D
dconnor
Guest
Got bored yesterday & hadn't driven the T lately, so I spent some time getting it into cruise mode (Some M/T Sportsman Pros I picked up at a garage sale for $10 & 17~18 lbs of boost) & dumped a few gallons of xylene homebrew on top of the 1/4 tank of 110 unleaded already in the car. After taking the Buick for a couple of test passes on a deserted backroad, (the M/T's will hold ~5 lb launch before going up in smoke, not too shabby) I cruise around to a few of the area's more popular "weekend drive" spots. Headed over to the Houston Galleria area & spot quite a few vettes, porsches, beemers (including a Z8), a Testarossa, 2 Diablos, a handfull of Vipers, a BIG group of crotch rockets & the obligitory riced out econo-boxes on every corner; but unfortunately the streets are WAY too crowded to do any playing.
Decided to head down to the Clear Lake waterfront for lunch & to check out the ever present parade of high dollar speed boats down there. After a VERY good lunch (if anyone ever comes down here check out Boondoggle's on Nasa Rd 1!!!) I decided to head over towards the mall & finish up some X-mas shopping for the GF. As I pull out of the pub I noticed a Fast & the Furious'd Eclipse (BRIGHT yellow with Asian lettering across the hood & a jumbo F1 looking wing) turning onto the road from an eatery across the street. As I pulled out onto the road & stopped at the light (which are notoriously LONG in this part of town) the Eclipse pulls up next to me with the techno music blaring.
The driver of the Eclipse looks over (early 20's or so, typical spikey hair-do), turns down his music & makes some comment like, "Ehh man is that a Gran National? I thought they were all black!" I told him no it's a Turbo-T to which he replies, "Ohhh so it's a FAKE Gran National, man that's cool I GUESS for a domestic POS" with a smirk on his face. He then proceeds to tell me his car is a GS-T with a lot of hella fast mods & that he has killed every domestic he raced, including a modded Cobra & a ZO6. As the light turned green, I told him to follow me if he was up to racing an old Buick with just a v6 & he nodded his acceptance giving his car a few high revvs as if he wanted to make sure the 5" fart muffler was still there.
I lead the way to some nice new concrete back roads that had recently been put in for an impending housing development & have already been conveniently marked off for the 1/4 mile. In the mean time, he apparently called a few buddies, because by the time we got to the race spot there was a Neon, 2 Civics, an Integra & a girl in a v6 Firebird all huddled behind the Eclipse. We pulled to the side of the road & the Eclipse driver came walking up (buddies in tow) saying that he isn't going to race for less than $50 and it'll take $100 for him to pop his hood. I tell him $100 sounds fine (genious in the Neon spots off with, "man this domestic losah is in for it Kev is the fastest guy in our group!") & they can look under my hood for no extra charge. Kev says that he's seen under the hood of a Gran National before, and since mine is an obvious fake he doesn't even need to bother with seeing my motor. We spend a few minutes negotiating the race details & he agrees to heads up off of v6 girl's headlight flash.
As she heads down to the end of the road, eclipse guy gets in his car & proceeds to do a couple of wheel hopping clutch dumps & I wait for the firebird to get positioned before cleaning off the M/T's, lining up & turning on my parking lights to signal that I'm ready. As I hear the eclipse come up on the revvs I build ~5lbs of boost rolling into the throttle as the firebird flashes it's lights. The M/T's squawk on the edge of breaking loose & the eclipse is right next to me for the 1st 10~15 feet or so until my boost hits HARD once my foot rolls past the ~3/4 floored point. My T goes into warp drive with the sportsmans giving one last CHI-RUuup then biting HARD. As the eclipse quickly fades from my peripheral vision I glance over at the boost guage & scan master (right between 17~18lbs of boost, .790 on the O2 & zero knock, JUST where I wanted it!) then check the rear view for a glimpse of the eclipse; ~1 1/2 cars back & fading at ~1/8th mile & a solid 4 cars by the end of the 1/4
His buddies caught up to us as I was collecting my $200 from the girl in the firebird who had a total jaw dropped, "I've seen the light" look on her face. The driver of the eclipse kept mumbling "HOW in the hell did that domestic brick beat me? I just ran 12.5@111 on the G-tech, that's my fastest street run EVER!" After a few minutes explaining what was done to my car, (these guys weren't too bad & were actually car enthusiasts who spent some time actually attempting to make thier cars faster, unlike the stereotypical ricer) and taking a peek at each other's engine bay I headed off to the GF's to celebrate hearing comments of, "nice car even tho it is a domestic POS & damn I never thought Buick would be that fast!"
Doug C.
Decided to head down to the Clear Lake waterfront for lunch & to check out the ever present parade of high dollar speed boats down there. After a VERY good lunch (if anyone ever comes down here check out Boondoggle's on Nasa Rd 1!!!) I decided to head over towards the mall & finish up some X-mas shopping for the GF. As I pull out of the pub I noticed a Fast & the Furious'd Eclipse (BRIGHT yellow with Asian lettering across the hood & a jumbo F1 looking wing) turning onto the road from an eatery across the street. As I pulled out onto the road & stopped at the light (which are notoriously LONG in this part of town) the Eclipse pulls up next to me with the techno music blaring.
The driver of the Eclipse looks over (early 20's or so, typical spikey hair-do), turns down his music & makes some comment like, "Ehh man is that a Gran National? I thought they were all black!" I told him no it's a Turbo-T to which he replies, "Ohhh so it's a FAKE Gran National, man that's cool I GUESS for a domestic POS" with a smirk on his face. He then proceeds to tell me his car is a GS-T with a lot of hella fast mods & that he has killed every domestic he raced, including a modded Cobra & a ZO6. As the light turned green, I told him to follow me if he was up to racing an old Buick with just a v6 & he nodded his acceptance giving his car a few high revvs as if he wanted to make sure the 5" fart muffler was still there.
I lead the way to some nice new concrete back roads that had recently been put in for an impending housing development & have already been conveniently marked off for the 1/4 mile. In the mean time, he apparently called a few buddies, because by the time we got to the race spot there was a Neon, 2 Civics, an Integra & a girl in a v6 Firebird all huddled behind the Eclipse. We pulled to the side of the road & the Eclipse driver came walking up (buddies in tow) saying that he isn't going to race for less than $50 and it'll take $100 for him to pop his hood. I tell him $100 sounds fine (genious in the Neon spots off with, "man this domestic losah is in for it Kev is the fastest guy in our group!") & they can look under my hood for no extra charge. Kev says that he's seen under the hood of a Gran National before, and since mine is an obvious fake he doesn't even need to bother with seeing my motor. We spend a few minutes negotiating the race details & he agrees to heads up off of v6 girl's headlight flash.
As she heads down to the end of the road, eclipse guy gets in his car & proceeds to do a couple of wheel hopping clutch dumps & I wait for the firebird to get positioned before cleaning off the M/T's, lining up & turning on my parking lights to signal that I'm ready. As I hear the eclipse come up on the revvs I build ~5lbs of boost rolling into the throttle as the firebird flashes it's lights. The M/T's squawk on the edge of breaking loose & the eclipse is right next to me for the 1st 10~15 feet or so until my boost hits HARD once my foot rolls past the ~3/4 floored point. My T goes into warp drive with the sportsmans giving one last CHI-RUuup then biting HARD. As the eclipse quickly fades from my peripheral vision I glance over at the boost guage & scan master (right between 17~18lbs of boost, .790 on the O2 & zero knock, JUST where I wanted it!) then check the rear view for a glimpse of the eclipse; ~1 1/2 cars back & fading at ~1/8th mile & a solid 4 cars by the end of the 1/4
His buddies caught up to us as I was collecting my $200 from the girl in the firebird who had a total jaw dropped, "I've seen the light" look on her face. The driver of the eclipse kept mumbling "HOW in the hell did that domestic brick beat me? I just ran 12.5@111 on the G-tech, that's my fastest street run EVER!" After a few minutes explaining what was done to my car, (these guys weren't too bad & were actually car enthusiasts who spent some time actually attempting to make thier cars faster, unlike the stereotypical ricer) and taking a peek at each other's engine bay I headed off to the GF's to celebrate hearing comments of, "nice car even tho it is a domestic POS & damn I never thought Buick would be that fast!"
Doug C.
