Taurus SHO 5 speed bites the bullet

[jonnyk]

I was out the other night coming back from a movie, and low and behold, in front of me was an SHO waiting to turn left. I was headed that way anyways. It was two young guys in the car, and when they left the light I noted the ugly sounding loud exhaust of a V6 (how can they stand that?). They took off pretty hard on the left and I chased, and caught up to them fast going up a hill in 3rd (three lanes wide), but they didn't show any enthusiasm. We cruised for about a mile, and then came to a light.
It was wet out on the pavement because it had lightly snowed earlier, so I knew traction was going to be a problem. We didn't exchange revs, but you can sometimes just tell when it's on Light goes green, I give it about 1/3 throttle until 4500 revs, snapped 2nd quick, and eased into it. I started to spin near the top of 2nd, backpedaled, and then had to shift, and had about a car length on the SHO. 3rd and 4th gears were kind of a waste of time, I had at least 5-6 car lengths on them when I shut down at 90.
Aren't these cars supposed to pull harder up top? Oh well, it felt like my car was running strong anyways. I wish I could take one of those from a dead stop on dry pavement sometime. I also can't wait until the real cars come out of hiding so I can play. Winter hasn't even been that bad this year.

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1991 LX Hatch 5.0L