Lee's Spec V

[KIERAN A. LAVIN]

Since everyone and their grandfather has driven the new Spec V and I
haven't, I figure it'd about time I send *MY* experiences...

Lee came over the other night to check out my new place in Jersey
City.  Before we did too much drinking, he handed me the keys to his car
and told me to go check it out.  I couldn't believe how quick he was to
just hand the keys over!  All he said was "just bring the car back in one
piece and not all scraped up"  I knew he'd let me drive it eventually
but... Now, Ray on the otherhand with his turbo ;P  (not as funny since I
told him I had said that when I originally wrote the e-mail but it got
deleted somehow)  Anyhoo....

The biggest adjustment for me was the clutch.  It grabbed about as high as
mine does low.  I've got a fairly new ACT that grabs about an inch off the
floor... Lee's grabs about when your toe touches the pedal!  My first test
at a light with the clutch just happened to be on a rather steep
incline.  Oh boy... light turns green and there's this asshole on my ass
(well, we all have an asshole on our ass don't we?)  I tried not to roll
back into him so I let out the clutch as I hit the gas and
whoa... wheelhop.  Second gear, more wheelhop... but I backed off and
eased out.  No biggie.

I got the car out onto the highway and that 6th gear shift was kind of
weird... I did practice the throw a few times before starting the car just
to get the feel of it but it was still a bit weird.  I was *AMAZED* at the
amount of torque that car has!  Holy shit, at like 60 or 70MPH in 6th
gear(!) at maybe 2000 RPMs, I punched the gas and there was tons of
feedback.  About as much feedback as I'd expect in my car at about 4000+
RPMs!  At another point, I downshifted to maybe 3rd at 50 or 60 and it was
amazing!

I didn't have all that much chance to check out that helical limited slip
because it was raining and I wasn't terribly familiar with the few twisty
roads/offramps I took it on.  I did find one place where it was well-lit,
under an overpass (dry), and no potholes so I romped on it.  That was cool
as hell!

The brakes were awesome too... especially for having been through a track
day already and not having been bled!  I test them out hard at one point
to see if he had ABS and they worked *REALLY* well.  However, either the
headlights dimmed or, more likely, the nose dipped *WAY* down.

The handling was awesome for stock suspension!  I don't know that I'd
agree with Lee that it handles better than my AGX/ProKit 200SX *BUT* I
didn't really get to test it that much.  We'll see at some later time when
we get the two cars together on a track.

The best part was that I had no one else with me in the car.  No salesman
telling me to slow down, not even the owner of the car!  So I was able to
rip at my own pleasure... although I was really careful since it *IS* a
friend of mine's brand new car!

I did have a slight run-in with the police... as I was merging onto a
highway, I romped on the gas a bit.  I had been stuck in light traffic but
with no open road.  When I got onto the new highway, I saw a long, open
stretch and let loose... only up to maybe 70-75 in a 55.  Then, a pair of
headlights comes up fast alongside me.  I thought it was some punk.  I
looked over to see a NJ Trooper.  Oops!  He just looked over and kept
going.  Thank God!

Lee and I have talked about getting the cars side-by-side for some
comparrisons with a full bolt-on SR20 against the Spec V.  At this point,
I'd be *REAL* interested to see the results as I feel pretty confident
that Lee's car was *VERY* close to mine.

kieran