Not sure I like the blower

[Bill220]

After hours upon hours of work and aggravation, the Paxton is in and running. I've driven it maybe 5-6 times and while I should like the extra power, I find myself not enjoying it.
I find myself banging off the rev limiter in 1st gear despite my best efforts, when the power hits in 2nd and 3rd gear, the rear of the car is very unpredictable, as in it might not spin at all, it might spin in a straight line or swing left and right. I almost put it in a ditch the other night.
It has to be me or maybe there's a learning curve or something.
I have Steeda Sports, Koni STR-T's, Stallion Racing rear LCA's, aluminum PHB with a spherical rod end on the body side and BMR relocation brackets with the LCA's in the second hole. Tires are Cooper RS3A's (all season) with 8/32 tread. Tires will be replaced asap by summer compound Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's, 255/45/18.
I still have to install my Aeroforce gauge and hook up the shift light in it along with the boost sensor. That should help some.
I don't even want to drive the car now. It's just too unpredictable.
Any thoughts on how to relearn how to safely drive it?
I'm going to give it some time but if I can't enjoy the car, it's gone. I was gonna go coilovers but I'm done spending.

 

[weather man]

Learning curve for your right foot and reading what the car is telling you.

 

[fast Ed]

Get the stickier tires on first to see how much that improves it before worrying about other things. How often would you normally drive it? If not much, what about stepping up to something like Nitto drag radials?


cheers
Ed

 

[Bill220]

Learning curve for your right foot and reading what the car is telling you.

Thank you!

 

[eighty6gt]

You just spin and spin, fwd economy cars pass you at half throttle... it gets fatiguing after a while, if I find myself feeling this way I just take a few weeks or months off of driving the car.

I'm putting 295's on this year, and finally installing my truetrac, but not drag radials. See how I like it.

The relocation brackets I installed were a huge improvement but you already have those.

Give it some time!

 

[Bill220]

Get the stickier tires on first to see how much that improves it before worrying about other things. How often would you normally drive it? If not much, what about stepping up to something like Nitto drag radials?


cheers
Ed

I want to corner. DR's aren't ideal for that are they? I don't know much about them. It's a summer fun car. 2-3 days a week.

 

[Wes06]

Then find a really high rated summer compound.

All seasons are meh once you start adding a bunch of power.

 

[AndrewNagle]

find a really high rated summer compound.

Learning curve for your right foot and reading what the car is telling you.

Give it some time!

All of the above.....

Michelin PSS or Continental Extreme Contact DW or the new Extreme Contact Sports

Been driving mine for about a month and just love it....TrueTrac, MGW shifter, Continental DW's 275/40/18, Fays2 Watts Link

 

[JeremyH]

Power and traction are like polar opposites lol. You added power but did you add traction? Close second is braking, although tires are the big part in that as well.

Yes its a learning curve. There are conditions and situations where you will find are good for getting on it and some to just keep it easy on the go pedal. My best initial advice is to learn to only accelerate hard when the car is "settled" and just carry speed through maneuvers. When its wet or bad roads pretend its a 4 banger family car and take it easy.

There are good street and drag radials out there that can corner as well.

Tire is the most overlooked performance mod on a vehicle imo. It does all the work and effects your driving experience the most.

 

[Bill220]

All of the above.....

Michelin PSS or Continental Extreme Contact DW or the new Extreme Contact Sports

Been driving mine for about a month and just love it....TrueTrac, MGW shifter, Continental DW's 275/40/18, Fays2 Watts Link

I bought 255/45/18 Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 summer tires in December. They'll have to do for now. I have an MGW also. Truetrac is on wish list.

Can I put 275's on a stock 8.5" rim?

 

[skwerl]

Maybe dial back the boost a little until you improve traction?

 

[TGR96]

If you are only driving it a couple of days a week, during the summer, if I were you, I'd take a good long look at the Nitto NT-05s or NT-01s.

 

[Bill220]

Power and traction are like polar opposites lol. You added power but did you add traction? Close second is braking, although tires are the big part in that as well.

Yes its a learning curve. There are conditions and situations where you will find are good for getting on it and some to just keep it easy on the go pedal. My best initial advice is to learn to only accelerate hard when the car is "settled" and just carry speed through maneuvers. When its wet or bad roads pretend its a 4 banger family car and take it easy.

There are good street and drag radials out there that can corner as well.

Tire is the most overlooked performance mod on a vehicle imo. It does all the work and effects your driving experience the most.

The tires were on there from when it was NA. We got a warm spell and I wanted to try the car out.

I'm not a racer so the stock brakes will suffice for now. Brembos are also on the wishlist as are 18X10 wheels.
My wishlist is quite extensive lol.

 

[AndrewNagle]

Can I put 275's on a stock 8.5" rim?

using 2007 GT500 SVT wheels which are 9.5"

 

[stkjock]

Tires are Cooper RS3A's (all season) with 8/32 tread. Tires will be replaced asap by summer compound Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's, 255/45/18.

/\ this is your issue IMHO

get a DR on there and you'll be much better off.


When I added a Vortech to my 06 GT I had the stock tires on the car, car made about 430 whp at 10#, had 3.55 rear IIRC at the time, went to 4.10s later, when I took the car out for a test drive from the install shop, I immediately found out I needed a upgrade, went to a 255/45/18 UHP tire, also worthless, moved those to the front and added a 265/40/18 MT ET SR II to the rear and the car worked!!! It could still spin in 1st if I hammered it above 4000 rpm, otherwise very little traction issue.

 

[travelers]

All the of the above suggestions and maybe just drive the car normally to get a feel for the way it feels and increase right foot power slowly..

 

[Greg Hazlett]

I don't see how you are having these issues with a centri blower which makes power with rpm's; my experience is the advantage of the centri blower is the ability to control the power as it really does not come on until higher speeds/rpms; you are describing symptoms of a PD blower...

Stick or automatic and what gears

Don't get me wrong, upgraded suspension and better tires will help.

 

[tigerhonaker]

Greg,

Bill's Bullitt Mustang came with 3.73 gears and a manual 5-speed transmission. ^^^

Your right the Paxton is a lot easier to control than the Roush etc superchargers.


T.

 

[06 T-RED S/C GT]

I bought 255/45/18 Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 summer tires in December. They'll have to do for now. I have an MGW also. Truetrac is on wish list.

Can I put 275's on a stock 8.5" rim?

275's are not recommended for an 8.5" rim.. Minimum recommendation is 9.0" size rim.. Ideal recommendations are 9.5-10.5" rim sizes..

 

[702GT]

OP, it's just a learning curve. Every time you change a performance characteristic of a car, it requires the driver to pay attention and feel it out. Solid axle cars can be a bear to corner carve in. The difficulty increases with more power. Predictability comes with experimentation. You can gain more traction with better tires, but that doesn't help you overcome the unpredicatible nature of traction loss. Knowing what your car will do at a given speed and power level with little or no traction is important to someone who wants to hug corners. I would suggest low speed drifting in a safe environment (empty parking lot or actual drift track). Find out first where power overcomes traction, lateral G's breaking point, and where the car wants to go when it does break loose. I feel your pain regarding heavy right foot syndrom. Half throttle, maybe 2/3's is about my maximum for 1, 2, and most of 3rd gear on the street. More than that is just a smoke show. Even-so, I've learned to control it enough to keep the car straight and pedal through it, traction eventually catches up, it's important to keep it in the groove when it does hook back up. You don't need balls out WOT in most head 2 head or roll races. And I would certainly rather lose a race because of traction loss than put my ride in a ditch because I couldn't stand to lose to a STI built to the hilt. Win some, lose some. Wider tires will give you more contact patch and improve cornering, taller tires and DR's will improve straight-line traction, but ultimately you'll still need to learn the new performance characteristics of your car, with or without improved traction. The more power you have, the less occasion you'll find WOT has purpose.