300bhp/ton

Yesterday I went on a bit of a drive down south with a mate to go pick-up a 1978 Mini Clubman GT he'd just bought (funky little car, a lot of FUN! ).

On the way there I saw a few interesting cars on the Motorway. A 993 Porsche 911. I got next to him a few times and jumped on the throttle to see if they wanted to play. All I got in return was a startled expression from them when I hit it, guess my exhaust was too loud for them

Anyhow after a few attempts they didn't seem than interested. So I set the cruise control and a minute later when I had traffic in front of me they decide to bowl past Guess they feared loosing if it was a fair fight.

further on down the road I caught up with a brand new 997 Porsche 911. So I treid to get them to play also, but all they wanted to do was cruise at 90mph

Why own a fast car, if you're not going to use it

So I decided it's just gonna be one of them days, when I suddenly spot a Caterham like kit car up ahead. Not sure what make it is, but it's polished aluminium, no windscreen and a roll bar. The drivers wearing a race helmet also. - SURELY this must be a race???

But no, they just didn't seem interested. Anyhow turned off the Motorway and at the lights I suddenly hear something revving behind me, I look up and it's the same kit car. Off goes the TCS the lights change and we're off!, I think I caught them napping as I pull instantly so I let off a bit and weight for them. We pull up to the next lights and you can see they are ready this time. Lights go green and we go again, with pretty much the same results. We shoot off down the next slip road (on ramp) change lanes because of a lorry he's now trying to mount my rear bumper so I give it large one more time, he sorta stays with me till about 80mph then it's bye bye.

Thought it would have been a better race to be honest. Guess they just didn't have a very strong motor in it.

Anyhow we get to our destination and collect the Clubman GT. On the way back I'm cruising at 50mph with the cruise control when a rather nice blue Impreza goes bowling past exhaust blaring. I hammer it and start making ground, think they where running at ~100mph+ so it took a while to catch them up considering I didn't accelerate until they where level with me. I follw them round a nice right hand sweeper at ~120mph, they pull over into the other lane and slow down

I pull along side, and its a really pretty blonde driving but they no longer seem to want to play. Guess I shouldn't have gone and caught them up so quickly

On that same journey I also saw two Lotus Esprit’s, about 7 Elise’s, a Vauxhall Monaro (2005 model) and about a zillion Porsches (911's and Boxster’s). All going in the opposite direction.

There where quite a few BMW's, a new M Roadster (Z4 based), but it was in heavy traffic. And a BMW M3, but it looked like the driver had their father with them as he didn't want to play at all, and I just got a dirty look from the old man.

Still it was a pretty fun day and for some reason I seemed to only use half a tank to cover 190-200 miles as well. Got love the LS1's

BeavermanA

iTrader: (1)

Doh, sucks that almost no one wanted to play. I hate that crap, for me it's an unwritten law, when two sports cars catch a light together or there's no traffic on the highway, a race is pretty much mandatory.
All there is in my area are 90% whack rice and suvs though, go 50 minutes to LA and it sounds alot like yours, porches, ferraris, lambos, etc. all over.

SummerOnTheChain

Not everyone likes to weave through traffic at dangerous speeds just to prove who is faster. The guy with the Porsche has a nicer car, he doesn't need to prove it to you.

ls1_doc

iTrader: (6)

Hey i see you post all over the place and think it really cool you have a ls1 over in England. What mods do you have ? O and nice kills

SouthFL.02.SS

Pictorial Elaboration/Translation on 300bhp/ton's story for those of us stateside

Lorry=

Caterham=

Motorway=

SouthFL.02.SS

Bah.......

jpat1023

He may not have to prove that he has a nicer (more expensive) car, but he still has to prove that it is faster...which he obviously did not do...
Who street races to prove that their car is nicer...?

Heatmaker

Yah! Baby! Awsome Story! Yah

300bhp/ton

I never saw no weaving thru traffic. You?

300bhp/ton

300bhp/ton

Cheers.

Not much done yet, just a few bolt ons, catback, SFC, ported TB, FRA.

Lots more to come, but I'm in the process of buying a house at the moment. Plus I had to buy a new engine for my Discovery a few months back after I decided to blow the first one up

At least I now know how much boost, is too much boost

The Red WS.6

iTrader: (4)

To hell with that, they saw that Camaro and was like WTF is that? Its gonna kill me, do you see it smiling at me? Holy S*$#!!!! Good Kill!!!

MasterV8

iTrader: (7)

Nice! Guy next door has a caterham, not street legal he uses it for racing, always hear him reving the **** out of it on weekends, but he usually shuts up if i'm in my car & give it a few revs!

UnZFeat'd

iTrader: (1)

damn... well exactly how much boost is too much? TDi means its a diesel engine right?

z_speedfreak

iTrader: (3)

sweet, i kept seeing one of those caterham 7's around this summer but the dude driving it had to of ben in his 70's so the race just never happened.. small lil cars tho holy crap i hate to be traveling around a lorry on the motorway in one of them

LT1MAN

iTrader: (6)

sounds like you have the same type of stuck up-fast car driving-no racing snobs we have here in the states.

300bhp/ton

There are quite a few Caterhams on the roads over here, espcially in the summer.

They vary loads in potential. Caterham themselfs make a CSR with a 2.3 litre Ford DOHC unit and 260bhp. Although the older and lighter Superlight R500 was faster. That's right 500bhp/ton power to weight.

Many other kit car company's make similar cars though. You can get turbocharged ones, 4wd and even a V8, although with a V8 they have the ability to lock the tyres if you down shifdt from 3rd to 2nd at too high speed - V8 torque, got to love it

Some of the kit cars only have poxy Ford cross flow 1.6's in though, not very fast but handle well and are still fun.

A few years back there was a 250bhp Ford powered kit car running at the Brighton Speed trials, it was running consitant 10.95 ET's in the 1/4 mile. Not bad considering it only had half the HP of a new Z06

But on a circuit they can be stupidly fast. Caterham actually got banned from the Nurburgring 24hrs due to being to fast and the fact they kept beating all the German Porsches and BMW's even though the Caterham was in a lower class, all n/a and only 1.8 litre engines

300bhp/ton

Well it was more a combo of too much fuel really. Boost is only part of it with diesels. I thing the EGT's where getting a little too high, plus the timing may have been out. Anyhow it ended up wearing the bores out on all cylinders in less than a year!!! Still for a big *** 4x4 it shifted pretty well and out performed all the V8 Land Rover's that I know off locally.

New motor's in and running. Bigger intercooler and some better gauges are a must before I play with the fueling and turbo this time though

Still it's all good fun!

JayplaySS

iTrader: (15)

I bet they love that Camaro over there. More so when you clean up the streets with it. You dont even have a H/C set up yet?

300bhp/ton

Most people have no idea what it is. And are just as clueless when you tell them

So it has a real exclusivity factor here which is cool. But there are quite a few fast cars about, Porsches are 10 a dozen, as are M3's. Plus Evo's and STi's have been sold for years over here along with the Nissan Skyline and such. Then there's the home grown TVR's, all are 0-100mph in 8-9 second territory from the factory.

The noise is what gets most people though, its really cool. Most times I go to the shops or fill up with fuel someone stops and talks to me about it.

A Mustang would have similar appeal, although the s197's GT's are slightly more common over here. The grey import market has really taken to them.

But it's all six of one and half a dozen of the other.

My brother has oneof these with a few mods:


A mid engined sports car, not all that powerful. In a straight line I can pull like a **** on him. Cross country though its a lot closer. And a much nearer match up. But that's what you get when the other car only weighs 2300lb.