[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
I visited some friends over Memorial Day weekend who live in a new suburban sprawl community outside of Los Angeles. A very nice Pleasantville meets the Truman Show with a little Addams Family thrown in. Part of the arrangement was to entertain their 4 1/2 year old girl Kayla for a day by taking her to her favorite places to eat and play. We drive in my car, with her child seat strapped in the back. She's known me since she was born so we're like family and she's chattering away telling me all about her life. Good times.
Then at one point she says, "Your car isn't very fast." Considering that it's always best to filter everything a kid says through the mind of a child I ponder whether that is a good or bad thing. Then she tells me, "And Billy (a 4 year old neighbor) said you have an old car." Considering I'm driving at safe speeds in a classic 82 900T I decide to just agree with her on both accounts, since she was basically just stating facts. I told her that you can drive any car for a long time if you take good care of it, like I do with this one. I also tell her that my car can go much faster, but I like being safe when I'm driving with a little girl (ok, that was a dig at her) in the car. "I'm not a little girl, I'm a big girl." "You look little to me." "I am not." "Am too." "Am not." "Little" "Big" "Little" "Big" and so it went.
Here's the point. The next day I drive off with her father in his new Saturn Vue SUV. He plants the pedal to the floor on a green light with a nice long stretch ahead of us and that thing jets off, with no seeming stop to the seat of pants acceleration until we get to 70 mph when he backs off. That's when Jerry tells me about the Honda built 24 valve V6 5 speed auto box all wheel drive rated at 250 HP and 242 ft/lbs tq. So now I know what Kayla meant when she said I have a slow car. Again, she was just stating a fact. With just a few perf mods and tweaks on this 86 16V engine, I'll guess my car is rated at no more than 175HP, which is fun for this classic 900, but no match for the pop and feel of that V6.
Later on while driving back home, we were at a red light with a beautifully restored late 60's convertible top V8 muscle car to our right, and a nice long stretch ahead of us. Jerry pops it full throttle and jets off at green. The other driver "get's" what's going on and plants his pedal. I'm expecting the other car to catch up and pass us no problem, but that friggin Saturn kept the lead all the way to 85 at which point we had to slow down in order to make a turn up ahead. Now if I can just find a way to implant that V6 into my car...
posted by 207.200.116...
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
