by "Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
Published 12/17/2017 at 10:13
by "Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
Published 12/17/2017 at 10:13
No Tags
STARS: 3
Bad title, but I had a fun experience last night I wanted to share.
Getting onto the main highway that crosses town I spotted a BMW 6 Series GC leading the stack of cars entering the highway. It enters with authority, taking advantage of its clear run to accelerate to what must have been triple digits.
I, being a responsible Mustang owner and having already put my car in “Sport+” mode a few minutes earlier, held a lower gear until I could get around the car in front of me and proceeded to catch the Bimmer’s tail.
I caught up to the BMW but did not have a chance to pass it before my window closed, as headlights illuminated my side mirror revealing that another car was about to pass us both. I glanced to my left to see what it was and saw the distinct 3 bar DRLs of another black Mustang just before the glint of the 5.0 badge revealed it to be just like me. Before I could fully appreciate this moment, something drew my attention to the right. Another Mustang, this one grey but still sporting the 5.0 fender badge, had caught the group and had begun passing on the right.
Now we were a pack, 3 Mustangs and a BMW, and it was on. The other black Mustang flexed the American muscle, setting the pace for rest of us to catch. After a few miles the BMW took an exit, and the 3 Mustangs were left to ourselves. We kept the pace up, sequential turn signals flashing in sequence as we wound in and out of the slower traffic surrounding, 5th gear pulls propelling us to speeds certain to earn a ticket none of us were considering in the moment. We passed a semi, passed a Camry, slowed reasonably for the work zone before lining up 3 wide and enjoying the freedom of leaving it.
Eventually, my exit came up, and with a blip of the throttle and one last flash of the taillights I bid my like minded companions farewell. It was only a moment, but probably the most fun I’ve had on a long commute home in the dark in a long while.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me about the random encounter that made your day.
"fhrblig" (fhrblig)
12/17/2017 at 10:51, STARS: 5
A long time ago when I was working as a courier, my delivery vehicle was a ‘98 Buick LeSabre with a NA Series-II 3.8 V6. One night, my shift had just ended and I was downtown. I was at a stoplight when these two poser bois pulled up next to me. One was in a 5th gen Civic LX coupe with all sorts of Pep Boys warts stuck to it, and the other was in a clapped-out early non-WRX Impreza that he was desperately trying to pretend he’d modded. These two knobs were revving their asthmatic engines at each other and were clearly going to race when the light went green. I knew they were paying no attention to me, and I thought what the hell. I’ll floor it when it goes green and let’s see what happens. So I did, and my Buick easily smoked them. It wasn’t like an epic victory or anything, but it made my night.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
12/17/2017 at 11:00, STARS: 1
I was leaving my University’s lab very late at night (10pm?) and I approached a stop light, just to have an ND miata next to me.
I was with a friend and she said that “he looks like he wants a race”
Now... I have empathy for Miatas, but there’s no way in hell you can beat a V8 SUV from 0-80km/h*
and the lights turned
So, from 0-40 I pretty much smoked him, but I felt bad and I started accelerating slower so that he would catch us.
*= the speed limit
"Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies" (jordanwphillips)
12/17/2017 at 11:16, STARS: 3
On my home from work one day, I was driving down a left laner clogged 4 lane, when suddenly behind me in the distance, I see a Fiesta. Now being in rural-ish SC, Fiesta ST’s aren’t very common, so I didn’t expect it to be an ST. As he got closer, I saw it, the little tell all badge on the driver’s side corner of the grill. I was bored, and turns out so was he, so off we went. Tight gap, through tight gap we squeezed between the small gaps between the back of the left laners and the front of the speed matchers in the right. Once we reached a certain point, we stopped and talked for like 10 minutes. It was nice.
"e36Jeff now drives a ZHP" (e36jeff)
12/17/2017 at 11:36, STARS: 1
I was going out to lunch in my ZHP, I was sitting at a redlight in the right lane of a road where about 1/4 mile past the light the right lane becomes a turn-only lane. I did not wish to turn right and would be changing lanes as soon as was appropriate. The light turned green and I moved off quickly, but not particularly quickly, certainly not as fast as I could have been moving. I shift into 3rd around 40mph, and I realize I can hear an engine revving. I look over and apparently the first car in the right lane was a Taurus SHO(of the V8 frog-faced variety) and he thought we were racing, and was giving it all it had. I floored the loud pedal and walked away, put my blinker on and moved to the right once I’d cleared him. Would have loved to know what emotions he went through as he went from thinking he was winning to realizing that I wasn’t trying.
"cbell04" (cbell04)
12/17/2017 at 11:45, STARS: 1
Merged onto an empty toll highway right behind a cop.late at night. Figured there goes my fun. Let him/her get just out of sight and began to match their speed. Next thing you know I’m doing right at 100mph for 2 hours. Know it was stupid but I got away with it. Cut a lot of time off the trip too!
"Montalvo" (m5goesroundtheoutside)
12/17/2017 at 11:47, STARS: 6
Your mentioning of the 6 series GC reminded me of when I went with my father to take delivery of one of the very first M6 GCs in the country. They weren’t supposed to be released until a week later but doing a lot of business with one of the biggest BMW dealerships has it’s perks. So now we had this car that we needed to break in and needed to put some miles on it. I was still going to college at the time in PA which from my house in NY is almost exactly 120 miles. This trip normally takes about 2.5 hrs if you are lucky because of traffic in the city. We decide to leave early in the morning and for some reason it was as if we were the last people on Earth. We punch it, the highway was empty our luck continued as we hit NYC because when we got there the city that never sleeps was absolutely comatose. The city was ours that night and we had every intention of making use of it. Green light after green light the sound of a sole M6 tearing through the city bouncing off darkened skyscrapers around us. We couldn’t believe our luck and then we arrived at the Holland Tunnel. The Holland Tunnel is 8,558 feet long and can make even the lamest of exhaust notes sound sweet. Like the city now behind us it too was devoid of any traffic. The M6 cleared it’s throat and serenaded us in an experience I can only describe as biblical. The M6 was voracious eating up the road mile by mile. We were home free with nothing but open highway before us. We arrive at our destination and shut the car off. I look at the time and just chuckle. It was the fastest I ever made the journey. 80 minutes from door to door.
"Recovering Gaijin" (toxrensem)
12/17/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 3
I’ve been putting in a fair amount of windshield time carting ductwork back from our main shop 2&1/2 hours south on I81. I’m in a ‘15 SuperDuty Ford flatbed with a V10 and it moves pretty well considering it weighs over 5 tons. Has a manual mode such that I can make it hold a gear up to redline.
Noon Wednesday before Thanksgiving I pull out of Bristol. Traffic is horrendous (for SW Va). We’re bumper-to-bumper running 85 and the weak and timid are getting eaten alive. I’d been watching 3 black cars darting from lane to lane & tailgating & generally being obnoxious to try and gain a car’s-length. I kept a running lesson about time vs distance equations for several miles. Kept shutting the door on the MiniCooper in the lead until he was PISSED. So I Slowed down just a hair ....he took the bait and pulled over on the shoulder to pass me. I was doing 80ish behind a State Trooper who DID NOT appreciate a black MiniCooper swinging in between us from the shoulder.
For once, the cop >was< there when I wanted him. I bet that was an uncomfortable conversation-and an expensive ticket!
"diplodicus forgot his password" (diplodicusforgothispassword)
12/17/2017 at 14:01, STARS: 0
I looked it up. The ND with the 2.0l can do 0-60 in 5.8 the wk2 with the 5.7l does it in 6.9
If the ND has the 1.5l then it’s 8.2
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
12/17/2017 at 14:03, STARS: 1
I suspect it was the latter engine! Plus, the ND is only sold with the automatic here, I suspect it has rather gentle gearing.
whereas the 5.7 has towing gearing (aggressive) and the pull was really from 0-25mph and the top speed we could do in that street was 5o mph. I think the Miata starts getting an advantage once the drag and the aggressive gearing of the Jeep leave it for dead!
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
12/17/2017 at 14:07, STARS: 0
WB Kellogg?
"Dave the car guy , still here" (a3dave)
12/17/2017 at 14:38, STARS: 0
Sounds like good times. I can’t recall all the details because it was so long ago but I was on a solo drive from Wilmington NC to Houston in 1980. I did it all in one day with help from an old Fuzzbuster and a 23 channel Midland CB. I was driving my Mk1 79' Ford Fiesta S that I’m sure I’ve praised here before as one of the best crapboxes ever made especially after some decent but not extensive modifications. I’ll just say I made it in one day with no overnight stay. Avoided high traffic areas to be safe except for large cities like Atlanta. It was in the year after the Cannonball coast to coast record had been posted. Present day says its about 17 hours to drive NC to Houston. Even with the cheap car and rest stops I below that on lesser highways and some rough backroads.
"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
12/17/2017 at 16:14, STARS: 0
Yeah
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/18/2017 at 17:25, STARS: 0
Just love moments like these!
"Discerning" (discerning2003c5z)
12/18/2017 at 17:54, STARS: 0
All I took away from this was: “I weaved in and out of traffic at high speeds with 4 other cars. Despite how dumb this act was, I thought it wise to post about it online.”
I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t sped on public streets, but I always attempted to do it far away from other traffic.
Perfect example: Lined up a month ago on a back street with no turn offs or intersections with my neighbor’s bolt on and tuned 2016 5.0 and walked him pretty hard from a roll and a dig. He had a catback, intake, and a tune but it wasn’t even all that close above 60.
"Dark chocolate" (amghybridss)
12/18/2017 at 18:04, STARS: 1
late 2008: Friend had leased a brand new 335.
I had had my 6.0 GTO for 2 years by then and had fresh set of tires.
He really wanted to see how he outperformed me.
The long winded entrance to the AAA race track in Ontario, California. We started from a dig.
The GTO barely hooked up. I was spinning but still at the 335's quarter panel. I hot second, the tail kicked out - towards the 335 and the passenger in the 335 almost shit his pants. So did I.
Then the goat hooked up and went by its way.
"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
12/18/2017 at 23:17, STARS: 0
Hyperbole is a thing.
"Discerning" (discerning2003c5z)
12/19/2017 at 08:07, STARS: 0
Indeed. Where is it being applied here?
"Discerning" (discerning2003c5z)
12/19/2017 at 09:15, STARS: 0
Hope your not referring to my experience. My car should make about 420 to the wheels and even more torque. Weighs a smidge over 3700 lbs and power goes through a decent 7 speed auto.
The other car had a passenger and was a stick. He claimed he was full bolt ons and a mail order tune but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was lying though it definitely at least had an axle back. It sounded like a typical mustang with a cheap straight pipe axle back (it sounded terrible) He seemed like the type that might exaggerate his mods.
But it really wasn’t even close. He got pulled on pretty hard every single time. He even tried jumping on the rolls but to no avail.
"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
12/19/2017 at 10:08, STARS: 0
I’m not. I’m explaining why one can share a story about speeding through traffic without fear of “the law”, as you implied I should have.
"Discerning" (discerning2003c5z)
12/19/2017 at 10:16, STARS: 0
It’s not so much fear of the law as fear of what other unpredictable motorists will do. Driving fast around traffic spooks other drivers. I’ve witnessed other drivers lose control of their car and crash because they were spooked by an aggressive driver. The speeder shot a gap between two slower cars and the driver that was overtaken thought they were going to hit, pulled the wheel and braked and went off the road.
I’ve also witnessed a slower driver move in front of a speeding car in an attempt to get out of the way of the fast approaching car, only to get hit in the rear and spin off the road with the other car that was trying to undertake.
Weaving in and out of traffic is playing with fire. Other motorists are unpredictable and often distracted. When you are weaving in and out of traffic with other cars, the odds against you only get stacked higher.
All it takes is one car to misjudge your speed and to try to move over at the same time you are undertaking them at a higher speed for you to have to make a big corrective action.
When i was in HS, I nearly got into a serious accident while having some fun on a mostly deserted road. A friend and I were doing some runs from a roll and were approaching a car in the middle turning lane. That car saw us approaching but couldn’t tell how fast we were going. They turned left directly in front of us. Friend went into the opposite lane and I came within inches of plowing into the passenger side of this car.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about the law - but you should be concerned about the unpredictability of other motorists.
There’s no good reason to take unnecessary risks at triple digit speeds on a public road. Stay safe out there.
"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
12/19/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 0
Yes, you are right. However, I was not fully appreciative of your reply which essentially said “I didn’t really read what you wrote, I just see you being irresponsible and bragging about it”. There was some effort put into my post, some embellishment as is common in storytelling, and you just dismissed all that to lightly scold my actions before expounding on your own irresponsible actions in a way that felt like you had a “holier than though” attitude about the whole situation. Note that I did not actually say what speed I or the other Mustangs was going, my only reference to triple digits was a guess of the BMWs speed before I caught it (hyperbole), and a statement that we would get tickets (one can get a ticket for 1 mph over the limit). I also said that we slowed reasonably for a work zone, and while I said we “wound in and out of traffic” and passed trucks and cars it is up to your interpretation what that winding actually looked like.
I appreciate that you’re looking out for me, but the intent of this post was to tell a story, not to be dismissed as some unsafe hooligan and lectured about my actions as if racing someone on a public road, even if you perceived you were alone and away from traffic, is somehow better or safer than anything I did.
"Discerning" (discerning2003c5z)
12/19/2017 at 13:40, STARS: 0
Fair enough. In my defense, I was tired and cranky. Rereading your post, there isn’t anything all that egregious. Sorry for being a bit of a jerk.