Nexus-6
Enthusiast
In most cars, once warmed up you can casually stretch 'em up to about 3500rpm - 4000rpm gently before shifting and not break the speed limit. Let em breathe a little and just stretch things out. Now, you're not accelerating hard mind you, just cruising and savoring the later shifts - listening to that beautiful mechanical music.
In most cars this doesn't put you too much over the speed limit by the time you shift casually into 4th.
Now, in the Viper with that stock 3.07 rear, doing so results in just about a nice leisurely 70mph or so when you go to shift out of 3rd gear. Again, not really accelerating hard or anything - just simply savoring that shift at 3500 or so. Makes city driving rather frustrating - you get to enjoy 1st, then slip into 4th for speed limited cruising. It's amazing how 80ish in the Viper feels like 35ish in the other cars. No, it's not amazing. It's just frustrating.
Stupid speed limits and short roads anyhow.
So this past Thursday night I went out for a late spin around midnight...cruising my usual haunts just listening to some music and enjoying the cool 70 degree weather (you savor every low humidity evening you get this time of year in Texas!)...
From out of nowhere I see a pair of headlights screaming up on me in the next lane from about a half mile back. I'm doing 45 so this monkey must be doing close to 100 or so. Flys by at about 100 and turns out its a later model MR2. Nice car actually. Not really riced out and sounds pretty decent.
We both hit the next red side by side and there are no cars around in any direction...ordinarily this would be a great chance to experiment with some "delayed shifting" but, with the new street racing laws in Texas, I've just pretty much decided that it's not worth losing my license over for a year. That's automatic now if busted for street racing and I can't live without being able to drive. I still play when conditions meet my requirements but I do so by myself...might still get a massive speeding ticket but at least I won't automatically lose my license.
The light turns green and I ease into first and up to the speed limit...no excess, no showboating...no drama and no real show of speed. The MR2 seems to just cruise behind me and catches up...I have the windows down and as he pulls up next to me he's yelling over :
"Hey! Man that's no fair from a dig - let's do it from a roll!"
I'm kinda in shock wondering if I got on it 20 minutes before or something...then it dawns on me that just simply stretching the Viper out gently and slowly to 3500 before shifting in 1st and 2nd STILL wins "races" with other normal cars. Crazy!
I told him I didn’t' feel like spending any more time in jail for street racing and he kinda got this odd look on his face before turning off at the next street. Guess not everyone's up on the new laws yet (or some folks are still up for the gamble).
It's pretty tough in situations like that to "just say no" - familiar roads, no traffic - just the two of us on a one way 3 lane back road. Very hard to swallow the urge and just keep cruising.
In most cars this doesn't put you too much over the speed limit by the time you shift casually into 4th.
Now, in the Viper with that stock 3.07 rear, doing so results in just about a nice leisurely 70mph or so when you go to shift out of 3rd gear.
Again, not really accelerating hard or anything - just simply savoring that shift at 3500 or so. Makes city driving rather frustrating - you get to enjoy 1st, then slip into 4th for speed limited cruising. It's amazing how 80ish in the Viper feels like 35ish in the other cars. No, it's not amazing. It's just frustrating.Stupid speed limits and short roads anyhow.
So this past Thursday night I went out for a late spin around midnight...cruising my usual haunts just listening to some music and enjoying the cool 70 degree weather (you savor every low humidity evening you get this time of year in Texas!)...
From out of nowhere I see a pair of headlights screaming up on me in the next lane from about a half mile back. I'm doing 45 so this monkey must be doing close to 100 or so. Flys by at about 100 and turns out its a later model MR2. Nice car actually. Not really riced out and sounds pretty decent.
We both hit the next red side by side and there are no cars around in any direction...ordinarily this would be a great chance to experiment with some "delayed shifting" but, with the new street racing laws in Texas, I've just pretty much decided that it's not worth losing my license over for a year. That's automatic now if busted for street racing and I can't live without being able to drive. I still play when conditions meet my requirements but I do so by myself...might still get a massive speeding ticket but at least I won't automatically lose my license.
The light turns green and I ease into first and up to the speed limit...no excess, no showboating...no drama and no real show of speed. The MR2 seems to just cruise behind me and catches up...I have the windows down and as he pulls up next to me he's yelling over :
"Hey! Man that's no fair from a dig - let's do it from a roll!"
I'm kinda in shock wondering if I got on it 20 minutes before or something...then it dawns on me that just simply stretching the Viper out gently and slowly to 3500 before shifting in 1st and 2nd STILL wins "races" with other normal cars. Crazy!
I told him I didn’t' feel like spending any more time in jail for street racing and he kinda got this odd look on his face before turning off at the next street. Guess not everyone's up on the new laws yet (or some folks are still up for the gamble).
It's pretty tough in situations like that to "just say no" - familiar roads, no traffic - just the two of us on a one way 3 lane back road. Very hard to swallow the urge and just keep cruising.
