A little DSM perspective... Options

[awd4kicks]

Have any of you gotten a chance to drive a powerful RWD car on a full slick?

Josh let me drive the SLO PNY 1 Saturday night. It's a carburated small block cammed-up for high rpm and plenty of bottle. Right now it is together but still un-tuned. It's running about 10.8 AFR when it should be about 12.5 at WOT. So it's not performing as raw and fast as it will once tuned...

But dang that thing is a handful. I wouldn't normally want an automatic car at all, but not being used to his car made driving the manul trans a LOT of work. The fat-low-pressure slicks are something else. I've ridden in a couple and drove two Mustangs with these kind of tires... I hate it! Straight line traction only! The rest of the time I was trying to keep the car somewhere NEAR my own lane while trying to man the shifter into position. Don’t get me wrong his Mustang rides descent for what’s done to it and drives down the road at normal speeds just fine. I had ridden in Steve Powers race Stang before with an automatic and that thing was a tin-log-wagon…very rough. Now he has a TA that is running VERY fast with a full stock interior on drag radials which still have a low profile and easy control.

The DSM’s dainty transmissions may be the glass-jaw for most owners, but at least they can be shifted most of the time. The SLO PNY 1 is using the tried and true Tremec truck transmission because it will hold up to the abuse, but getting it into gear requires a full force punch while grinding most of the time! I missed one to two gears on each WOT pull, and that RARELY ever happened in the Talon any more.

Josh’s car is fast and it will get the job that it was built for done in a hurry. It will even drive better once he replaces the steering shaft for a tighter wheel and tunes the fuel. But I found out for sure that I am not looking for a drag race only car.

I did however ride in an 03 Cobra running 17psi with a handful of other mods. I expected the power and it felt good. What caught my attention was this car and owners ability to dish out about six full on WOT runs, one right after another without even breathing hard or worrying about breaking something. That was interesting and a trait I wouldn’t mind having in my own car.

The point is that my preference is definitely for a ‘Sports’ car that can be cross trained for most forms of racing. This is why the DSM has been my weapon of choice for the past six years. My problem has always been accepting a lower or specific power range rather than just jack the HP up as far as my money will get me. I think I will need to further ponder my true expectations of a ‘Street’ car built for racing before I make any rash decisions. In the mean time I may go through a few toys before I settle back into one car.

It’s hard to get over all driving excitement that an AWD DSM can supply a person in almost any circumstance… They just break to damn much!