So there i was going at a steady 90mph, and i pass up this older looking SHO. I look and he guns it ( or from what i could tell). So i got lazy and kept it in fifth, and gunned it as well. From what i could tell, i was slowly, really slowly pulling away from him, but he was keeping up. I maxed my maxima out at about 140, the SHO gave up at or around 120 or so. BTW it was like 1Am, and the express-way was empty.

 

Nice!! way to represent.

 

I got her up to 140 once, and almost killed someone in the process. As much as i'd like to put Ford to shame, i'd rather be alive.

 

Wow 140 is fast, I dont think I would ever go that fast on the street. Good kill as long as its safe.
I wonder what we could do with the 91-95 SHO 5-speeds from a stop? I heard they were fast.

 

...99.9% of them are rusted out POS.

They are currently with 2nd or 3rd owners and the original owners Beat the hell out of them.

 

when they were new, they would stay with a stock max EASILY, they ran 14.9s all day. But obviously 10 years has passed and most are ragged out, but some are well kept, those are the ones you have to watch out for. Those 3.0L Yamaha V6s MOVE


Eric

 

If that SHO was in good shape, it really should have walked you, especially past 120 mph. Limitiaion to the 4th gen with No MEVI
Like the others said, the SHO was probabaly beat up and tired. MEVI 4th gen and SHO would be one helluva nice, even race

DW

 

since when, in any modern circumstance, is driving 140 ever considered safe?

 

Sh*t I hit 170-190 every week on public roads. Granted they are in the middle of nowhere but the only person to hurt is me. 140 is nothing as long as you're not in the middle of traffic.

 

Nice run!

It was probably the autotragic though, because the 3.0L Yamaha ones with the manual tranny would tear up a 4th Gen manual on the highway. There are lots of ex-SHO owners here that will confirm that for you also

 

yep, my friend has an 89 SHO 5-speed an his pulls way harder in the upper revs than my 97 5-speed(maxima). I believe the 89's had the
most HP, I think they cut back a few horses the following years.

 

I raced one about a month ago. It was a 5-speed with three people in it. I had one person in my Max.(5-spd of course) I started gaining right at the end of first and kept gaining.....to about 2-3 car lengths by 70. Then I slowed down. They are 220HP S.H.O. V6's I believe. They also weigh a couple hundred lbs. more than us.

 

89s had the least weight, not the most HP. They are the fastest of all the years.

 

Well having both a stock '95 auto SHO (my moms) and a stock '98 auto Maxima (mine) at the house, I would have to say the SHO is slightly faster. The SHO has a little more weight but is rated with more HP and TQ (220 hp and 215 tq). Also sound wise (stock) the SHO's exhaust note is better, it is alot more aggresive sounding than the Maxima's especially when I rev it up to 5K~7K rpms.

However quality wise the SHO is crap, there are too many shakes and rattles coming from all over the car; also the SHO auto tranny is crap it feels like the car is getting rear-ended by another car when it shifts from 1st to 2nd. Steering and overall handling leaves little to be desired with a tendency to understeer with the steering variable speed assist feature and some body roll on the turns.

Overall I'll keep the Maxima over the SHO anyday.

 

my boy has a 93 SHO 5 speed with y pipe and cat back with a clod air intake and his freaking gears are so long!!! hes got 15 mph ova my gears i belive he does 105 in 3rd thats the only way he beats me . the SHO is a highway racer.

 

I've had a SHO too, actually two of them and they were MUCH better on the highway than my Max is. Even though this was a race against a 5-speed Max, the SHO still should have won. The only problem with my SHO's was that it was hard to find time to drive the darn things in between being at the mechanic's so much!!

 

understand this, my max handled like a charm at 140, hardly any wheel vibration or anything, but like any other aspect of driving, it's not always going to be you that screws up and causes an accident. I was coming down on I-380, on a 10-12 mile section where there's no spots for cops, so i figured that would be a great place to try it. I got up to about 120, killed the O/D, and crept up to 130 and then 140. I was actually on my way to burying the needle when a car that was on the shoulder pulls into the right lane. This guy has no hazards or lights on or anything, all i saw was my lights hitting his reflectors. I hit the brakes and brought it down to 115-120, then swerved into the left lane, just missing the d1ck that pulled out, the entire time praying that I didn't lose control. Thankfully, the max held it's grip on the road, and i didn't hit the guy or wreck off the road. It doesen't seem like much, but you know what: If i'd hit that guy, me, him and my girlfriend would be dead. If i lost it, just me and her. And it would all be because of my stupidity. Do i still drive fast? Yes. Do I push the car to it's limits? No. It's just not worth it.

 

 

My question is with what do you hit 170-190 every week? Your max or something else?

 

 

Suzuki hayabusa. Some of you have never been to a VERY rural area. I sometimes cruise for 15-20 miutes at 130-150 mph. It is FLAT here with NO TREES and NO TRAFFIC at all. When I get to a town it has 30 people in it and I drive slowly passing through. On the way out of town 65 mph comes and the front wheel raises and return to earth at 110 or so (shifting to 3rd) and back to ludicras speed.

So you see traveling fast is all relative and my conditions are perfect for it. Aspahlt straight roads as far as you can see with nothing but dirt on the side of the road. No driveways (well one every mile or two) no nothing. When I do see a car every 10 miutes or so... I slow it down to 70-80.

Also realize that the 'Busa does a 1/4 mile in the 9s and 145 or so. so a WOT roll on from 80 mph can get me to 150-170 in 1/3 mile It only starts to creep faster above 180. But that after I've just shifted to top gear.

I also drive the max at 110+ for long periods of time out on these rural roads. BUT I do get nervous that there are airplanes or helicopters and the Max can't outrun them...

 

Wow sounds like a racers dream! What state is this in?

 

Man, those kind of roads I would absolutely love. I would be doing top speed runs e v e r y s i n g l e day Are you out in the Midwest somewhere?? I took a road trip once and was really really impressed with how the highways going west past Indiana and into Iowa just get so wide open. I took it to 140+ out there and stayed for for at least 3 mintues. It was awesome. I could have stayed there all day but fear of a cop coming the other way slowed me down. That was the most fun part of my roadtrip.

DW

 

Do you guys think that a SHO would have a chance against a 5th generation manual transmission Maxima with a 3.5 liter V6?

 

You might as well kiss your *** goodbye doing that. Seeing that a
motorcycle traveling at 130 mph is going so easy to see if your
another driver pulling out onto the road.

 

no...

eric

 

"You might as well kiss your *** goodbye doing that. Seeing that a
motorcycle traveling at 130 mph is going so easy to see if your
another driver pulling out onto the road."

I live in Iowa. I do this on extremely rural roads. Unless you have visisted a VERY rural area in the midwest you have no clue. There are NO driveways. There are almost NO people. There are NO other cars. NONE, NOTHING. Imagine an airport runway-that's like were I ride/drive. There are no hazards at all except for the ones I create. Its as safe or safer than a racetrack...

 

actually, i know several roads like this. Try I-84 past binghapton,towards oneonta: 3 - lanes with 10-14 miles between exits. There's also more, mostly PA state routes.

Try deer, bears (which i've seen semis hit, and the bear has done serious damage to them), Sh1tty road surfaces..... there's a billion things that can go wrong. To assume that is stupid.

 

I gotta tell ya: That ShoGun must have wimped out and let off, or he had an automatic, not a 5-speed.

The 5 speed 6 cylinder Sho will outrun the Maxima at top end, and tuned up right, will be a little quicker on the bottom. 1989, it topped out at 144 stock (governed at 7500RPM), and pulls hard all the way there. In fact, the 1989 model outran the same year Mustangs GT at top end, and was only slightly less quick because of the weight, but passed up the Mustang after the 1/4 Mile. A tuned-up Sho with headers, chip, underdrive pulleys, no governor and a larger intake diameter will run sweet right up to 8500RPM, and gain about 45hp over stock, up to about 265hp. In fact, that Yamaha will run 9500 RPM just fine, but the exterior accessories will blow up first. The 5 speeds are quicker than s..t, but hard to shift. THey are just a standard Mazda 5 speed tranny with bigger geers.
I know: I bought my wife one back then (Well, I told her it was for her anyway).

But, a Sho is a miserable car to drive around the corners. It's too heavy, pushes hard, and has little steering feedback, so you can't tell what it is going to do next. Scary! And torque steer is bad-it hops half a lane when you drop from 2nd to 1st and stomp the throttle. But it will spin the tires through 3rd gear. The most miles my wife ever got on a set of tires was 19,000 miles. And those were 55,000 mile tires.

The 2 best things about a Sho is the Yamaha motor (the 6 cylinder, not the 8), and the seats with air pumps. The side bolsters will about crush your ribs. I wish the Max had such good seats. Ford also has a better climate control system. It has a 2nd sensor on the dash to detect full sun, and compensates the cooling accordingly. The Sho also had a few other niceties not available on a Maxima, like auto-headlights, better storage, boltered seats, a real horn, leather shifter, cd holder, coin holder, pull-out sun visor extenders, outside thermometer, ABS was stock after 1990, and a few other small things long before Maxima added some of the above. Al for a lot less bucks.

I would never own another Taurus though. The Max is a better car all around. I wish I had bought an 89 Maxima instead of the SHO.

Besides being a rattletrap, it was a lemon. Ford made a ton of money on the Taurus through parts and service. The quality just is not in the same ballpark as a Maxima, Hondas and Toyotas. Every Taurus owner I know had many problems, especially electrical.

My X t-boned the Taurus 2 months after we split up (karma). It held up pretty good. Too bad.

 

A: When you are 17 years old, because you cannot die.

B: You gotta get out of the city! Try Monatana.