Ok, if any of you remember, I said I'd race him, and I did. We only raced twice...once rolling and once from a stop. I had a full tank of gas, his was on empty. I had about 200 lbs of extra luggage in my car, he didn't. It was in Colorado at 5000 ft above sea level. (Ru4real you were right about the altitude...now that I thought about it what you said makes perfect sense)

Well...of course he smoked me off the line...probably about 2 car lengths instantly. We went up to 110 and I never closed at all. Fairly similar results rolling...we stayed dead even all the way up to 100. So, In my eyes, I lost. But now I'm in DC (sea level) and no luggage in my car either. I think I need to go TSi hunting and lay down some serious revenge.

 

Why bother racing at all if you have a car full of luggage and a full tank of gas? So you can have various excuses? Sometimes just say "no" instead of making yourself feel bad when they rock you.

 

Also, NA cars are severely affected performance wise by altitude, whereas turbo cars will perform the same. The blow off valve doesn't open until the limit pressure is reached, so he'll still have X-amount of psi available.

 

I also raced one the other day with my 02 6-speed. It launched on me as well. That AWD is a killer. Fortunately by the top of second I had pulled back even and by the top of third I was 1-2 cars ahead. I have to admit though, it did shock me when he lauched. I thought "Oh crap" Luckily I had the power to pull back. My 01 Auto would have gotted smacked.