Just a "theory"

Not that it "ever happened" but. If say you were drivign on a divided two lane(each direction) undualting parkway on crispy sunday 7:30 am no traffic, and your boxer was runnign as it should and on modern rubber. Lets say in theory you came across one of those new AMG GLS biturbo 6,3's you know the one with near 600hp and awd.

Lets say in theory the person in the amg saw you commign up fast and decided to stay in front. You might in theory, find the following.

That yes the amg may be abit quicker being a 600hp autobox, but that once you drop to third and run through 4th there is not much in it. But that above say 130-140ish when you shift to that tallish 5th that amg is going to be measurably quicker. Not so quick that they dissapear down the horizon, and not so fast that by 150 neither of you wnat to go faster so you cant reel him in but quicker.

Now on bends as we know you have to plan ahead on a boxer, but once it takes its set you can in thery really start puring the coals on from the apex out, especialy if you are running ps2's.. In such a case you might be surpised to find the boxer is exiting the corners signficantly faster then a 600hp awd amg. I am guessing due to weight the amg has quite a bit of body lean and would speculate be a bit understeery, wheras a boxer with all the rear traction and strong synamics on power just digs in.. Not that any of ths ever happend, but if it did, I think you woudl find a boxer on modern rubber would be reeling in the amg on exit in fast 90-110 mph swwepers such that its exit speed would be high enough to negate the amgs slight accleration adavantage for the susequent 130ish staright.

Not that anyone would really do this, but if they did, I am speculatively certain this is the type of result you would find. I woudl say not bad for a 30yo car.

 

All tue, and as always the driver is the biggest factor.
All the electronics weigh awd etc in the Amg means its probbaly not that much fun, BB's are fun at pretty much all speeds unless you have traffic.

 

If I was at a stoplight at the exit and looked over, it would have been a cls, 6.3 biturbo.

Its theoreticaly fun to use a boxer as designed, (for fast undulating roads), designed for era long ago when flying low from a-b was possible. So sad that most I see are chugging around from one cocncors to the next.

 

One must aways remember that standing start times(paper specs) in a boxer are unaturaly poor and give afalse sense of what the real performance is.. 1st gear is really short, just somehting to get rolling and then the dogleg shift to second takes time, not to mention a vigorous standing start will wipe the clutch or diff carrier. Thats why 0-60 in a boxer does not appear that fast by modern stadards. This is however a misnomer. Once moving in 2nd or third as you say roll on accleration in boxer is near epic.

At Higher speeds above 130-140 what holds a boxer back is aero, tall gearing in 5th to get to 180ish with only 5 gears and yeah its only 350ish hp.

By the same token many moderns with paddles are faster on paper than in relaity. 7 speeds and paddles fakes raw speed by keeping a peaky motor in narrow powerband. Out on the road though lots of tq and taller gearing really work well.

Back to the STI If it were standign start for 1 block and the sti dumped the clutch a boxer wouldnt be int he contest. 2nd gear roll on the boxer will take it, and an sti is not going much past 140? and I am gessing wont acclerate too hard past 120. Whereas as we al know a boxer is just htting its stride aorund 80 or so and wont slacken till close on 140.

 

Shutting it down just as the Tr gets going, why not keep your foot flat go for third and dissapear into the horizon. Its sad that these cars are designed for crushing continents and unenlightened traffic rules makes blasts to 75 seem like something.

I suggest you watch cannonball run and taldega nights back to back and then go hunting subarus.


BTW top of third in a BBI is 105, radar verified back in the 90s by the unelightened .

 

Nice car, now really open it up, alligator alley the turnpike out twards orlando let those horsies run free as they are designed to.