Since there is no AV/cool story forum...
04-17-2007, 10:52 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Fayetteville, Georgia
Posts: 2,483
You all may know David Hayes from the other forum -- he has had a 2 year long project (not unline mine...haha) converting his car to a 20B. He has been screwed over a couple times along the way, but most recently his car has been at Gotham Racing. Two weeks ago Steve Kan drove the car here (Atlanta) for a tuning session so David could finally pick up his car. I picked up on the thread about the Kan tuning session and got some more info. I ended up speaking with David on the phone and I was just making sure it was cool if I showed up to see his car.
When I got to the shop, they had his car up on a lift analyzing some coolant leak. He showed up shortly after me, and after introducing myself, the mechanics asked him to take the car for a drive to build some pressure in the coolant system. He asked me if I wanted to go for ride. My response: "Hell yeah I wanna go for a ride!!"
To put this in perspective, I've never even ridden in an FD before, but it's my dream car. So to actually ride in an FD, let alone a 20B FD -- I was like a giddy school girl. He loses the rear end on one of the first turns and the car just feels incredible. My definition of "incredible" may be different from someone who has ridden in a 20B car before, or even just a 500+HP car, but I was in disbelief at how effortlessly it pulled in any gear. The turbo was fully spooled around 3K, and fifth gear pulls at 3K put me back in the seat. The car was also amazingly quiet -- David said he spent a lot of time making sure the exhaust was not jarring from inside the car and that you could actually have a conversation while at speed. I think he used some sort of sound deadening spray-on stuff to accomplish this.
At any rate, he pulls over and offers to let me drive the car. I mean, holy sh*t, I don't even know this guy, but he's offering to let me drive his car? OMG! Of course I accept. First, I can't figure out how to open the MF'ing door, so I look like a complete tool. By the time he's on my side of the car I finally figured it out. I get into the driver's seat, adjust the position (I'm short and unconfident, so I position myself IN the dash), and get a feel for the clutch pedal. I'm worried that I'm going to ruin his clutch or transmission. He warns me about the the throw, and man, I want the Pettit short shifter for sure. The most challenging aspect of changing gears was getting around the stock boot which he still had installed, but with the short shifter: poofyness all over the place. I made very slow, calculated gear changes, and only stalled a few times (only once due to my error -- the others were tuning issues
).
I didn't do anything two crazy, obviously. The coolest part of driving it was pulling up next to a MazdaSpeed Miata. The middle-aged dude and his wife waived, and I gave it a quick 2nd gear romp from 2-6K. They waived more vigorously this time and gave a big thumbs-up.
On they dyno, on a rough Kan street tune, he pulled 442/366 on 9psi. They managed to eek out 511 on 11psi before discovering an electrical problem. A large voltage drop above 6K kept them from tuning anymore and Steve ended up driving the car BACK to Gotham for more work.
I didn't get any footage of me driving, but I did my best to absorb the experience of riding in the car. Don't laugh at my stupid questions, my voice (I hate the way it sounds), or my giddyness -- I'm sure someone with similar experiences would feel/act just the way I did.
I hope you enjoy the video! And I did the best with the equipment I had...haha.
David's 20b [uncut] (right-click, save-as) [Quicktime 7 required -- it's encoded in H.264 and it's ~ 83.5MB, so please right-click, save-as]
When I got to the shop, they had his car up on a lift analyzing some coolant leak. He showed up shortly after me, and after introducing myself, the mechanics asked him to take the car for a drive to build some pressure in the coolant system. He asked me if I wanted to go for ride. My response: "Hell yeah I wanna go for a ride!!"
To put this in perspective, I've never even ridden in an FD before, but it's my dream car. So to actually ride in an FD, let alone a 20B FD -- I was like a giddy school girl. He loses the rear end on one of the first turns and the car just feels incredible. My definition of "incredible" may be different from someone who has ridden in a 20B car before, or even just a 500+HP car, but I was in disbelief at how effortlessly it pulled in any gear. The turbo was fully spooled around 3K, and fifth gear pulls at 3K put me back in the seat. The car was also amazingly quiet -- David said he spent a lot of time making sure the exhaust was not jarring from inside the car and that you could actually have a conversation while at speed. I think he used some sort of sound deadening spray-on stuff to accomplish this.
At any rate, he pulls over and offers to let me drive the car. I mean, holy sh*t, I don't even know this guy, but he's offering to let me drive his car? OMG! Of course I accept. First, I can't figure out how to open the MF'ing door, so I look like a complete tool. By the time he's on my side of the car I finally figured it out. I get into the driver's seat, adjust the position (I'm short and unconfident, so I position myself IN the dash), and get a feel for the clutch pedal. I'm worried that I'm going to ruin his clutch or transmission. He warns me about the the throw, and man, I want the Pettit short shifter for sure. The most challenging aspect of changing gears was getting around the stock boot which he still had installed, but with the short shifter: poofyness all over the place. I made very slow, calculated gear changes, and only stalled a few times (only once due to my error -- the others were tuning issues
I didn't do anything two crazy, obviously. The coolest part of driving it was pulling up next to a MazdaSpeed Miata. The middle-aged dude and his wife waived, and I gave it a quick 2nd gear romp from 2-6K. They waived more vigorously this time and gave a big thumbs-up.
On they dyno, on a rough Kan street tune, he pulled 442/366 on 9psi. They managed to eek out 511 on 11psi before discovering an electrical problem. A large voltage drop above 6K kept them from tuning anymore and Steve ended up driving the car BACK to Gotham for more work.
I didn't get any footage of me driving, but I did my best to absorb the experience of riding in the car. Don't laugh at my stupid questions, my voice (I hate the way it sounds), or my giddyness -- I'm sure someone with similar experiences would feel/act just the way I did
I hope you enjoy the video! And I did the best with the equipment I had...haha.
David's 20b [uncut] (right-click, save-as) [Quicktime 7 required -- it's encoded in H.264 and it's ~ 83.5MB, so please right-click, save-as]
04-17-2007, 06:19 PM
#6
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Fayetteville, Georgia
Posts: 2,483
Originally Posted by phinsup' post='868571' date='Apr 17 2007, 05:13 PM
Hey **** you this isn't in the proper forum, i'm going to have to lock it. next time please put it in the classifieds section.
thank you and good day to you.
phins you're the bestest!
04-17-2007, 09:37 PM
#8
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Fayetteville, Georgia
Posts: 2,483
Originally Posted by vosko' post='868611' date='Apr 17 2007, 08:51 PM
it was really boring..... sorry lol
You've seen it all Vosko, it's more for someone who has never experienced anything like that before, like me.
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