ArchangelX
05-12-2002, 05:51 PM
Alright, here's the review for those of you that are wondering. After a full day worth of testing and tuning, plus dyno runs, I didn't have much left in my bottle, yesterday. This is my first experience with a small shot on my Celica. It's a NX GenX2 with all the mentionable goodies.
So, after doing a day's worth of errands (groceries, purse shopping, the usual), I finally got time to head to National Auto Parts and re-fill my 10 lb. bottle.
It cost me 37 bucks, and I learned something very valuable:
Do not give your bottle to them warm, if possible, yank it out the night before and stick it in your freezer. Apparently, the warmer the bottle is, the harder it is to fill up with N20. The gentleman at the counter pretty much said that anybody else wouldn't accept the bottle at the temp it was currently else, but he said he'd fill it for me.
So BAM, got the bottle filled.
Re-installing wasn't too difficult, but one word of caution for future users...try to find a hand grip for the Auto Bottle Opener. It's a plastic sleeve that fits over the nut of the metal fastener. It makes removing the fastener, a helluva lot easier, and saves wear and tear on the nut.
Double-checked the connections, made sure the bottle heater was working along with the auto-bottle opener. Good to go, let's roll.
Okay, it's like this. It feels like a whole new car.
It's not as explosive as I would have thought it to be, but man, it sure does feel like heaven.
Let me just say this about N20, there's no waiting, it's immediate, and it feels TOTALLY natural. It's almost like it's not even there (except when you punch it HARD). After taking the same corners in the WRX, yesterday, I can definetly say that I'm VERY happy with N20.
I think with just a 35, since it's not exactly a huge leap, it makes the car feel like what it should be putting out N/A. It accelerates much more smoothly, there's more power at lower RPMs, and the car is a monster on the 1-2 shift.
It's obvious after making a few runs on the highway and a deserted backstreet, that this car really comes into its own, it seems more driveable, more easy to manage, and simply fantastic on the turns..
After hearing all the hubbub about not being able to use N20 in the corners, I'm gonna have to disagree with the general idea. Maybe if I was using a bigger shot, it'd be a problem (of course it would), but when I was taking those curves (it's a kickass backstreet), I was flying through them like a banshee outta hell.
The ability to enter a corner, hit the apex, and then throttle out of the corner was VASTLY improved without disturbing the balance of the car. I made several different runs, back and forth through about two S curves and one 90 turn. The power delivery was smooth and generous on the S-turns, and the 90 degree was awesome, it was my first taste of the true power of the N20 shot.
After making the runs, I settled in at the end of the street (a convenient dead end), and prepped for launch.
Raised it to 4,500, dropped it, let her grip, and then mashed the pedal to the floor. Woah..major wheel hop (took care of it) shifted nice and quick at the rev limit, chirped pretty hard through second, and just kept going. I got up to about 75 pretty quickly.
For comparison, I switched off the N20 on the way back. Ugg...I feel like a slug all of a sudden.
I launched two more times on the juice, feathered the clutch a bit more, and really got the launches down. God, I love it, it's awesome. And it's only a 35!!
Welps, after that, I took it on the freeway and almost went into hypovelemic shock as the blood left my head as hit the on-ramp off of 56th street....for those that don't know it's a nice S-turn that leads you onto the highway. It's a great set because you're going down for a bit, so the g's really make you feel faster.
As for the highway, same ol', same ol', running through the gears is much more quicker, and 6th gear is actually usable now.
The cool thing was that I had a guy come up beside me in a Thunderbird. At first I thought he wanted to race, but he put his hand to his ear (like Hulk Hogan), so I revved it, dropped it down a gear, and left him....slowed back down, he clapped his hands, I waved bye, and then exited for home. :gap:
IF anything, this has proven to me, that I've gotta find a way to pump this car up at LEAST another 35 N/A for daily driving. I don't think I can live without the N20. I'm definetly going to get another 10lb bottle in the back when I bump up to a 50 or 60 shot.
All in all, fabulous stuff. Really fabulous stuff. I can't wait to move up to a 50 shot.
Sorry for the long topic, but it's just something I had to share...thanks!
So, after doing a day's worth of errands (groceries, purse shopping, the usual), I finally got time to head to National Auto Parts and re-fill my 10 lb. bottle.
It cost me 37 bucks, and I learned something very valuable:
Do not give your bottle to them warm, if possible, yank it out the night before and stick it in your freezer. Apparently, the warmer the bottle is, the harder it is to fill up with N20. The gentleman at the counter pretty much said that anybody else wouldn't accept the bottle at the temp it was currently else, but he said he'd fill it for me.
So BAM, got the bottle filled.
Re-installing wasn't too difficult, but one word of caution for future users...try to find a hand grip for the Auto Bottle Opener. It's a plastic sleeve that fits over the nut of the metal fastener. It makes removing the fastener, a helluva lot easier, and saves wear and tear on the nut.
Double-checked the connections, made sure the bottle heater was working along with the auto-bottle opener. Good to go, let's roll.
Okay, it's like this. It feels like a whole new car.
It's not as explosive as I would have thought it to be, but man, it sure does feel like heaven.
Let me just say this about N20, there's no waiting, it's immediate, and it feels TOTALLY natural. It's almost like it's not even there (except when you punch it HARD). After taking the same corners in the WRX, yesterday, I can definetly say that I'm VERY happy with N20.
I think with just a 35, since it's not exactly a huge leap, it makes the car feel like what it should be putting out N/A. It accelerates much more smoothly, there's more power at lower RPMs, and the car is a monster on the 1-2 shift.
It's obvious after making a few runs on the highway and a deserted backstreet, that this car really comes into its own, it seems more driveable, more easy to manage, and simply fantastic on the turns..
After hearing all the hubbub about not being able to use N20 in the corners, I'm gonna have to disagree with the general idea. Maybe if I was using a bigger shot, it'd be a problem (of course it would), but when I was taking those curves (it's a kickass backstreet), I was flying through them like a banshee outta hell.
The ability to enter a corner, hit the apex, and then throttle out of the corner was VASTLY improved without disturbing the balance of the car. I made several different runs, back and forth through about two S curves and one 90 turn. The power delivery was smooth and generous on the S-turns, and the 90 degree was awesome, it was my first taste of the true power of the N20 shot.
After making the runs, I settled in at the end of the street (a convenient dead end), and prepped for launch.
Raised it to 4,500, dropped it, let her grip, and then mashed the pedal to the floor. Woah..major wheel hop (took care of it) shifted nice and quick at the rev limit, chirped pretty hard through second, and just kept going. I got up to about 75 pretty quickly.
For comparison, I switched off the N20 on the way back. Ugg...I feel like a slug all of a sudden.
I launched two more times on the juice, feathered the clutch a bit more, and really got the launches down. God, I love it, it's awesome. And it's only a 35!!
Welps, after that, I took it on the freeway and almost went into hypovelemic shock as the blood left my head as hit the on-ramp off of 56th street....for those that don't know it's a nice S-turn that leads you onto the highway. It's a great set because you're going down for a bit, so the g's really make you feel faster.
As for the highway, same ol', same ol', running through the gears is much more quicker, and 6th gear is actually usable now.
The cool thing was that I had a guy come up beside me in a Thunderbird. At first I thought he wanted to race, but he put his hand to his ear (like Hulk Hogan), so I revved it, dropped it down a gear, and left him....slowed back down, he clapped his hands, I waved bye, and then exited for home. :gap:
IF anything, this has proven to me, that I've gotta find a way to pump this car up at LEAST another 35 N/A for daily driving. I don't think I can live without the N20. I'm definetly going to get another 10lb bottle in the back when I bump up to a 50 or 60 shot.
All in all, fabulous stuff. Really fabulous stuff. I can't wait to move up to a 50 shot.
Sorry for the long topic, but it's just something I had to share...thanks!