*cliff notes - Heffner TT is very very very fast*
I figured this deserved it's own thread before I got anything else sorted out.
On our way through Texas, we stopped at Bigs' house and had a beer, took some pics, shot the proverbial breeze, and went out for some good food. About ten minutes after we left he called and said Ripper02 wasn't all that far up the road and we should give him a call to check out his Heffner Twin Turbo GT. Uh, hell yes.
Luckily we got in touch with Jerry and made an early morning stop the next day to check out the garage. We were greeted by the 8 second Viper, the TT GT, and a really angry Vortech'd fox body in the garage. The fox body is described with any adjective that is synonymous with mean. The Viper is an 8 second car and has a bad ass custom paint job. What can you say about a car that runs 8's?
Anyhow, we took a few pics and hopped on the road in the TT GT. I borrowed the Acura because the 67' had been kicking my ass enough on the way back. I got to follow as Ripper repeatedly blasted the tires to dust and made Camilo grin from ear to ear. I'm going deep triple digits looking for them and I still can't see them yet. They swapped seats and Camilo put the car through the ringer. He came out a happy happy man.
Next was my turn. I've been in some fast cars, my own included, and this car is a whole different level. It's daily driver civilized until you nail the loud pedal. Even then it's not overly loud and the traction is relatively abundant. Once it kicks past a certain rpm and the open wastegates start making some noise it sounds more like the power it's putting out. It's just furious acceleration. Super linear, super smooth, super fast. It will not stop accelerating.
I got a better idea once I drove it. Doesn't drive any different than a stock car in the low rpms. Once I put my foot in it, it never got wild. Just went forward in a real hurry. I told Ripper that you could drive it like that constantly and it would never feel out of control. I was never pounding on it because it wasn't my car, but my unscientific ass-o-meter thinks it's worth somewhere between 145-150 in the quarter. From a car that feels like stock! I'm confident you could use it to get Starbucks every morning, or hit 200mph on every interstate in America should you be inclined. And it runs extremely cool. When the temps rose under pressure, they were down below 170 before I could look back down. Getting rid of the blower is a major heat saver.
And of course everything absolutely looks OEM in the engine compartment. It's amazing how good it looks. It looks just as good in real life as in pictures. Wow. Once a Ford engineer told me they couldn't have designed it better themselves if they had gone TT instead of blower (which they considered but had nothing in the paddock to go on). He was right.
All in all, me and Camilo probably spent the next 45 minutes on the road talking about how bad ass that car is. How controllable and perfectly balanced. He wants me to call Jason and see what the 2 person discount is. I can't say I disagree. There will be more than one person who gets in one of these and hands over a check immediately. What an absolute blast that thing is! :willy Many thanks to Jerry for letting us stop by and experience it firsthand!
I figured this deserved it's own thread before I got anything else sorted out.
On our way through Texas, we stopped at Bigs' house and had a beer, took some pics, shot the proverbial breeze, and went out for some good food. About ten minutes after we left he called and said Ripper02 wasn't all that far up the road and we should give him a call to check out his Heffner Twin Turbo GT. Uh, hell yes.
Luckily we got in touch with Jerry and made an early morning stop the next day to check out the garage. We were greeted by the 8 second Viper, the TT GT, and a really angry Vortech'd fox body in the garage. The fox body is described with any adjective that is synonymous with mean. The Viper is an 8 second car and has a bad ass custom paint job. What can you say about a car that runs 8's?
Anyhow, we took a few pics and hopped on the road in the TT GT. I borrowed the Acura because the 67' had been kicking my ass enough on the way back. I got to follow as Ripper repeatedly blasted the tires to dust and made Camilo grin from ear to ear. I'm going deep triple digits looking for them and I still can't see them yet. They swapped seats and Camilo put the car through the ringer. He came out a happy happy man.
Next was my turn. I've been in some fast cars, my own included, and this car is a whole different level. It's daily driver civilized until you nail the loud pedal. Even then it's not overly loud and the traction is relatively abundant. Once it kicks past a certain rpm and the open wastegates start making some noise it sounds more like the power it's putting out. It's just furious acceleration. Super linear, super smooth, super fast. It will not stop accelerating.
I got a better idea once I drove it. Doesn't drive any different than a stock car in the low rpms. Once I put my foot in it, it never got wild. Just went forward in a real hurry. I told Ripper that you could drive it like that constantly and it would never feel out of control. I was never pounding on it because it wasn't my car, but my unscientific ass-o-meter thinks it's worth somewhere between 145-150 in the quarter. From a car that feels like stock! I'm confident you could use it to get Starbucks every morning, or hit 200mph on every interstate in America should you be inclined. And it runs extremely cool. When the temps rose under pressure, they were down below 170 before I could look back down. Getting rid of the blower is a major heat saver.
And of course everything absolutely looks OEM in the engine compartment. It's amazing how good it looks. It looks just as good in real life as in pictures. Wow. Once a Ford engineer told me they couldn't have designed it better themselves if they had gone TT instead of blower (which they considered but had nothing in the paddock to go on). He was right.
All in all, me and Camilo probably spent the next 45 minutes on the road talking about how bad ass that car is. How controllable and perfectly balanced. He wants me to call Jason and see what the 2 person discount is. I can't say I disagree. There will be more than one person who gets in one of these and hands over a check immediately. What an absolute blast that thing is! :willy Many thanks to Jerry for letting us stop by and experience it firsthand!
