T5 v Saab 900TSE

[ash]

perhaps my car is getting olds and slow, but over the weekend i was beaten by a saab 900 TSE with sensonic gears.
from the traffic lights it got infront upto 2-3 cars lengths, when i shifted into 3rd gear i then started to gain some ground, but the road ended and we know have a happy Saab driver.
Has anyone had any experience with Saab 900's, how have they compared, could i have a problem with my car its a 95 T5 estate as stock and i know this saab was stock also.
In writing the T5 has more bhp than the saab, perhaps mine need a good service and some tunning....
any help or views with be appreciated!

There are so many variables to consider it could be that your car is running slow or it could be absolutely fine.

According to Parkers the fastest 900 runs 0-60 in 8 secs, yours should be able to run low 7s easily.

Is your car serviced at recommended intervals?Things like turbo hoses can degrade over time, allowing boost leakage (in effect) and performance may gradually decrease without you realising. If on visual inspection everything appears ok a good way to check is to spend around £40 and go to a local 'rolling road' where they can measure the power output of your car accurately.

Also were you ready for a race? Once when I wasn't expecting it I had a BMW 323i beat me to about 30mph by 1 car length because I had such a bad start, but if I'm ready for it 330s are easily left wondering what that brick with a big exhaust is doing disappearing down the road :)

Is yours auto or manual? Big difference in low speed starts unless you're paying attention. Are you SURE you weren't wheelspinning? Often you can get a fair bit of wheelspin without realising it when in the cabin, this could easily make your 0-60 time drop a second or two.

Hope that helps for starters

[ash]

Mine is a manual T5, and i was ready for the saab. The thing just moved away from me upto 60mph about 2-3 car lengths, after that i started gaining a bit. It's got me all paranoid and i need to know what it might be.
Can things like low tyre tread make a significant difference??

In the dry low tyre tread will basically give you better grip, but in anything that involves water say goodbye to grip! Also tyres loose roughyl 1/3 of their gripiness per year even if you don't use them.

You didn't say if your car is regularly serviced? Is the lambda symbol on? How old are plugs/distributor cap? Has the air filter been changed.

These are all things that will be done at a service (sorry if you do get it serviced as you should, but I'm just saying you need to rule out the basics)

Maybe you aren't very good at shifting? I'm not being horrible at all there.

Also what RPM do you shift at?

As I said there are so many variables to a car's actual acceleration it is important to see what is: engine limit, grip limit, and driver limit.

[ash]

Yes my car has regular services, about 2 months ago it had a full major service, including timing belt and brakes, and no lamda light. I might be shifting too late missing the maximum torque point, at what rpm should i be shifting?? if im honest i probably did shift way too late against the saab.

Thank for the advice Alex.

Perhaps its time to start some modding......

I read Adam W's advice about shifting slightly earlier over on t5uk, and it certainly seems sensible but I don't know of it's real life effect - just have to trust Adam on that and he knows his stuff.

IF you start modding you REALLY REALLY!!! should get the car dyno'd at a rolling road, this is the perfect way to see what you car's baseline is and then what imrovements your modifications have made to it.

Once you learn the graphs a bit you will start to see how various mods affect low-down torque etc. and where you might have problems such as boost leaking at high rpms etc.

As a guide £1000 will see you very close to 300bhp and at flat 6/low 6 to 60mph.