Driving Impressions: Part Deaux

[Y-TRY]

This should give the rest of you turbo guys a thrill.....

If you don't know already, and to set the scene: I have a '68 Camaro, 6" rod, solid roller, AFR-headed twin-turbo, MoTown block 406 backed by a Tremec TKO. So far I've seen 720rwhp and 614pwtq at a measely 6psi, pump gas. I used to have 3.89's and now have 3.25's, and have tuned it to 9.7psi, still pump gas (no telling/proof what the power is now, but guessing in the 800rwhp zone)......

So I go out to stretch the car out on a country road out here... A few minutes into my drive I find myself behind an old pick-up going 60 in a 70mph zone. This just won't fly with me so I decide to pass. Boy do I love this gearing!! In 4th gear, I lean on the throttle some and decide to pass him. As I pass and get back into my lane, I slowly lean on the throttle more and more, reeling in the open stretch of road ahead of me. The truck is a distant memory in my rearview mirror by now. I continue to evenly lower the pedal. At just above 3/4 throttle I realize that the car is going sideways. Not sideways like you'd be used to at a redlight, like the rear is trying to pass the front. But rather, it starts to pivot on an axis that seems to be right in the middle of the car. It's nothing like I've felt before.

Immediately, I let off the throttle. I'm now lurching side-to-side trying to regain control. My life, and this entire build-up, flashes before my eyes as I'm sure the car is about to roll. I glance down to the speedo as I feel grip again...

...125...120...115...

I just blew the tires from about 70mph to about 130mph on the highway, with 3.25 gears!!! It was probably one of the scariest car-moments of my life. I could almost see my car shaking it's finger as if to say "tisk-tisk".

I think we're really tapping into some major power, that comes-on in a different way that even the baddest of us are not used to. I now have much more respect for the car, and the power curve of a twin-turbo'd small block.

This is an absoltue true story, and I have the soiled boxers to prove it.