Share your racing stories!

[cp-the-nerd]

Face it, we're auto enthusiasts and we love the rush of putting the pedal on the floor! Tell us your real-life stories of lining up next to another driver and letting it rip on the street or on the track. No bench-racing BS here, just tales of your right foot and the engine under the hood!

[cp-the-nerd]

My most recent match-up happened coming home from work a few days ago. Getting off the highway, I saw two Mustangs--a '13-14 bodystyle coupe and a mid/late 90's convertible GT--aggressively maneuver through traffic and jump on the exit just ahead of me. Well the newer Mustang split off and went about his business, but I found myself lined up next to the convertible at a redlight. I figured he was about to launch aggressively and knew he had no idea what was powering my humble sedan. I shut off TC and STB for the most aggressive power delivery and waited. Was he modded? Didn't matter if it was a 4.9L or 4.6L, a couple of bolt ons could leave me in the dust.

 

...Green! He lurched forward hard and I got an ear-full of his surprisingly sweet exhaust, my cue to step on it. From a 10 mph roll I kicked down from 2nd to 1st and hit 7000 rpm in no time, I pulled on the Mustang REAL quick and gave a grin and a nod as I passed, he saw me and tried to scoff out a laugh.

 

Having won easily and approaching another red light, I let off. I wanted to give the guy a thumbs up for the fun and ask if his exhaust was stock, but he drove by, eyes forward... then looked left and right at the red light and sped through it to get away! Gotta say he only proved he was just an asshole with a small endowment. I've never had someone run away in shame before.

Edited July 16, 2015 by cp-the-nerd

[cp-the-nerd]

Wow. An enthusiast forum and nobody wants to talk about actually driving their cars.

[balthazar]

My 'race car' is still under construction. I will undoubtedly do some street racing here & there.

 

I do recall being in my (now) brother-in-law's '69 Firebird (PMD 350 with Tri-Power) and lining up against our friend's '74 Camaro 350 and racing from a start on a back country road. We ran 2 or 3 times, and the Camaro just edged the 'bird each one. I don't think BIL had the Tri-P well tuned, but it was a fun night all the same.

 

Back in the day, it was much more about high speed banzai runs rather than straight up dragging. We used to F-ing fly down rural roads over 100 MPH countless times. Buried a 120 MPH speedo so hard the needle dropped out of sight to the right. I haven't seen a car rip by me @ 90-100 in years & years, even on major interstates. No doubt that's a good thing, but when the traffic & the fines were much lighter, it was some crazy fun. 

[balthazar]

Also just thinking over the 4 or so times I've either driven or been a passenger when we jumped a car completely in the air. That sounds like another thread tho- "Vehicular Mayhem'?

[ccap41]

A handful of years ago now(5ish). One of my best friends had a '98 mustang GT and I had a '04 Mustang GT and we headed up to our local strip(Gateway Motorsports Park) for a test 'n tune night. Usually there aren't to many people and you can get some back to back runs in without waiting in line too long. Well we pulled in to opposite lanes hoping by the time we got to the water box we'd actually line up next to eachother. We each made 5 passes(within about an hour and a half) that night and 3 of them were against eachother. That alone was pretty dang awesome! As for the races themselves.. He had pretty much a full bolt on SN, intake, headers, catless and mufferless exhaust(that bitch screamed), throttle body, 3.73 gears.. I just had a catback on at the time. No shame in admitting he's definitely the better driver. He had me to the 60' every time. And each time I'd walk right past time.. 3-0 that night. As for the other two passes.. One was against a highly modified early 90's vette(ran high 11s) and I think the other was against some ricer neon. It was a fun wednesday night.

Edited July 18, 2015 by ccap41

[El Kabong]

I've never done any sanctioned racing. I've had a few moments where I've stretched my ride out a little but mostly I've just confined myself to on-ramp and deserted straight shenanigans.

[ccap41]

I've never done any sanctioned racing. I've had a few moments where I've stretched my ride out a little but mostly I've just confined myself to on-ramp and deserted straight shenanigans.

You should take your Vette to the drag strip some time on a test 'n tune night. It is such a rush going under the press/officials boxes, through the water box, doing a little burnout to dry the tires(unless you have drag radials - then light 'em up!) then staging. Every single pass I've ever made (only around a dozen or so..) I've been nervous and giddy at the same time. Our track was 25 bucks and run as many passes as you'd like.. I think they are open for 4 hours. You can sit in the stands and watch for a bit. And there are PLENTY of amateurs like ourselves who you can watch and then just walking around talking to other guys about their cars. It's just a great time. Easily the number one thing I'll miss about having my Mach 1. I mean I can still go there but it isn't quite the same when I'm not running(who wants to see a timeslip for an Escape???? lol).

[El Kabong]

*L* if I took my Vette to the strip now I'd be arrested for grand theft auto. I traded it in for my new truck a couple months ago.

[ccap41]

*L* if I took my Vette to the strip now I'd be arrested for grand theft auto. I traded it in for my new truck a couple months ago.

 

Awwww no $h!??? I knew you got your Ram but I didn't realize you traded in your Vette.. Well who gives an F? Steal it for a night! YOLO right?!? lol

Edited July 18, 2015 by ccap41

[ccap41]

This is the staging lanes.. at times they will utilize all four past that walk through area. Which is why my friend and I didn't know if we'd end up next to eachother or not.

 

This random pic I found appears to be from a "Midnight Madness" that they hold once or twice a month over the summer. Kind of like a test and tune night but there are 10 times the people and ALOT of ricer junk also. Still plenty of good cars and they have a huge part of the parking lot blocked off for drifting. I never got into that madness. But the strip is open from 7pm-1am. I can at one of these and It was an hour and a half wait from one pass to the next. Never ran at one ever again. I won't wait that long to make a pass while half the time just sitting idling my car..

 

 

This is where you drive under like I was saying above. It's such a rush seeing the grandstands on both sides and hearing all of the other cars(when they aren't ricers). Also, this is just another googled image - random.

[daves87rs]

Like twenty years ago for $h!s and giggles I raced my 100hp 1st gen Cavalier against a co workers new Firebird. Believe it or not, I got the jump on him, but it didn't take him long to catch and pass me.....

[cp-the-nerd]

A handful of years ago now(5ish). One of my best friends had a '98 mustang GT and I had a '04 Mustang GT and we headed up to our local strip(Gateway Motorsports Park) for a test 'n tune night. Usually there aren't to many people and you can get some back to back runs in without waiting in line too long. Well we pulled in to opposite lanes hoping by the time we got to the water box we'd actually line up next to eachother. We each made 5 passes(within about an hour and a half) that night and 3 of them were against eachother. That alone was pretty dang awesome! As for the races themselves.. He had pretty much a full bolt on SN, intake, headers, catless and mufferless exhaust(that bitch screamed), throttle body, 3.73 gears.. I just had a catback on at the time. No shame in admitting he's definitely the better driver. He had me to the 60' every time. And each time I'd walk right past time.. 3-0 that night. As for the other two passes.. One was against a highly modified early 90's vette(ran high 11s) and I think the other was against some ricer neon. It was a fun wednesday night.

 

What kind of times were you and your friend running? That had to be super frustrating for him to have all those mods and lose to a Mustang just one gen newer than his!

[Drew Dowdell]

http://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/21178-chevy-ftw/?p=355209

 

I originally posted this in January 2008, but re-posting it for the new-comers.

 

Posted 11 January 2008 - 09:50 AM

A new, unrelated, Chevy FTW.

So I'm driving down a 3 lane commercial highway when I hear this loud burble-burble. Up comes this tool in a previous gen Golf with about 400lbs of body mods and a fart can exhausts. From the *sound* of it, it was a standard 4-cylinder, I heard no turbo and.. well it sounded like a 4banger. He's being an idiot making all sorts of "look at me" noises with his fart can. 

I'm in the Avalanche at the light in the left lane, Golf Tool is in the center lane, and up pulls Gramps* in the right lane in a black, current generation Impala SS. 

Golf tool is sitting there reving his engine but I don't know who he was aiming for because I'm in a truck and why would you pick a fight with some old guy. 

I'm sure you can see where this is going. Light changes to green and Golf-tool has surprisingly good reaction time and takes off out in front. Gramps wakes up and realizes what's going on and decides to throw the hammer down. Golf tool gets pwned. I'm following behind in the truck, not even trying, watching the whole scene and laughing. 

The 3 of us make it to the next light. Golf tool is irritated now and decides to try it again. Only this time Gramps is completely awake from his nap. 
Light changes green and they're both off.... The Impala SS is barking it's tires but he still pwns Golf tool again. Golf tool runs off down the commercial highway while Gramps and I take the on ramp to the interstate.

I get up next to Gramps and give him a thumbs up... which he returns with a smile.



*Basically, Lutz with darker hair. 

[cp-the-nerd]

Putting douche bags in their place is the best. I've got a highlight reel of those in the Malibu.

 

-2nd gen Acura RL 3.5L trying to skip ahead of traffic in a merge zone. Something fishy about that 290 hp rating because I steadily pulled away from 0-70 mph.

-Modded, lifted Ram 1500 Hemi weaving through cars and driving aggressively like a jackass. Made him sit behind me at the proper speed for a half mile after walking him from a stop with 2 passengers in my car.

-Riced out 97-03 Malibu (of all cars, WHY??) in classic beige.

Edited July 20, 2015 by cp-the-nerd

[G. David Felt]

 

http://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/21178-chevy-ftw/?p=355209

 

I originally posted this in January 2008, but re-posting it for the new-comers.

 

Posted 11 January 2008 - 09:50 AM

A new, unrelated, Chevy FTW.

So I'm driving down a 3 lane commercial highway when I hear this loud burble-burble. Up comes this tool in a previous gen Golf with about 400lbs of body mods and a fart can exhausts. From the *sound* of it, it was a standard 4-cylinder, I heard no turbo and.. well it sounded like a 4banger. He's being an idiot making all sorts of "look at me" noises with his fart can. 

I'm in the Avalanche at the light in the left lane, Golf Tool is in the center lane, and up pulls Gramps* in the right lane in a black, current generation Impala SS. 

Golf tool is sitting there reving his engine but I don't know who he was aiming for because I'm in a truck and why would you pick a fight with some old guy. 

I'm sure you can see where this is going. Light changes to green and Golf-tool has surprisingly good reaction time and takes off out in front. Gramps wakes up and realizes what's going on and decides to throw the hammer down. Golf tool gets pwned. I'm following behind in the truck, not even trying, watching the whole scene and laughing. 

The 3 of us make it to the next light. Golf tool is irritated now and decides to try it again. Only this time Gramps is completely awake from his nap. 

Light changes green and they're both off.... The Impala SS is barking it's tires but he still pwns Golf tool again. Golf tool runs off down the commercial highway while Gramps and I take the on ramp to the interstate.

I get up next to Gramps and give him a thumbs up... which he returns with a smile.

*Basically, Lutz with darker hair. 

 

Awesome when you see baby boomers who love auto's and put the fake tuner auto's in their place. No matter if you come from Europe, Asia or America, Put a fart can on and a few hundred pounds of body mods does not make you a fast car.

 

Some of my fondest memories was when my dad swapped out our 350 that was in our Delta 88 Station wagon for a 454. That station wagon was the ultimate sleeper that put many a tool to shame.

 

Great story Drew.