I've been driving my SRT8 every day for the past week and a half - the other cars are feeling neglected! I did sneak the Elise out tonight though - she was giving me puppy dog eyes. :sly: (and I may or may not have cooked the trans in my 427TT 2 weeks ago....whistles innocently as I track the new bulletproof trans on UPS...)
So a few new impressions about the SRT8 -
1. Driving with the "slap stick" greatly enhances the experience. I typically don't care for automatics EXCEPT for my daily driver. Well, I haven't been all that happy with the auto trans program in my car - it's learned some bad habbits from a gentle break-in or perhaps it's just somewhat granny a tranny.
In any event, driving with the slap stick is much better and lets you hold gears how I'd like it to - plus it allows the converter to lock up faster and less noticably in first gear.
Tangent - you know what would be really cool? If you could use the slap stick for a period of time - say, 8 hours driving time until a decent cross section of driving conditions had been encountered (x number of up shifts & down shifts, etc) to train the shift program(s) when it was in full auto. I typically like to hold each of the first 3 gears in a gentle fashion up to about 3500 or so before shifting. Once in 4th I cruise and leave it there in around city driving.
Now, in full auto mode my trans likes to get the hell outta first gear as soon as it can during gentle driving (20% throttle or so). Slight throttle position doesn't mean I want to upshift sooner - but it assumes so. What I find happening more and more is that I apply a little more throttle to prevent the quick upshift though it fetches second anyhow. So now that it's in second with a touch more throttle, you can feel the torque converter locking up (which feels like a lull in power delivery).
Anyhow, I think it would be so cool if we could train our trans with the slap stick - more or less put it into a learning mode that observed how and when we shifted ourselves while comparing it to our throttle position and generating a new matrix from which to operate.
2. It is rather quick from a dead stop. Launch it from a stop in first using the slap stick and just giving her enough throttle to slip the rear meats awill get to DIG hard and just go. I had a Maxima wanting to line up light after light tonight on the way home (some guys don't learn their lessons well OR quickly I guess) and it really was as if he wasn't even trying. Picture this - imagine 2 identical cars side by side leaving a stop light. Put car A in 1st and car B in 4th. Launch at the same time. That's pretty much what it feels like when lined up with any other comparable sport sedan. The Maxima sure was a cute little car though. :nutkick:
3. Kickdowns are a blast in this car - floor it while cruising at just about 60mph and the car will fetch 3rd and does so hard. It kicks revs up to about 5K and you hit the seat. Nice.
4. It still needs better gearing. Chrysler, you MUST offer a Mopar 3.55 aftermarket diff here soon. That's likely to be my only mod - that's all this car needs in my humble opinion. 3.06 gears are just too long distance for me - I need sprinter gears.
5. BA6 - I mentioned that it didn't actually suck in my last post. Well, I've discovered that the CD player is quite clean and the sound is quite good. Sirius quality is something much less stellar however. About as comparable to CD as FM is...I'm not certain why I expected sattelite stereo to be all that great, but it's not. Selection is nice, quality...not so much.
6. Brake dust -is- pretty extreme, and I'm comparing this with quite a few other sets of big brakes. No odd wear patterns though I have just 600 miles on my car at present. The Viper brakes were bad dust wise during the first 1K miles but they got better. The Elise and Lingenfelter 427TT both have Brembos and produce CONSIDERABLY less dust then the pads on the SRT8...and the 427TT regularly sees FIRM stops from 150mph down to 45. I've more or less gotten used to the fact that my shiny polished SRT rims are not so much polished as they are a gunmetal grey. Ah well - I kept after them for the first few days but it's too much work. 50 miles will make these wheels GRAY with dust.
7. Still have the strange belt slipping like sound. For some of you other SRT8 owners, try this. The next time you come to a stop where you have something that will reflect sound from the front of the car (next to a parked car in a parking lot, in the garage, etc) - roll your drivers side window down and listen. It still sounds like I have a slipping belt when the car is nice and hot and I come to a stop - though it does not make this sound every time I stop...it's odd. Rev it to 1K at a stop (in neutral) and the sound goes away. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has this sound...it honestly sounds like it's coming from the back of the block, not the front....which makes me wonder if it's converter noise. You won't hear this noise unless you roll your window down or open your drivers side door (in the garage for example).
8. I'm glad I chose Silver. I love black as much as anyone else - my 427TT is black and it's the baddest looking machine in the garage, slammed and sitting on 19" HREs....when it's clean that is! Well, with my SRT8 being my daily driver she sees every form of weather...even when rained on she looks pretty damn clean. And here in Texas in the summer, it's kinda nice not having to worry about parking a black car come lunctime.
9. The key/integrated fob is great. Everything in one tidy little package - no key ring or need for a seperate fob...it's all in one. For those of you who have not yet seen this it will be a pleasent little surprise for you when your car shows up.
All in all I am having fun with her - 600 miles in 9 days. I typically break my cars in very gently and then run em REALLY hard for about 300 miles before doing a fluid flush and fill (diff, oil, trans). I'll probably do oil/filter only on the SRT8 in the next 200 miles and do a Blackstone analysis just for kicks.
My buddy with the 300C loves my SRT - he can't believe how much faster it is then his 300C. I can't wait to get her on the dyno and see what she lays down. My 427TT honestly DESTROYED my ability to feel speed in other cars though - the SRT is quick but my seat of the pants meter has been rewired to a pretty retarded degree with that car. It's impossible to describe how that car feels other then to just say that it feels like you are falling off a cliff when it hooks up in 4th gear above 120. Your body honestly flinches when boost builds to 12lbs and the tires hook up and speed comes on - the HUD updates from 93mph to 112mph to 125mph to 141mph - it pulls so much harder in 4th and 5th at speeds above 120...it's like a drug and I'm totally addicted.. The flinching is that same sensation as the waking dream right before you hit the ground when you're dreaming of falling - you know that massive flinch your entire body experiences? It happens to every passenger that goes for a ride that first time in it.
I have noticed that the SRT8 hits 110 in the same stretch of road that the M Coupe and Elise typically just hit 100 - it's just somewhat deception with it's power delivery - very creamy and smooth, quiet and efortless - no drama.
Biggest gripes so far (and they are minor) :
1. No custom floor-mats in this car? C'mon....REALLY. The floor mats are paper thin stock mats from a 300 from what I can tell - this car should come with a nice plush set of SRT-8 emblazoned mats front an rear. I'm certain we'll see a nice set here in the next few months but I feel it would have really helped complete the SRT8 transformation - cheap way to make the owner feel a little mo' of that SRT pride everyday. For what it's worth the Viper GTS didn't come with nice Viper mats either though so I'm not too surprised. Speaking of the mats - anyone notice what appears to be boxes or something underneath the carpets on both the driver and passenger sides? I was able to compare with a buddy's 300C and his didn't have this on either side...I wonder if I have boxes of porn under my carpet? :biggrin:
2. The Homelink transmitter doesn't always work on the first try when opening the garage. I have Homelink in 2 of the other cars and it works fine in those...not sure why it's not perfect in the SRT.
3. I wish the Sirius system had a 10 second cache or so - even it meant a precache delay on startup. Driving underneath an underpass on the highway interupts the system. That kinda blows when you're cranking your tunes on the way home from work. We were joking today that it would be cool if systems like that operated like TIVO or DVR on any present song - we hopped in after lunch and a new song that my buddy really liked was halfway over - it would have been nice to be able to cache back to the start of it.
4. The 3.06 gears. :AR15firin I can wait for an aftermarket diff....but not too much longer! :biggrin:
I'm sure more to come...next update will probably show dyno numbers and hopefully a quarter mile run or two at Ennis.
So a few new impressions about the SRT8 -
1. Driving with the "slap stick" greatly enhances the experience. I typically don't care for automatics EXCEPT for my daily driver. Well, I haven't been all that happy with the auto trans program in my car - it's learned some bad habbits from a gentle break-in or perhaps it's just somewhat granny a tranny.
In any event, driving with the slap stick is much better and lets you hold gears how I'd like it to - plus it allows the converter to lock up faster and less noticably in first gear.Tangent - you know what would be really cool? If you could use the slap stick for a period of time - say, 8 hours driving time until a decent cross section of driving conditions had been encountered (x number of up shifts & down shifts, etc) to train the shift program(s) when it was in full auto. I typically like to hold each of the first 3 gears in a gentle fashion up to about 3500 or so before shifting. Once in 4th I cruise and leave it there in around city driving.
Now, in full auto mode my trans likes to get the hell outta first gear as soon as it can during gentle driving (20% throttle or so). Slight throttle position doesn't mean I want to upshift sooner - but it assumes so. What I find happening more and more is that I apply a little more throttle to prevent the quick upshift though it fetches second anyhow. So now that it's in second with a touch more throttle, you can feel the torque converter locking up (which feels like a lull in power delivery).
Anyhow, I think it would be so cool if we could train our trans with the slap stick - more or less put it into a learning mode that observed how and when we shifted ourselves while comparing it to our throttle position and generating a new matrix from which to operate.
2. It is rather quick from a dead stop. Launch it from a stop in first using the slap stick and just giving her enough throttle to slip the rear meats awill get to DIG hard and just go. I had a Maxima wanting to line up light after light tonight on the way home (some guys don't learn their lessons well OR quickly I guess) and it really was as if he wasn't even trying. Picture this - imagine 2 identical cars side by side leaving a stop light. Put car A in 1st and car B in 4th. Launch at the same time. That's pretty much what it feels like when lined up with any other comparable sport sedan. The Maxima sure was a cute little car though. :nutkick:
3. Kickdowns are a blast in this car - floor it while cruising at just about 60mph and the car will fetch 3rd and does so hard. It kicks revs up to about 5K and you hit the seat. Nice.
4. It still needs better gearing. Chrysler, you MUST offer a Mopar 3.55 aftermarket diff here soon. That's likely to be my only mod - that's all this car needs in my humble opinion. 3.06 gears are just too long distance for me - I need sprinter gears.
5. BA6 - I mentioned that it didn't actually suck in my last post. Well, I've discovered that the CD player is quite clean and the sound is quite good. Sirius quality is something much less stellar however. About as comparable to CD as FM is...I'm not certain why I expected sattelite stereo to be all that great, but it's not. Selection is nice, quality...not so much.
6. Brake dust -is- pretty extreme, and I'm comparing this with quite a few other sets of big brakes. No odd wear patterns though I have just 600 miles on my car at present. The Viper brakes were bad dust wise during the first 1K miles but they got better. The Elise and Lingenfelter 427TT both have Brembos and produce CONSIDERABLY less dust then the pads on the SRT8...and the 427TT regularly sees FIRM stops from 150mph down to 45. I've more or less gotten used to the fact that my shiny polished SRT rims are not so much polished as they are a gunmetal grey.
Ah well - I kept after them for the first few days but it's too much work. 50 miles will make these wheels GRAY with dust. 7. Still have the strange belt slipping like sound. For some of you other SRT8 owners, try this. The next time you come to a stop where you have something that will reflect sound from the front of the car (next to a parked car in a parking lot, in the garage, etc) - roll your drivers side window down and listen. It still sounds like I have a slipping belt when the car is nice and hot and I come to a stop - though it does not make this sound every time I stop...it's odd. Rev it to 1K at a stop (in neutral) and the sound goes away. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has this sound...it honestly sounds like it's coming from the back of the block, not the front....which makes me wonder if it's converter noise. You won't hear this noise unless you roll your window down or open your drivers side door (in the garage for example).
8. I'm glad I chose Silver.
I love black as much as anyone else - my 427TT is black and it's the baddest looking machine in the garage, slammed and sitting on 19" HREs....when it's clean that is! Well, with my SRT8 being my daily driver she sees every form of weather...even when rained on she looks pretty damn clean. And here in Texas in the summer, it's kinda nice not having to worry about parking a black car come lunctime. 9. The key/integrated fob is great. Everything in one tidy little package - no key ring or need for a seperate fob...it's all in one. For those of you who have not yet seen this it will be a pleasent little surprise for you when your car shows up.
All in all I am having fun with her - 600 miles in 9 days. I typically break my cars in very gently and then run em REALLY hard for about 300 miles before doing a fluid flush and fill (diff, oil, trans). I'll probably do oil/filter only on the SRT8 in the next 200 miles and do a Blackstone analysis just for kicks.
My buddy with the 300C loves my SRT - he can't believe how much faster it is then his 300C. I can't wait to get her on the dyno and see what she lays down. My 427TT honestly DESTROYED my ability to feel speed in other cars though - the SRT is quick but my seat of the pants meter has been rewired to a pretty retarded degree with that car. It's impossible to describe how that car feels other then to just say that it feels like you are falling off a cliff when it hooks up in 4th gear above 120. Your body honestly flinches when boost builds to 12lbs and the tires hook up and speed comes on - the HUD updates from 93mph to 112mph to 125mph to 141mph - it pulls so much harder in 4th and 5th at speeds above 120...it's like a drug and I'm totally addicted.. The flinching is that same sensation as the waking dream right before you hit the ground when you're dreaming of falling - you know that massive flinch your entire body experiences? It happens to every passenger that goes for a ride that first time in it.
I have noticed that the SRT8 hits 110 in the same stretch of road that the M Coupe and Elise typically just hit 100 - it's just somewhat deception with it's power delivery - very creamy and smooth, quiet and efortless - no drama.
Biggest gripes so far (and they are minor) :
1. No custom floor-mats in this car? C'mon....REALLY. The floor mats are paper thin stock mats from a 300 from what I can tell - this car should come with a nice plush set of SRT-8 emblazoned mats front an rear. I'm certain we'll see a nice set here in the next few months but I feel it would have really helped complete the SRT8 transformation - cheap way to make the owner feel a little mo' of that SRT pride everyday. For what it's worth the Viper GTS didn't come with nice Viper mats either though so I'm not too surprised. Speaking of the mats - anyone notice what appears to be boxes or something underneath the carpets on both the driver and passenger sides? I was able to compare with a buddy's 300C and his didn't have this on either side...I wonder if I have boxes of porn under my carpet? :biggrin:
2. The Homelink transmitter doesn't always work on the first try when opening the garage. I have Homelink in 2 of the other cars and it works fine in those...not sure why it's not perfect in the SRT.
3. I wish the Sirius system had a 10 second cache or so - even it meant a precache delay on startup. Driving underneath an underpass on the highway interupts the system. That kinda blows when you're cranking your tunes on the way home from work. We were joking today that it would be cool if systems like that operated like TIVO or DVR on any present song - we hopped in after lunch and a new song that my buddy really liked was halfway over - it would have been nice to be able to cache back to the start of it.
4. The 3.06 gears. :AR15firin I can wait for an aftermarket diff....but not too much longer! :biggrin:
I'm sure more to come...next update will probably show dyno numbers and hopefully a quarter mile run or two at Ennis.
