The Daytona: November 23, 2002
by Russ Knize on Nov.23, 2002, under Daytona
Made it! The car is home. There really weren’t any problems making it back (that shake it has at low speed is still scary), though having to stop for gas 3 times was annoying. The fuel tank leaks if it’s above 3/4 full and the fuel pump is at risk of dying if the tank is less than 1/4 full. That leaves about 7 gallons of fuel to work with. Add to that the crumby mileage you get when you combine a 3-speed automatic transmission with a short drive ratio and a set of small 205/50R15 tires, and you find yourself stopping for gas quite often. The Dawes Devices A/F ratio meter also started working and I noticed the engine would stay rich for long periods of time while I was cruising (not in boost). That probably didn’t help either.
As I got closer to home, I started playing with the car a little more. I’ve owned a 2.2L Turbo I with an automatic before, but this one makes surprising power. Granted, the boost is bled to about 10psi, but that’s only 3psi over stock. I have some crazy plans to start playing with this early T1 setup, so we’ll see how much power I can make before I blow up the trans. 🙂