Had a little fun with a 2012 Corvette tonight....I think he was surprised a little!

[MTaurusSHO]

That sucks. How many people saw you?

 

Probably 25 or so.

[tss]

18 years old: Power slid the rear end out in my 73 Grandville 455 on purpose, hit a tree - fortuneately at low speed and minor damage. Good lesson learned. Thus my concern for the younger person next to me wanting to challenge, but has not yet learned the lesson I learned back then.

[MTaurusSHO]

18 years old: Power slid the rear end out in my 73 Grandville 455 on purpose' date=' hit a tree - fortuneately at low speed and minor damage. Good lesson learned. Thus my concern for the younger person next to me wanting to challenge, but has not yet learned the lesson I learned back then.[/quote']

 

Completely agree.

[Mothball]

Yes, tss. You are without any doubt correct. Speaking of hitting trees, you got me thinking about a slide montage that a young guy posted after his Neon SRT-4 went off the road and hit a tree. The slides showed the tracks leaving the road and going into the woods, the mangled wreck of his car, his mangled body in the hospital as he recovered from surgery, and the x-rays of the screws and other hardware holding his spine together. It was truely horrifying. Trees simply do not yield to cars!

 

I really do try to pick and choose my battles very carefully and I'm mature enough to "let it go" if I deem it unsafe. I did have a total brain prolapse when I ran that Mercedes. I was honestly not watching the speedo and more focused on the road & my positioning...then I felt the shift into 5th. I will certainly never do that again, I hope. As the race took place in uh, Mexico, I heard that the Mexican police don't have a sense of humor about these things and I don't want to end up on an episode of Locked Up Abroad.

[tss]

I like this forum because we all seem to have the maturity to admit we (self included) act immature at times. I can dole out advice, but that doesn't mean I always follow my own advice.

 

This discussion would have taken a bad turn and become argumentative/defensive on all the other car forums I am a part of. So glad to be a part of EBOF!

[gpfarrell]

Moderation in all things... even moderation!

 

At the risk of making a too-broad generaliztion here, I think the majority of us all grew up with some slower cars. Oh, they were great in their day... I can show you exactly where I first had a ride in an '82 Mustang GT (Remember the "Boss is Back" add campaign? 157 hp! Wahoo!) and it was awesome. My '78 Mercury Marquis 460 wasn't entirely different from that '73 455... a big block with a 4 barrell carb! In their day, we thought they rocked. Now we have family cars that will clean their clock.

 

We realize we've got some fast stuff today and (try to!) restrain ourselves accordingly. I worry about the 17 year olds with SRT-Neons and WRX STi's, and 400+ hp Mustangs... they still feel as immortal as we once did but can get into 100 mph trouble faster than we ever could.

 

In my experience, most Corvette drivers are pretty responsible. But the other 10% sure make for some fascinating You Tube footage!

[tss]

^^ I could have wrote that. You and I think alike. I thought my Pontiac was so fast. And it was, at the time. In reality, it had about 200 or 220 HP as I recall and weighed a LOT. I bet it didn't hit 0-60 in any less than 10 seconds. Maybe more. A sub 5 second everyday driver sedan was not even imaginable then.

[SHOdded]

At some point, it will become mandatory for drivers to be chipped with "driver-level" access to car performance. Cars are already capable of easily exceeding the limits of human judgement. Ok on the track, a no-no on the streets.

[goblues38]

 

I first had a ride in an '82 Mustang GT (Remember the "Boss is Back" add campaign? 157 hp! Wahoo!) and it was awesome. !

 

I had an 82 mustang GT 4 speed. got it in 1986 with 60k miles. my first car as a 16 year old. I don't know. even at 157 hp, I had the fastest car of any of my friends. My buddy had an 83 z28. I bet we dragged from various stop light 500 times. he could NEVER beat me. that 2 barrel carb just flied 0-80 before it ran out of speed. 16.0 FLAT in the 1/4 mile.

 

But you are right. 16 year olds now get 300+ hp imports or mustangs, and have no idea. God bless traction control.

[tss]

But you are right. 16 year olds now get 300+ hp imports or mustangs' date=' and have no idea. God bless traction control.[/quote']

 

Heck, Aunt Gertrude's 2012 Base rental fleet Impala has 300 HP now. God bless airbags, TC,ABS, stability control, parking sensors, and tracking devices/black boxes. You bet my son is going to have a black box when he starts driving. Also, my MKS has a feature where I can limit the cars top speed to 80 and the audio volume to 1/2 when he is driving with his Keyless Fob - called a Smart Key. My wife and I will use ADMIN keyless fobs and he will have a smart key. It is the same kind of fob, just programmed differently by me via the DIC. I picked up some extra keyless fobs off ebay already. The car can have a total of 4 Admin/Smart programmed fobs. I assume the SHO has that as well?

[goblues38]

y. The car can have a total of 4 Admin/Smart programmed fobs. I assume the SHO has that as well?

 

Yep.

 

Luckily , I have 2 girls. Call them spoiled, but they will get a decent 3-4 year 20k miles car, like a vw beetle or something's hen they turn 16.

 

I was given 1 chance. I turned a nice used car into a down payment on a brand new car by the time I was 18 with a good job. My girls will get the same chance. They screw it up, the drive $600 beaters until they get married.

[TractorAK]

I had a 1975 Chevy monza California special Towne Coupe with a 350 V8 it only had the 2 Barrel but it was a sneaker. It was my first dare I say "performance" car. I had just turned 21 and I am lucky I didn't get caught by the "foreign" police.

[SHO Rod]

I had a 1975 Chevy monza California special Towne Coupe

 

Interesting timing! I just read yesterday what the terminology of "Towne Coupe" referred to. It was in an "Auto Classics" newspaper piece about a classic 1985 Merc Grand Marquis, which apparently was offered in a 2 door model WAAAYYY back then, along with its 150 HP 5.0L fuel injected V8.

 

-Rod

[FoMoCoSho]

I'm just going to assume that this racing is done on a road in some third world country without traffic laws. Carry on.

 

Yeah, we can just call it...Detroit.

[double c]

Ah yes... the glory days. First "performance" car-'62 chevy impala conv. Big v-8 (remember the flags) 4-bbl and 2 speed slush pump. XYL with ear problems-so no convert. Then '65 GTO with stick, we are pregnant-can't drive stick-so "66 Goat, Then need for AC so '69 GTO-special prop by sales person who just happened to race the dealers Judge. Modified carb and tranny. Comin back form grad school each week, late nite, empty four lane and stop lights., did a wee bit of stuff. Never beaten-picked my battles. Best was guy in RoadRunner. After several failed attempts on his part to take me (nothing over 60mph), we finally pulled into local all-nite burger place. He was PO when he found i was running "stock" and automatic. Said he paid big bucks for his piece of S%^@ and was going to sell next day. Never saw that car again.

 

GTOs only cars i owned where i could watch speedo climb and gas gauge fall at same time.

[mjhpadi]

It was the same with the 442...it really drained the fuel, especially when you opened the secondaries on that Quadrajet....those big 2" secondaries could really drink, and that carb had the meanest sound ever! Never seemed to notice that kind a fuel usage, even in the 390 Mach 1.

But if you want to talk slow cars...my first car was a '63 Renault Dauphine with a push button automatic...that was SLOW. But I could drive it all week for $3.00 worth of gas! But I don't think it would go over 75 downhill with a 30 mph wind pushing it.