90s Vette vs 84 Carrera

[RarlyL8]

I've looked my entire life, and still can't find a track where there are no classes, you race a stranger starting at 30mph, and the finish line is where ever you wish it to be.
Show me that track and I'll be there. Might even get Juan and Kurt to come along as well.

[NYSCAR]

Rarly,

I think the point is, you have no idea what that crazy stranger will do. Racing on the street is for the most part a pissing contest - many times its 'harmless' until somebody does something stupid (like cut in front of other cars, or not looking where they're going because they're glaring at you, etc). Then things can turn real bad real fast. Not to sound like Mary Poppins or anything, but to me the 5% chance that something bad will happen is plenty enough for me to "take it to the track"

Brad

[adamnitti]

kurt, i love reading your posts like this... allows me to live vicariously through you. please continue to post info on ALL street racing encounters! just be safe-

[supertedusa]

Earlier this year, two cars (?), one a mustang, dragged it late on a Friday night down a long 3-lane street in my neighborhood. Mustang hit a dip, lost control, would up in pieces across a yard.

They had just left some party, so no one knew exactly how many were in the car. They found two bodies tens of yards away from the wreck, and assumed two people.

A woman who owned the house down from the tree was trimming her hedges - and ended up finding the third pasengers' body wedged between her house and the hedge - two days later.

Tons of stories out there for sure. Food for thought.

[Kurt B]

SuperTed et al (all the worry warts)

You guys are right on of course. I'm not reckless really.

If you asked most of the ricers I've raced who won, they'd say they did because they eventually passed me every time.

My background is in math: I don't need to actually beat you to your destination. It is sufficient for me to prove I could. I race to 50--or at the very most 60, brake, and call it a victory or a loss.

I Never play the dodge in and out of traffic game either against an opponent. Well, not on surface streets anyway open freeways are another matter


I Never mix chemicals and cars.

When a 0-60 test is done, there is never anyone else around. Never in a residential. Never done in any speed limit area of less than 40, and I usually do it in a speed limit of 50 (like Burbank Blvd near West of Encino)

I even brake for pigeons.

[pwd72s]

And for REAL Fun???? Outrace a few cop cars sometime...

[speeder]

Kurt, My biggest worry would be the cops on Ventura Blvd. All it takes is that one lone cop and if you get busted for "speed contest" even under 60mph, I think you lose your license for a while and of course there is the issue of insurance. I'd hate to see a fellow gear-head like you trying to "chip" a moped, or establishing lasting relationships w/ bus and cab drivers.

When I was a teenager my buddy had a quick '69 AMX, 343 w/ headers, close-ratio 4-speed, etc., we used to drag between stop-lights all the time- it was a blast- think "American Graffiti" w/o crash at the end, I don't blame you, but pick your spots w/ care is all I'm saying. And yes, I think that the track would be good for you, haven't tried it with this car yet but can't wait. You can push it 'till you're scared, test your skills against others who really know how to drive, and it really gets it out of your system. The fastest guys in the world, (F1, nascar, etc.), drive pretty mellow on the street. My .02.

[RarlyL8]

Teenage carnage, bla bla bla.

I'm not responsible for the actions of others. If you run into the rear end of your mother's car while giving me the finger that's your problem. I don't care.

I didn't live to be this old and crabby by being stupid. I haven't had a ticket in decades and God knows I've tried.

The track is a fun place to do track stuff. But the street has a thrill all it's own. I can't relate to you sorry fellas living in big cities with lots of traffic. Where I live you have to look hard to find another car. The "road carnage" horror stories here alway involve a single car, super high speed, and alcohol. And there are lots of them.
I figured out in my teens that I couldn't win a race while drunk. After that it's just using a little common sense.

[Glasgow 911SC]

kurt,
How do you measure your 0-60 times? Is it accurate?

[KTL]

Originally posted by Kurt B

I even brake for pigeons.

Had to laugh and reply to that one! Are you a Costanza where they don't fly away when approached (Seinfeld reference)? If not, you've got a BIG heart.

Originally posted by RarlyL8
If you don't like my driving, stay off the sidewalk.....
Teenage carnage bla, bla, bla

Always there to lend a sympathetic ear, eh? Man, this is some funny stuff.

You guys kill me!

[NYSCAR]

Yah Rarly, I'm not worried about *you* doing dumb things in your car, I'm worried about you taking on somebody else that's going to do supid things in THEIR car while trying to race you. I can guarantee you that if you race some wacko who ends up getting killed or killing somebody else, your butt WILL be in a sling when the cops arrive.

Brad

[supertedusa]

I really don't care much at all. It's a free country, and anything can happen no matter what you're doing.

Just thought the body story was interesting, and decided to post it because it related to the subject at hand.

Peel out.

[Kurt B]

LOL on the 'chipping a moped.'

Cops pulling me over would not be good whatsoever, and Ventura is a speed trap, I completely agree.

0-60 times: the accuracy is an issue for sure. Although some may think this a cop-out, I assert my car most definitely has good days and bad days. Fuel, air quality, quantum mechanics--don't know what it is, but there are times it flies and times it flies, just not as quickly.
I would never stand by the 5.19. The 5.6 ish numbers are much more consistent. I'd never attempt a 5.2 now with the new clutch anyway.

And yup, I brake for all animals and would have no problem tossing an injured animal into my car if it needed medical attention in a hurry!

[RarlyL8]

What? You think I'm gonna stick around after some fligmwad piles his ricer into a handicap schoolbus? You must mistake me for a Democrat. I let it go this time.

[NYSCAR]

Heh, sorry my mistake

[304065]

When I was 16 years old I had a 2002 with dual side-draft webers; at 21, bought an '88 M5, at 21, bought a 318iS; and with all those cars, I drove like a madman on the street, bombing down country roads over blind hills in deer country in Michigan during the summer, sliding on the ice in winter. There were a few "exhibitions of speed" and "traveling in excess of the posted limits" during that time.

Now, I drive a silver carrera through the streets of Manhattan, and guys with 4" exhaust pipes and stickers blip their throttles at me and jump forward at the stop lights like they're staging at the christmas tree. The light changes and they drop the clutch and disappear in a cloud of clutch stink and cheap cologne.

I just sit there. Only those things that are in doubt need to be proven.

I attribute this partially to the fact that I graduated to Porsches, and my attitude is, I don't need to race you to prove that I am in a superior machine, sitting here at the stop light, listening to the aircooled whine, I HAVE ALREADY WON.

The other part is, and I didn't start thinking this way until I went to my first driver's ed, it scares the hell out of me to drive the car even to 20% of its capabilities on the street. A 911 with 7x9's will brake at something close to 1g, so that the only cars that can stop faster than you are other Porsches (and a very short list of others), can corner approaching 1g, can accelerate 0-60 in under 6 seconds- but the practical effect of that capability is to allow me to AVOID other drivers -SUV types, talking on cell phones, putting two wheels into my lane, oblivious; people in front-drive econoboxes making left turns as soon as the light changes, trying to beat you through the intersection with a torque-steer hole shot. . . the list goes on and on. On the track, you can safely push the car to the limits (and occasionally beyond)-- but if I tried to use the car to those same limits on the public roads, I genuinely believe that I would wipe myself out, and even worse, bend the car.

Having said that, the other morning I had the opportunity to take her to the redline in between avenue blocks, and up rolls one of New York's Finest in a blue and white Impala, motioning for me to put the window down. Which I do, expecting to get the riot act: instead, he asks what year it is, maintenace costs, etc.

Which NEVER happened when I drove a car from Munich.

[Kurt B]

Good points and nice essay Cramer. I do like to 911s in the fast lane though. I mean, to see some guy doing 57mph in a 911 in the middle late is a complete waste. I rarely see guys drive em the way they're supposed to be driven--even safely. You can safely have some fun.

The best point is the braking. I agree. I may stop, but that doesn't meant the bozo behind me will be able to. I'm always aware of this.

On the other hand, RarlyL8 echoes my views concerning individual choice. Then again, most of us are from a different, unsheltered generation. When I was a kid in the 70s, you could ride in the back of a truck. You could ride a bicycle or skateboard without a helmet.

Kids today, for being just as arrogant, are twice as protected and naive. Joe Hotshot in his Honda was riding a BMX bicycle with a dork@ss helmet on a year before he runs into me in his car. A helmet like that would have gotten you laughed off the roadside when I was a kid.

So these kids haven't had to deal with much risk = responsibility = learning to care for yourself. The CA gov't has become a big Mommy for them. They'd be better served to learned a few lessons on a bicycle before getting into a car. It'd make em more cautious.

Anyway, on the general responsibility and personal choice/stupidity. (before this goes on and on).

I remember flying down the freeway not long after I got the car to have some guy in a big Ford truck catch up to me at about 85 mph. Then, with his buddy in the car, he passed, and I think he must have bumped his steering wheel slightly.

That truck went side to side like nothing I'd ever seen as he tried to compensate and looked as though it was a hair from complete disaster, and he quickly slowed down.

That's HIS fault, not mine. If he had so much as bumped it a smidgeon more, that behemoth would have rolled into a heap of tattered metal.