So just for the sake of conversation......
I was planning on going to Carlisle Sat & Sun this weekend because a friend of mine was up from Tenessee (Kevin Tetz of Paintucation & DIY Networks "Classic Rides" show) and he wanted to see my C5. I ended up taking both cars on Sat cuz I have stuff to do today. On the way home the roads were dry (unlike the trip up
) so I figured I'd take the oportunity to see exactly when the C5 gets the advantage on my 93 GT. There was too many cars for quite a while, had to wait til all the way down on 283 South. We got on there and right off the ramp she pulled up next to me, (wife in C5, me in GT) we launched from about 20, both in 1st gear. She jumped hard, I spun pretty good, she instantly got a couple cars on me. I was going by her when I hit third at about 65. Right after that I had to lift, there was a car in my lane. We passed some cars and it opened up again. This time we went from 40, both in 2nd gear. I pulled away slowly and had about 5 cars on her at about 125 when we had to slow down again for traffic. She did not appear to have started gaining on me yet at that point. When I race on the street, if there is room to even get to that speed, that is when I normally shut down. I know my car couldn't trap that high so I know I'm passed the length of most normal races. We passed the next group of cars and got side by side again. Then we went one more time cuz I still wanted to see what speed she would get the advantage. This time it was from 60. I figured I'd start in 2nd even though I usually hit 3rd at about 65 in this car. I'm not sure why I do that, it's only around 5200 RPM. For some reason I have always shifted out of 2nd a little sooner than any other gear, must be something in my subconsious (sp?) making me do it. Anyways I pulled her hard & fast and then she flashed me and I knew why. She left it in drive and it only kicked down to 3rd instead of 2nd. So we took off one last time from 70, 3rd gear for me & 2nd for her. We were even for just a second then I started pulling her. When I hit 5th gear between 125 & 130 she was about 3 cars behind. When we had to lift for quickly approaching traffic again, I was going just over 135 and she was about 1.5-2 cars back. At that point she was catching up. Somewhere around 130 is where my auto equipped, stock except muffs C5 gains an advantage over my "bolt-ons"minus H&C GT. This is also basically what happened when I raced these two cars with my buddy driving the C5, except we never had the oportunity to hit these speeds.
We also used to have very similar results when he was running his 2000 LS1/6sp Camaro against me. His car was unmodified. It would jump me by 3 cars off the line if we went from a stop. But from a 20 MPH roll I could pull him. In the short races we had, he could not catch up once I got in front of him. Before the Camaro he had an 89 LX hatch, stock engine except "F" cam (don't ask why, he bought it that way)and CAI & O/R exhaust with 3.73's & SSM lift bars and quite a bit of weight reduction although it was not "gutted". He ran 13.0's with it, don't recall MPH. That car would run all over me at any speed. But that was when I was having a severe tuning problem. He sold this car before I found that my C&L was costing me major power. I just mention this cuz it's another example of a basically stock 5.0 that would run with or beat a stock LS1. (getting back to the conversation of the first couple pages of this thread)
This (135) is the fastest that I have gone in this particular car. I was not sure how it would feel at that speed (with all of the air going through my larger than normal grille openings) or how fast it might even go. It was surprisingly stable and was still picking up speed. I don't know what RPM I was running cuz I was watching her in the mirror and the speedo and the cars in front of us. It would have easily pushed to 140 and maybe to 145, which is the fastest I've been in a car. I doubt this engine has the power to push my GT brick through the air any faster than that. I'm sure the vette would have been good for some more MPH although I don't know how much with that automatic. I can tell you the 6 speed C5's will run 160 easy. My little brother road races both of his and has been 153 in his vert (I think he said at Road Atlanta) and has been 159 in his FRC at Summit Point or VIR, can't remember which. His cars are both stock except CAI, cat-back, and wheels & tires.
The wife said the vette was rock solid at the speed she was going but did not look at the speedo to so how fast she was.
BTW....
That 145 MPH ride I took was in my Maverick and it was a white knuckle ride for sure. I was racing a Honda CBR600 from about a 70 MPH roll and I was right with him. It got scary when we started catching the cars in front of us and I had to let off the gas at 145. That's when chit got ugly, this car was very twitchy under highspeed braking and braking was very slow in this car anyways (non-power dics up front). I did not get slowed down and had to pass these cars on the right shoulder, the CBR passed them on the left shoulder and just stayed in the throttle. That dude was nuts.
Oh well road trip time. Here is a couple more pics of one of my toys that I never had time to build and ended up selling. It's replacement we be here in a couple of weeks and I can't wait!
And the coolest thing is, we saw an FFR Spec Racer with the other Cobras/Roadsters at Carlisle. When we got home, after getting her ass beat in the vette she asked me to build her a Spec Racer so she could whip me on the road and on the track. Hhmmm, his and hers Cobras. Does have a nice ring to it, ya think.
Cliff
by and ls1 car. i am a ford man all the way and never will change that but all this is the TRUTH.
