The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[ranger]

Rush hour around here has been like Saturday traffic. My trip from the Mid-Cities to SE Dallas is running 30 minutes at rush hour vs the 45-60 it normally takes.

Atlanta traffic dramatically reduced so some are taking advantage to speed and I noticed on one of my few trips out GHP in speed trap mode.

[olstyn]

Atlanta traffic dramatically reduced

Yeah, same deal in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Up until I started WFH this week, it was the lightest traffic I'd ever seen on both my morning and evening commutes. Plenty of space, and everybody flowing along nicely at or above the posted speed. It was the one benefit to COVID-19.

One morning recently, I saw the person behind me get pulled over for I have no idea what reason. I was doing 57 in a 55, and they weren't crowding me, so they couldn't have been going any faster, and I seriously doubt they got nailed for 2 over. When I saw the lights come on, I was sure it was going to be one of those times when everybody gets out of the way and the officer (trooper in this case) zooms by because they've got a call to get to, but they followed the person behind me over to the shoulder. Maybe they ran his/her plates and found something there. All I know is that it was surprising to me when it seemed like everybody on the road was well-behaved.

[JRB]

Maybe I haven't been paying attention to the right places, but I still haven't seen a MkII done with good management, good manifolds and modern turbo. Would like to.

MR2 people suck at building cars, by and large. Ancient flawed groupthink and cars getting older and less valuable have really pushed away most of the true expertise and aftermarket development. There's a few guys still in the game like ATS Racing that really make fantastic stuff, but most of the big HP heavy hitters have all gone K motor, or there's the new 'MR2 guys' that are really ex-Honda guys that built an awesome turbo K20 or K24 and got tired of FWD Honda problems, and bought an MR2 to stuff their powertrain into an MR chassis and finally have traction.

That all said, this recently happened:

Precious little is available on the details of this build, but guessing from the 'Special thanks' list and the observed parts, it's likely a 98+ 5S-FE 2.2L block (the ideal S block to build for max HP) with all the forged bits and billet mains, and has what appears to be a Gen 3 3S-GTE cylinder head with undoubtedly a ton of work done. A Comp turbo that I would pick for a build like that is a Comp DBB 7275 (72mm inducer), 1ZZ-FE 'smart' ignition coils, and an absolutely gorgeous twinscroll twin wastegate T4 exhaust manifold and a trunk-mount IC setup of some kind with a matching custom intake manifold. Engine management software appears to be Haltech, so I'd expect to see a Platinum Sport 2000 or 2500 ECU in a build like that, but being a 4 cyl without VVTi they could likely do just as good with a PS1000. Higher spec ECU's typically add features like more cylinders, more injectors, variable cam timing, etc. Running smart coils and 4 injectors for a 4 cylinder with fixed cam timing is pretty simple for modern ECU's.

Typically an SW20 set up like that with a cage and all those hard parts is in the ~2700-2800lb range so with 1000whp, it's gonna scoot. I'm personally curious as to what they did in the gearbox/powertrain to hold that kind of HP. Hux Racing makes a lot of good stuff and Driveshaft shop makes great axles, but a clutch and gearset that can hold 1000whp isn't exactly an off the shelf item for the E153 trans.


For my hypothetical personal build I'm more interested in a super responsive ~400-500whp without getting stuck in dated old MR2 groupthink. The Japanese tuning houses made a bunch of really nice tubular turbo manifolds for the Gen 2 head back in the day, but they're hard to find, and everything else is a crappy eBay thing that keeps the flawed CT26 flange and cyl distribution, or the manifold is a made-to-order top shelf custom job that costs $2k+ by itself. From there it's getting the stock intake manifold hogged out and balanced, a top feed injector rail, some GSC cams and valvetrain bits, some ARP stuff, and 'send it'.
But I've also got two Supras to build, an SC300 I'd like to make into a turbo/auto drag car, and a 300ZXTT that I'm trying to leave stock-ish but the itch is killing me. I saw it said elsewhere that being a car guy is just having a never-ending mid life crisis, and boy howdy is that accurate.

I do wish I was home right now, so I could enjoy some of this fantastically light traffic everyone's talking about!!

[OlongJohnson]

When you get home, we need to hang out.

[awp_101]

Spotted on the back of a lifted Yukon: I identify as a Prius

License plate spotted on the way home today: 338PEW

[Doc_Glock]

Is there anything shotguns can’t do?



I found this fascinating.

[Doc_Glock]

This is such a cool car.

http://www.superstreetonline.com/fea...oem-sema-build

[Doc_Glock]

The first 5 min of this really cracked me up. Because that is exactly how I would look trying to drift.

[OlongJohnson]

For those who don't know, the guy in the driver's suit is Randy Pobst. One of the best race drivers in the country (and one of the nicest guys who wears Nomex for a living). Has won and lost championships at that track.

Also digging Johnny's P-F-colored Vans.

[Doc_Glock]

For those who don't know, the guy in the driver's suit is Randy Pobst. One of the best race drivers in the country (and one of the nicest guys who wears Nomex for a living). Has won and lost championships at that track.

Also digging Johnny's P-F-colored Vans.

I am also struck by how slow street cars, even awesome ones look on a racetrack.