You will not believe how strong a 911 is

[Patronus]

My car is a 912 with '74 2.7 engine, and it still has the original 901 gearbox. Last night some heavily modified pocket rockets challenged me for an accelleration shoot-out, from traffic light to traffic light, and then two things happened.

Firstly, in my enthusiasm I shifted from 3rd to 2nd, in stead of 4th, at about 6000rpm. It was only for an instant, but long enough for the revs to shoot off the clock, and for the gearbox to sound like a turbine. My first thought was "now you've broken something" and when I looked in the mirror I saw a huge puff of smoke. However, once in 4th, the car pulled strongly as if nothing had happened. And indeed, there seems to be no damage to either the gearbox or the engine. I think that, if we could work out how much stress was suddenly transferred to the gearbox, and how high the engine must have revved for that brief instant, we will find that not many modern cars can survive those forces.

Secondly, my car seemed to be faster than I had thought. As you get used to your 911 (tuning it, testing it, accellerating hard all day without even noticing it) you become blasé about its performance. It is only when you out-accellerate other (supposedly fast) cars that you realize how quick a 911 really is.

The moral of the story, to me, is that we drive cars that are under-rated in terms of mechanical strength and can stand their ground even twenty, thirty years after production. Which other manufacturer can say that?

[speeder]

The cars are very strong, but still you were lucky there- try not to do that again.

[Kurt B]

I'm with you on that one. During my experimental days with the shift coupler I usually ended up having a hard time finding 3rd on the short shifter.

During a little race like yours I went from 3rd into 1st at the top of 2nd.

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
In fact, the kid next to me (musta been a nice, well raised kid), actually stopped and looked over at me and quit racing!

All is well that ends well. After that I made $#^$%$# sure I could find third with the right adjustment. Now it slips in and out of gear very nicely.

Ever notice that tired 911s with many many miles usually end their days with a misshift though? Even when they're all worn out, you have to Ef up to break em.