Thread: Car Talk
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Xaqtly
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2009-12-02, 12:56

Welcome to Car Talk, I'm Linda Richmond. Oh now I'm getting all verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic: I like cars, so why not have a general car talk thread? Any kind of car talk welcome. Got the idea as we were talking about my Scooby in the lolcat thread, and didn't want to keep derailing the lols there.

I know there's a bunch of car guys here, let's talk about our whips... yo. Or new cars coming up, or past cars you've loved, or current cars... whatever. Top Gear talk also strongly encouraged.

So I'll start with my cars. The only really big project car I ever had was building a badass built up low compression SR20DE engine for my Sentra SE-R, and slapping a massive turbocharger on it. That didn't end very well, but it was running for about a little while. It got totaled in an accident, the other person's fault. I was pissed. Here's a couple pics. Stock looking and mostly innocuous on the outside, fire breathing monster on the inside.





Why yes, that turbocharger is almost half the size of the entire engine. At a curb weight of about 2450 lbs, this thing was a rocket ship. I put a lot of money into improving all aspects of the car, especially the suspension and brakes. Fully custom suspension with more travel than stock, relatively massive Wilwood 4-pot lightweight racing calipers on large rotors, a high end Quaife mechanical limited slip differential in the front, polyurethane bushings everywhere. To say that I could do rolling burnouts in 2nd gear would be an understatement.

That was an immensely fun car. It handled like it was on rails, and it went like stink. On fire. With the boost controller turned off and the wastegate at the default 10 psi, the car made about 250-270 HP at the front wheels. To put that in perspective, that power to weight ratio is almost as good as a Corvette Z06. Not quite, but close. But the thing is, that turbo was so big it didn't even become efficient until about 14 psi. It was designed to run at 18-20 psi. When the boost was cranked up it was making over 400 at the wheels. It was pretty ridiculous, but it was so fun. At high boost levels it felt like I was being shot out of a cannon every time I got on the gas.

I miss that car. These days I don't really have the time or money to spend on a project car, so I've just done minimal upgrades to my Legacy. Right now it has an AP map good for a total of about 300 HP and 305 lb-ft., and I have a set of Ion springs on it, great for handling. I've never been a fan of external modification so it still looks stock other than the aftermarket 18" wheels. At some point I'll probably get a bigger turbo to replace the stock one but I'm not in any hurry.

Oh and always a manual transmission for me. As long as I have the option it'll always be a manual.







At one point I also had a Nissan NX2000 that I had swapped a j-spec SR20DET factory turbocharged motor into. That was also a fun car, but more in a "this is how it should have been from the factory" way. I took it down some drag strips and got a 13.8@101 in it. I think it was a little faster than that, but my clutch had been slipping the whole day and had to be replaced after that.
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