I was out in Vegas this last weekend and I noticed my car drove a little sluggish. It wouldn't pick up speed as fast (unless I really mashed the gas). Even shifting the gears myself feld odd (i have a 5AT). It all around felt different.

My conclusion is the heat played a role in my crappy performance...

I even disengaged the VDC and i was slipping around all over Las Vegas Blvd...

Anyone got some insight on this? I'm back in SoCal now and it's back to normal...

 

Obviously your car was following the rule of what's done in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

how hot was it?

 

it was like 106 on Thursday the 26th...

The rest of the days like 101-105. (at least that's what the temp dial in the car read...)

 

How's the car driving now? If it's back to normal when did you notice the change?

 

perhaps the higher elevation played a role too

I went there this past christmas... didn't take the G.. cuz we had 4 people and had to carry more luggage then the trunk can hold.. so I had to take our 02 Grand Caravan... you should've seen me trying to climb those small hills lol... full throttle and the rpm stays the same at 3500rpm lol

 

The car drives the same as it did before i went up there. Which is why I thought the heat played a role in the performance drop.

It could be...hmm who knows...maybe some Vegas natives or high elevation natives chime in and give an idea.

 

Yes, I notice my car is slower when it is really hot. Tis normal me thinks.

 

Hot air is less dense. The hotter the air, the less oxygen is available. The less oxygen available, the less power your car makes. The same holds true for elevation. At higher elevations, there is less air mass therefore the air is less dense. The closer you get to sea level, the heavier the air mass is because of the additonal weight of the air above it. For every 10 degree increase in temp, your car looses about 2% of it's power.

 

must suck for the desert people...

 

Drove to Lake Tahoe two weeks ago, went from approx. 50 ft. above sea level to about 8,000 ft. above at the Tahoe ridgeline.

It's almost comical how the car acts/reacts once you get in the high altitude. You punch it, and it kind of just "lays there", and slowly begins to go - about 1/2 what you're used too. The only good news is that everybody elses' car is acting the same. It's like watching a bunch of drunk sprinters trying to race each other - nobody's car is doing what they expect of it.

Back down at sea level, the power returns, and my appreciation for the car, too.

My $0.02

 

i just thought my car was stuck up and didn't want to be in the Vegas heat...lol

 

That's why if I lived at 2000+', I'd be driving a forced induced car. Cars with forced induction, especially turbos, develop their own atmosphere and aren't remotely as affected by altitude as an NA car is. A turbo car only looses about 30-40% of the power an NA car does at altitude.

 

I live in the Dallas/FT.Worth area and a few weeks back I got my first taste of driving the G in hot conditions and I noticed the same thing. The car didn't like 100 deg heat at all. Then once it got a little cooler the car seemed normal again.

 

I live in Phoenix and drive in 105+ all the time. I'd be very surprised if you could feel a noticable difference in performance due to the heat. It may have something to do with the A/C running at max if you don't normally run your A/C.

 

Yeah, i definitely feel a difference when running the A/C vs. not. In the morning when air is still cool and no A/C, G likes it better than late afternoon with air hot and A/C blowin