Originally Posted by
pizzaguy
I can attest to that. I remember the run, 2013 or 14 it had to be, with Evan in your right seat. As we turned left from 28 to 129 at the Gap, you said "see you guys at the bridge, I wanna run this kinda hot." I thought "I'm gonna stay on him..."
As I rounded the second curve, you vanished around the third. I never saw you again, until the bridge, and I pulled away from the cars behind me, thinking I could keep up. Amazing.
But I always credited your skill over anything else.
Dan Bracken said I would be faster with the stick (which I bought in 2010, never took the auto up there again) - and he was right, but I had to learn to manage the engine/transmission as you described above. But I still could not keep up with you..... Doubt I could even today.
Thanks PIZZA. Skill? maybe. But the extra power is real and didn't hurt. And Yes Graphite, it is always a pissing contest with the SRT guys. But from my first Dragon, I ran with the SRT's and never had an issue keeping up because my power was amplified within reasonable comparison to theirs on virtually the same chassis. I own both and when my wife is in the SRT on the interstate, she kills me easily in a matter of seconds. In the twisties, not so much.
The NA Crossfire is a "driving" car, not a drag racer. A bit under powered yes. But with a little boost from simple mods, it can provide adequate performance. A good CAI ( I think I have the only one Eurocharged ever produced and it is very different from SpeedWings.) Bigger injectors, larger Throttle body and some exhaust Cat deletes, a dyno tune, and one can achieve a 20% power increase. Many NA Owner's have. I'm no different and no better. But nothing can achieve with the NA the boost of a Supercharger. However, there are no manual tranny SRT's out there. I prefer to row my own gears. My apologies to those members of the "push and go fast" SRT crowd that are offended.
To the OP and any owner wishing to improve performance, do those mods. Then get a tuner on a dyno to maximize power. Relatively inexpensive and unlikely to cause harm to the engine as Daimler tends to over building order to provide longevity.
If you want the power of an SRT, don't bother with the NA, Just sell it and find an SRT. Despite the fears of some of the SRT owners who own them, the NA will never get there. Why that group is so sensitive is a mystery not worth pondering. This subject has been battered to death here. The same people posting the same objections. One wonders why they want to discourage the new members. More to the point, why they try to discourage any NA driver from improving his performance is counter productive to the purpose of this Forum. We should encourage and help each other to better enjoy our weird little cars.
My Crossie is coming up on 14 years of age. I no longer mount "Y" rate tires. Barely drive it enough to keep the wheels round. And, despite the observed success of my mods, seldom post anything technical here because of the negativity of many posters. I still like the car. It's cool, different and fun to drive.