On my way home, 11:50ish, I was at the end of a road at a light, in a left turn lane (there are two left turn lanes at this intersection going my direction).

I see some car coming up behind me and I notice he has clear corners. It looked vaguely like M3 headlights but I couldn't tell. He pulls up in the lane next to me, the other turn lane, which is on my right. I don't look over, I'm tired and just on my way home, but as the light's about to change, he throws me a rev and I know then from the sound it's an old 5.0 Mustang.

So I let go of the brake for a split second so my car inches forward a hair.

Then our light is green and we both roll into the left turn, and I can tell he wants to go. So as soon as we're straight on the new road, I hear him wind out first and I mash the pedal (I always leave it in D5) and the tranny drops from second into first and winds out that, 2nd, and 3rd gear. Initially while my car dropped down to first he pulled even with me, then once I was on it, he slowly fell back until I had 1/2 to 3/4 of a car on him (his nose was somewhere between the back of my passenger side door and the little passengerside rear window.)

Then 4th gear kicks in and I'm like "WTF just happened? Is this fifth gear? OMG, it didn't even go from redline 3rd into VTEC 4th... just a dog of a fourth gear."

I look at my speedo and I'm around 105-110 and still have a nice 1/2 car on him so I jam my brakes to let him know I'm out, and he goes flying by me, still accelerating as I slow to 85-90.
I see nice big street slicks (or whatever you call the daily-driver slicks) on his rear wheels.

Then I see him finally get off it a ways up the road and then he puts on his hazards for two blinks and taps his brakes once (I guess he thought he won.... )

Either way it was fun. He probably didn't have more than an intake and exhaust, so considering I just have a minimal intake mod (I still use the stock airbox, just a hi-flow filter and no resonator), we were most likely evenly matched mod-wise. He was a stick but a good shifter, I was in D5 automatic. Going from a roll helped me, I'm sure, since I have more horsepower and he didn't get to use his torque advantage at launch.

It was nice to see I can hang with a 5.0 'Stang though. Reassuring.

So the point though - my goodness our 4th gear sucks. I'd rather have a shorter 4th gear, especially since 5th is a fine overdrive and there's really no need for two of them.

With our gearing the way it is, it's no wonder we can't get much over 140mph out of our car.


Also, anyone know a better way to tell the other driver the race is over when you're both too close to each other to see hazards or anything else? I just jammed on the brakes since I didn't have another way to say, "I'm done".

 

I agree 4th does suck. I've taken my CL-S to just over 140 to about 143 and as soon as you shift out of third into fourth the fun is over.

I really don't know what Acura was thinking when they geared the tranny (I guess they were looking for good gas mileage or something) since you can hit the govonor in both 4th and 5th, they should have made 3rd and 4th closer together and only hit the top end in 5th.

 

You musta had a lot of open space to get up to 143mph!

 

with headers and cai once you hit vtec it's not so bad...

 

That's the headers. They help in the high end. Those and/or RES will make it better, but it's still a crappy 4th gear.

 

You should just have it taken out. Who needs that crap anyway.

 

 

i would have fucking greased a 2k2 maxima if i didnt ever shift into fourth, i had to goin like 90 i had no choice but to shift...thats when his ass started pulling hard w/my foot on the pedal...couldnt do a damn thang, felt betrayed...Shyne

 

that's what I want to know?

with Comptech's headers can you feel the improvement
in peak HP (25+ right?) from 5000rpm up ???

because when the shift is made from 3rd to 4th at about
110mph & I think the tach drops to about 4900rpms the
motor just feels like it's out gone fishing!

 

She pulls hard from 5500-7000 with headers. Just what the doctor ordered!

 

get a level 10 tc and that will help

 

was up mike mchtypes

 

whats up bro

 

mike find out if any one wants my hid kit for my civic its an h4 i want $400.00

 

I thought I read somewhere that there is a problem with Level 10. Either there is a lawsuit against them or something like that?

 

Yeah there are a couple I think. They didn't hold up their end of a deal or something and the other was over shoddy products.

 

good job man!
you'll need headers to accelerate in 4th.

Also after you win flash the hazards then when he passes just do a simple high beam. .