Stories from the street

Selling my 2002 Subaru WRX

More info here

Please fwd to anyone that might be interested.
Thanks!

(sorry for the x-post)

I do this almost every Wednesday. Thought you might be interested.



Ice threat: Moderate
Rain: None
Gravel: None
Oncoming Cars: 2
Cars In Front of Me: 0
Llamas: 0
Speed at the Starting Point: 41mph
Total Time: 12:58
Previous Record: 12:26
Top Speed: 68mph

I woke up in a mood. I know I told myself I was going to mellow out and focus on fine tuning parts of the run, but all I wanted to do was drive as fast as I could. I can't explain why. Am I the only one who ever has these urges? I had a goal. I was feeling confident. I was going to get my fix and I was going to do it in less than 12:26! I walked out the front door and the world was covered in a sparkley white coat. Frost came in overnight and sabotaged my plan. Rocky Point is too high and too shaded for there to be any chance of it melting by the time I got there. Oh well. Another slow run wont hurt anything and will still be fun.

I saw a cop on my way out there. I saw another one, this one unmarked, on Skyline right before the point where I start timing. What the hell? I feel so vulnerable without my radar detector and seeing these guys made me even more paranoid. The speed limit is 55mph and I don't usually spend much time breaking that. Plus the ice threat would be slowing me down anyways. I hit the first nice and sunny sweeper and completely forgot about the cops. My road has this magical power of making everything but us go away. At least for the time we spend together.

I hit the first few patches of frost cautiously, and tested my traction while driving over it. It felt like it wasn't even there. After a few miles I was annoyed with myself for not being brave enough to plow through it like it was dry pavement. But I stayed mild and careful anyways. It seemed like the smart thing to do. The Skyline portion, which is over half of the run, went slow.

Once I hit Rocky Point, the super twisty downhill portion, I couldn't handle it anymore. I took off like there was nothing to be concerned about. I noticed another spot where I could see through the trees and confirm a clear road ahead so I could cross into the other lane on the next corner. I wasn't even looking for new ways to be faster but I found one anyways. Score! My CD switched to a slow song so I hit the button to skip that one. A remix of The Prodigy's Mindfields came on. The words "This is Dangerous" repeated over and over again for about 5 minutes as I tossed my seemingly incompetent little car around on a downhill string of curves that makes anything you've ever seen on Initial D seem like a freeway cruise. I got so tangled up in the moment that in spite of the stopwatch dangling from my rear view mirror I forgot this was even being timed. If I could bottle this sensation kids would stop going to raves.

I pulled off the most graceful execution of "the hairpin" I have ever done. I met an oncoming car on the corner before it which meant I couldn't cut it and get the same entry position/angle I've been doing. According to everything I've read I had been taking the ideal line through this set of turns, but now that I think about it everything I've read applied to track racing which is usually flat, and this is a drastic elevation change. (You may want to think about that nicetrousers since I know you've read some of the same stuff as me.) I'm not entirely certain what I did to get such good results this time since I was functioning partly on instinct and reaction. Next time I'll act as if that car is in the same place and pay closer attention to what I do about it. Hopefully I'll get the same results but be paying more attention. The hairpins on any road in any car have always been my favorite parts. It's been awhile since I've had any problems keeping speed through them, but doing it gracefully at equal speeds is something I've never been able to accomplish as well as I'd like, in spite of my years of practice. I'd come to accept the fact that it just couldn't be done the way I want to do it. But today I learned I was wrong, and I couldn't be happier. This is a learning process. There's no shame in being wrong if it lets you learn to do it right. The tires still screamed back at me and I still drifted a bit into the other lane but the whole motion was smooth. The rev matching wasn't even necessary when the cornering ended and it was time to keep going. I have a new goal. I love my new goal! I will master this!

My car popped out of gear in the middle of another sharp corner. I'm not sure how that happened. This car has never done that to me before. I hit the gas on my way out and all I got was noise. I put it back in 2nd, got my RPM's back up, and kept going. I secretly love it when something goes wrong and I manage to fix it as a matter of instinct rather than relying on a timely thought process. I tell people all the time that you gotta train your brain before you try to pull off this kinda stuff. Even intelligent conscience thought isn't good enough. You have to develop the right reactions. When you find yourself pointing off the cliff and you got little traction you don't have time to think, you just do or (literally) die. But if you put yourself in similar situations in safe environments enough times you can develop the right reflexes. And never stop playing the What If game. What I do is self serving. Nobody likes me more because of it and nobody will like you more if you do it too. I feel like a PSA right now. I can be such a dork.

The brake fade was worse than usual this time when I hit the end. When I'm getting close I do frequent brake tests. By now I've got a good idea of when my brakes will fade and by how much so it's something I work into my plan. But this time it was more than the norm. Once I came to a complete stop and looked at my time it made sense. I was 32 seconds short of my best time and I know I lost that time on the Skyline portion. Technically the Skyline portion is easy compared to the Rocky Point part.

Last weekend I rode shotgun with notfastenough on this run in a lesser car. He's a better driver than me but doesn't know the road as well. His performance was impressive and helped me realize another factor that I haven't put enough focus on. I brake and down shift too early. He's one of the rare few that I have faith in. His skill and judgment are good. The experience taught me that I need to carry my speed longer and have more faith in myself. I don't have balls. I think that's my problem.

I was up on Skyline this morning. Skyline and Germantown are the two best known twisty roads in Portland, and they cross each other. So even though you may not know what Skyline is you've got to imagine that it's pretty high up there (based on the name if nothing else), and it's nice and twisty. It also has the added bonus of a 40mph speed limit. Skyline is far from my personal favorite but it is probably the road I know the best. We've been together longer than any other twisty I have a relationship with. I've driven it hundreds of times and only ever seen a cop up there twice. Until today when that changed to 3 times.

The roads were wet and I had freshly escaped the wrath of following a high dollar/low speed soccer mom, so I was going a bit faster than I normally would have. My little Geo Metro's cheap dumb tires made for lots of easy sliding. But I am familiar enough with them that I can enjoy the lack of traction with no surprises. Completely predictable and controllable sliding situations. It was great fun and a high job satisfaction moment. That is until I hit that one left corner which I cut in tight for, within the boundaries of my lane, knowing I would have have plenty of space to slide out as I knew my car would and regain traction before I crossed the line and went off the side. In my moment of no traction the KA band on my radar detector shot all the way up. There was a cop a my corner. I glanced down at my speed. I was SLIDING around a corner at 52mph! That's a most un-get-away-with-able 12mph over,... while slideways! Unlike the average lemming the sight of a cop car didn't produce an instant response to hit the brakes. If I had done that a tow truck would have been involved in the whole situation. I give myself little gold stars in my head from time to time and it was one of those moments. I didn't ever bother to check if I got caught. I knew I did and just pulled over at the next driveway I saw. Shortly there after he was behind me, lights and all.

I already had the usual requirements in my hand ready to give him when he walked up. I passed them off and after his request he spoke again. "Are you insane? Based on the RUSH DELIVERY on the side of your car I understand that you were in a hurry but that's no excuse to drive like that. What you were doing is very dangerous. You aren't a rally car driver".

Oh. My. God! He just said the magical word! (That would be "rally" for those of you who don't know any better). My brain kicked into an entirely different gear. Two things crossed my mind. First he chose the word "rally", and second he just watched me take that corner in a beautifully controlled slide that any rally driver would be proud of. I took a risk and spit out my next sentence.

"Actually, officer, I don't want to be argumentative but I am a rally car driver", I lied. His rage all the sudden diffused but his aggressive authoritative tone didn't. He spit back out at me,
"That may be, but not in this car".
I remembered that there was a Geo Metro running in the Oregon Trail Rally last year and took my chances. "You're right. I certainly wouldn't rally this car. But last spring I did drive a Geo Metro in the Oregon Trail Rally. I am very familiar with the car".
He replied "I was there. there was No Metro running".
"I was indeed there" I replied. "I had transmission problems and ended up trailing far behind the pack, and ultimately coming in last" I lied some more. "But at least I didn't get a DNF".
He completely changed modes! "Oh that's right, I remember seeing you there".
He bought it!
"I have to admit I thought you were at the end of the pack because you chose such a bad car".
"It was my intention to drive my GTX but I couldn't get the brake parts I needed in time. Parts are hard to come by for that car".

He's buying this shit! I can't believe it! The lies keep flowing,....

"You have a Mazda GTX?!?!? How did you manage to find one of those?"
It goes on and on. We talk cars for awhile and I keep spitting out lies about being in the OR Trail Rally, which he seems to think is just about the coolest ever. I even pulled up my sleeve and showed him my tattoo which he adores! He tells me he wishes his wife would be inclined to get such an ornament but she "just wouldn't get it".

This conversation, although fascinating, is going on for way longer than I can afford. But there is no way in hell I'd take the initiative to cut it short. He eventually mentions that he saw my execution of the corner but assumed it was some careless drivers good luck. I accepted his statement as a compliment and told him so. He told me to watch out for people coming out of those blind driveways and sent me on my way.

I love Portland cops!

Check it out Join up post it's all about sharing the knowledge and having a good time.

Hi. My name is Coral and I'm addicted to street racing. It's been about 6 hours since I've raced somebody.


I realized I had a problem when I went 6 days without racing and I moved from being anxious to being depressed. Night after night I fell victim to my predatory urges and left the house to hunt. No takers. It was eating away at me. It turned what would have otherwise been a lovely drive in a very nice car into a huge disappointment. It stopped being about pleasure and started being about getting my fix. I would come home entirely unsatisfied and miserable. Looking back on those days I can't believe I ever had such unpleasant homecomings in such a wonderful car. But I did. I was hooked. It had me. If it doesn't make adreneline coarse through my veins it's not good enough. I want more.

In grade school they told me that a drug is anything that affects the way the body works. As far as I'm concerned there is no finer drug than the one my body produces when I find someone to engage with me. I'd easily pass up sex for racing, and yet sex is considered a valid addiction. So why isn't street racing? It's the same drug, isn't it? The idea of it made me shake, literally. I am entirely confident that I went through street racing withdrawals. The car went in the shop with transmission problems (imagine that) and I spiraled into a hole.

Survival became impossible and I had to sell the car. Oodles of neet new stuff and yet I had to let her go for half her value just to keep living. The DT's came back, I cried every day, but eventually I moved on.

I got a job driving a cargo van. Can't race one of those, right? Well, I did anyways. Against another delivery van. Rear wheel drive vans, on wet pavement, for 1 block. Nearly the entire episode was tires spinning with no traction, but it was a fight to get there first, so the drug came back. So much for staying clean,.....

Much time passed and I moved from working in a van to working in a Geo Metro

Van


Geo


I've moved all the way down to a 50hp car! You'd think that would be enough to cure anybody out there. But it wasn't. Just today me and the delivery vehicle (an Aspire) of the place I just visited left at the same time. We came next to each other at a light and I rev'd at him just to be silly. But he rev'd back. We looked at the light, then each other, then the light,.... you know how it works. The cross light turned yellow and he held up a finger. Then 2 fingers. I knew it was on! The third finger came up just as the light changed and we both floored it. a Geo and an Aspire fought for victory to the next light! Our display was retarded I'm sure. Like grossly handicapped people that you can't help but look at. But it was enough to give me my drug back. There it went again,... the shaking, the hightened awareness, the yearning to shift at just the right point (which is NOT at the redline on a Geo). The drug was back.

There's no escaping it as long as you drive,.... anything. If you got it I'm sorry. Since they won't accept this as a real addiction I think that no matter what you drive you need to come to terms with the fact that someone else with your same mindset is out there, stuck in an equally bad car, and if you two find each other you will battle to the low powered death, or at least the next light.

Being reduced wont cure the addiction. You are what you are.

I was minding my own business in the Cobra when an Acura RSX runs up on me. I switched lanes to let him pass. He stayed with me. There was no one directly in my path, so I floored it. He tried to keep up. I then slowed to around 100mph, thinking he would just leave me alone. He caught up then. I switched lanes to get away from him, but he followed me into the far, left lane. All of a sudden, the cars in front of me braked. I was not paying attention, so I accelerated onto the shoulder to avoid a head on collision. I was SO close to scraping the side wall. Here I am traveling at 100mph inches away from the wall and cars. Stupid. I got back over, and switched lanes to get the hell off at my exit. The RSX is STILL on me. No car is letting me over, so I accelerate ahead and throw the Cobra into the exit. I was blown at, but I did not care at that moment. The RSX runs up on me again. I braked, and we TOUCHED. I was so pissed. I did not know what to do. He shot ahead and went to the right. I decided for some reason to chase him the hell down and get his information. I accelerated beside him, put down the passenger side window, and told him to pull the hell over. He faked a god damn side swipe. I braked and moved over. I told him that we could calmly resolve this if he pulled over. He slammed on his brakes and pulled an illegal U-turn. I turned the Cobra around myself. I caught up to him again. By this time, we were going well over 140mph. He kept switching lanes so I could not get beside him. What an ass. I finally got onto the shoulder and forced him to let me get beside him. We were going 160mph at this time. For some reason, he threw his car into a wicked spin. This guy had skills from hell. I kept going. Inside, I knew one of us was going to get killed. I was going to kill him or he was going to get me killed in an accident. I pulled another U-turn and got back on the Beltway. I went home shaking at what just took place. I am still shaking.

Hey

My car is a 96 chevy cavalier and it has a new paint job its my first car i wanna know what i can do to it to make it faster! im trying to learn about cars can someone tell me what i can do to it im 15 i cant get a good job yet just a reg. $5 hr job i need to make i better please or is it just a wate of money to put stuff in a cavalier? O yea im new to this community so yea hello alright peace

The other day, I was stopped at a light, going north on Lawrence Expressway. On my left was an RX-8 and on my right was an RX-7 (2nd gen). I rev'd hoping to catch their interest. I received no response. Oh well. They shouldn't waste their gas on me anyways... not that I'd take it much over the speed limit. The driver of the RX-8 was an older guy .. probably grew up loving low-profile, well-balanced road cars. I can see him owning a Ferrari or something. Maybe he does.. and the RX-8 is just his commuter. The RX-7 has two huge fart cans coming out of his rear .. angled out and up. Totally N1 style. I didn't doubt for a second that the car nor its younger driver had balls.

The turning lane lights turned yellow. I figured I'll just accelerate fast. The turning lane lights turned red. Times up. I gave blipped the throttle a little bit and released the clutch. I have just reached 4k on the tach and the RX-8 starts taking off while the RX-7 is just hanging back. It looked like the old guy was going to entertain me, so I stomped on the gas. I hit V-"OMG SO FAST CAN'T HOLD ON LOSING MY FACE"-Tec. Redline approaches quickly, but I'm nowhere near catching up to the 8. I power shift into second and my tires break traction (damn, I need new tires - and an alignment). I near my redline again, but at this point, I guestimated that he is well into the 70s while I am just reaching the mid 60s. Technically, its over.

All the while my attention was on the RX-8, I didn't notice the RX-7 remained behind me. He decided to punch it at that moment .. I hear his turbo[s] spooling as he left me behind .. as if I was standing still. He reached his redline and shifts. I hear the loud hiss from the blow-off valve[s] and see the sparks from the backfire. He's running rich as evident by the clouds of black smoke. But that is all okay as I still envy the snails.

That made me happy. They showed off and wasted their gas, but I got to see both of them leave me behind like I was nothing. One day, I will be fast enough...



and where are all of our writers? :(

Would anyone know how I could add a digital speedometer to my car?
My speedometer only goes up to 110 MPH and I was going ALOT faster than that on Sunday and would like to know exactly how much. (I would guess I was going about 150+ but I want to know exactly how much)

Any help/directions would be awesome.