Ford Probe GTS vs. NA 300ZX

[MclarenF1]

Hello all!

Okay, I'm not really the kind of guy who normally goes around trying to pick off races, but a good friend of mine has been bugging me for weeks to run him in his Ford Probe GTS. It is a beautiful car, 5 speed, with @72,000 miles on it. He has taken great care of it, and his only modifications are intake, exhaust, and I think I remember him saying he put headers on it.

As for me- After his relentless nagging, I finally said "Okay, but if you're going to make me risk getting into trouble, you've got to pay to play." Long story short, we have somehow ended up wagering a pretty good sum of money on this. $400, to be exact. This is going to hurt one of us, bad. We want to make sure this is fair, so we have 3 outside judges, we are going to a very large abandoned truck terminal to do this, and we are doing best out of five runs.

As for my car- it is a 1996 Non turbo 5 speed 300zx, bone stock, with the exception of a couple of drop in air filters. The odo has @49,000 showing.

I think I'm going to avoid checking this until after it's over. I don't want to scare myself out of this. (Or maybe I should.) Anyway, argue amongst yourselves, and I'll be sure to let you all know how it went.

[clawhammer]

Your car should run mid to high 15s, and the Ford should run about the same. I say it's a drivers race.

[clawhammer]

Oh, and here's my suggestion: Do a good tune-up, remove extra weight such as spare, jack, but not major stuff that would make him suspicious like rear seat. That could make all the difference

[k3smostwanted]

well, i wouldnt really go on those 1/4 mile times posted all over the net. they are known to be quite a ways off in some instances. the only way to see what your car runs is to run it. you should take him off the start with your car being RWD and his being FWD...

after you take him on the start he shouldnt be able to catch you...also, dont get down if he is ahead of you by a little in first gear in the N/A if you do happen to get behind. the 300zx has a very strong second and third gear...

but if you both get the same start it should come down to who shifted faster and knows when to shift...im kinda interested to see the outcome. definitely post how it went...

[95cord]

i belive the probe will get you. i use to have a probe and there not exactly slow.

[MclarenF1]

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OHMAHGAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah praise the lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WON! IWON IWON IWON!!!!! FIVE OUT FIVE BABY!!!!!!

WHew! You'll have to excuse me. I know I'm replying earlier than I expected, but my freind called as soon as I got out of student teaching at 12:00 to see if I wanted get this over with. Apparently I wasn't the only one worried sick last night. We all decided we would just do this and then tonight we'd be free to do some major drinking to celebrate/ slash mourn the results. And you were right K3. First gear was really close. I got a sorry start on the first run, and for one gear he had me by about half a car length. I remember getting this feeling that I was going to throw up as soon as that happened, but then I shifted into second, and started "walking the dog," so to speak. We used the parking lot and part of an access road to run on. The overall distance was just a little over a quarter of a mile. On every run but the first one, the judges said I had him by about 4 car lengths. Don't get me wrong- it was a great race- but it was just a slow and steady walk away for me everytime. We both limited weight loss to removal of spare tires and jacks and near empty tanks of gas.

BTW, I was a little less worried when one of my other freinds called me last night. He has a 95 3000gt sl 5 speed, and we've run our cars together so many times we've lost count. I usually outrun him (especially at speeds over 70), but it so happened that he ran the Probe about a month ago, and got edged out in a relatively short distance. He said he was having a bad day, but their run was still so close that he felt pretty confident I didn't have anything to worry about. (And I think I'll vouch for the bad day bussiness- the Mitsu usually runs a closer race than what I saw today.) Anyway, apparently my Probe driving friend was inspired by that incident and thought he was going to take me for a $400 ride. Poor guy. Kind of pisses me off when I think about it, but I guess I'll still have buy him a few shots to ease his pain. After it was all over with we wondered how much of it came down to driver skill, so we made three more runs, but switched cars. Pretty much the same results. Please don't get the idea that I don't like Probes or anything. I was actually pretty impressed with how well his drove.

Thanks for the input everyone. Gotta go get ready to celebrate.

[clawhammer]

Cool. Go get some headers, should make the car even faster.

[porscheguy9999]

The Probe is an ok car, but I really think it's no match for a 300ZX. It's no surprise to me you won against him. With headers, you can expect to smoke him even more anyday.

[Zgringo]

Way to go.....Nice kill for ther Z.