

Hi Ant,--------
awhile back, the solenoid pack on the trans. went bad, which over time created a few other issues.
Bob referred me to a mechanic at his dealership and because the car had close to 40,000 miles and the really great price I was given to do a soft rebuild, I figured why not. The trans. had to come out anyway.
Wes said he either put stronger springs or double springs on the clutches.
It did result in faster, firmer shifts that I noticed mostly at lower speeds.
If you want to know EXACTLY what he did with the springs, I can try to get in touch with him and find out.
Bob probably knows.

Hope you have a good weekend

===========================================

BTW------------- MX-5

Back in the early days there was a guy that posted alot on ptcc named Nick, aka pt396 I think.
He was the one who came up with putting the Probe intercooler on the PT's.
He put one on his Hahn turboed car, plumbed it with 2" plumbing fittings from Lowes, had a manual boost controller and that was it. No engine mods.
Anyway, he ran a 14.3 and posted the time slip on ptcc.

He knew he had to get the engine upgrades, to keep from blowing it, but didn't want to spend the money to do it.
He ended up selling the PT and getting something else.

Maybe you remember him.

[MX-5]

I remember pt396.

My post about the turbo was only referring to the 2003/4 GT factory turbo without a stage-1 upgrade.

No one local has the Hahn or any mods to the GT engine.

[JOEM]

I hope renichms doesn't see this thread.