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Ricky Racer


ChrisL

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I don't know what got into me but yesterday I was on a two lane freeway onramp. This kid in a Subaru WRX comes flying down the onramp from behind and we both stop at the light together.  Now I drive a Subaru Legacy which looks kinda like a grampa car but has 3.6 liter engine and has pretty good acceleration.

So when the light turns green I romp on it and blow the kid off the line.  I merge into traffic and slow to freeway speed, he pulls into the lane besides me and honks.  I look and he is laughing hysterically giving me a thumbs up!  He then shoots off weaving through lanes.

Yeah that's right I'm a bad ass... Not. The kid didn't expect to get beat off the line by an old guy in a grampa car though.

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Those two are pretty similar in the HP/torque specs. I assume he would have the advantage when things get curvy, but an on ramp really isn't far enough for a dozen hp to make a difference if you get the jump on him.  

I also find most folks are have too short of an attention span to actually hit the gas when the light changes to green. They're more of the "Oh, it's green. Stomp on it." 

Tom

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I have fun with people like that once in a while. My dad has the best story, though. This took place in the mid-80s. My dad had an Oldsmobile 98. The last year of RWD. He wanted it to be able to pull their camping trailer, but the 305 wasn't cutting it. 

He bought a 72 Olds sedan with a 455. Drove it back from where ever he bought it. The donor car was rough and the exhaust was noisy. The seat sagged pretty low.  My dad was a big guy with a mountain man beard. He was wearing his safety glasses because he bought it after work. These are the old horn-rim glasses with the vented covers on the sides. 

He was at a light on a 4-lane highway when kids in a Camaro pulled up beside him. They were laughing and revving the engine while looking at my dad. The light turned green and that 455 left the Camaro like there was no tomorrow! At the next light, they were next to each other again. My dad looked at them and blipped the throttle twice. No response....They just looked straight ahead!

 

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Back when I drove cars like my Corvette and the Daytona I had to give up street racing.  Every young buck wanted to go at every stop light every time every block.  It got boring so I used to invite them to the local dragstrip where more lucrative arrangements could be made.  The Daytona especially was a money making machine.  It was tuned to launch on the first glimmer of the last yellow without wheel spin and back in the day the lights were .5 seconds apart.  That was a huge advantage in a world before reaction times were printed on the ET ticket.  Well, that an a "bit" over 500 hp under the hood ;)

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8 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Those two are pretty similar in the HP/torque specs. I assume he would have the advantage when things get curvy, but an on ramp really isn't far enough for a dozen hp to make a difference if you get the jump on him.  

I also find most folks are have too short of an attention span to actually hit the gas when the light changes to green. They're more of the "Oh, it's green. Stomp on it." 

Tom

Yeah not sure about HP of either car but I figured his car would be faster and of course better handling. All the Fast & Furious kids love those WRX's. I assumed he would have took off based on the way he came down the onramp and he did, i just got the jump on him!

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16 minutes ago, groupw said:

I have fun with people like that once in a while. My dad has the best story, though. This took place in the mid-80s. My dad had an Oldsmobile 98. The last year of RWD. He wanted it to be able to pull their camping trailer, but the 305 wasn't cutting it. 

He bought a 72 Olds sedan with a 455. Drove it back from where ever he bought it. The donor car was rough and the exhaust was noisy. The seat sagged pretty low.  My dad was a big guy with a mountain man beard. He was wearing his safety glasses because he bought it after work. These are the old horn-rim glasses with the vented covers on the sides. 

I saw a show with Jay Leno talking about his childhood. He recounted the time he went to the dealer with his parents and his dad had his mind set on some staid family car. However, that year the car had some insane engine option, and Jay got his mom to convince the dad to let "little Jay" pick the engine. Jay said the car was the envy of the neighborhood and his dad never complained. And something about finding a speeding ticket in a drawer. 

Anyway, it was a funny story and surely full of embellishment, but it did make me wish there were more modern "sleeper" cars out there.

Tom 

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1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

I saw a show with Jay Leno talking about his childhood. He recounted the time he went to the dealer with his parents and his dad had his mind set on some staid family car. However, that year the car had some insane engine option, and Jay got his mom to convince the dad to let "little Jay" pick the engine. Jay said the car was the envy of the neighborhood and his dad never complained. And something about finding a speeding ticket in a drawer. 

Anyway, it was a funny story and surely full of embellishment, but it did make me wish there were more modern "sleeper" cars out there.

Tom 

I gotta say that Legacy is somewhat of a sleeper.  It was reviewed as a "vanilla" car. Not overly spectacular and stodgy looking but we'll built and reliable.  After my VW debacle that's what sold me.

But the engine has great power, and the limited slip AWD allows great traction when accelerating.  The car really does haul ass when you get on it.

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Just now, ChrisL said:

I gotta say that Legacy is somewhat of a sleeper.  It was reviewed as a "vanilla" car. Not overly spectacular and stodgy looking but we'll built and reliable.  After my VW debacle that's what sold me.

But the engine has great power, and the limited slip AWD allows great traction when accelerating.  The car really does haul ass when you get on it.

But the Subaru website sucks big time!  Too much sheot on their product pages constantly grabbing extra content.  I was trying to get a quick idea of how the various models - Outback, Legacy, Crosstrek, etc - compared in towing capabilities. Nah. Too hard to find that on their site. Easier to choose a product with clear information, and that's a real shame for them. 

Tom

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41 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

 

Anyway, it was a funny story and surely full of embellishment, but it did make me wish there were more modern "sleeper" cars out there.

Tom 

You would have loved the Olds 98 when he dropped in that 455! Beige, formal roofline, Landau top, fake wire wheel covers. He added a Holley throttle body injection system to that 455. He could break the tires loose while pulling the camping trailer! He once did a power stance burnout in a parking lot that would have made a NASCAR driver envious. The front suspension wore out and he didn't want to crawl under it as he got older. Sold the car and trailer and bought a motorized RV instead. 

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1 hour ago, groupw said:

I have fun with people like that once in a while. My dad has the best story, though. This took place in the mid-80s. My dad had an Oldsmobile 98. The last year of RWD. He wanted it to be able to pull their camping trailer, but the 305 wasn't cutting it. 

He bought a 72 Olds sedan with a 455. Drove it back from where ever he bought it. The donor car was rough and the exhaust was noisy. The seat sagged pretty low.  My dad was a big guy with a mountain man beard. He was wearing his safety glasses because he bought it after work. These are the old horn-rim glasses with the vented covers on the sides. 

He was at a light on a 4-lane highway when kids in a Camaro pulled up beside him. They were laughing and revving the engine while looking at my dad. The light turned green and that 455 left the Camaro like there was no tomorrow! At the next light, they were next to each other again. My dad looked at them and blipped the throttle twice. No response....They just looked straight ahead!

 

In college, one of my room mates was the son of Buick dealer in Houston.  He got a new car every few months.  One of the new cars was a Buick Grand National.  At the time, almost no one knew what it was.  We took a road trip to Dallas for an SMU game.  Couple of guys from SMU in a convertible Jag pulled up next to us and did the look, rev thing.  Light turns green and Doug drops the hammer on the turbo V6 and leaves the Jag sitting there.  Next light, they pull up next to us and ask what the car is.  Doug tells them it is a Buick Regal with a V6, which was basically true...... 

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1 minute ago, groupw said:

You would have loved the Olds 98 when he dropped in that 455! Beige, formal roofline, Landau top, fake wire wheel covers. He added a Holley throttle body injection system to that 455. He could break the tires loose while pulling the camping trailer! He once did a power stance burnout in a parking lot that would have made a NASCAR driver envious. The front suspension wore out and he didn't want to crawl under it as he got older. Sold the car and trailer and bought a motorized RV instead. 

If I had Jay Leno's money and time, I'd be getting folks to create all sorts of cars like that. Take a Z06 engine and drop it in a Cruz. A new NSX engine and drivetrain but cover it in an Accord wrapper. A minivan with a supercharged V8 bite. Etc..  I remember the Build Grand Nationals (& later the GNX) and always enjoyed them back then (80s) and now when I randomly see one. The original Sledgehammer AMG Mercedes E Class (especially the wagons) was neato. The US market actually sucks for cars in general compared to some of the stuff done around the world (mainly Europe & sometimes Japan).  The Nissan Skyline is a prime example. The various AMG and M-series wagons are prime examples. A real shame these days even though we did eventually get a GT-R.

On the flip side, we have a ton of cool custom car folks (tons of TV shows out there) who can and do create some really awesome stuff.

Tom

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4 minutes ago, jsharr said:

In college, one of my room mates was the son of Buick dealer in Houston.  He got a new car every few months.  One of the new cars was a Buick Grand National.  At the time, almost no one knew what it was.  We took a road trip to Dallas for an SMU game.  Couple of guys from SMU in a convertible Jag pulled up next to us and did the look, rev thing.  Light turns green and Doug drops the hammer on the turbo V6 and leaves the Jag sitting there.  Next light, they pull up next to us and ask what the car is.  Doug tells them it is a Buick Regal with a V6, which was basically true...... 

I thought you were going to say the rusted out Jag dropped it's transmission in the middle of the road and smoke started pouring out of its exhaust.  That's my memory of Jags in the 80s. :whistle:

Tom

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4 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I thought you were going to say the rusted out Jag dropped it's transmission in the middle of the road and smoke started pouring out of its exhaust.  That's my memory of Jags in the 80s. :whistle:

Tom

This was a nice Jag, late 60 early 70s  E type convertible as I recall. 

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Unfortunately I never did "sleepers".

My profile page is very similar to one of mine and I stole it rather than finding my own.  You newbies probably didn't see pics of womaxx and myself sitting on the wing. Periodically I drag out old pics or online versions for show here

The car I took my license test in (FC license)  My owner bought this car from Sox and it was all candy red at the time and named the Hippie Hemi.

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Later I occasionally drove this one as an injected A/FC.  In this case, the lettering was rubbed off the original and the name Hippie Hemi was repainted as part of the original scheme.  As I mentioned before I made more money with the Daytona as a bracket car than we did with this car.  It was simply too expensive for a low dollar team to do anything other than pump the money back into the car.

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Interesting list of other cars.  1.  66 Barracuda Factory Formula S drag car special, 62 Corvette with an LT1 350 transplant engine, 68 Dodge Dart originally a 383 GTS that received a 426 Commando wedge transplant.  :D

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Here is my favorite Hot Rod.  Not much of a sleeper at all but loved the sound of that thing when you got on it gave me chills.  I was in a pursuit once and got up to around 122 on the freeway (at around 1 AM not much traffic).  I had to back off as the guy on a motorcycle was gaining anyway and a helo arrived on scene.  We caught the guy and I'll never forget his exhaust manifold was red the bike was so freaking hot. 

 

Image result for Chevy Caprice police car

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An officer who did security at a place I worked in high school liked us car guys! He would always tell us about fun stops, etc. Before he became an officer, he liked to "cruise the strip" just like we did back then. He told us of a time in the 60s a VW Beetle with curtains over the back windows, flower power paint job and a hippy driving that looked like a bad Tommy Chong imitation. His buddy was driving a pretty nice big block Chevelle. He revved at the light and the Beetle suddenly got very loud! It smoked that Chevelle, but pulled over at a drive-inn/hangout and the driver was standing by the car when they pulled up. 

He pulled back the curtain to reveal a big block Chevy engine connected to a ZF transaxle where the back seat used to be! It looked like someone had put a bug body on a Can-Am car. The driver pulled off his wig and said "I have so much fun with guys like you!" 

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