So Fastest Car = Fastest 1/4 Mile?

"BLCKSTRM" (BLCKSTRM)
04/11/2018 at 10:44 • Filed to: None

I was relatively excited to see what these guys were doing with this new show, but after watching 1.5 of them, I’m a bit meh about it.

I get it -they found people that already had cars completed, so there really isn’t a “build” portion of the video. They try, like when people are tweaking boost / timing / NOS, or in the second one where the guy has a vibration in his tranny and needs to swap in a new one.

But the whole concept is just a bit too contrived - and simplistic.

In the first video, two of the three “sleepers” are built by shops. Shops that have all kinds of ridiculous hardware they COULD have entered. They just “picked” a “sleeper” (whatever that actually means, here).

[SPOILER] And it was gratifying that the guy who won the first one had a completely home-built (on less than a shoestring, but the looks of it) car.

Especially the guy who had a 1000 hp Honda Odyssey. Which he ran instead of any of the other dozens of crazy fast cars he owns.

I mean, I’d have loved to see an old 930 turbo beat some new supercar.

Is a 911 - even an old one - less of a sleeper than a 1000hp Honda Odyssey? Sure. But there’s a big catch.

Here’s the deal.

These guys posed the question of “what’s the most underrated car of the last 20 years?” in one of those sponsored posts. I have an E36 M3, and think it’s up there.

Highly underrated, I mean. Here is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - if you want to read the whole discussion, or this is the gist of it:

While it could have been better, I struggle to see how that detracts from what it is. It’s capable, reliable, and is a favorite track machine for its durability and driving qualities.

And especially with the 4 door / 5 speed version, it’s a great sleeper.

One of the witty retorts was:

And is smoked every time, rather summarily, by garden variety v6 Camries!

Solid choice indeed!

OK.

I get it.

It’s not that fast by today’s standard.

(Honor insists I point out that this isn’t actually true - a stock E36 M3 is faster than any stock V6 Camry, and once you start modifying, the gap widens.)

But it’s true - it’s not terribly fast by today’s standard, and 240 hp is pretty ho-hum these days.

But take it to an actual race track, and it wouldn’t even be close.

So maybe I was expecting too much. But I’d much rather see an actual race than these contrived 1/4 mile races. If you can make it go AND turn and stop, not I’m interested.

Anyway, here are some more of these old vs new, stock for stock videos.

Camry beating a Ferrari 308.

And that 911 turbo up there. ALSO probably be slower than a Camry.

How about this Edmunds video of a Camry and a ‘66 Vette?

So how about we try this whole old vs new, built not bought concept again, but we use an actual racetrack instead of a stupid drag strip?

DISCUSSION (6)

Die-Trying > BLCKSTRM
04/11/2018 at 13:40

maybe a better show would be camry VS........

BLCKSTRM > Die-Trying
04/11/2018 at 13:54

LOL - the second coming of #BRZorThat

feather-throttle-not-hair > BLCKSTRM
04/11/2018 at 14:32

I couldn’t. Half way through the first episode i gave up.

They found pretty interesting people, had a somewhat interesting concept and then just applied all of the worst reality TV tropes of the past 10 years to the show. I just fucking couldn’t get past how contrived it all was.

Plus quarter mile? Dafuq? Half mile or mile or there’s no point in any of those super high horsepower build (Cough honda Odyssey cough.)

It shouldve just been a bunch of petrolicious episodes with a half mile race at the end. They tried to hype you up too much for the race instead of just showing cool people making and talking about their cool cars.

Edit: BTW 4 door E36 with a manual is one of my favorite cars of all time. So much goldilox going on in that vehicle.

BLCKSTRM > feather-throttle-not-hair
04/11/2018 at 16:43

They even got it wrong with the evil rich Ford GT guy we were supposed to hate.

First, the producers don’t even explain who this guy is. Just from the show you can see he was in the service, he made his own money with his own hands instead of inheriting it like most pricks or falling ass-backwards into it like the idiot kid in the second episode (and who incidentally didn’t even own the Huracán he was racing).

And then if you’re a Jalop and you know , you start to realize who this guy might be. So you pause it and go to Google to confirm.

Yep: he co-founded Always Evolving Performance with Roger Rodas, was Roger’s co-driver / racing teammate, was real, no-shit buddies with Paul Walker, and was the first person on the scene of the crash - and talks about it on the show. The producers are trying SO HARD to keep it “legit” reality TV that they refuse to narrate it and explain who this guy is. He obliquely mentions that he “hasn’t raced much” for a while - which seems to come from not wanting to do it anymore after Paul’s and Roger’s accident. There was so much more depth they could have gone into, and they just stumble on past all of that.

And despite all of that, he still comes off as less cocky than that minivan dude.

So I was really hoping for more.

Good concept. Pretty weak execution. There are so many tracks in SoCal, it’s not like they didn’t have anywhere to go...

...

And by the way, thanks! I love it. Goldilox is the perfect description, too. There are better specific tools out there, but once you start combining needs, it’s about the best thing on the planet.

feather-throttle-not-hair > BLCKSTRM
04/11/2018 at 17:05

Oh man, everyone hates on the E36 M3 because it was the one with the“slow U.S. engine.”

But you know what? Eff that noise. Yeah there was a better engine, but our version of the car was plenty awesome in its own right, and people forget just what a fantastic value they were when they were new.

Furthermore, while i don’t consider it in contention for “Most beautiful car in the universe” it happens to be one of the most correct looking cars ever made. Nothing weird, not trying too hard, just pure competence in the styling department adding up to an extremely attractive 3 box shape in either coupe or sedan form.

I’ve never owned one, i’m not a fanboy or anything, but it pisses me off how underappreciated they have become in recent years. Nobody makes cars that well rounded anymore it seems like.

BLCKSTRM > feather-throttle-not-hair
04/11/2018 at 17:48

I’m OK with them being under-appreciated - I’ve got 227k on mine, and I’m going to have to replace it (or at least major parts of it) at some point.

If I had an old 911 I loved, I’d be boned if I ever got T-boned. No one I’ve found will do an agreed value policy on a daily driven car. It’s not even that it’s cost-prohibitive. They won’t do it period.

I’d be pretty sad if my car got wrecked, but I wouldn’t be screwed and incapable of replacing it.