raced a new 996 tonight (sort of)

[speeder]

Went out about an hour ago to see a band in the Valley, they were not playing tonight, so no big deal 'cause it's a beautiful night for a drive anyways. L.A. is such a different city at night; (almost) empty freeways and streets, windows down weather, just exquisite. I'm rolling south on Cahuenga through the pass, can't resist turning onto Mulholland for a little detour to Laurel Canyon. For those who are not local, Mulholland is one of the most perfect Porsche/motorcycle/sportscar roads ever laid down by man. Smooth, not an inch of it straight, runs along the top of Hollywood hills w/ the city on one side and the Valley on the other. On a clear night, it's a blanket of lights as far as the eye can see, like being in a low-flying airplane.

Anyways.... as soon as I turn onto it, blasting up the first hill, I pass a new 996 coupe on the side of road w/ lights on and idling, guy talking on phone or something. I happen to be catching second gear as I pass, so I blip throttle as I shift at 6000. I carve the first few corners, then get stuck behind a slower car for a minute. Just about the time the slow car is turning off, sure enough there's those litronic headlights lighting me up like the cops from the rear. Yeah, baby!!

A little background on myself and this road is in order at this point. When I was young and stupid, (OK, I'm still stupid), I used to race my lightened '69 Triumph Bonneville up here in the middle of the night. Knowing the road is everything; it is a combination of increasing/decreasing radius curves and some sweepers, a couple of almost switchbacks, and almost every curve is blind because of mountain terrain. The good news is that it is very well engineered, bad news is that unless you really know it, it's impossible to know/see braking points, etc., so you have to be conservative unless you have a death-wish. I pride myself on being able to drive this road quickly w/o endangering oncoming traffic. It's actually safer at night, you can see oncoming headlights.

So what happened? He was able to easily stay on my ass during straighter parts, (obviously), but pulled him good in the twisties. We were flying along, but I drive the road at about 90-95% of handling limit when it is empty. The reason it's so much fun is that 40-50mph is FAST through most of the curves. In my car, (stock '82 SC coupe w/ factory bilsteins and Dunlops), it is mostly 2nd gear, a little 3rd. We were not going totally nuts, just enjoying our cars. No powerslides, but SCOOTING for sure. I'm sure that with equal drivers his car should eat me up, but maybe not on this road. A good SC or early car is a perfect weapon up here. I could hear him thrashing a couple of times when I'd lose him on a curve. It was FUN!

While I was driving I could not help thinking about you guys, (and girl or two), I've never posted a "spanked a (fill in blank)" thread, so here it is. When we finally stopped next to each other at Laurel Cyn. I saw that it was a brand new 2002, no license plates yet. And no, he didn't give me a friendly wave or anything. Whatever. I'm going beddybye now. 'Night all.

[jkeyzer]

Haha, funny story speeder... I was out driving tonight too, just for kicks took an exit off the freeway I don't normally take to do some exploring of the San Diego County backroads, 45 mins later ended up in Escondido without trying to go there! Didn't race anyone but myself, but was embarassed to get tailgated by the locals who knew the roads much better than I did. Overall, the smell of burning oil on a nice summer evening with the top off, what a blast.

We need to get the SoCal pelicanhead group together on a Saturday sometime, go for a drive, and exchange p-car stories. Maybe somewhere up north a bit so we can get more LA/SD interaction without forcing everyone to come all the way down here.