Quote:
Originally Posted by IheartGeos
I really did not know that Geos had that much power or could withstand that much punishment! Now that I know, I will not be afraid at all to run mine hard when needed. Thanks for the great story, I will be sure to tell it to all my friends who also have Geo Metros!
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When I had a tach put in the car I had always thought that when I ran it hard on the street I was shifting at 5000 rpm, but the new tach showed I was only shifting at 4000. At the drag strip you have to run at least a 19.99 to be able to bracket race. To do this I had to launch hard enough to get a little spin off the right front tire and also had to shift at 5500 rpm. On the street I never shift passed 5000 rpm which was only good enough for 20.23 seconds.
Using my drag strip at the tire hp formula I found that a best time of 19.84 seconds showed 50.8 hp at the tires....during eliminations my best time of 19.9 equalled 47.8 hp while my worst run in eliminations of a 19.99 showed only about 47.2 hp. I am sure that if the motor did not have 160,000 miles on it and/or had a valve job it would be quicker. A new fast time of 18.99 should be obtained if the car had 55 hp at the tires, but it is hard for a car to have as much hp at the tires as the motor is rated at due to drivetrain losses.
The thing I was afraid of the most was tranny breakage...I had to launch at about 3000 rpm to get a bit of tire spin or else the take off would slightly bog the motor down. I would certainly be warry of this thing lasting an entire season being raced like this. I have no idea if the trannys in these are the same as or as tough as the ones in the turbo Suzukis GTI models.
Bracket racing requires a good reaction time to the strarting light and a consistant car....fast does not win the race unless it includes these two items. The car I USUALLY race is a high 16 second 84 Horizon that barely hits 80 in the 1/4. I used it to win the VAST majority of my 34 NHRA/IHRA championships. My 12 second SRT4 Neon has not won a championship yet, but I did manage a runner-up finish at the Stick Shift Nationals in November.