Im still going to disagree about auto's being faster in 12-13 second cars. I guess the only way to know is when and if Neal gets his NX kit and slaps the slicks on.

 

Jime is down over 100 whp peak to Mardi and is nearly as quick despite having an auto. If Jime had the top-end from the MEVI to level the playing field, I think Jime would be quicker.

 

Not after Matt drops in the frankenmotor with boost....

I think Jime will agree with that

 

of course he will be faster. Jime ran a 12.1 and was making nearly 310whp. Mardi ran a 11.9 with 423whp. Give Jim 400+ whp and see what he runs in a slow slush box.

Matts car amazes me though, his trap speeds are crazy 117

 

And the fact that we're arguing about whose grocery getter is gonna be quicker, and that we're talking about 12 or 11 second cars (do I hear 10's? ) just goes to show how awesome these cars are and how much potential they have.

 

Mardi also traps nearly 10 mph faster. I'm all about trap speeds because it gives you a idea of how quick the car really is, but thats another topic itself.

As for Jime's times, I am not trying to knock his accomplishments, they are impressive, but he would have trouble with a stock C5 if he wasn't launching as hard. My buddy ran a 108 trap stock and 110 with exhaust and intake.

Back on topic, these recent posts are a reminder why I am getting a new ride. I want a performance car and have realized that my Max doesn't fit the bill. I used to talk to my friends about so and so's 1/4 times in a Maxima and how much whp they put down, until a friend asked "If so and so is serious about drag racing or racing in general, why are they using the Maxima?"

 

I'll give up on the maxima the day I can afford a skyline....

I'm sure many people would agree....

 

True.
"
Some people are just stuck on the "5 speed is better than auto" stuff but there is always going to be a catogory where the auto will win. I can't imagine how much faster my auto would be with 300 HP.

Max2000jp: Even our current tranmission with the resistor mod, I don't see someone out shifting it in the 5 speeds.

 

So very true, I never even though of it that way. Very impressive, this is a day I never though would come.

 

You can't compare trap speed of cars with different forms of boost. Huge difference, nitrous makes power down low and drops off up high, the reverse is true of a S/C and Turbo cars. Nitrous will always have lower trap speeds.

Also I use all 4 gears in my auto in the 1/4, I am hitting almost 5k in 4th when I cross the line.

 

You're not able to finish in third?

 

Its a long way to the end when I redline in 3rd. Speedo is hitting around 130 or more when I cross the traps because of the 22" tires. Ultimately I would like to redline in 4th when crossing the traps but I will either have to get smaller tires or go faster.

I have contemplated changing to a different platform to race but the more I go to the track and more I see what people are doing and have done I still think I can get my Maxima to go faster that all of them for much less money.

The other thing I love about racing a Maxima is that I am the only one there. If I raced one of the others I would be just another Lemming. I don't like copying what everyone else is doing, experimenting and coming up with different ways to improve a unique ride is much more enjoyable.

 

I forgot you ran smaller tires...

 

Translation: Maxima rules!

 

I see what you are tryin to say....MPH is a standard measure at all 1/8 and 1/4 tracks I know of. I don't know why people say that you cant compare different types of boost etc. Thats why people go to drapstrips, to get various measurements from a standardized system. I compare traps to see what vehicle is ultimately faster.

 

This car is quite frankly as close to "luxury" as I ever plan to get--leather seating, powerful engine, 5-speed manual, self-installed sound system, roomy, decent fuel economy, decent suspension... It's perfect.

I'm paying off my car loan at a vastly accelerated rate (at least for now) and keeping it 'till she drops. Like the quote from Fight Club... "I keep telling myself 'OK, whatever happens I know that sofa problem is solved'" ... yeah, unless my car goes kerplunk, whatever happens, I know my car problem is most definitely solved... now I can concentrate on everything else in life, until the Maxima falls apart, and even then if nothing major goes wrong, I'll probably keep restoring it for a while (if it's mostly DIY stuff like alternator, belts, etc.)
Keeping this goal in-line with Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil and Redline synthetic gear oil... plus I plan to keep it *mostly* stock (except some suspension mods, and maybe an intake)

 

Please don't take this as an attack, but IF for some reason you ran out of nitrous, your car is only running high 14s at best. That's the reason I perfer N/A or boost, plain and simple it's always there.

Your method of running fast is very economical. Run a high shot of Nitrous, drag slicks, and weight reduction. If the engine/tranny can handle it, you can do the same with many cars on the market. The problem I see with running large shot's of nitrous is the car wasn't designed to handle the tq. Eventually something will break.

 

I gave up on the maxima about a year ago.
I should've waited till I graduated so that I'd have enough money to play with. I got another maxima as a daily driver for when my car is broke.
I don't like bottles or S/C and turbo kits on FWD is crap. I don't like spinning tires through 3 of my 5 gears, NO THANKS.
Don't say Jime ran a 1.75 sixty foot so it's plenty of traction.
That is at the track with slicks and some sort of trick rear suspension so the rear barely squats. I need a car that has traction and power every day all day on any pavement.
Next car will be S4, hopefully this summer when I graduated then I can make the galant full race.

Ant

 

The 4th gen Maxima's rather unique combination of extremely lightweight and an incredibly sturdy drivetrain is what sets it apart from the competition in this regard. It can take a lickin and keep on tickin. Maybe you could do the same thing on a Camry, but that car is 200 lb heavier and won't get off the line as well. Maybe you could do the same thing on an Accord, but those cars are heavier still and the automatic transmissions in those cars are weak and can't even handle the stock 195 lb-ft that the engine makes, much less nitrous for very long.

 

When a 4th Gen Maxima runs a 15.2 @ 91, and a Prelude runs a 15.5 @ 95 (both average stock times), that shows that the Prelude is ultimately quicker because of the faster trap, but the Maxima still won the race. Quick ET means you are quick on the streets and quick in the real-world. A fast trap just means you have a lot of highway power which you might not be able to fully utilize.

At least around here in the DC area, highway power is pretty much useless because you're lucky to ever break 80 around here. Out in the midwest there's a lot more room to stretch the legs though, so whatever floats your boat. The ET is the standard by which all are judged, though. Not the trap.

 

I wouldn't say that our tranny's are incredibly sturdy. A lot of owners have had problems with both auto and manual trannies when adding power adders. I know of a couple local Maxima overs who have had to get their auto trannies built to handle the power of a s/c. We all know the troubles that BriGuyMax and EricdWong had with their manual trannies.

 

yeah but have u ever seen Ericdwong do a burnout? that should give you a hint to his tranny problems!!!

Autos Rule!!! :P

 

Exactly!!!! Eric is a knowledgeable fella but he was looking for tranny problems doing all of those burnouts and anyone boosting an auto should know to upgrade it from the start.

 

Okay, so compare that to the Accord V6 guys who easily have 10x the trouble rate on their trannys without adding any power at all.

The poor fellas waited like 3 or 4 years for that Comptech Supercharger to come out, and now everybody is too afraid to do anything with it because they know the tranny is just going to fry and it won't get warrantied with the S/C on the car. The only guys having fun with it are the CL-S 6spd guys who don't have to worry about these truly weak autotragic transmissions that Honda has been putting out lately. V6Performance.net is working on a built tranny that will finally fix that (hopefully) and allow some serious power. The cost? $2-3k. Nice, but there goes your performance per dollar ratio right out the window.

Jime is running 12's with the drop resistor for $2k. The Honda guys need to spend that much alone just to get a tranny that won't pop at stock power levels just so that they can start modding. The Nissan autos appear to be pretty sturdy just with the drop resistor trick for about fi-dolla in parts.

 

Plus, I run my auto hard at the track (when I go) and its still running like new. I shift it to get into the powerband faster and run it to redline and she's still happy.

 

I gave up on the Maxima after I wrecked mines... After the accident I was thinking to myself, "wtf did I waste all the $$ on the max".. I should have started out with a much faster car and build from there..

°¨°º©[SuperCharged 2K1 5SPD Maxima GLE]©º°¨°
.::R.I.P. 7/26/03 - WRX STI/EVO VIII Coming Soon...::.
PMPN' 1994 Miata 5Spd - Turbo'd
F/S: Parting Out The Whole Car. Lots of Parts Still Up For Grabs!!!

 

MPH is not the standard of measure, time is the standard of measure, speed is just a byproduct.

The 1/4 mile is all about TIME, speed is irrelevent, its how quick you get there not how fast you go that its all about. If you want to go 150 mph at the end of the 1/4 and I go 100 and get there first I still win.

I am not a believer in trap speeds to determine ET's. Don't compute for me. The quickest is the quickest is the quickest no matter the speed.

Nitrous is different from other forms of boost because it gives the same HP boost at all engine RPM. The same amount of fuel and nitrous is being fed throughout the RPM range. The same is not true for S/C and Turbo, they feed more fuel and more air as the RPM increases, thats why you cannot try and compare trap speeds between them.

 

so true so true

 

Trap speed is really just a good display of hp. ET is a display of how well you put that hp to the ground. Like Jime said, drag racing is all about the time it takes you to cross the line. Not how fast you went when you got there. But it is nice to see a high trap speed for some other good reasons.

 

The only time I really care about ET's is during bracket racing. Other than that traps is what tells you how the car is performing. I guess traction plays an important role also. Most people that are drag racing aren't using slicks, so the trap gives them a realisic model of how the car will perform on the street. Arguing about drag racing a Maxima is kinda pointless....I agree to disagree, back on topic.

 

This isnt pertaining to the drag racing deal thats going on right now but to answer the top Question. Ill give up on the maxima after I own a 4th gen and mod it gradually and get that nice s/c and fulfill my dreams of owning and driving a modified 4th gen. Which owning a 4th gen may be happening this coming year so my dream will hopefully start then.

 

Yep, trap speed indicates the car's potential. Matt could go a whole lot quicker if he could put the power down. Unfortunately, that would require some serious suspension work. 117mph trap speeds indicate mid to low 11s, not upper 11s like he's running now. From any sort of roll, Matt's Max would make quick work of any Maxima in here except for Hal's turbo Max.

Slicks are for bragging rights. There are quite a few potential 12/13-second Maximas in this Org, it's just many guys aren't willing to spend the money on tires that they can't use on the street and/or tires that bump them into more competitve racing classes where they'll get smoked.


Dave

 

Slicks aren't for bragging rights. Thats pure BS. Slicks are for traction. I happen to race my Maxima and traction gives me consistant and quick ET's. If you run on a race track you use race tires very simple.

If you are dyno queen and want bragging rights then yes ET will give you lots to feed that void in your life.

I am interested in racing and HP don't mean diddly if you can't put it down. Racing is about a whole lot of things besides HP, heck you can race your lawnmower if you want. Making HP is just one ingredient to a whole bunch of items you need to race. One item often overlooked is being able to perform under pressure and do consistently quick R/T's and consistent times. I just love racing I have done it all my life, including flat track, snowmobiles, trials, ultra marathons, triathlons etc etc. I have also been very lucky and have won my share of events.

Racing is a way of life, its not about numbers its about competing and doing your best regardless of how you sometimes stack up against your competitor.

ET's give actual peformance, hypothetical times using trap speeds is just playing head games.

What I don't understand is how someone can spend THOUSANDS on their cars performance and won't spend a couple of hundred on tires to really judge what they have done.

 

I would say that most people don't because they want to get a real estimate of what their car does on the street/everyday.

 

Now we got to the heart of the matter in your mind anyway, what we are really comparing is some punk out on the street trying to kill someone vs someone who actually races their car.

 

No, what im talking about is getting on the car every now and then. Steet racing is dumb and I have quit doing it. I have quit drag racing pretty much because it isn't challenging.

 

i gave up on my max about 6 months ago. actually i just sold me max yesterday.

its time for something newer, nicer and an all around blast to drive car.

lets just say.

227 turbo charged HP, the sound of 2 pistons firering at once, and the beauty of subaru all-wheel drive

 

The reason why that forester runs 13.8 is because it has STI inside!!! Maxima has best V6

 

8 months ago

 

the day i graduate from dental school