Grocery Getter On Steroids!

[Joey D]

Why is everyone so concerned about handling? I'm pretty sure the guy only drag races with it. Not every car that is modified can be perfect at everything, and I don't understand why hardly any of you can see that.

** Actually the guy probably has it just to waste the fast car sitting next to him at a stop light.

 

[TheCracker]

Why is everyone so concerned about handling? I'm pretty sure the guy only drag races with it. Not every car that is modified can be perfect at everything, and I don't understand why hardly any of you can see that.

** Actually the guy probably has it just to waste the fast car sitting next to him at a stop light.

Who's talking about handling? - i was thinking more along the lines of traction, pitch, roll, dive and stopping the thing.

 

[Joey D]

Well 20 bucks says those aren't stock tires.....and who cares about pitch, roll, whatever. It's a fast station wagon, there really is no other point to it then the thing can acclerate fast off a stop light. I'm sure it handles the power just fine...barring he doesn't suck at driving.

 

[Poverty]

Well what about all the german estates/station wagons that are barely slower than their coupe/saloon counterparts?

 

[Max_DC]

Well what about all the german estates/station wagons that are barely slower than their coupe/saloon counterparts?

If that car of post 1 has a saloon counterpart, it probably doesn't handle great aswell. It's not about the fact that it is a station wagon, the car above just doesn't look like a corner machine if you know what I mean...

Imo this car seems to be good for 1/4 mile racing etc but not for track racing. Nbody says it has to and tbh I can't see the suspension....maybe it handles great although I doupt that. So... on the track a 300 hp car could probably beat
this station wagon... but whatever, it surely is a lot of fun to race some sportscars with that underdog at the stoplight as Blazin said, so maybe the owner doesn't care for track performance, fine for me.

 

[xcsti]

Sticking a great big engine into a POS doesn't make it a 'sleeper' - it just means its even less able to handle its power than it did before.

Shinny chrome American Racing Mags on a 'woodie' aren't going to fool anyone either - especially when it understeers off the road like it was the Titanic as soon as the first corner comes up.

It isn't a new engine, I'm pretty sure its the original one.

You are justified to laugh at how horrid it probably handles but it would be just as plausible for a drag nut to laugh at a smaller car for having excellent dynamics yet getting trashed in a straight line by most anything.

Its almost obviosly drag oriented, if the person wanted a balanced vehicle they would not have started with a Buick wagon.

 

[Joey D]

It is the oringal motor.

 

[YSSMAN]

... Considering that the Buick Estate Wagon was related to the Chevrolet Impala SS (aka Caprice 9C1 police car in a pinstripe suit), modifying the car to handle better wouldnt be hard to do. Much of the suspension technology comes (funny enough) from NASCAR, and when modified can be both a compotent sporting sedan and a great highway cruiser.

...BTW: Just because the car cant take a corner doesnt mean it isnt any fun... Its about how fast you get to that corner, and then after getting through it, how fast you get away from it...

 

[TheCracker]

It isn't a new engine, I'm pretty sure its the original one.

You are justified to laugh at how horrid it probably handles but it would be just as plausible for a drag nut to laugh at a smaller car for having excellent dynamics yet getting trashed in a straight line by most anything.

Its almost obviosly drag oriented, if the person wanted a balanced vehicle they would not have started with a Buick wagon.

I guess its just something a european can't get excited about. We have very different road layouts to North America, none of this grid-pattern-with-intersection stuff that you guys get. If we have traffic lights, its fairly rare that you get both two lanes in the same direction (to race against the car pulled up next to you) or a straight enough section of road where you could get any speed up without coming across a speed camera. Drag racing is popular in europe - but on Drag Strips like Santa Pod - you just don't get 'street' drag racing happening hardly anywhere.

I suppose thats why we get excited about great handling sports cars - the sort of thing that suits our roads.

Brabus have been making 200+mph Merc E-Class estates for about 15 years - now thats a real sleeper.

 

[JohnBM01]

Grocery getter on Steroids? Shouldn’t that car be given a 50-game suspension or a lifetime ban for the steroids deal?

I’ll agree that this has to be one mad sleeper. You got my respect, man. 👍

 

[1X83Z]

I never knew the auto was faster, I always had assumed the opposite. But how different was the performance once the V8 was introduced in later models?

power was increased by fourteen (from 220 to 234) and weight also marginally increased so performance remained similar - low sevens to sixty. i can't speak to handling but obviously it must've suffered considering the 1996 redesign saw massive overhangs and a much longer car.

trivia: the sho's 3.4-liter v8 was the smallest v8 in a modern domestic car. it was produced by yamaha putting two four-cylinders together, much the same way volkswagen makes its "w" engines, using narrow-angle ("vr") six-cylinders.

yamaha also makes the 4.4-liter v8 found in volvo's xc90. want to know why ford needs to cut jobs? because they currently use three different 4.4-liter v8s, for three different premium suvs: yamaha's 311hp 4.4-liter, used in the xc90, bmw's 282hp 4.4-liter, used in the range rover, and their own 325hp 4.4-liter, in the lr3 (new discovery).

 

[Jay]

Here is a short sleeper video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6133912955628716829

 

[YSSMAN]

M5Power, I believed they dumped the BMW 4.4L V8 in 2005 for the Jaguar 4.4L and 4.2L V8s as options in the LR3, Range Rover Sport, and Range Rover...

 

[skip0110]

trivia: the sho's 3.4-liter v8 was the smallest v8 in a modern domestic car. it was produced by yamaha putting two four-cylinders together, much the same way volkswagen makes its "w" engines, using narrow-angle ("vr") six-cylinders.

The SHO V8 is not a purely Yamaha-built engine. The block is not two I-4s in a vee configurations, but based off the 2.5 L V6 (Contour) with which it shares bore, stroke, and bellhousing bolt pattern (and 60 degree vee angle).

The blocks were manufactured by Ford in the US, then shipped to Japan where the Yamaha-designed heads were fitted and the top-end assembled. They were then shipped back to the US.

The XC90 V8, on the other hand, is fully built by Yamaha in Japan.

EDIT: The only engine I know of based on two I-4s is the Radical V8, which is based on two Hayabusa engines.

 

[1X83Z]

M5Power, I believed they dumped the BMW 4.4L V8 in 2005 for the Jaguar 4.4L and 4.2L V8s as options in the LR3, Range Rover Sport, and Range Rover...

yeah - they did. but for a time there they had three.

more trivia: the range rover's engine bay is relatively compact, so they had to squeeze that 4.4-liter v8 into it. the range rover was also engineered for bmw's 6-liter v12, but bmw sold the brand and that project got canned. damn. in order to fit those jaguar engines under the range rover hood, ford had to redesign the front - hence the range rover's premature facelift last year.

more trivia: other cars whose fronts had to be redesigned to accomodate larger engines: '96-'97 honda accord v6, volvo s60r, and volvo v70r.

 

[TheCracker]

It would seem that Range Rover have gone down the forced induction route in search of those extra horses. Maybe they could try to squeeze the Aston V12 into it?

 

[1X83Z]

It would seem that Range Rover have gone down the forced induction route in search of those extra horses. Maybe they could try to squeeze the Aston V12 into it?

ford publically stated that they'd gotten sick and tired of buying the engine from bmw (and cutting into their profit margin). redesigning the front end was a permanent solution, so they took it.