STOP LIGHT - DUSK IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
A modified, blue 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution GSR pulls up to a newly turned red light. The driver begins fiddling with the radio.
A second modified car approaches on the left of the Mitsubishi. The car slows for the same red light. The car is low, fitted with dark colored wheels, similar in style to the Mitsubishi's. The car is adorned with a few stickers, but is otherwise clean, and aside from tinted windows and a single, prominent exhaust pipe, looks unremarkable. The windows are down and both the passenger and driver turn their attention towards the blue Mitsubishi.
Blub blub blub-blub-blub blub.
PASSENGER, SECOND CAR
Check it.
The passenger and driver exchange a quick glance. The driver turns his attention back to the red light. The passenger looks more closely at the blue Mitsubishi.
Blub-blub-blub blub blub blub-blub-blub
PASSENGER, SECOND CAR
That thing idles like sh**.
The driver of the second car turns and looks at the passenger, who continues to study the Mitsubishi. He notices the hastily removed rear wing, 265 rear tires and Volk RE30 wheels.
PASSENGER, SECOND CAR
It's got cams and a bunch of other s***. Don't f*** with it.
GSR
Blub-blub blub blub blub-blub-blub.
The light turns and the blue Mitsubishi rolls away from the light, the second car holding pace off the rear corner of the Mitsubishi. The Mitsubishi signals and turns right, down a side street. The second car holds pace until the Mitsubishi is no longer visible then accelerates with a quick burst of speed to the next red light.
Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 22,700 miles
tantan73 says:
11:47 AM, 06/19/09
PASSENGER, SECOND CAR
That thing idles like sh**.
Nothing like fanbois who spent too much time playing Forza 2 and NO time turning wrenches.
stingray454 says:
11:55 AM, 06/19/09
LOL - cams definitely have a great intimidation factor to the competition in situations like that. Don't even have to rev it.
I had a lumpy aftermarket cam in my 1970 big block Corvette (454). Combined with Hooker headers, that car just sitting at idle with its rhythmic staccato sound, and the muffled explosions you could hear in the headers, scared the other drivers right off, without even a rev. I could listen to that sound all day. I got more compliments at the way that car sounded at idle than anything else I've owned.
HassanK says:
12:27 PM, 06/19/09
haha love it. "Blub-blub-blub blub blub blub-blub-blub"
rick8365 says:
01:20 PM, 06/19/09
Yesterday -
Blah blah low sulfer diesel blah 40 mpg blah blah blah.
Today -
GSR
Blub-blub-blub blub blub blub-blub-blub
:-)
sealclubb3r says:
02:43 PM, 06/19/09
"It's got cams and a bunch of other s***. Don't f*** with it."
Hahahahaha, that's too funny!
slickersdrip says:
04:37 PM, 06/19/09
I've got to wonder what kind of car the other guy was driving...
zjev says:
05:03 PM, 06/19/09
Ha ha! nice post, those boys were humbled nicely.
t10 says:
10:52 PM, 06/19/09
what's really funny is that people are worried about f'ing with a car that's faster and losing face or something else with no real world consequences, when the real risk is death or impoundment of the car, not whether they lose some meaningless race to some person they will never see again. Oh well, I guess I just dont live my life a quarter mile at a time.
mopar424 says:
01:06 PM, 06/20/09
you are unlike the rest of us then, t10 :)
kurtamaxxxguy says:
02:01 PM, 06/20/09
I really wonder how old auto "show offing" streak is?
Did Model T's get their mufflers sawed off or re-geared for wheelies, or whatever passed for show offing in their day?
Did it all start in S. Calif? :-)
jace88 says:
01:20 AM, 06/21/09
LOL I've never been game enough to do cams purely because I don't want my Evo's warranty to be busted. After all, paying for that 5/10 year warranty was included in the price.
I really like what you guys have done with your Evo over there though. Sounds liek it attracts hella lot of attention. Mine just has random Nissan Pulsar SSS's wanting to race me at lights >__>
hondacura4 says:
07:32 AM, 06/21/09
I never did understand the whole sound at idle factor as if the car is idling its not doing what it was built for. I wanna hear it scream! If a car can be simply judged by its idle sound a BMW M5 would be consistently mistaken for a 535d (diesel) not a 500+hp V10 monster.
On the contray, its not only the unexpected limpy cam noise that can be mysterious or even intimidating as the absence of noise can be equally mysterious and/or intimidating.
I have 2 experiences that relate to this thread. One involves a very quiet C4 Corvette and one involves a 2004 Evolution.
I remember watching a mint mid 80's C4 Corvette at the local drag strip a few years ago at a Buick GranNational event. Other than the aftermarket wheels and the slight... slight V8 exhaust rumble one would think that it was a bone stock Corvette with a cat back. WRONG! It turned out to be a low 10 second (street tired) twin turbo monster that just happened to be eerily quiet. Everyones jaws immediately dropped! That said, Ill take a true sleeper anyday over something that simply advertises its brash brute performance as Id prefer to fully blow expectations out of the water while remaining under the radar.
As for the Evolution, my tuner (RacingTechnologyCo./Dan O'Leary) built an Evolution for a customer and he asked me to ride with him to test and tune that Friday as he wanted to make a test passes to further help "steet tune" it (at the time he didnt have an AWD dyno) and to see if the clutch could handle the power. I went with him to the track, clutch slipped however the car still ran high 11's.
On the way back to the shop, we ran into some "good ole boys" in an old rusty full size Ford Bronco whos driver and passnegers insisted on using the classic "ricer" term and stated that imports are slow ETC ETC. The name calling lasted 2 stoplights and a few miles. Before the 3rd light the driver kept goosing the throttle on and off next to us laughing.
That 3rd stoplight, Dan looked at me grinned evily! Uh oh..... The light turned green and the Bronco took off normally. Dan stayed behind them for a bit but stayed in first gear. He shifted to second and got next to the Blazer, smashed the throttle, the AMS GT35R hit and we pulled 8-10 car lengths in a matter of seconds. The next stoplight their "words of wisdom" had changed a bit. "Damn suuun, whats in that thing"........"Suuuum B*tch that thing hauls ass, is that a 4cyl?"
That Evo ran a AMS GT35R turbo upgrade kit, fully built 4G63, DriveshaftShop axles, ShepRacing tranny, full roll cage, very very very nice (and super expensive) Bride racing buckets, Carbon fibre side skirts/hood/trunk and a host of other go fast and weight lightening goodies. After a few proper dyno sessions the car consistently layed down over 580AWHP!
brdmn says:
04:55 PM, 06/21/09
I'd love to get those cams on my Apex Silver GSR but, including AMS, all of the shops around Chicago are obviously hesitant to do it. It's a pretty labor intensive install from what I'm hearing.