terzo42

cant see the point in buying a fast car and driving it slow these things are built to drive on the limit so mine does ,never speed in built ups tho ,

Alas

Must admit to driving at legal speeds without using the power too much - except for overtaking when I give it licks.
Just to be safe of course.
Alasdair
PS I get 27/28 mpg too.

Many Humbug Returns

older drivers tend to use less of the rev range

unless they are elderly spinsters that is!

darkblueturbo

I'm not saying drive it slow, and nothing is designed to be constantly on the limit it won't do it any good. But yes, they are designed to take a bit of right foot absue, just not all the time. And how safe are you and your licence 'on the limit' the whole time?

And I'm 23... just because I use less of the rev range most of the time doesn't mean I drive it slow, I just push it to the limit on very rare occasions.

The point of having a car that can do what ours can is so you can do it when you want to. I want to do it from time to time and have great fun doing it. Some people want to do it all the time and do, fair play.

The point of having a car like an Impreza when you don't drive flat out... it's fun even at low speeds and I always like the fact that driving at a steady 60 on a nice twisty lane with a mondea or whatever behind you. As soon as a corner comes you just keep going at 60 and check your mirror when it straightens up and Mr. Mondeo is way back... it's not just about top speed, it's about their ability on the road and you don't have to thrash it to get IMMENSE enjoyment out of a comfortable and relaxed country drive.

ramdor

iTrader: (2)

You may drive it under X revs, treat it well, in the hope it will last more than just 3 years....... but the place you go to get stuff done to it, service it, will just thrash it to an inch of its life. Talking from recent past experience

Richie.

londonpaul

i drive mine like a complete and utter tit. No one ever told me to wait for the oil to warm up so I drive it at or about 5k revs constantly on the bleakest of winter mornings. I'm staggered that I've still got no points on my licence. I've been thinking of complaining to the police for doing such a bad job - I mean really

darkblueturbo

londonpaul - classic!
but how do you get up to 5k, even in first!, driving in London???

you serious about not letting it warm up a bit first? Shouldn't take the engine over 3k from cold, cos the oil's not able to do it's job properly. Normally about 10 miles of normal driving before the oils warm enough (somewhere between 180 and 200 F) to start ragging it... And those of you that do contstantly drive like your ar$e is on fire, might be worth backing off a bit once in a while to let the oil cool back down again - too hot is bad, too especially with a blower! And the exhaust temperature (though this cools down VERY quickly, so I'm told... i.e. lift off going into a corner and the temp. drops. Don't have an EGT gauge so don't know if that's true or not...

really sorry by the way, I'm still at work after a long day and I seem to have strayed from the point, somewhat...
nice cars though, aren't they...

Danny B

Only had my Turbo for 28hrs now and loving every minute of it.
Funny I should read this thread really as I was saying to my Wife when I got home from work that I seem to drive slower and be more relaxed now that I am in a fast car work that one out.
Maybe it's because I know that I don't have to prove anything when other drivers goad me into the traffic light grand prix.
I take it very slow until the engine is warmed up, then generally stay between 2,500 - 3,500rpm while cruising on the motorway.
Give me a few weeks and ask the question again as I'm still getting used to it

darkblueturbo

Danny B - that's it exactly. I used to have the Sport before my turbo, and I gave that far more abuse.

Nothing to prove!

Welcome to the club - ain't it GREAT!! What modelyear, colour, mods you got? And after the first 28 hours (I remember them, don't think I slept!) it just get's BETTER

Danny B

Have a read of my post from yesterday
http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadid=195990
Explains a few things

londonpaul

DBT - I get up early and work late - you'd be surprised how often you can get over 5K if you never get out of 1st gear! hehehe. as for waiting 10 miles - your having a laugh - its only 12 miles to work!

londonpaul

I think these cars are built better than you think - they will take an awful lot of abuse. I'd tell you my record for east to west london but I'd get told off so I wont

darkblueturbo

Danny B - I saw that post - LOVELY looking car. Glad you're chuffed with it.

londonpaul - ****ter about the short work journey! But I know late night London - drove through Parliament square up to somewhere near Earls Court once at 2am (p1ssed sister couldn't get home!) and it was FUN

ap_coupe

come on guys!Why have a scooby and drive it like a ****!U dont buy a 200bhp plus scooby to drive it at 30mph.Get a grip and drive it properly!!

Stevie

Nope, if it had warmed up and I'm on a good road which is deserted, somewhere in Wales, I WILL NOT be driving with the knowledge I have a fast car.

Providing I can always slow to a more sensible speed should I meet someone, I WILL be driving as fast as I possibly can to see what it could do and enjoy myself.

With other motorists around, I WOULD NOT behave in this manner. With an empty road, I get it wrong, I nibble a sheep or two. I may harm myself but that was my choice to drive at speed.

Re changing cars regularly, I thought this was compulsory. I did in fairness have my STi7 9 months before selling it

I am only now considering buying something to keep for maybe 2 years or more, and because of this I have to wait up to 7 months for it!!

NOT HP

blueE9

keeping your scoob below 3K is a bit like going on a date with jordan and taking her to the British library isn't it. use it what's it's made for IMHO.

darkblueturbo

you only keep it below 3k while the oil and engine gets warmed up.

You don't take Jordan to bed straight away - you take her to the library first...

londonpaul

damn. Along similar theoretical principles to my car driving I took her straight to bed. No wonder she went off with that Dwight Yorke bloke

darkblueturbo

that Dwight Yorke! You'd think with a footballers wage he'd be able to afford his own Scooby without stealing yours!

Leslie

I don't think this is a fragile engine by any means. People are getting 400 BHP out of it and their engines seem to hang together pretty well. It is like anything really, if you treat it sensibly and take care of it then it will last for much longer. It is such a good car all round that I believe it deserves to be treated with respect, instead of ragging it trying to dare it to blow up.

Everyone is entitled to drive their cars as they want of course. If you feel you have to reduce your overall performance by redlining the engine on every gearchange for machoistic reasons, thats fine. But dont come whining on this net when you get a rod through the block or the bigends start to rattle or the pistons melt. Its all down to you and you will have to pay the money to mend it.

Anyone with any kind of mechanical sympathy knows that any engine will be all the better for being driven gently until everything is properly warmed up. The oil is at its proper working temperature and has got to all parts of the engine which takes time from cold. It is also being splashed in sufficient quantity onto the cylinder walls. It really does not take that long to get it warmed up anyway.

MHR, you may well be right about older people but I used to treat my engines just the same way when I was the same age as DBM. Cant answer for the spinsters though One thing I do know very well from long experience though is that changing up at the engine's max power revs rather than redlining it always got me appreciably better lap times and cost me a lot less in engines.

Les

GU5

Always been told by the old man that 'the harder you cain your car the harder you cain your pockets' Could be why I'm always broke

KungFuMonkey

Its not just taking it to the red line constantly that will kill the engine eventually.

The higher you rev the engine and the more often you do it, the less time its likely to last. Hence the reason truck engines etc are only designed to rev to 1250rpm or so. Engine life has a lot to do with net piston speads.

Saying that i dont claim i never rev it. I have the odd blast now and again, but its not an everday thing. Whats the point of canning it on the motorway.

Jono

TopBanana

I'm not even sure if mine goes over 4000rpm. Oh, and it's for sale soon

Danny B

So what's a good rpm to change up if your are trying to make progress and the engine is properly warmed up?

darkblueturbo

depends on the individual car... you want to change up before the torque starts to drop off so get maximum acceleration, or for top speed keep it in the power band at the top end of the rev scale.

The only way to know this for sure is with a dyno chart, but you can get a good feel for it with a lot of driving.

My best torque is produced between 3 and 4.5k before it starts to drop off so I change up around then and it drops back down to 3k for max torque.

Likewise my powerband is something like 5.5k to 6.5k It drops off really sharly shortly after 6.5k so change up quick and pickup again at the start of the powerband.

My cars standard with just a back box, but the max torque and powerbands change with mods. e.g. if I replace the downpipe I'd expect to be getting more torque from 2.5k as the turbo picks up quicker.

mason

On mothers day i went to see my dear ol dear.
I do this every year and take her to local garden center so she can look at and buy some lovely flowers for her garden.
This year we set out as usual, after she had acknowledged my having a different car and got on to the local bypass after I came off the roundabout with the turbo singing like Alid Jones.
I wondered if I saw her head bounce off the lateral seat surport but thought 'no it wasnt that fast'.
Anyway to cut a long story short we didn't make it to the garden center after over taking a train of 4 cars at about 6500rpm in 3rd she said she want to go home!!
I dont think I am any longer her favourite son and she doesn't think alot of my driving. I thought she'd enjoy it how wrong I was.
Conclusion being fast car unhappy maa!!!

darkblueturbo

i took my mum for a spin once, with the purpose of showing her the reason we all love our cars on a local twisty lane.

I know I should have laughed, but when she got out and threw up from motion sickness it was quite amusing!

I ALWAYS drive sensibly with mummy in the car now

mista weava

mother has suffered at the hands of my father for years.

its a family thing - come to think of it she boots it and all, i remember as a youngster her reguarly pulling 85mph up this long uphill drag towards tesco - its a 60! she was in the 24 valve 3.0 litre senator we had at the time though!

however when i took her shopping, which involves a long cane through the fabled twisties, she was a little purterbed!

ho, ho i like bei9ng a BAAAAAAAAAD boy - poor mummy.

weava

Sprint Chief

Why should revving the car to 6k shorten the life of the engine? 6k is well within the engine design tolerances, and should do no significant damage beyond normal wear and tear.

My last car (Renault 19 16v) spent lots of its life between 5k and 6.5k (narrow 16v power band) and the engine was running fine, not burning any oil + passing every MoT happily when I sold it with 150,000 miles on the clock - the suspension was very tired, but engine + gearbox was fine. Key thing is warming her up properly, no more than 3k when cold.

Funnily enough I rev my scoob a lot less, just because it has a broader spread of torque, and more often than not I don't need any more than 4k. But I still run it occasionally to 6k. And there is a difference taking it to 7k - I was racing a Honda S2000 (the faster version) - on private roads of course - and changing up at 6k left us about equal, changing up near 7k gave me the edge (96/P standard UK turbo 208bhp).

As for torque/power, acceleration is equal to power/(mass*velocity), optimum acceleration is achieved by maximising the integral of power vs time. At 1 rpm, with an appropriate lever, I can generate more torque using my arms than my scoob can at 3000rpm, but I can tell you the engine will accelerate the car a lot faster than I can!

catflap

i don’t drive mine, i just wash it every week, and occasionally if im really lucky ill open the door, but only slowly, as i don’t want to wear the door out too much, that’s why I spent 10k+ on a thrilling drivers car


UUUUUUGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! its a scoob, DRIVE IT