Do you guys have any racing stories? Just wondering.

I was coming home from school at 2:00 one time and following me on my tail was a Thunderbird SC. I pulled into the middle lane to let him pass me and he did. As we slowed to merge onto another highway I catch up with him again. He takes off and I get right on his butt. We both had it floored and we weren't going anywhere. It was like we were driving the same car. I was the exact same distance away from him at all times. He must have been running some mods because I don't recall them being that fast, or maybe just the GP's top end isn't what it should be for the numbers it pulls. Either way, we'd slow down if someone was in the fast lane, then we'd both hit it again. It was the most boring race cause no one could break away. Finally, at 115mph he really started pulling away and I knew I was hitting the limiter soon anyway and backed off at about 120mph. So I guess I lost. It was a real boring race and a waste of speed.

-Andrew

THAT REALLY SUCKS WHEN IT’S LIKE THAT, WHERE NOBODY PULLS AWAY. LIKE YOU SAID IT’S A WASTE OF TIME AND GAS. WHILE I DROVE MY TRUCK AROUND THERE WAS THIS GUY IN A MUSTANG GT TEASING ME. HIS CAR HAD MODS, YOU COULD HEAR THEM. HE WENT TO SCHOOL WITH ME A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. I ALWAYS RACEED HIM EVEN THOUGH I KNEW I WOULD LOSE. WELL TO GET TO THE POINT WHEN I BOUGHT MY GTP HE SAW ME. HE PULLED UP NEXT TO ME AND REVED HIS ENGINE. HE WAS LAUGHING. THERE WERE TOO MANY CARS IN FRONT OF US TO DO ANYTHING. BUT 2 LIGHTS LATER, WE WERE BOTH READY FOR TAKE OFF. OFF THE LINE TOok HIM BY TWO CARS, DON’T KNOW IF HE HAD A BAD START OR WHAT BUT HE WAS BEHIND. AT 75 MPH I WAS STILL AHEAD. STUPID CAR IN FRONT OF ME MADe ME SLOW DOWN. HE PASSED ME UP FOR AWHILE BUT HE COULDN’T KEEP IT LONG. NEXT TIME I SAW HIM ON THE ROAD I REVED My CAR, HE JUST LOOKED AT ME AND DID NOTHING, It WAS my turn to LAUGH AT HIM . GUESS HE LEARNED HIS LESSON!!

see that button , next to the "a" key? its called "caps lock" , mind pushing it for me real quick? thanks

lol keyboarding 101

LOL, yeah sorry about that guys. i was in a hurry, so didn't really care how it looked!

Anyone ever race a new Neon? What's the deal with the new neon? Is the R/T version with dual exhaust, and such really that bad ass? This guy in my town has one and whenever we meet on the street he always has his lady in the car, so he never has the balls to race me. Is it all show or can it move out pretty well. Would love to know.

J

It's not all show.

5 Speed, Turbo 4-Cylinder
215HP, 245 lbs/torque

0-60: 5.9 Seconds
1/4 Mile: 14.2 sec @ 99.5 mph

Not bad times for these things. I personally would rather be shot than drive one of these go-karts, but they do hold up with some pretty fast cars. We'll have to see how this does, considering the Neon is rated very low in the reiliability ratings.

The neon rt is pretty capable 215 hp and it wieghs alot less then the GP. Dodges answer for the ricer market.

Motor Trend (Dec. 03) has the 03 Neon doing the qtr mile at 13.89 @ 101.88, 5.4 0-60, and top speed of 148mph. However, they report that the 04's will have 15 more hp and 5 more lb.ft of torque, a new limited slip differential co-developed with Quaife(sound familiar?), and increased slalom speed from 66.6 to 68.3(that's porsche territory). The increased power did not decrease 0-60 or qtr mile times(5.5 and 13.99) but it did bump trap speed at the end of the qtr to 102.72.
I've always had an affection for the Neon ever since they came out with them. I used to rent them in the Islands and beat the crap them. The were a pisser to drive. I wouldn't own one where I live. I drive too much. They are better suited for short drives than for 130 mile cruising distances.

To get back on topic, I got another good racing story. Once again, kinda boring.

I was in my brother '93 5.0. I know it's a Ford, but this thing is solid with 330hp and 50k miles on it. I borrowed the car for the day and was out crusing (racing) my friend with a modified '94 Z28. I lost to him off the line twice. So now we were just kinda riding around. We got split up in traffic so he pulls into this restaurant so we can regroup. As we are pulling out, we both are just messing around and throw the rear end out a little. This Integra pulls out behind me, my buddy makes the next light, but I didn't. I'm not even thinking of racing this guy. The Integra appears stock. The light turns green and he spins his wheels. I notice this and just floor it. We were dead even until 120mph when I really started pulling on him. The only time I pulled on him was when he shifted, the 5.0 has a shift kit that chirps the wheels and takes off. It was a hell of a sleeper. I won, but was still put to shame for him keeping up that long.

Sorry for the long story. I have another racing story, but it pretty much comes down to me driving my father's Jaguar XK8 and having my ass handed to me by a GS430.

-Andrew

I was time trialing my Chevelle at the Long Island dragstrip when I found myself next to a Volkwagon GTi. I am used to seeing Vettes, Camaros, Stangs, a 442, Buicks, etc... I could live with a loss to one of those guys, but this time I had the honor of American muscle at stake. I was still trying tune my carb and timing, so I wasn't running as fast as I should have. I could dig up the time slip but I remember running about 14 @ 105(no traction). Thank God it was enough to stay in front of the VW. Later that day, a guy with a 10 second Camaro was telling me how it feels to be "spanked" by a little Honda. I still laugh about it.

Out here in Houston there was the place called Rankin road. It was behind some wearhouse and every Friday and Saturday a bunch of people would gather and race. The street was about 1/4 mile long. We would see everything, from neons to high performace muscle cars. I was pretty cool place to go run ur cars until the cops decided they had enough and busted allot of people. Anyway, I saw a Minvan out smoked a Camero Z28. It was the funniest thing but it put up a good show!

Back in the 80's I put myself through school with a classic Mustang resto shop. I bought, restored, and sold old Mustangs(64-69). I sold over 30 of those pieces of crap and made a lot of money. I picked up a 67 rolling chassis(non-fastback) and built a boss 351 Cleveland and 4spd top loader to put in it. The motor dyno'ed at 630 hp @ 7800 rpm. These engines had no low end what-so-ever. The car was a monster. The sound of the motor was the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I was driving around with a buddy when a 79 or 80 malibu pulled up next to us at a light in front of a shopping center. The malibu had something wild under the hood(it was loud). I found out later it was a 70 LS7. When the light changed he jumped in front of me with authority. My buddy was laughing his ass off until second gear when the solid cam kicked in at about 6000rpm. It was like a rocket launch from there. By third gear the malibu could do nothing but watch as this fire mist red missile passed him at light speed. We both pulled over and he started asking if I had nitrous. I opened the hood for him and educated him about the Cleveland. We became friends and he eventually worked for me until Bush's recession forced me to sell the shop in 89. I never made it to the track with that car so I have no idea what numbers it was running. 0-60 could not have been very good but I'm sure the qtr mile times were in the elevens. I miss that car.

This is a friend's story. A very quiet kinda guy. Not really a racing story, but I liked it anyway. He had a GTO which everyone called a "goat" in those days. I guess it was a gutsy car.

Took place prolly 30+ years ago on a Sandy Eggo freeway at 2:00 in the morning. He's a fairly new Navy pilot. On the freeway, pretty much all alone when two cars pass him on the right. First car pulls in ahead of him, second car drops back a little, and they've got him boxed in. Then they both start slowing. By the time they were down to about 25 mph, he decided he'd had enough. Moved his car up to the one in front, made contact, then floored it. Guy in front was braking, but it wasn't doing him much good. Then he trys to out accelerate, but that just allowed the speed to jump that much faster. Guy along side was keeping up, not too hard considering the goat was accelerating two cars at the same time.

He stayed on the guy until they hit 120 mph at which time he chopped the throttle and layed on the brakes. The other two kept on going, then shot down the first off-ramp they came to. Friend swears they had to have rolled or crashed at the bottom considering the speed they were going.

Yep, quiet kinda guy. Just the kind that could climb a tower some day and start shooting.

Although he was navy, there had to be some marine training there. Typical marine battlefield situation: You've got your back to a 50 foot cliff. There are three of the enemy to the front, five to the left, and two to the right. All you have is a 75 foot rope and a bayonet. What do you do?

Correct answer is one word: ATTACK.

Regards, Gary in Sandy Eggo

Back to the Neon SRT-4, on the 04 model, HP is now 230, with 250 lb/ft torque. SPort compact car put a bone stock 03 SRT-4 on the dyno (215hp) and it pulled 228hp at the wheels! So either they increased the power and underrated it again, or they are finally getting closer to admitting the true HP figure. Either way its a fast car. i saw one at the track run 13.7s and it was bone stock as far as I could tell. Personally Id still rather the GTP, bigger, more comfy, nicer car overall

Jeff

This story sucks, but I'll tell it anyway.
A couple of days ago I was cruising south on 45 from West Bend into Milwaukee when out of no where this cobalt blue and silver Honda civic hatchback pulls up on the drivers side and gives the nod to drop the hammer. I'm thinking, Hmmm time for yummy rice!!! We both hit it at about the same time and I start to pull to about 1/2 car lead. Then he creeps up and gets right up to my door, looks over and grins. I hear him down shift and then he is gone~!!! Poof !!! outta sight. He had to have sprayed!! I only have a GT, I have a few mods that at least keep me in most races, but damn!!!! THAT CAR IS HELLA FAST. About 2 miles down the road I see him exiting the free way so I yank it across 3 lanes to try to catch him. To no avail. Man that car was fast!

The coolest race Ive had was against a car I know nothing about. :p It was a later model 3000GT VR4. I was messing with him at a few stoplights, and he wouldnt respond at all.. So I finally just gave up on it... till we reached the interstate. We ended up side by side..pacing. I slowly increased speed... 70..80mph... holding it. I glance over...hes creeping up again.. Slowly up the ante again... 90mph this time.. Only he drops back a little bit. I see his headlights lift a little and knew he was going to try to blast past me, then up ahead about 100yards there was a Stoplight. It turns yellow just about the time he was getting up to my door, so I dropped to 3rd and went WOT. We blast thru the light and over these two hills, He had floated up past me a few feet (Momentum from his slingshot action) and I was slowly pulling him back in... I pull even around 110... side by side at 130....145.... speedo buried now.. (150mph) and he let out somewhere around there... I then let off and floated down to more *ahem* comfortable speeds.. My friend was gripping the door handle and breathing heavy. LOL (Poor guy drives a ford tempo :p ) The VR4 rolled up.. I gave him a thumbs up..he returned it smiling.. then I hit the first turn around and headed back into town.

GTPs are governed? What kind of top end do they have? I hit 100mph on a test drive..and I know its not going to pull all that hard..but I dont want to be too dissapointed

GTPs are governed to 126. I think the DHP eliminates it but I'm not sure youd have to ask around.

Thats not too bad. I guess maybe I can let go of the speed junkie habit (probably not worth it anymore) I hit 170mph once...and tons of 150~160 runs. Kinda gets old and I dont find many exotics around here to run to those speeds anyways. Better than 110

The GTs are limited to 108. There are lots of mods that can be done to the GTP. Ive heard runs of over 140 checkout clubgp.com lots of good info in there

Cool..just checked it out. Thanks!

When you get your GP, most of your races will probably be off the line. That's where they shine. Top end isn't bad, but it's nothing impressive compared to some.

DHP eliminates the 126 limiter.

If you get the HUD it will read beyond what the speedo registers

i.ve seen 127 on my HUD

It might be time to give up the speed. 170mph is ridiculous. I hit 130mph on a Ninja ZX-9R, but that was at 2am on a Rhode Island highway (there's barely anyone on the roads during the day).

There are a few people who claim to see 128 too, but you gotta factor in the calibration of the HUD, it doesn't read off of the same source as the speedometer. That's why they are not always synced.

Yeah.. Im getting older and pretty much havnt seen though speeds in a little while. Im going to miss being able to just do that whenever I feel like.. but should probably just account for being lucky (not getting caught) and move on. I had a spot where I ran.. Interstate section..about 2 miles long..no roads nearby, no pullsoffs, no cops, no traffic. I would wait till 3, 4am before even going out there. Speed is such a rush!

Whats a typical 60ft for a Stock GTP?

If you do get caught the fine will be high. I had to pay 420 bucks when i got stopped doing 115 mph, either that or 8 days in jail. Could have done some mods with that money!

Once you get familiar with the car and launching it, you should be able to nail between a 2.0 and 2.5. I'm pretty sure these numbers aren't too far off. Others should be able to verify.

As my friend Chew once said "verbosity alert"

Back in my Alfa Romeo days, 1986ish, I got nailed in queens doing 130 in a 50. Luckily I had a cousin that was a city cop and he gave me a courtisy(sp?) badge for just such an incident. I also had a great story to tell the cop. So he wrote up a ticket with some mistakes on it and the judge dismissed it in court. I had turned my windshield washer shooter so it pointed towards the side, so it would spray on the car next to mine. My girlfriend and her friend were in the car with me when an early 70's Impala with four big dudes in it pulled up next to us on the passenger side. The dudes were not being very nice and started talking shit to the girls. That's when I let them have it with the windshield washer right in the ear of the driver. They did not think it was as funny as we did. They started to get out of their car with baseball bats so I floored it. The cop clocked me just as I was getting onto the parkway. I was going very fast when I saw this little flashing red light waayy back, maybe a mile. I new it had to be for me so I pulled over. The cop was very appretiative that I stopped. That was the other reason he let me off. He said that he didn't think he was going to catch up with me and thanked me for stopping. When I told him what happened, he said that I did the right thing especially with the girls in the car because you don't know what those guys would have done. I felt reborn. The girls thought I was the coolest. I got very lucky that night in more ways than just the ticket. Life is good.

I was running around downtown Austin a couple of months ago, on a Saturday night. Made a left turn onto a 3 lane street, turned in the left lane. As I made the turn, I noticed three Lexus iS 300's going in the center lane. All three of them had huge aluminum can mufflers. I past them and made 2 lane changes putting me in the right lane. As I completed the lane change, the light at the next intersection turned red, putting me and the lead Lexus at the line. I knew as soon as the light turned green, he was going to roll. I got ready by switching my feet on the break and put my right foot on the gas pedal. The light turned green and just I as thought, he rolled. I went on his move. I floored it and past him with ease. I kept pulling on him until I had 1 1/2 lengths on him. As we approched the next intersection, we stopped for the red light. We looked at each other and he said "I wasn't ready." I thought well dumb ass, you're the one that left first, but I said "Is that what you're going to tell your buddies back there?" The light turned green and I left with a smile.

Awseome stories. I had a guy get out of a car to kick my ass before.

I was in my 3000GT and I was severly cut off by a oil truck (the home delivery ones). I had to slam my brakes and came to a screeching stop. I had my girlfriend in the car and became incredibly pissed off. As the road opened up, I passed the truck (legally, mind you). Next were a series of lights and this truck was on my ass. I couldn't even see as far up as the headlights on the truck, didn't help that my car was lowered. We hit red lights on almost all of the sets of lights. Since he was on my ass so bad, I'd be rolling to a stop and then at a random moment, stand on the brake and come to an instant stop. This caused the truck the slam the brakes and almost hit me about 3 times. Well the fourth time I did this, he wasn't so happy with me. It might have been overkill at this point, but we were having fun with the situation. So the fourth light just turned red when we came to a sudden stop. Next thing we hear is the hiss of air coming from the truck, and the doors on both sides of the truck open, and big huge guys step out. Lucky for me, there was a right turn lane and I was able to get my lily-white ass out of there, or I don't think I would have looked so pretty after that. Overall, it was a fun time. But I was more than appreciative of that right turn lane.

Jack: I think I might try that idea of turning the windshield washer sprays. All I need now is a car that has them on the hood. In my 3000GT, one of them was clogged, so the other one would spray over the entire length of the car and hit whoever was behind me. Talk about distance on the highway...

About a year ago I was on the highway on my way to a party. My buddies were with me at the time. I noticed in my rear view mirror a truck coming up really fast. As he passed me up the guy gave me a long stare. Being the cocky bastard that I am, I looked a my buddies and just smiled. I knew i could take it. The truck was a extended cab and i had a single cab. The way I was thinking was that he’s truck was heavier and most likely we had the same engine. (5.7L) I thought I would have the advantage since i had a few mods. Anyway, I caught up to him, tailed him for awhile. Then I was time to embarrass this guy by going around him. As I tried to go around he switched lanes on me. So I tried again. And again he cut me off, but this time the slammed on his brakes. I lost control of my truck and I was swerving all over the hwy. I regained control and I went for it again and again he slammed on his brakes. Same outcome. I was pissed. He eventually let me get even with him, we both floored it. I had nothing, he smoked me. My only guess is that his truck had a bigger engine, maybe 454. To make matters worse I had to hear about it all night at the party, my buddies told all the guys there.

Severe road rage. Anybody that slams the brakes on another person neads a massive beating.

I did it, but going about 10 mph. Not 70 (or above) on a highway. That's just ethically wrong. Not that many people worry about that anymore........

There's a line in "Cannonball Run" that goes something like, "What is behind me makes no difference, I only care about what is in front of me." This was said after he ripped the rear view mirror from the windshield.

The first rule of Italian driving, Whatsa behind you no matter.

KIND OF SUCKS WHEN YOUR BACK THERE.

Oh, you blew it. You were doing so well with the caps lock...

lol, When i'm at work i use all caps. I forget to take it off when i post a reply.

high stress job?

I deal with insurance companies and attorneys, I take their money!

I forgot:

I work with a Chiropractor.