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This message sent by: George Dumpit
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I won't bore you with the vacation itself, but I will share the trip there and
back... ;-)
My wife and I were heading down to Southern California for the week. We were
heading South on I-5 and entering the Grape Vine. The Grape Vine is the mountain
stretch between the Central California valley and the Greater Los Angeles area.
The grade is fairly steep, but we were cruising along at a comfortable 85-95mph.
We met up with a newer Mustang GT convertible. I figured that I would just pace
along side of him. We slowly climbed up to 100mph, and then he got caught behind
some traffic. I just kept going. A few minutes later I see him gaining on me
pretty fast. I let him get on the side of me and then dropped the go pedal.
The tranny drops into gear and the secondaries opened up. I had the speedo pegged
by the time my wife woke up and was scolding me for racing... ;-) I just love
the look of bewilderment on the faces of the Grim Reaper's victims. I slowed
down,
and he caught up again, this time I asked for permission. My wife said ok, but
I had to slow down before the next set of turns on the hill. The Mustang had
just passed me by the time I got the ok, but he was mildly surprised when I
again blew by him.. ;-) It then started to shower, so my wife made me promise
to keep the speed reasonable, and no more racing. The best part of burning this
guy was seeing him get cooled off by the rain. (his top was down) I averaged
22mpg from home to L.A., going up hill, and with the A/C on. Not bad considering
that I did a couple of WOT blasts, and was cruising an average of 90mph.
On the way back from Southern California, we passed up a bright yellow early
70's Camaro. This car was loud! He had turn downs behind the mufflers and it
looked like 2.5" exhaust. It was about 4am on Sunday, so there were no other
cars on the freeway. He was cruising at the posted 70mph, and I was going along
at about 85mph. He caught up to us pretty quick after I had passed him up. I
looked over at the car to check it out, and he was doing the same. He had wheels
like mine, but his weren't polished. My wife was sleeping again.. ;-) She awoke
when she heard the Camaro goose his gas pedal a couple of times to see if I
wanted to race. I asked for her permission... She said what the heck... ;-)
I looked at my speedo and we were still cruising along at ~85mph. He goosed
his go pedal again and I answered him with a tap of my go pedal. We were nose
to nose, and then I here his tranny kick down and his secondaries start to inhale.
I also punched it. Man-o-man, I just love that music of pure horse power!..
;-) I was really surprised at how easy I pulled away from him. He cut down at
about the 105mph mark, and I kept it pegged until his head lights were really
small in my rear view mirror. My wife looks over at me and asks if I had my
fix yet. I told her that this was *way* better than coffee... ;-) I let the
Reaper coast back down to 85mph, and a couple of minutes later he was back on
the side of me. My wife said do what you have to do.
Again we started out at around 85mph, I let him initiate the start and again,
all he saw was my tail lights do the disappearing act. He caught up again, I
gave him the thumbs up. He still wanted more. I looked at my wife and told her
that I had enough adrenaline to last the rest of the drive home. I looked at
the guy again and he punched it, this time I let him go. I thought to myself
'wow that car really accelerates fast!' Then I thought, hey, that's what it
must look like when I punch it... ;-)
On the trip home, with the two WOT blast, the Reaper averaged 24mpg! About a
third of the trek was down hill, but wow, 24mpg! I can't wait til' they finally
come out with a CARB/E.O.'d fuel injection system.
George..
86'SS ~ Emissions Legal 383/TH700-R4 ~ aka 'The Grim Reaper'