Tonight me and some friends went out for a little acceleration comparison.
240sx w/RB26TT swap 11.8@123mph vs.
Subaru Forester w/ VF39 swap + DP/UP/E/ECUTEK/Tuned

from a 2nd gear punch (40-110 mph) the 240 had barely pulled 2 car lengths.

My buddy's Forester probably isn't trapping over 106-107 and it definately doesn't feel like it had more top end acceleration than a Supercharged 10psi Maxima that I drove.

I just kind of assumed that the 240sx would have obliterated the Subaru! The 240 guy used to be a member on here: Ramius83. Had a Turbocharged Maxima for a while. Very credible.
What do you guys think?

A car that traps 123mph could put bus lengths on a 106-107mph car in a very short time. But, a 40-110 race is not very long. I raced a Z06 corvette with mods at the track last time. We stayed very close till almost the 1/8th mile, and then he started pulling, he ended up trapping 117mph, I trapped 106mph. He was about 2 car lengths out.

The same thing happened to me when I took a g35 to the track. I raced a 5.0 mustang we stayed pretty much next to each other until the middle of the track when he just all of a sudden pulled away from me. It was like I had slowed down or something.

Surely you guys would agree that racing from a dig at a track and racing from a roll are two entirely different things. Reaction times and bad launches can make a Kia Sephia hang with a Ferrari at the track.

The race was kind of weird. It took forever for the 240 to spool up and fly away. He didn't start pulling until like 90 and then he pulled HARD.

i think it was the torque that had that forester moving. he probably has alot of torque in that car. and the 240 needs the boost to get it moving, that car will live in its sweet spot.

The trap speed doesn't tell you much on how much top end power you have.

For instance, the VE is known to have plenty of top end power for a V6. But, when I go through the traps, I am near the bottom of 3rd gear, which doesn't make that much power. And if you pair me up with the same VE 5spd making the same power to the wheels as my auto, the VE will put car lengths on me simply b/c it's in the top of its gear when I'm riding out the bottom of 3rd. The VE 5spd should have a much higher trap speed even though we might run similar ETs.

That 240 does have more power than the Subaru. But it might not make all it's power until over 120mph. I know plenty of people have a turbo that's so big that it won't make peak boost until it's over 90mph. Get them on the highway and they will never stop pulling! But race them from 0-60mph and you might hang. Trap speeds is all about HP and the gear you're actually in near the end of the track.

yeh I really wished they would have raced all the way to 140. The forester is a torque beast and hits full boost at 2500 rpms...

Where I'm from dsm's are very popular. I went to the last DSM drag day and the fastest dsmer there ran a 10.80@118 (don't ask) and a 10.97 @ 134 I believe, the guy he went up against ran mid 11's @ 120ish and while it didn't seem like alot, the distance between the two was a quite a few car lengths. For the record, both cars are 1gb awd dsm's, the one that ran 10's was redlining in 3rd when he past the line.

While trap speed is not a perfect indicator of highway roll performance, I'd have expected cars with that significant of a difference in trap speed to have a more significant difference in the outcome of the race. But vastly different spool characteristics, where in gear the race started for each guy, etc can have a pretty dramatic effect and I assume that's what happened here.

My friend's 350z has trap speeds identical to mine - and yet if we race from a roll and I don't brake boost he will put 2 cars on me within the first couple seconds of a race just because his little twins on a larger engine light off quite a bit sooner than my larger single on a smaller engine.

so really it depends on how fast you're going?
like for me my ideal highway pull is in 3rd gear at like 75+
I mean as soon as the 240 spooled up he was gone! it just took until 90 mph.