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Well today after school I finally decided that I needed to see just what my car is capable of. Almost all of my driving up until this point has been short city and freeway trips I hadn't yet taken the car out on some long back roads. The road has a little bit of everything, technical curves requiring quick reflexes, long straight aways for speed, and long banks. The following entails my impressions of truly opening up my 1999 Firebird.
Everything’s stock, non-Y87, and I have the T5.
My entry to the road began on the rather patched part of it, it was here that I noticed how sensitive my car when it came to hitting anything in the road. The car however inspired more confidence than my 1982 Trans Am did when it came to wheel hop, unlike the 82 which would require massive driver input/braking to be properly prepared and deal with and correct for wheel hop as to not be launched off the road the car was able to successfully replant itself and required little input on my part to correct for this. Although I felt everything in the road it didn't worry me as much.
I did experience a few instances of body roll in the technical parts of the road, although minor I hated the feeling of having my car being pulled away from where I needed it to go. I believe lowering springs, or just replacement stock springs may be in good order to help with this, as my rear end seems to be where most the roll is coming from.
While no V8 the 3800 pulled through and was by no means boring to drive, coupled with the manual transmission it made for an exhilarating experience nonetheless. I was however disappointed at the lack of power I had in 4th gear even at 2500rpm, although I know I should just be downshifting for the power seeing as how V6s need to rev higher for their power I'm still overcoming the fact that I no longer have a V8 that can make its power down low. My car is stock now I believe adding a cai and exhaust would greatly some free up some power up there and give 4th gear some more kick down low rather than having to use 3rd all the time for power.
Coming to the long banks the car hugged the road quite well though I began to feel at some point that I was approaching the limits I could take the car with its current setup. New tires are definitely in order and I'm beginning to think that new performance shocks wouldn't be to bad an investment either.
I had no intention of testing the capability of my brakes today but nonetheless I was forced to use them when a suv was making a motion to cut across the road in front of me. Although ultimately he didn't go I couldn't tell at the time and hit the brakes. I did not mash them to the floor as I knew at 50mph and on a mild bank I might have had trouble controlling the car but I applied a fairly large amount of pressure, enough for me to smell burning rubber and burning pads. Although I have done miniature tests of the brakes at low speeds 15-25mph I had never used them so hard at such a speed. I was very impressed by how the car handled the braking, it felt almost like the body wanted to just fly off ahead as I was stuck riding atop the frame and axles. I couldn't tell if the ABS activated or not I have never had the system before and to the best of my knowledge it didn't because I didn't not feel any pulsing or the brake pedal giving out. The one thing that worried me during the ordeal was the fact that I felt the rear end trying to whip around it required minimal effort on my part to correct for this but I suppose this is typical during hard braking like this and with a car with a light rear end. I recovered from this and continued on my way a little more cautious.
The steering on this car is much different than my 82. I would characterize my 82 as having loose but very accurate steering, although it wouldn't go exactly where the steering wheel was pointed you had much more control in the sense that you had complete control over where the tires were pointing. Think of it as having a lot of windshield wiper settings like 20. My 99 would only have about 5 setting. It goes where I make I have little choice as to how fast I want to go there. It requires much more precision and finesse to get the car to do exactly what you want.
Overall the 99s performance impresses me and is superior in almost all aspects to my 82 except in the area of it being not as comfortable to drive in. It's not my seating position it’s my view of the road. Whenever I had let people drive my 82 they had always complained about how little visibility they had and how they had trouble knowing where the car was going. I had always told them that I had used the cowl on the hood as a guide to drive the car, no one ever quite understood what I meant by this. I would use the cowl as a basis for judging distance around the car and exactly where my car was in relation to the road. I knew by judging the distance from cowl to the median line in the road to anything on the right side of the road I was able to tell exactly how close my right fender was to anything out there. I had always complained when I drove my moms Infiniti, my dads Silverado, or my brothers Grand Am how I wasn't able to get a good feel as to where I was in relation to everything else around me. Although my 99 has no cowl I have begun to use the grooves in the hood as my new guide. While not as good as having a cowl it allows me to drive the car with confidence. Driving cars with flat hoods is my bane.
And then I pasted this into word and word counted it and it was 1000+ words. And to think I have trouble writing 500 word essays for school heh...
Everything’s stock, non-Y87, and I have the T5.
My entry to the road began on the rather patched part of it, it was here that I noticed how sensitive my car when it came to hitting anything in the road. The car however inspired more confidence than my 1982 Trans Am did when it came to wheel hop, unlike the 82 which would require massive driver input/braking to be properly prepared and deal with and correct for wheel hop as to not be launched off the road the car was able to successfully replant itself and required little input on my part to correct for this. Although I felt everything in the road it didn't worry me as much.
I did experience a few instances of body roll in the technical parts of the road, although minor I hated the feeling of having my car being pulled away from where I needed it to go. I believe lowering springs, or just replacement stock springs may be in good order to help with this, as my rear end seems to be where most the roll is coming from.
While no V8 the 3800 pulled through and was by no means boring to drive, coupled with the manual transmission it made for an exhilarating experience nonetheless. I was however disappointed at the lack of power I had in 4th gear even at 2500rpm, although I know I should just be downshifting for the power seeing as how V6s need to rev higher for their power I'm still overcoming the fact that I no longer have a V8 that can make its power down low. My car is stock now I believe adding a cai and exhaust would greatly some free up some power up there and give 4th gear some more kick down low rather than having to use 3rd all the time for power.
Coming to the long banks the car hugged the road quite well though I began to feel at some point that I was approaching the limits I could take the car with its current setup. New tires are definitely in order and I'm beginning to think that new performance shocks wouldn't be to bad an investment either.
I had no intention of testing the capability of my brakes today but nonetheless I was forced to use them when a suv was making a motion to cut across the road in front of me. Although ultimately he didn't go I couldn't tell at the time and hit the brakes. I did not mash them to the floor as I knew at 50mph and on a mild bank I might have had trouble controlling the car but I applied a fairly large amount of pressure, enough for me to smell burning rubber and burning pads. Although I have done miniature tests of the brakes at low speeds 15-25mph I had never used them so hard at such a speed. I was very impressed by how the car handled the braking, it felt almost like the body wanted to just fly off ahead as I was stuck riding atop the frame and axles. I couldn't tell if the ABS activated or not I have never had the system before and to the best of my knowledge it didn't because I didn't not feel any pulsing or the brake pedal giving out. The one thing that worried me during the ordeal was the fact that I felt the rear end trying to whip around it required minimal effort on my part to correct for this but I suppose this is typical during hard braking like this and with a car with a light rear end. I recovered from this and continued on my way a little more cautious.
The steering on this car is much different than my 82. I would characterize my 82 as having loose but very accurate steering, although it wouldn't go exactly where the steering wheel was pointed you had much more control in the sense that you had complete control over where the tires were pointing. Think of it as having a lot of windshield wiper settings like 20. My 99 would only have about 5 setting. It goes where I make I have little choice as to how fast I want to go there. It requires much more precision and finesse to get the car to do exactly what you want.
Overall the 99s performance impresses me and is superior in almost all aspects to my 82 except in the area of it being not as comfortable to drive in. It's not my seating position it’s my view of the road. Whenever I had let people drive my 82 they had always complained about how little visibility they had and how they had trouble knowing where the car was going. I had always told them that I had used the cowl on the hood as a guide to drive the car, no one ever quite understood what I meant by this. I would use the cowl as a basis for judging distance around the car and exactly where my car was in relation to the road. I knew by judging the distance from cowl to the median line in the road to anything on the right side of the road I was able to tell exactly how close my right fender was to anything out there. I had always complained when I drove my moms Infiniti, my dads Silverado, or my brothers Grand Am how I wasn't able to get a good feel as to where I was in relation to everything else around me. Although my 99 has no cowl I have begun to use the grooves in the hood as my new guide. While not as good as having a cowl it allows me to drive the car with confidence. Driving cars with flat hoods is my bane.
And then I pasted this into word and word counted it and it was 1000+ words. And to think I have trouble writing 500 word essays for school heh...
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