How Much More Can Be Made Street-able - 12/26/05

[AJ]

How Much More Can Be Made Street-able


by: Mike Alleman

Can more street-able horsepower be made and can our cars get much faster? And what will you have to give up getting it there? Well it seems like power increases in 4g63/64 engines go through stages. We seem to hit a wall where we say, "that's all folks", and then somebody finds something new to do, and BAM! More power is made. Years ago a 12-sec street DSM was the shit. Then all of a sudden everybody is driving 11-sec street DSM's. Then street DSM's crested into the 10-sec range. But now it's almost to the point that if you don't have a 9-sec street DSM you don't get any respect. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

Then there is the BIG debate about "What is really considered street?" You have the gutted "tin can" with lights and a steering wheel. Or you have the full weight; full interior car with a high horsepower engine shoehorned into everything else the factory built around it. And then you have the whole spectrum of every conceivable combination in between. So where is the line drawn between racecar and streetcar? Everybody will have his or her own opinion. Do we draw the line at full exhaust making it street no matter what else has been done? D.O.T. tires? More than one or two seats? Full interior? Some interior? Size of the turbo? Amount of boost? Amount of nitrous? Roll cage? Pump gas or C-16? Air-to-air or water-to-air intercooler?...... And the list goes on. Can you hear the beating "thunder drums" as you think about what your ultimate street DSM would be? You bet your ass you hear them. But in the end how street-able would it still be?

The biggest problem we have with DSM's is weight. Our cars are too heavy. My car is way too heavy (3500lbs with driver too heavy). Unfortunately we don't have much we can do about it unless you start cutting the car up. I don't just mean pulling sound deadening insulation and plastic. I'm talking about using cutting wheels, torches, drills or jigsaws remove every piece of anything that does not make it run, go straight or stop. And it seems as if many could care less if they can stop it after a run. Sure there are a few carbon fiber pieces we can get, but in the end they may only save us 100-200lbs. Not much of a gain vs. the cost involved.

As far as pure "VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER", there are several really high horsepower cars out there. Rau, Shep', AMS, Magnus, etc. Even our own ecoli (Shane). Several cars hitting anywhere from 800-1200hp which definitely helps with the weight issues. But take care of the weight issue and you have a record holder on your hands, just ask Rau. But these are not streetcars in the normal sense of the term. 50+ psi, methanol, 200+ shot of nitrous, 10,000+rpm, etc. are becoming the high horsepower norm. Even Shep's car (especially lately) raises the question of "how street-able is it really?" Its latest incarnation is definitely not street-able at all.

So where do you set your standards?

For me it's a "blurred" line. Big power that's "reliable". Sure seems like that statement right there might be an example of wishful thinking. But with the advancements being made with regard to better parts, better tuning tools in the hands of people who really know how to use them, years of experience backing it up and so on, it is much easier to build big power and be reliable. But I also want some level of comfort (oh I can hear the "die-hards" screaming already). I want my a/c, my sunroof, my 1000 watt plus stereo, my leather seats, my nice wheels, my show car shine, etc, etc. And I can and do have them. Sure I could gut it and remove all of my creature comforts, but it would not be my streetcar anymore. It would turn into something I would only take to the track, possibly only trailered. There would be no joy found in just the simple pleasure of cranking up my favorite hard rock anthems and cruising the streets just for the fun of the drive. Or knowing I can spank 95% of what pulls up next to me at the stop light without them even seeing it coming. Or to find that stretch of deserted back road that beckons to be tamed. Even now as I bolt new parts onto my car (the never ending saga) I wonder where it will go next if I really like how it turns out this time. Because we all know "it's never fast enough".

So where do you draw the line?

-1ViciousGSX --- ---