Before two full days of ownership I have finally had my first race. My 92 sedan has an m3 exhaust and wheels, k&n intake, and is dropped with billstein shocks. I was also handed a performance chip to put in after I go through emissions next week.

I was making my way west on a four lane highway darting between lanes when I noticed a Saturn doing the same thing coming up behind me fast. He came up next to me and we waved before coming to a stop at a light. He said he'd follow me so I gunned it and he pulled in behind me and stayed right there as I accelerated. I knew this wasn't something I could win so I turned on my signal to make a turn onto a long and mildly twisty very hilly road through the woods. He dropped back to slow for the turn while I just put it in neutral and tapped the brakes as I entered the turn and I took off as fast as I could. I am taking turns just as fast as with my WRX but with less sticky tires and no squeal. At first it is all down and up again on the road and neither of us are going over 70. Through this he never gets too far behind me at any point untill we come to the best part. I go over the crest of a hill and then it all drops out like on roller coaster. He goes over the crest a second behind me and we accelerate like crazy. When I get to 5000 rpm in 5th gear I just put it in neutral and coast on down. I don't know what speed I'm going because I am concentrating on the narrow road ahead of me. I am seriously spooked as I've never gone this fast on a road that two F-150's can barely squeeze by each other on. I glanced at my rear view mirror and see the Redline about 1/8 mile behind me. I rode the brakes hard all the way the next light where the Redline caught up, honked and waved, and we went different ways. The highest I saw my spedo at was 115, but I went quite a bit faster. Not quite the 155 we used to do in my friend's 528i, but then again that was on a flat straight open road. I don't know how an Ion handles, but I suspect it is not too good. I would not want to go that fast if I was in one. I'll have to try it on my WRX sometime but I think I'll chicken out at lower speeds because the brakes and handling aren't quite as good.

I'm happy with the results of that! If it was going the other way I would have lost, but hey, at the end of the day he is driving a saturn.

Oh, and by the way my car is now telling me to buy some new brakes, ASAP!

haha, so you got him in the twisties. good race. the redline is designed for staight lines. lol, i dont think it handles all that great.

actually it does handle pretty well, and in an auto-x im pretty sure he would take you there too.

Twisties FTW!

My girlfriend's Saturn handles amazingly well. It has almost no body roll, and stays very well planted. If it were RWD, it would be an awesome car.

auto-x tracks are designed for many cars to succeed. All cars usually finish the track in about the same time give or take 5 seconds. Everything is driver skilled. With the exception of the top tier class when drivers can slow into a turn and floor it using the high horsepower in their cars. Street racing can different, unknown elements, and high speed. High speeds into the twisties is different from auto-x, where the tracks are tight and no straight aways that may lead into turns.

Not quite the 155 we used to do in my friend's 528i

Um... 528i limit is 135? What did your friend have done?

My girlfriend's Saturn handles amazingly well. It has almost no body roll, and stays very well planted. If it were RWD, it would be an awesome car.
which one was it. my sc2 handled well to, but i just thought it was the lack of hp. lol

Um... 528i limit is 135? What did your friend have done?

There is no way the limit is that low. He did buy it used from some guy, but I'm pretty sure the car was bone stock being only a couple years old. Maybe the spedo was reading high at those speeds, but not that high. All I know is that the back has 528i and the spedo read 155. Also the mpg gauge was reading something like 3, lol.

Wait, I remember once on the atlantic city expressway it hit 156. It is also an automatic.

Ok... I looked it up. Limited at 137mph. So... Unless he had a limiter removed which would be extremely unusual I have to call BS.

Edit: Are you sure it's a 528? Because I don't like to call BS on people... But the 528 auto was a 4 speed and even without the limiter it could never reach 155 or 156. A 540i auto or M5 hitting 156 is believeable. But no other 5 is getting to that speed without aftermarket help.

ummm if you are doing 5000rpm in 5th why would you take it out of gear and then slow down why not push they brakes, you should've atleast keep it in gear you could have eaisly lost control even if you wanted to coast.....

but the saturn ion is going to be replaced by the Opel Astra (body), and will have an optional deisel engine. Yet another Saturn/ Opel sister car, like the Saturn Sky and the Opel GT.


source: Leftlanenews dot com

ummm if you are doing 5000rpm in 5th why would you take it out of gear and then slow down why not push they brakes, you should've atleast keep it in gear you could have eaisly lost control even if you wanted to coast.....

You are right, that was a bad idea. It is a perfectly flat and smooth road going straight down hill, so I wasn't worried about losing control. But would not putting power to the wheels making less stable? I took it out of gear because I didn't need the extra acceleration. It was stupid of me to not put it back in gear for engine braking, but oh well. My new brakes should be here next week. (I would have gotten them anyway)

SurfogCP: I am positive it was a 4-speed automatic. And I am also positive the rear badge said 528i. I don't know what year though, but it was E39. First time I saw it was winter 04 and last time I saw it was summer 05.

I guess you may be right that it never reached that high. I knew the ride was too smooth to believe. But I swear that the spedo was pointing directly at 155mph.

bad idea