EricVonHa

I was feeling a little ornery tonight, so I thought I was going out to pick on some rustangs around 11pm. This is the first time I've really hammered the car since about 160 miles ago when I added a SPEC stage 3 carbon fiber clutch. I figured I had enough break in miles on it. So, I headed to an area in Pottstown, Pa called "High Street". This is for real, no lie, I think the whole town used to hit the big bong at one time or another! Anyway, it used to be the hot rodder & muscle car mecca of the East coast in the 80's. Not any more! Where once the mile long stretch used to line with the finest muscle car machinery almost every night of the summer, has now been replaced with low riders, chrome fender rings, kids wearing their caps crooked and more b.s. stickers on cars than used car dealers. It is still good there, though, to go find rustangs and the occasional Z-28 or other. I cruised up and down and saw only 2 rustangs that looked worth running. Everything else had Uncle Ben's written all over it! None of the rustangs were loud, not even the flowmaster drone. Damn, it looked like it was a slow night for the 5.0 crowd....
Then I saw a 300Z Twin Turbo turn onto the main drag from one of the side streets. Very nice car. Totally unmolested on the outside. I was thinking to myself, "hmm, a stock 300z, what's the chances of that?" Even the exhaust looked stock. I've always liked the wheel offset from front to rear of these cars, the turbos had a convex front wheel shape, the rear, concave. The guy must've seen me drive through town once and was waiting for me because I pulled up behind him at a light, just barely got a look at the Nissan "turbo" badge, then the light goes green and then Wham! He burns out in first gear and slams second and pulls through it... then brakes. I'm just barely moved out from the red light doing an off idle start just minding my own business! I was pretty impressed. As I moved forward, I didn't smell any clutch and when the guy slammed second, it was a smooth power shift and the rear weight bias never lifted. I was thinking to myself "lookie here, this guy can drive!" The driver was impressive, but the car was quiet as a mouse. I couldn't hear it over my car.

We catch another red light, of course I'm still behind him. I wouldn't want to intimidate him by pulling up next to him, right? This time he creeps out and then hammers it again! Ok, next time I'm pulling up next to him when the other lane is clear! This is some pretty dumb stuff this guy is doing coz the cops are all over the place just looking for people to make examples out of. After a couple more blocks, traffic clears out and I move up next to him cruising about 3500rpm in 2nd gear (manual ZF in my car). He does the on and off gas routine and jumps the front end a little. Ok!!! My turn!! I still have the road race tires on the car (yeah, I know it's illegal) and they were COLD! Man, does it make for an impressive show though! With the rpm at the perfect point, I stand on it in second gear, the tires instantly blaze and the back end is peeling sideways! Understeer is good up to a certain point, but the back was trying to pass the front, so I shut it down. This would be enough to make the rustangs run and hide, but not the 300z!

A couple more blocks and then it turns into a single lane through the residential end of town. We catch a red light again. Of course, he nails it off the line, this time I do as well. At this point it was very obvious that he was waaaay overpowered. I thought he mighta had at least a boost controller or something a little stealthy. By the time I hit second, my front bumper was about to imprint "Corvette" in his rear bumper so hard it woulda never polished out!

Long story longer. We get down into the fast food district end of the town and it splits out to 2 lanes again, me on the right, him on the left. I'm not messing around now. Cops were probably already on their way. So, I put on my turn signal to go right and head to the highway, as opposed to what the Z driver wanted to do which was probably do a light to light race, no no, no tickets here. Let's go to the highway bud. He sees my signal, and it was like a magnet, he swung right in behind me. We're on!

We get to the on ramp to the highway and I'm cruising mid range in 2nd gear again. What the heck, might start out low speed, right? So, I wait for him to make the move and swing wide on the heavy pedal. Predictably so, he does. A nanosecond later after giving him the jump, I'm on it! The second to third shift I was a little behind. Third gear I was starting to pull on him, slammed fourth and by that point I was ahead not just passing, but flying by (damn, is this what a real fly by is about?) and going going going GONE! I took it up to the top of fourth and slowed down (WAITED) and then we tried it again from second gear, this time I was more on his mark, and instantly started to out pull him.

The new clutch held up very well. I was duly impressed and would recommend to anyone with a highly modified motor to try it out. It's quite grabby and'll chatter the drive train at low rpm. It works very well, however, and takes a little getting used to!

What do you think? Should I post it on the ricer forums? It was an Ivory colored Z.... unknown caucasian male driver with passenger, quite un-ricer looking.....

ghostRder

Great kill story !

jpee

:rolleyes:

It dont belong here... put it over in the "kill section" As soon as Maple Grove opens, E Mail me... I try to give you a run for your $$... ;)

pkmoose

JP,
you back :confused: :confused:

wsaracen

if it wasnt 233 am. i might actually try to read all that.

DngrZne

Yes, I agree, too late to read that much... :crazy: I'll read it tomorrow and get back to you ;)

0Mike69@ECS

:cool: Good Kill!

boweryboy

Kid story but wrong section

mackeyred96

thats OUR panuzzo :)

my00c5

:cheers:

C5_PIG

Nice kill, what are your mods and where is this place. I'm looking for a place for some fun.

Chris@East Coast Supercharging

You can race cars at http://www.englishtown.com racing on the streets is against the law.. wait a minute.. aren't you a police officer.. ????? :jester :jester :jester

EricVonHa

Plug it into mapquest... POTTSTOWN... hole in the wall between Philadelphia and Reading. Nobody ever went their years ago ?? Not quite like it used to be...

robsvette

i'm down too! let's go!!!

EricVonHa

Through the summer, things get pretty busy within this couple mile stretch through this town. Cruising is what it's about... although as I'd mentioned earlier, it has changed tremendously through the years. I've noticed that there still is a die hard group of people with some high horsepower machinery that still frequent the town. A lot of people tend to accumulate at the one end of town in a McDonald's parking lot. From what I've seen, this is where the money races get set up. There's usually a couple guys with roush rustangs, other 5.0 machinery, bunch of Z-28s, some tubbed pro-street machines and the occasional modified Supra or RX-7. This scene is not nearly as crazy as the hard core street racing scene. What I'm mentioning here is a good group of people that may take 4 or 5 cars out to the highway. I don't ever recall seeing a flag man, and they usually never stop traffic. On the other hand, if you can stand being the minority (there may be 50 ricers to every Vette on a good night.) This is the place where Jim Swarr used to be the "Big Dog" in town with his street driven late 60's Mustang Coupe with a NOS injected big block Chevy (saw him run 9's at Maple Grove). At his funeral, they had a 21 car burnout.. anyway... it's a "potential NE Event" (gotta keep the rhythm within this section these days.... :rolleyes: