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Some of you may have seen this already, but for the others enjoy. ;-P I'll be off-line until Tuesday for responses. ZUL='92 TT It was late, about 11:45 on Thursday night and I was on a quick boogie from Fallbrook to San Diego on I-15. Generally I was in a relaxed hustle between 80 -100 when I caught a glimpse of a quickly merging vehicle, it tucked in behind me and prompted a little more push from the right foot to keep him in the mirrors. It looked like some recent 3 or 5 series BMW based on the light pattern and profile. As we started coming up on a few cars that were blocking the left lanes, I down shifted to 4th at about 100 mph and (which my wife said was quite exciting) squirted ahead and around the blockage shifting to 5th at about 6500 rpm. The guy in the BMW and I settled in to a quick pace about 120, he was hanging in there about 3 to 5 car lengths back and generally being cool about the deal. As we motored along I am having visions of jail time, but the excitement of the moment took over and with another car also pushing the risk of getting busted we continued to hustle. Safety in numbers. I would gradually squeeze on and off the throttle adjusting our velocity due to the odd car we would come up on and then pass to see how long he would hang in there behind me. The variation in speed between 110 - 125 and back several times felt like being attached to a giant rubber band that would relax and then pull us forward with a gentle but firm thrust in the back side. It became apparent that he was not going to back off. So, when a long sweeper six or so lanes wide and with at least a mile or so of clear road ahead of us I buried the throttle (I am starting to shake writing this). Pulling G's on the sweeper, I took it up to over 140 and held it there for about 15 seconds or so. This is quite a long time to be motoring at that speed, not just touching that number briefly. ZUL easily felt like it had more umph and wanted to keep going when I had to back off due to some traffic and a section of on-ramps that could have Smokey in wait. I was able to glance at the speedo as I backed off and it was well over 140. At that point the BMW slowly went by and then over to exit. I merged over and gave a thumbs up. I was pumped up for days with the adrenaline rush. I commend the other driver for not doing any dumb or dangerous moves and for hanging in there to make one of my most memorable drives. ZUL Rules!
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16:53:10 05/23/03
