GTUs vs. VW R32
12-08-07, 10:09 PM
#1
GTUs vs. VW R32
I was driving on the highway when I saw a 2004? VW R32 come on driving somewhat aggressively. The road was clear, so I got behind him. He signaled me to get around him, I guess to see what kind of car I was in. After I got in front, I waited a couple of seconds, clutched in, and started pulling slowly. When he saw me pull, he started pulling as well.
Let's put it this way, I got destroyed in 2nd and 3rd gear. However, I noticed that when I got to the top of the rev range, the distance between us stopped growing. So once I hit 4th, somehow, I started reeling him in. Coming to a bend, he slowed down a little, and that let me get pretty close to him, so I could start drafting him. At that point, he couldn't get away from me.
We were both in the middle lane when we saw a car in the horizon. He decided to go right and I ended up going left. At this point, a bunch of things went into my favor. We both didn't realize, but we were on an uphill section that crested and turned into a downhill shortly afterwards. Additionally, there was a big left sweeper coming up and I happened to be on the inside. My car could also hold a lot more speed in the corners. As soon as we got into the corner, I noticed that he started dropping back fast. I kept up the pace, I was holding about 130 mph through the whole bend. After the bend finished, there was a steep downhill straight section and after passing through it at 140 mph, I didn't see him in my rearview anymore. There was a road work sign coming up, so I decided to cut my speed at that point, and slow down to a reasonable speed. He came by about 30 seconds later, pulled to my left, and we both smiled and gave each other a thumbs up.
Afterwards, I was kind of confused as I thought the R32 had a lot more power than me, so I didn't understand how I was able to pull in 4th gear. I had assumed that he had a speed limiter in the car, so I looked up the specs of the R32 online. It puts out 240 bhp and a top speed of 153 mph. However, it had a curb weight of 3400 lbs, so he was giving up 600 pounds. I must admit though, I was lucky that the sweeper was there. I was able to stay on the power the whole way through, and I think he just couldn't hold the speed and had to back off. All in all though, I'm still happy that my stock port NA can still keep up with some of the newer cars.
Let's put it this way, I got destroyed in 2nd and 3rd gear. However, I noticed that when I got to the top of the rev range, the distance between us stopped growing. So once I hit 4th, somehow, I started reeling him in. Coming to a bend, he slowed down a little, and that let me get pretty close to him, so I could start drafting him. At that point, he couldn't get away from me.
We were both in the middle lane when we saw a car in the horizon. He decided to go right and I ended up going left. At this point, a bunch of things went into my favor. We both didn't realize, but we were on an uphill section that crested and turned into a downhill shortly afterwards. Additionally, there was a big left sweeper coming up and I happened to be on the inside. My car could also hold a lot more speed in the corners. As soon as we got into the corner, I noticed that he started dropping back fast. I kept up the pace, I was holding about 130 mph through the whole bend. After the bend finished, there was a steep downhill straight section and after passing through it at 140 mph, I didn't see him in my rearview anymore. There was a road work sign coming up, so I decided to cut my speed at that point, and slow down to a reasonable speed. He came by about 30 seconds later, pulled to my left, and we both smiled and gave each other a thumbs up.
Afterwards, I was kind of confused as I thought the R32 had a lot more power than me, so I didn't understand how I was able to pull in 4th gear. I had assumed that he had a speed limiter in the car, so I looked up the specs of the R32 online. It puts out 240 bhp and a top speed of 153 mph. However, it had a curb weight of 3400 lbs, so he was giving up 600 pounds. I must admit though, I was lucky that the sweeper was there. I was able to stay on the power the whole way through, and I think he just couldn't hold the speed and had to back off. All in all though, I'm still happy that my stock port NA can still keep up with some of the newer cars.
12-09-07, 09:19 AM
#4
They are low 14's out of the box, my car is barely high 14's with R-compounds and everything perfect. You're right, cornering at 120+ mph is an adrenaline rush, cornering at 130+ mph with SNOW tires on, well......that's something else. =P
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