Li'l Black Bullett

So every veteran has that one war story that they always tell, over, and over, and over again. This is mine.

Now, I know, I'm probably going to get a million people telling me "Street racing's bad, m'kay", but I still had fun, and it was my first kill.

Got the car nice and clean and waxed and shined up for a nice cruise night out on the town. Didn't really expect to get in a race that night, just wanted to drive around the City with the system bumpin'.

Now in downtown OKC, there's an east-west street called Reno Ave. Usually this is where the musclecars play, and it's more often than not crawling with copcars of the radar-gun-carrying sort.
(May Ave goes N-S and is usually where the little rice burners play, I have gotten a couple good drags down there, but it's even more copped-out than Reno, so I try to avoid it.)
So I'm cruising past the fairgrounds on Reno, when I got these homboys in an old Monte Carlo driving up next to me. Behind them in the corner of my eye was this silver car, wasn't paying attention right then. The Cobalt was barely two months old and they hadn't been out that long, so it still had that "NEW!" look to it. The guys were checking it out and when we came to a stoplight, they asked me what sort of car it was, and I told them. The next thing they ask is if it's an SS (everyone always asks that), I say no. They tell me it's pimp-ass, I say thanks, they turn off after the light goes green.
A little ways down I notice the silver car that had been behind the Monte earlier was now tailgating me, so close that all I could see was his windshiled and roof. I put her in third, rocket off and think nothing more of it.
Apperantly, the silver car takes this as a challenge. After I get her back down to the speed limit and settle back into fourth, the silver car comes zooming past and does a flyby on me. I see now that its a second-generation DSM, I'd assume an Eclipse. Coudn't tell because the taillamps had been replaced by Altezzas and there weren't any badges on the car. I didn't hear a TSSSSH as he let off the gas, so right then I knew it wasn't a GS-T.
I was in a good mood, and hadn't gotten into any races with the car yet, and it was just past break in, so I was eager to see what it could do. I flew back at him, and let him nose back up to me as we rolled up to a red light. We play the rev game, as we wait for the light to go green. But right on the cross-street, what should roll up but an Oklahoma City black-and-white?
Damn.
Light turns green for us and we drive off on our best behavior for Mr. Officer as we wait for the next red light to come up, ah but what's this? We pass under a bridge for I-40, so I get in the left turn lane to see if we could get on the freeway, he follows me, tailgating again, of course.
No such luck, there was no ramp right there after we turned, so I made a quick right as he followed me, he took the left lane, I took the right, as we started to roll up to a red light. He hadn't quite nosed up to me yet when I'd stopped. Suddenly, the light turned green. Where I had stopped, he was still in motion, so he got an ungainly jump on me from where he was, by the time I had gotten my foot off the clutch and brake and hit the gas.
Before the light turned his nose was right up with my rear bumper, but when we got the green, he'd gotten his nose even with mine.
So I smack the gas, take off, and suddenly, his nose is back by my doorhandle already! I slam it into second about the same time he does and he gets a little farther on me, up to about my shoulder. I try to shift up into third, but I was so nervous that I bounced the shifter off the edge of the gear gate and had to double clutch to get it back into gear. Thankfully, he still hasn't gained anything on me though as I take a quick glance over to him. I look back out to the street as I keep accelerating, and I notice...
ah, crap.
The street narrows back down to one lane either way. Not only that, but parked along the right side of the street is a Ryder truck--right in my way.
Okay, I'm beating this guy, but my road's going to run out pretty soon, and I'm going to hit that moving truck...do I just back off?
That's when I did something incredibly stupid--I shifted into fourth, and got back on it.
The DSM driver apperantly saw that the road was narrowing too, and that he was getting beat by a Chevy. Before I could get high enough to take it to fifth, the DSM graciously slows down and turns off down an alley. I switch lanes and make it to the end of the street safely avoiding the Ryder truck.

Man, after that I was shaking all over. I definetly got my speed/adrenaline/scare fix for the evening. But I was very surprised. I didn't expect to beat a 2G DSM like I did. I didn't expect to beat him at all, the race was really such a knee-jerk testosterone rush thing just so I could see what the car could do. Apparenly, it can do a lot more than I thought it could.
That night when I went home, I went through my old Motor Trend Archives and found the oldest "New Car Issue" I had --the October '96 Issue outlining the new cars for 1997 (The Vette and 550 Maranello hadn't even been unveiled yet!). When I looked up the '97 Eclipse I noticed it had two engines, the base and the turbo. The base, which I was assuming, I'd just got done racing earlier was rated at 140hp, 5 less than the Cobalt.
I'd never say my Cobalt is a fast car. It can scoot, but it's not a fast car. So I gotta ask, what's that make a base DSM?

l Sh1ft l

Way to damn long for me to read.

Li'l Black Bullett

sorry. i'm a natural story teller.

l Sh1ft l

lol no prob. I start to see myself writing longg as things when I got something on my mind that I really wanna talk about.

alleycat58

Cliff's Notes for | Sh1ft |

Cirrus

Nice kill, bit dangerous at the end though. If it was me, I would have backed off, winning isn't as important as my life.

Li'l Black Bullett

very true, and back in hindsight, it was very stupid of me to keep going. But you know what they say about hindsight.
But when you're actually in the middle of it, the adrenaline overpowers logic and throws it in the backseat.

l Sh1ft l

Thanks for the cliffnotes

alleycat58

No problem!

Blue_ghost

Bullett - I noticed you have a wtf next to the 75 Monza. Sorry if this is repeat (old) info. Some Monza's had a 5.0 or 5.7 (Cali emission) from the factory. I had a 77 Monza Spyder with a 327 built to the same specs and a 69 Vette running 360HP - 327. Old school stuff, but quick!

johnkb8

those old eclipes are not quick at all

Li'l Black Bullett

Really? I just thought Monzas were little compact cars in the same vein as the Corvair-Vega-Cavalier-Cobalt line.

Yeah, but that story isn't as interesting. The Monza looked like it was a little worse for wear and that it was held together by bubblegum and spit. But then the dude double-revved past me, so I flew back at him and all of a sudden he takes off in this PEEL of rubber and smokes me like I was standing still, and all these kids in their cars behind me started honk-laughing*.

I actually caught up with the same guy at a gas station a few weeks later, and he remembered me. I asked him what he had in it and what he's pulled in the quarter, and he just smiled and said, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." He was cool about it though, he said I put up a good fight, and that he was actually interested in getting a Cobalt himself.


*short repeated toots of the horn. kids around here do that to "laugh" at the loser of a race. I dunno if they do that anywhere else.

Brandon97Z

iTrader: (1)

ditto

Blue_ghost

Bullet - Here is a list of all the Engines that were offered in a Monza. Seriously doubt the Monza you ran against was stock.

All Engines Available in the

Chevrolet Monza (1975-80)



2.3 L, L4, 140 c.i., 1 bbl, 78 HP - 1975-1976

2.3 L, L4, 140 c.i., 2 bbl, 87 HP - 1975-1977

2.5 L, L4, 151 c.i., 2 bbl, 90 HP - 1978-1980

3.2 L, V6, 196 c.i., 2 bbl, 90 HP - 1978-1979

3.8 L, V6, 231 c.i., 2 bbl, 110 HP - 1978 & 1980

4.3 L, V8, 262 c.i., 2-bbl, 110 HP - 1975-1976

5.0 L, V8, 305 c.i., 2 bbl, 145 HP - 1976-1979

5.7 L, V8, 350 c.i., 2 bbl, 125 HP - 1975 (CA only)



Three different General Motors Division's engines were represented in the Monza. The 3.2L and 3.8L V6's were Buick powerplants while the 2.5L 'Iron Duke' was a Pontiac build. The rest were genuine Chevrolet engines.

PuSha050

CORRECTION!!!! those old NON-turbo eclipses are just plain slow (i should kno i had one--although i turboed it--before the SS)

FSRbikr98

yea and those eclipses are not DSM's, they do not have 4g63 motor's in them.

PuSha050

well technically they are dsm's, they have the DSM sticker on the firewall, n assembled in the same place, but yea they are slow as hell

ReMz

so guys. a VW Bug and a Ford Explorer raced thru the hood. i was driving the explorer. i kicked that fools ass after the 20 second 1/4 mile and then almost rear ended a parked car cuz i was too fast and too furious.

... sry.. i couldnt help it :P

in all honesty ur a pretty good story teller

Floridas Finest SS

thank god for those cliff notes haha.

slick54

thanks for ur life story
nice kill