Let me preface this by saying that this is my first true "race" with my Maxima and I've never owned a vehicle with any type of speed whatsoever.

Driving to work about an hour ago and I pull up at a light next to what appeared to be a 1992 Camaro (I didn't get anymore info on it and I'm assuming it was a 92 by looking at pics online.) I only have about 3200 mile on my stock 2k3SE automatic and haven't really opened her up yet. I look over and its a mid 20's guy and his buddy and I knew that a race was on. From all the reading I've done on this forum I mustered up some ***** and thought to myself I'll take this guy no problem. Light turns green and I gun it, not floored, but I only have him by about a 1/2 car length (if that)until about 80 mph then I floor it and by 110mph I have him by about a car length or so. I let up because there were cars coming up ahead and 110 is way faster than I've ever had a vehicle up to. Does this sound right to all of you Max experts out there? I did take him but I wasn't expecting to have to push it so fast to get him by a car length. I was expecting an easy kill! ( I have to add that this race was performed on an open stretch of highway with no vehicles around, before someone lectures me)

Also, the paranoid side is coming out now, Is it ok to push a stock Max that hard? I've read on here that some guys hit 130, but I was thinking maybe they have some mods that make that speed easier on the car. I know it's a high performance engine but for some reason I feel guilty for pushing her that hard. (I know some of you guys are probably laughing at me reading this, but hey remember I'm new at this whole thing, cut me some slack!)

One last thing......anyone have any suggestions on some simple mods I can do, that aren't too elaborate, so I can improve speed, without spending a fortune. (I'm not ready for Y-pipes and nitrous yet!!)

Thanks for reading

Steve in St. Louis

 

if it was a v8 it sounds about right. if it was the v6 something is very wrong with your max. i did the same thing with my max at about 3k right before my 1st oil change but it was against a gti modded. i gave it 3/4 and wasnt pulling like i wanted to so i floored it at 60 and beat him but i felt so bad after. at 14k my max runs fine and fast.

 

Tires help with high speed stability, and so does lowering springs, stiffer struts, and swaybars. However, a stock Maxima with properly inflated tires is absolutely stable at 130mph.

And don't feel bad about going to full throttle. I redline my Taurus all the time, and don't even ask about the Mustang. The VQ is much smoother than both of my engines and will happily take about all the abuse you can throw at it. Since you have an automatic it really cuts down on the chance of anything bad happening anyway. As long as you don't do any neutral bombs, or drop it into 1st @ 50mph.

 

These statements shock me.

1st off, you need to floor it unless you get big wheel spin which will only be for a while if you floor it in a auto Max. You waited till 80 to floor it? why?

Is it ok to push a stock Max that hard? YES! IMO it is entirely ok to push your Max that hard. I am full throttle many times a day and the car sees 6k+rpm on a regular basis. The 2k1 has 78,000 miles on it and runs like a chanp with no oil consumption or problems.

Your car can take the limited abuse you speak of in this post everyday for hundreds of thousands of miles!

 

those japanese engines are so good , you can just beat the crap out of them all you want, they'll just keep on running with no problems. you can ask any person here about. i dont abuse the car because of gas consumption...i see the needle go down a bit whenever i start driving hard so i just let go of the gas , put it back to D with o/d on