Featured Article
Alex Polonsky
04/02/2008
How many of us would look at a 190lb kick boxer fighting a 125lb computer geek and hope the kick boxer would win? A victorious underdog offers a sense of pride and glory to not only the underdog, but everyone who at one time felt like an underdog. Nowhere is this truer than with cars.
I have always enjoyed being the underdog. I was never attracted to the American muscle cars that typically produced high horsepower numbers by sheer brute strength. The engines had huge displacements, drank gasoline like a fish, and were rude and crude. The effort seems to be focused on the sales and not the engineering or quality. I was more attracted to the cars that required technology, computer tweaking, and precise fuel management to make obscene amounts of power. Part of the joy and excitement for me was squeezing the most horsepower and torque from a little engine, and defeating a big motor car at the drag strip.
My weapon of choice was the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. I scoured the internet and found a perfect candidate. A 1991 Eclipse GSX with 104,000 miles for only $1300. It just needed a fresh coat of paint, and new tires. Score!
I took it home, and immediately went to work on the engine. I removed the restrictive MAF housing, pulled out the silencer, cut a hole in the housing for more air, and removed the boost restrictor from the turbo line. I went to Home Depot and bought a 2.5" piece of aluminized metal piping, and ordered two 2.5" flanges online from a race shop. Once the flanges came, I MIG welded the flanges to the aluminized pipe, and created myself a catalytic converter delete pipe. At the race track, I would unbolt my catalytic converter, and replace it with the 2.5" straight pipe I made to help free up the exhaust flow. I spent $65 in parts and an hour in labor. At the track the car ran a 13.8@99 MPH, and did 0-60 in about 5 seconds.
Not bad for a $1300 car!
I was able to beat a 2003 Ford Mustang GT that had an aftermarket intake and exhaust and ran a 14.0@97mph in the quarter mile. My Eclipse only had a 2 liter 4 cylinder turbocharged engine, but it's advanced for its time and bullet proof, so you can modify it to produce high horsepower numbers.
How do you think the guy in the $25K Mustang felt when a car with fading paint, and bald tires was able to beat him off the line and the whole way down the track for $1300 plus $65 in modifications? Sure, he might get more chicks, but they won't think his car is so fast anymore! In this case, the computer geek beat the kick boxer.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not here to bash or "hate" on the American V8s. They are good for what they are. When the engines blow, you can always use them for a table stand.
