zxsaint

405 north just past 118, pulled up next to a playful SS that earlier had flew by me on the highway. He was waiting for me. No one else up ahead (almost 3am). I check out the ride for a second, it's a dark blue, and he's got some nice deep lip wheels on it.

Never ran against one of these before but from what i've read here and everywhere else, they're mean and their power should be taken seriously. Needless to say I was looking for a fun run but was assuming that i'd get my *** handed to me. I was shocked at what happened.

We're both side by side but I failed to check how fast we were rolling at (My guess is 85) but i'm on 5th at exactly 4000rpm waiting to pull the trigger. As soon as I hear the slightest growl from his side, I punch it and we're running even! I start to pull and he slightly drops back to my door... We run up into the 100's and a quick glance over and I can't see him at all but I still see the illuminated road beside me. I look back over and realize i'm at 135 ! So I shut down and just before I tap my breaks, I look behind and he's about 3 full car lengths behind.

I exit the next street and he followed me down the streets for a bit and pulled up and gave thumbs up for a good run. We hit a red and he revs at me. Little does he know that we're about a block away from a LAPD station and it wouldn't be smart to fly by there (lot of cops on that street going in and out) so I let him know about it and he nods. I'm guessing he probably thought I chickened out unless he saw the big LAPD station sign up ahead down the street some more. Also, I was already convinced he'd probably kill me on a street run from a stop, and wasn't really ready to take the risk getting busted.

Anyway, I'm curious why he didn't kill me on the highway run. I'm sure some LS1 guys can help me out here.

RD99SS

Most likely it was an auto that you ran and he may have stopped sooner than you did or he was in 4th gear at that speed if it was a stick (wrong gear choice at that speed for him)...the auto's tend to trap around 105 in the 1/4 where as the 6-sp will trap higher...I finally had a run with a 350z yesterday on 195E in MA from 65 ~ 120 and I was around 3 ~ 4 cars ahead when I shut it down...it was a silver colored one, looked sharp

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

Either of those are a possibility....but the Z was in the wrong gear anyway...so he would have pulled MORE if he started in 4th where he should have.

I had another run with an LS1 on the highway Thursday night. It was a white Trans Am with blue racing stripes...it wasn't pretty for the LS1...I don't understand, I've run into THREE so far and the only one that has given me a good run was a auto C5 vette on the highway (he beat me by a 1/2 car).

hfm

iTrader: (1)

Nice kill.

I think the SS v Z is a great race. Not sure how much they weigh but the 320 hp to 287 is not a huge advantage. The two stand still races I've had with the SS were 1 - 1 and it came down to shifting. Only race I've had as much fun as against a SS was a 911 cabriolet. Have to find a willing stock GT next.

Love this car. She takes on some of the best American muscle and German engineering and says..."bring it!"

Maximam

Your right the LS1 is advertised as having 320hp. In reality it puts down as much as 310+ rwhp stock. That is more like 365hp! So if the 350Z puts down 240ish to the wheels, that is a 70rwhp advantage the LS1 has.

I am confused as to why these LS1s are so slow. I will say a auto LS1 with 2.73 gears will be a dog. A properly driven M6 should pull a Z very well. As we all know, the street is a $hitty comparison of vehicle performance.

hfm

iTrader: (1)

Huh? That's the first I've heard that! I was thinking it was 320 v. 287 = 33 hp difference. 70 hp is a lot more and doesn't make sense to me given my experience racing against these cars.

Maximam

It is true.

I look at actual rwhp not factory advertised hp because cars are over/under rated from the factory. The Neon SRT is a perfect example along with the f-body.

hfm

iTrader: (1)

Hrrm. If it's a 70 hp difference, then I guess it makes more sense when you said: "I am confused as to why these LS1s are so slow."

Comment from any LS1 guru here?

Maximam

My comments are based off of my experience with my LS1.

hfm

iTrader: (1)

Well, very odd. With 70 more hp these cars should be trouncing us. Gearing maybe?

Anyway, thanks for the info.

stx

My friends '00 Z28 dynoed @278 rwhp. I thought that was a fluke but every stock LS1 f-body I have raced in my 350 has been a drivers race. All the races at the track have been who ever gets the best launch will win. So maybe that number is not a fluke. I have seen some fast f-bodies in the 12's or faster but none were stock. At the track here the average time for a stock f-body that I have seen has been around 13.7 1/4 mile. I think the fastest time I have seen for stock was a 13.3. I am no f-body expert so I am just talking about my experiences.

S8ER95Z

Im thinking driver error. Can't obviously confirm that...

However curb weight on my Fbody is 3450lbs. The 350Z is ???

Auto Touring : 3239
Manual Coupe: 3188

Just some random figures I found when I searched. So its only a few 100lbs difference. As stated..

Here are some random pages I found..if I had more time I would find some more..but you will start to get the idea.. Some are companies..and some are just owners.. Dynos range from 285 ~ 320. It all depends on the car.


Baseline 99 SS

1998 Firebird Formula

2000 Trans Am

"Our test subject was a '00 Trans Am that made 304 hp and 323 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels with an aftermarket airbox from LS1 Motorsports (812-949-0334) as its only modification. While this is not as much as some LS1-powered cars we've seen, it is still in what we consider the normal range and could easily be attributed to a slightly pessimistic dyno."



2001 Trans Am

2001 SS

Lightly Modded Trans Am

1998 Z28 with a Cutout.

Finally..Ill leave you with the nasty results of FI



"Before I installed the supercharger, I had my car dynoed on a Dynojet chassis dyno at Superior Dyno Service in Fairfield, California. This was done sometime in February of 2000. That day, I got corrected numbers of 322 hp @ 5200 and 339 lbs-ft @ 4800 at the rear wheels. That was on a car that was stock except for a Borla cat-back exhaust (using the plate with the 1" hole), the "free ram-air" mod and the "EGR tube" mod. Nothing else had been done to the motor, and nothing has since been done to the motor except the addition of the supercharger.

Then, on July 27th, I had the car dynoed at Mustang Ranch in Santa Clara, California. The shop in Fairfield had since closed and the dyno sold, so I had to hunt down another Dynojet.

We made three runs that morning. On the first run, I ran it up to where my shift light lit at 5800 RPM. The result was a disappointing 425 rwhp. The guys running the dyno said my power curve was still on the way up, so we needed to spin it higher. Okay, let's just run it up against the rev limiter and see what it'll do. Next time, we got 450 rwhp. Wow! Nice improvement. Okay, once more for good measure. This time it read 464.6 hp, and 437 lbs-ft of torque. WOW!! Amazing. I also had them run a Wideband O2 sensor to monitor for lean conditions.

I found out later that those numbers were actual and not corrected (SAE). The correct number for the final pull is 460 rwhp and 432.9 lbs-ft. That's only slightly less (about 1%), and still outstanding. That's 142 hp and 93 lbs-ft more than the car made before the supercharger."Vortech Page

CrazyBosnian

Anything can happen on the street, and you guys seem to race some people that cant drive worth of ****...But hey, thats they way it works...In reality the LS1 will always be faster than the Z given the equal drivers...The guy u raced was probably in the wrong gear...As for 2.73s autos yes they can be dogs, but not so much as my buddy just ran his bone stock 99 Z28 (auto 2.73) to a 13.4 at 106...So they can move too....

Peace

sukkoi19

Sounds like you guys just had some good experiances. My experiances with 350Zs had been them losing by a good 3-4 cars 0-120.

RD99SS

Looks like you are having some good luck in finding poorly driven F-Bods...I am so far 1 for 1 and I don't normally run on the streets...but if anyone is in the NE area I will be in Epping May 2nd Friday night at NED to run...it will be a good time

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

yea...and it also doesn't look like you're stock....most F-bods at tracks around here trap from 103-106....nowhere near 109.

S8ER95Z

Actually on Drag Radials.. I would expect a high 12 out of a LS1 F-body..since 01 / 02 cars have been lucky enough to his those times on stock rubbers. Although 109 is a fairly high trap speed.. Usuall 01/02 cars hit 108~110mph... 103 is the lowest LS1 trap ive heard of.. Most of the ones around Cordova Dragway have been hitting 105~110.. Maybe we just have freak weather around here.

sukkoi19

108 for me on stock Eagle RSAs 245/50/ZR16s. Ive never heard of Cordova being a "fast" track. So thats seems pretty indicative of what 01-02 F-bodys are capable of.

JamRWS6

The only mod on my car was a LS1 Motorsports Airlid when it trapped 110....and this was on a track locally that I have to granny shift 2nd as to not bang the rev limiter.

Personally i'm a little baffled at what you guys are posting here.....personally i guess my car is a little bit of a freak but I pulled quite a few cars on a friend locally from a roll that has LS1 A4.

My car will be down for a while but if someone wants to run a 6 speed LS1 that knows how to drive I'd gladly oblige....i'd like to see what the heck is happening in these races as well.

I don't know if you guys are getting scared and jumpy and jumping out ahead or what...i'm just shocked personally.

As far as highway rolls go LS1 cars are downright nasty in my experience.

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

ok, I might get flamed for this, but I have a friend that works for GM and he told me that some 01-02 f-bodies actually have LS6 motors in them (even though they still have the LS1 intake and exhaust). He claims it was a mess up at the factory and that's why 01-02 cars are so damn fast.

I'm assuming that the LS1s that I've run so far are either pre 2001 or ARE actually LS1s and NOT LS6s.

To futher support this theory. A normal 6-speed C5 vette typically traps between 107-110mph depending on conditions. Would someone like to explain to me exactly how a vehicle with supposedly the EXACT same motor and trans weighing AT LEAST 200lbs more than another will trap the same a run very similiar E.T.s??