| Well after watching F1 yesterday (thanks HaloZ for the reminder) I just couldnt resist taking my Z out for the first time in several weeks. It has a manifold exhaust leak so I was careful to warm her up nice and slow and only really boost it after my EGTs were in the midrange. So I took her out and hit the loop and some other highways for about an hour and she was running great. Burned up all the old gas and put in about $10 of fresh gas. Seeing as how it was Sunday and that is when everyone pulls out their fast cars I cruised over to the Sonic on the "main drag" and sure enough it was full of car enthusiasts. I proceeded to pull up to some g35 owners and then kill the Z on accident. Some people laughed (including me) and they told me to pull over for a minute so I did. Well it wasnt long until the guys with the faster cars were calling me out to race so I happily obliged. I signed myself up for a built '02 TA and a C6 Vette 6.0 with "headers" which around here that is code for intake, headers, exhaust, and possibly a cam and a tune and other various mods. As soon as I said the word they all fired up and started rolling out. I immediately went to my AVCR and dialed back my boost since I had only put in fresh 91 octane and I had spiked to 19 PSI before on these AVCR settings. I set it to 1.05 kg cm2 across the board and hoped that would be enough. Well by the time I reached what I thought was the meeting place for the races I couldnt find anyone so I turned around to come back and was almost back into town when that TA pulled up behind me at a stoplight and flagged me down so I followed him back out there... But once I had one of these guys in my sights I just couldnt resist. After we got off the main highway he punched it and so did I from about 4 or 5 cars behind him. I proceeded to pass him @ about 100 and then let off for a second and I saw him getting ready for a ricer flyby so I punched it again as he was about to pass me and he got about half a length in front of me when I started pulling on him. Then it became official, the Z was faster. I saw him about 3 or 4 lengths in my rearview @ approx 145 mph and I shut it down and let it coast as I could see the other hot rods about 2 miles up in front of us. When I pulled over he said "Damn that thing is quick. At 145 I saw black smoke and you were just taking off." At first I was worried about the smoke but I remember my TT.net lessons from the smoke color gurus (sarc) and immediately recognized that black smoke was fuel and I was happy to know that I wasn't leaning out on the top end. We pulled over and waited for some oil field traffic to get far off into the distance and then when we all lined up again after agreeing on a 45mph roll against the C6 a sheriff pulled up behind us and buzzed us all with his radar so me being in front I just slowly took off. Well I guess the Vette didn't have a radar and he thought we were starting to race so he pulls up beside me and punches it. I thought 2 things: first, I am not going to just let this Vette try and stomp me and second, I am not going to be the one stuck in last with the Sheriff back there. So I obliged him and we went at it but probably took off at a 55-60 mph roll. Oddly I noticed the Z seemingly topping out at like 130-135 ish and he pulled me so I let off and let him go. Maybe my clutch was slipping? I don't know, it seemed like an anomaly. Anyways, when we got on another highway I ran him again but this time from like a 20 mph roll and the Z did much better against the Vette. By the time I shifted to 4th he was 2 or 3 cars behind me so I let off. I was so proud. She was shifting perfect, no synchro problems, no grinding, no slipping. And she was driving great. No overheating, and my peak boost was like 17PSI which means I was really maxing out somewhere in the 15-16PSI range which was perfectly safe in my mind. Overall I had a great night taking the Z out and she wasn't even at 100% with the exhaust leak on passenger side manifold. I know it is bad and wrong to race with an exhaust leak but this is literally the first time I took her out and raced her since being built. Additionally she will be going back under the knife soon for the full 2.5" treatment and some other choice mods as well as an official tune... I went back to the Sonic after the race and ordered me and my wife some food and let my adrenaline levels subside back to normal. I asked if they were out every Sunday and they said yeah. I said well I am putting this bitch up again for a while but Ill see yall again later this Summer or early Fall for some rematches with video 8) And remember before yall start lecturing me on safety, this is HaloTTZ's fault for posting about the F1 race... ;)
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"If everybody is thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking."
~~ George S. Patton |
