Didja ever have one of those days where you go to lunch and...

Jstas

...you just don't want to get out of the car...well, truck in my case and you just want to drive...somewhere...anywhere...really freaking fast!


Even with the blown speaker rattling away, I still enjoy my vehicle immensely. It's gotta go in for service and state inspection next week and I don't want to give it up. I'll honestly miss it. It was having body damage fixed about a week and a half ago and I was honestly angry at the rental car for being such a slug and unresponsive. When I got the truck back, I was soooooo happy that the service writer at the body shop even commented about how happy I was.

The stereo just adds to it. Like I said, even with the blown speaker. I was listening to the second CD in an album from this German techno group called Scooter. The album is "Push the Beat for this Jam (The Second Chapter)" and it's like their second greatest hits album. It's basically techno and dance club music but it's fun to listen to. Kinda reminds me of video game music from the older arcade games and such. The steady beats help me concentrate 'cause it keeps my brain from wandering off in the background and distracting me. But I get into a kind of trance and whatever the thing I am trying to concentrate on at the time is, it becomes more vivid and I'm more attuned to it. When I'm driving, it's like a video game and if I can find a challenging road or even on a race track, I'll blast the music and it's like...whoa!

What's even stranger is that my vehicle is a pickup truck and even though I've owned this truck for 6 years and driven it literally, daily, I'm still amazed that a pickup truck can move like that. I mean, I know it's a far cry from a Ferrari but it handles better, stops better and out accelerates many other vehicles on the road. It is constantly underestimated by other drivers looking to have a stop-light drag race or think it's "...just a pickup truck, how fast can it be?"

Yeah, if I didn't have to be at work right now, I'd probably be being pulled over in Northeast PA for driving up River Rd way too fast.

Joelsbass

LOL I know what you mean, you've got a lightning right? I'd love to pick up one of the domestic Diesel trucks and chip it out, huge boost to torque and HP for a few hundred bucks... People do tend to underestimate trucks but the tend to have a good deal of power. For instance, my dad has an F250 with the triton V10, it's got bawls!

Jstas

Yeah, it's a Lightning but it's not so much how fast it goes. I mean, it is capable of some serious acceleration. It won't go as fast as say a Mustang with similar power because it weighs 4700+ pounds but the torque is insane and the curve is flat as a board. It pulls like a freight train. If I shift the automatic manually and hit it just right when the traction's best it's not so much as violent acceleration but rather that it feels like it blurs time. You hear the 90mm throttle body pop open just before the blower starts to suck air and scream and then you get shoved in to your seat and it feels like the hand of God came down and smacked the tailgate. Things in front of you start approaching you insanely fast so you turn and it cuts and weaves like it's on rails. Depending on the degree of the radius of the turn, I've had it up past 90 MPH before the rear end wants to start to step out.

On the race track, I've taken the wide sweepers flat out with only a hint of understeer that manifests itself in a screaming, smoky, 4 wheel drift that grabs just as the turn exit approaches. You get back on the gas, the **** end tweaks a bit and pops back into line and you scream up the straightway to redline which gets your somewhere slightly north of 150 MPH. The next turn comes up and you're HARD on the brakes at 4700 pounds of truck strain against 13 inch carbon brakes all around and speed comes off in a hurry as the tires groan under the weight and scrub off speed. You hit the turn, still braking hard, nail the apex, off the brakes and on the power nice and easy. A little counter steer as the power comes on before the rear end loads up and gains traction again. But you're rollin' now so you stomp the go pedal and go screaming to the next turn and do it over and over and over again. Each time, teetering on the screaming edge of maximum performance and teasing that sharp knife-edge of out-of-control. Sure, the little cars get through the turns faster but they can't pull away from you that fast and they are driving a car. You're driving a goddamn pickup truck! What the hell?! Who cares! This thing sounds like a jet engine, moves like it's got warp drive, stops so hard your seat belts will bruise your chest and will still turn on a dime and make change! This is the embodiment of fun! If this is the low end of the performance market then the high end's gotta be positively orgasmic! Maybe even better than sex!

Driving that hard, man and machine operating as one, it's poetry in motion. Exhilarating isn't strong enough of a word. It's positively living! Feeling that adrenalin coursing through your system. The heightened senses. Reflexes are faster. Every thing is on edge and totally tuned in to what's going on. Yeah, it ain't just about acceleration. There is a thrill there like no other.





Oh and if you want to make the V10 REALLY haul, get a supercharger. Kenne Belle had one, so did Paxton, Whipple, ATI, Powerdyne, Vortech, Procharger and a few others. Most were getting 460-525 horses out of the V10 with torque ratings in the 680-740 pound foot range. But watch out for those diesels. I have a friend who had a 97 F-350 with a Powerstroke that he had massaged by Turbonetics. That beast could be hooked up to a fully loaded, enclosed trailer and blow away the dual wheel rear axle on the trot at 35 MPH and haze all 4 tires with 10,000 pounds on the trailer hook. With no trailer, it managed mid 12 seconds in the 1/4 mile on street tires. He ran it on a set of MT E/T Streets once he said but I don't know what it ran. Had to be something insane. Sucks down fuel like crazy though, even if it is putting down over 1100 pound feet of torque.

PolkThug

Perfect timing. Today on my lunch break, I drove my truck home, fired up the compressor and swapped out my Stang's rear wheels to my street tires, then drove my car back to work just so I could have a fun 20 minute drive home after work.

Jstas, have you went to a smaller pulley yet?

Jstas

No, haven't modified anything under the hood except a K&N air filter. The truck made rated power at the wheels. It's a factory freak and I'm reluctant to mess with it.

But I know where there's a black '99 with blue flames just sitting because the owner can't afford to run it anymore. It has two flat tires. I'm thinking I'll make him an offer and that can be the "fun" truck for all the mods. Either that or find an '02 or '03 Harley Davidson F-150 4-door and give that the hi-po treatment.

eloplayspolo

then you get shoved in to your seat and it feels like the hand of God came down and smacked the tailgate

haha
My dad brought home a viper when i was like 10 and he gunned it and i remember that same feeling of being tossed back in my seat like a rag doll

MacLeod

Yup, I know exactly how you feel.

Ive done that several times. Got a great sounding CD in the player and at a respectable volume - its a nive cool night and my car seems to be driving a little better than usual. So you take the long way home.

Oddly enough, as much as I loved my Dodge Ram, I find myself doing this more in my Honda. I reckon because its a 5 speed and a little more fun and responsive to drive. Plus my Honda system sounds MUCH better than my Ram's ever did.

Joelsbass

MacLeod wrote: »

Oddly enough, as much as I loved my Dodge Ram, I find myself doing this more in my Honda. I reckon because its a 5 speed and a little more fun and responsive to drive. Plus my Honda system sounds MUCH better than my Ram's ever did.

SACRILEGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MacLeod

Tell me about it. That broke my heart just typing it.

But its true. My Honda is a lot more fun to drive. Its more responsive, much better handling and the 5 speed makes it even more so.

My beloved Dodge was nice and comfy but also bug and lumbering. Not to mention the 15 mpg versus the 34 mpg I now get!