Prior to last night I did not want to modify my box with useless add on's that supposedly added power. However, I have now decided to get a bit more power out of my 1.5 motor.
My friend and I decided to do a quick side by side comparison between our boxes. Mine is completely stock and his has intake/exhaust and 18" chrome wheels. Because of the wheels, i naturally thought I was going to take him, but was I wrong.
at the word go, not only did he spin the tires off the line, but he still out accelerated me and was about 1/2 car to 3/4 car ahead until right before we had to start braking (I was slowly catching up)

Well, the story is quite pointless, but I thought someone might want to hear that an intake and exhaust may actually make a difference.

 

Cases like this are sometimes the driver and may also be your wheels.

 

what I/H/E was he running?

 

injen SRI, header stock, exhaust custom??
as for driver, we both just gunned it and went, so I don't think driver is really a factor. we both have automatics too.
as far as the wheels, mine are stock, so I figured that I had less rotating mass compared to his chrome 18's. Thats why i figured I could take him, but i was wrong.

 

if he had some light weight 15's or 16's he probably would have beat you even a little more. i have 18's on my 5 speed and its bogging me down quite a bit, but the scion is just a cruiser

 

I was the other "racer" in this fun little experiment, and I honestly thought I would lose. The 18's did slow me down a lot when I put them on.

Although the intake and exhaust might have helped, I'm starting to think it was the better traction I got with the ZR rated tires. Those skinny little steelies just don't grip the road enough. With some light 16" rims on wider, sticky rubber, he would probably dust me. I know because I only took him off the line. After that, he was gaining big time, and probably would have passed me on a longer street. Traction won this time.

-THE DON

 

all I know is that header , intake , exhaust , steelies and 5spd is still WAY TOO slow .

 

depends how you drive it

 

Must be the better grip on the 18's

 

I thought he said he spun the tires off the line..that doesn't sound like that great of traction. Maybe his car broke in better, maybe you had bad gas, blah blah blah. There are a lot of factors involved. I would say go to a drag strip and run so you can see each others MPH, then weigh your car at the track and calculate the horsepower. This way you can see the real difference between the cars. You might be surprised how much a good break in, better gas, and those bolt ons did.