Getting onto the highway after work yesterday, I had an encouter with a Saab 9-5 2.3T. See the picture below to see how things were laid out.

Anyways, the Saab was in front of me starting out. We were probably at aroud 20mph when I went WOT (assuming he was doing the same). I was roughly 2 car lengths back when I went WOT, and by the time we hit ~85, maybe 90, I'd moved ahead about 3/4 of a length.

I was surprised I didn't take the Saab by more, wondering if my car is running right. I know they make different variants of the turbo engine (from 170ish HP to 260), but I'm fairly confident it was not the 260 version (the Aero I believe?). It's hard to compare, seeing as I'm not sure which version of the 2.3T the Saab had, but regardless I expected a little more from my TL. Ah well, I'll have to deal until I get my next car

 

I guess you used Sports shift? Which gear did you start in? If you get a forty roll in second that gives us a really good start I think. I had the same problem last night with a Tc. He actually pulled on me at first. Because I was in second gear and we started at twenty he was able to down shift quicker than me because our computer does that.

Good run. I remember running against a 2.0T Saab sedan 04+. Guy was very upset to see something nearly stock blow him out of the water.

 

I rolled on the the throttle as we rounded the corner onto the ramp enough to keep the car in 1st gear and avoid the shift to 2nd, then shift back to 1st when htiting WOT. I did use SS, and brought 2nd gear up to redline as well (should have gone slightly past redline, as I dont seem to hit the rev limiter until around 7200 I think... there abouts).

I think this weekend I'm going to experiment a little and record a couple 0-70 runs on my camera to see roughly what kind of times I'm pulling. I wish I had a 1/4 track around, be fun to run this car a couple times, am curious to see if it is running strong (i.e. able to hit a trap speed of around 95 I'd guess in the 1/4).

 

40 roll is not a good start for the TL. that puts u in 2nd gear at low RPMs. espcially when its a close race. 30 roll is ideal for a close match.

bigdo26 are you coming to the RonJon meet on the 19th?

 

He'd better be rolling through if he's from CT.

 

Dude don't worry if you kept going you would've pulled him since you would be hitting the top of third gear and he would've shifted into 4th. The best power in the TL is 55-70mph in 2nd gear, 25mph-40mph in first gear, and 90-110mph in 3rd, anywhere else you'll be falling behind unless, you're much faster than the guy you're racing.

 

hmm I actually i didn't think you did so bad. What year was the Saab? I just did a search and found that there's only 1 trim level for the 2007 Saab 9-5, it's the 2.3T and has 260hp and 258lb/ft of torque. For the 2004 model, there are 2 trims, 2.3T and Aero. 2.3T has 220hp, and Aero has 250hp. From your race result, I guess that you were racing the 2004 9-5 2.3T (220hp).

 

I couldn't tell ya what year the Saab was. It was the newer body style, ~2004 sounds about right. I forgot to mention earlier too, that with the turbo it has a nice broad torque curve, and is probably under-rated from the factory (seems to be a trend with turbo cars...). Guess a couple car lengths isn't all that bad.

He seemed to have an auto tranny as well, didn't notice any signs of shifting.

 

If I'm around that weekend I'll try and stop by. Where is it?

 

its in NY check out the meet section its stickied

 

no kidding those turbo engines make like 90% of max torque from as low as 1500rpm or somewhere around there. I wonder how much those saabs weigh though!