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| March 17th, 2001 Somewhere in the SoCal desert. LONG EMPTY straight stretch of highway, NO traffic. Just me alone in the van. No seats, foot on the floor, nothing left to give. Driver's window down. 3.0 Liter V6 by Mitsubishi. Open element filter on the throttle body, timing bumped a bit, ported and smoothed intake. 52mm Throttle body. Outside, sunshine, blue sky, slight crosswind, no clouds, hit about 80*F for the high. about 3000-3500 feet altitude. Not bad for a 14 year old minivan... These are moments some people wait a whole lifetime for. Me? I've gone this fast in this vehicle twice now. Next items to rework are larger fuel injectors, larger exhaust system with a high flow catalytic converter. Maybe then I'll get to 120... After that, well, I've got a turbocharger in the garage. I'm rebuilding a set of roller cam heads, and porting and polishing the runners. Might reshape the bowl area. Leaving the combustion chamber alone for now. And, have the cams reground by Crower... That should have the speedo pegged on the trip odo reset button... About 140? I do this for myself. I do this alone. On empty highways with NO traffic visible. I don't intend to hurt anybody, much less myself. Sure, I could get hurt. I accept that. I'm not willing to accept anyone else. So I go alone, deserted highway, no traffic. Easy to do in the desert. 100 miles from anywhere substantial... If you choose to do this, be aware of the potential for grave harm and injury. I don't know about you, but I've had performance driving schools. I've been an MSF Instructor. I've been driving legally for 24 years. I've not had a aticket in 12 years. But I'm not slow. I learned a lot of neat stuff. Like when conditions aren't right, slow it down. If the car isn't capable, slow it down. Tires worn? Slow it down... This and more, you can learn, if you slow it down. But remember, I never said, you couldn't have fun... Yes, I said a MINIVAN. 1987 Dodge Grand Caravan. First year of the V6, first year of the stretched wheelbase. This thing is stable at 115 MPH. PLEASE NOTE!!!! I do my own maintenance. I KNOW the condition of my van. I know the air pressure in each tire, and how much tread is left. I know the last time I changed my oil, and its due again soon. I also do my own repairs. Including major items. Though, I've yet to tackle an automatic transaxle. Maybe, when this tranny dies, I could convince my wife I NEED a 5 speed... Yeah, right. |
| I drive a minivan. Deal with it. |
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