little srt8 backroad action (long read)

**DriveATransam** · 05-21-2006, 11:19 AM

sorry, no cliff notes.

my local f-body club had their spring cruise today. since my TA doesnt handle as well as the magnum i decided to take the magnum

i got made fun of and had to ride in the back. both i knew of beforehand. the benefits are that the back is faster, way faster because you are playing catch-up the whole time.

location:wisconsin

there are 40 f-bodies and 4 non- me, C5 corvette, gto, and cavilar lower with bigger brakes and whatever else he had done.

i couldnt find a clear bra in time so i used good ole 3m painters tape. i knew i was gonna get made fun of reguardless, so i figured i might as well give them some more ammo :D

as we set out the corvette sneeks in front of me and the gto. well, the vette thought he was out on a sunday cruise and wouldnt go above (or much) the speed limit. so naturally i couldnt run the car as hard as i would have liked. but thats not important to this story at this time so i dont know why i just wrote it.

at any rate, on with the story. i was in auto stick for about 20 miles. traction control disabled. i have to say that is a bad combo. when going into a sharp turn you have to drop to first because second just has no power to take you out of it. well, going into a turn in first gear is just asking for trouble if you even think about touching the loud pedal before you complete the turn. if i glanced at it, it would spin the rear around like nothing and it was very difficult to keep pointed where you wanted once she started sliding. the other problem was coming out of a turn. if you left it in a higher gear, then tried to downshift it would a)not b) put you right at red line and you would smash the limiter when you tried to upshift.

with my TA i could slide the rear out and do whatever i want with it. very predictable. the magnum- no so much. perhaps its the open rearend...or the extra weight. going around a tight turn and that inside tire just lights up and pushes you towards the outside of the turn. i put TC back on (just off, not disabled) and the results were the same. the rear would slide out too hard.

i then decided to try keeping it in automatic mode with the TC off. now this was the hot ticket. why? because of that ever so intrusive YAW sensor im guessing. it KNOWS when ur turning, and how hard and will select the gear accordingly. if going into a turn fast and ur on the brakes it will downshift for you automatically to keep the revs high. then on the turn it will hold the gears, and ur golden coming out of the turn. if it picked the wrong gear then it would downshift immediatly when you flat foot it coming out of the turn. i disabled TC and the results were similair...only with a little more sidways action.

after about 30 miles we got a little h eld up in traffic and i passed the vette because i couldnt stand it anymore. this put me behind a lovely done up camaro SS. now i could cruise with some speed :D coming out of the turns i would run up on that poor SS every time. he just didnt have quite the power to pull away or stay in front of me :D

a few other f-bodies were in front of me durring the cruise and everyone one of them couldnt pull away from my stock srt8. the lt1 was the worst. lots of noise and not much movement :D granted a highly modified ls1 could pull away no problem, there were none in front of me at the time :D

after numerous WOT punches from a slow roll, from a stop, etc, i have to say that the magnum is definatly mostly top end. it could barely spin the tires from a stop. maybe a little squeek and then it flat out moved once it reaches about 4K rpms. i had a ton of fun and found what works and what doesnt work. im amazed at how well the tranny is programmed to handle turning situations. i pushed this car very hard and it handled itself great. there were a few times i ended up in an oncoming lane when i wasnt trying, but you cant take all turns at speed in a lane 10 feet wide :D

the cruise 230 miles long. 95% of it were backroads with few cars coming the other direction. the lead cars were letting the people in back know about oncoming traffic and pedestrians via walkie talkies. i dont want to leave the impression that there were 40 cars just driving like *******s because thats not the case. towards the end of the pack you gotta drive a bit faster to keep up :D and seeing how i was the last of 3 cars i did my part to keep up haha.

thats all i really got for now. i cant wait to take this thing to road america and see how she does on a real track. maybe ill get some power mods and a set of sway bars and really show those ls1s whats up :D wagon or no wagon, this little car can scoot. some wider tires definantly is on the list once these burn off. i only got the 1-2 shift hesitation maybe a handful of times...it only occured when the rear tires were spinning, and then grabbed while still in first. if it spun into second it would just short shift and bog second. i could spin the tires out of a turn a bit and run into second without any problems. maybe i got a lucky car or found a way to avoide the 1-2 problem <shrug>

my mpg to meeting point and 2 days of city driving: 17.82 @ 38mpg average. my mpg durring the first 160 miles of the cruise : 12.16 @ 35mph avg, :D. filled up the tank both times and manually calculated. she likes to drink gas...but not nearly as bad i would have thought. if i can get 12 mpg in a 4500 lb vehicle with god knows how many wot and downshifts and runs up to 100 mph then i have no problems. oh yea, the sunroof was open (tilted) and the windows were down as well. this car is simply amazing. my hats off to dodge on this one.

**GasGunR** · 05-21-2006, 12:16 PM

Glad you finally got a chance to flog one around corners

Did you ever try leaving the ESP on and the trans in Drive?

Don

**hemiwagn** · 05-21-2006, 12:33 PM

Great write up, thanks for sharing. Nice to be able to drive like it was designed for!

**DriveATransam** · 05-21-2006, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by GasGunR

Glad you finally got a chance to flog one around corners

Did you ever try leaving the ESP on and the trans in Drive?

Don

yes. it killed the power on the turns too much to get out of the hole good from a stop/slow roll. sometimes you want that little slide and spinning to get moving. this was on a street though, perhaps on the track with different conditions things would be different.

on the way home it started to rain a bit. she took off straight as an arrow with it on- i was still in drive fast mode and wanted to see what would happen :grin: the TA behind me almost took out some construction cones when his rear started sliding though :grin:

tires were a little low imo-about 33 cold. they would heat up to 35 and sometimes 36. i woulda liked to see 35 cold. engine temps stayed relativly cool too. i was suprised. about 207-210 on average. that moving air really cools it down. ive seen up to 220 sitting in traffic on the expressway.

**GasGunR** · 05-21-2006, 02:48 PM

Thanks for the write up Roy

Great thread!

Don

**DriveATransam** · 05-21-2006, 05:05 PM

heres some pics from the day. warning: mostly f-bodies :D http://www.crawlinta.com/springcruise06

i just cleaned these suckers too

**lieu910** · 05-21-2006, 05:44 PM

Nice write up Roy. The ribbing- to be expected. Would be the same if someone brought their GT-Ohmygo****'sugly to an LX gathering I suppose.

I had mine in Lake Geneva today and averaged 19.3 mpg from algonquin taking 47. Saw a string of corvettes coming home too.

I've added Magnaflow hi-flo cats, & exhaust, mopar cai, jet II. Definately sounds nice. Next is a shaker hood from mopower and tuner from srt8-tuning.

Only 1k miles on her since I bought it end of November '05, but it's a treat to drive it...what a car!

adios

**DriveATransam** · 05-21-2006, 08:29 PM

on the way home evic said i was getting 22 mpg (so prolly like 20 in reality). thats a lot of mods for a car that never gets driven :D i have close to 4000 (if not over it now). checked the trip computer- 360 miles yesterday. forgot to check overall though.

the ribbing was all in fun. ive known most of these guys for 6 years. i dont think they like station wagons though

i can say that after 2 months of owning the car that im not tired of it- handling or speed. thats a feat for sure. i wanna throw her on the rollers and see what it puts down. has to be close to 370. this thing pulls like crazy when cool.

let me know how the tuning feels. i want to do it, but waiting for someone else to spend the cash first :D ill prolly stick with tuning and a cai and see how she does.