You want acceleration at highway speeds - drop your Mi16 down into 3rd. In about two seconds you're up to the red line and shifting into fourth and flying. The element of surprise has defeated many people who thought their 5-litre Mustangs came with permanent rights to the left lane.
As far as the seats go - the side bolsters on the Mi16s are so adjustable that even a slim guy like I am is held tightly in place. My old one was broadsided from the right side back in '93 and the car was sent sideways for a couple hundred feet (ended up with front wheels on the west-bound side of the concrete median and the rear wheels on the east-bound side). I stayed comfortably in place, still able to "steer in the direction of the skid". Proper seats save lives.
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> Douglas Sisson wrote:
>
> > acceleration and around town driving, I was shocked at the lack of
> > mid-range power. Getting on the highway I had to floor it to get any
> > response from the car, and when I did I thought the engine was gonna
> > blow. When the car downshifted the rpms went up to about 4500, and the
> > engine was screaming. Anything less then flooring the gas would result
> > in almost no acceleration.
>
> ---I have a 405 with a XU9J1 1.9l 8valve105hp, almost the same as the XU9J2
> i beleive was in the car you drove, i can imagine how bad this engine is
> suited
> for an automatic transmission.
> It has lots of low end power right from idle and a bit up which is great for
> city
> driving, and with the higher ratio Mi16 transmission i put in it it really
> jumps
> away from the redlights. In fact i usually skip 2:nd and 4:th gear if i'm not
> in that
> big of a hurry and it has no problem with that, but at higher rpm's it's
> absolutely
> dead, and at speeds above 60-65 mph the engine noise is getting quite
> annoying,
> so this is definately not a car for highway cruising, even with the original
> transmission.
> The Mi16 actually feel like it has less low rpm torque (can anyone confirm?)
> and has to get to somwhere around 4-5k rpm or more to really get going,
> but for some reason i don't feel as uncomfortable taking the Mi16 engine up
> to high rpms, might be that it's better balanced, and has better sound
> isolation.
>
> / Tomas
> -88 405 GRi
>
>
>
>