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Drove an \'04 SRT today..
SRT-4 that is. Blue with LSD, no BOV and no other PVO upgrades. Only 120 miles on the clock so I really felt bade about getting on it hard. I wasn't as impressed with the power as I thought I would be. I think a couple thousand more miles on it and it would have losened it up, but it really only snaps you back at about 5500-redline. First gear is suprisingly short, but it does put the power down well and is very tractable, even when lots of throttle is used from a dead stop with the wheel turned. Goes well into second, but seems to lose some of the urgency it had in that short first gear, but if you keep it cooking up there in the revs, it moves out great for a four-banger. Cruises nicely in 5th and it's pretty civilized until you really get into the upper half of the rev-range, quiet even. The car tracked nicely on the freeway, but the lack of torque is apparent. I couldn't start it in 3rd without a lot of revs and clutch slippage and stalled it trying to. The car likes and needs to be rowed a lot to get the most out of it, but that adds to how engaging it is for the driver. I had a newbie salesguy in the passenger seat and rushhour traffic so I couldn't really get into corners or the throttle like I would have if I was by myself. It's a fun car, pretty good gearbox, progressive clutch, and nice, smooth steering feel.
The ride is pretty taut, but it's a good feeling one, not overly harsh. Love the look of the blue - the only niggle I had was in the middle of a hard 1-2 shift the damned knob came off in my hand - LOL! I pulled the gear lever into second with my pinky and fourth finger and held the knob in my hand and quickly shoved it back on - I was suprised to see that he didn't notice. That's not supposed to happen, is it?! The drivers seat is freakin' narrow, but you get used to it. Driving position is OK, but theres only a tilt-wheel, not tilt+telescoping. I would have probably felt more comfortable if I had more time to mess with the seats, but they were supportive and grippy. Ingress, egress is easy with the high roofline, even at my height and the controls/tactile feel of the stalks/knobs/levers felt good for an inexpensive car. Brakes were new and needed a break in too, but the pedal feel was firm and progressive and the pads didn't immediately bite down - progressive is a good word for it and it's nice for street driving.
The pre-production SRT-4's I drove at Barrett Jackson felt torquier, but that's probably the extra miles they had on them - all in all, after a few thousand miles, I think that car would shape up to be one hellava little grocery getter.
Nice job, PVO.
EDIT: Forgot one thing - the sound. In first getting out of the throttle, the thing really spits and burbles - it's fun to make it talk like that. They did a good job with the exhaust system as it's quiet at cruise but pretty raucous and throaty at redline. Perfect cap for the character of the car.
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