My gn vs. srt-4 with a not so happy ending

[its turbo time]

Well i was at the local meeting spot for street racing on saturday night when a guy with a red srt 4 approached me and started talking to me about my car. he told he had just put almost 2 grand into his domesticated rice and was running 20lbs boost. He then proceeded to tell me that a guy he knows runs 30lbs boost on pump gas on his low 11 sec neon. I didn't know what to think.
Well anyway we decide to race from a dig and i launch with virtually no foot braking and i immediately pull about four cars on him, all the while roostin' em all the way through second(probably my worst launch ever). My lead doesn't change, im holding at about four cars until my car shifts into overdrive(don't know how fast that is since my speedo is digital and broken!). And then out of left feild he passes me like im standing still. I couldn't believe the top end that car had.
im kinda pissed about losing even though i had him in the 1/4. So we both pull into the slow lane of the highway getting ready to get off when i out of nowhere headlights get turned on right behind me and im getting my ass tailgated like nobody's business. The car passes me and its none other than one of St. Charles City's finest. I start freaking out as the car proceeds to pull over the neon and then another one appears behind me to pull me over. Long story short i got my car impounded got bonded spent the night in jail and got a "Careless and Impudent: Drag Racing" ticket. Not fun, but i did get my car back in one piece.

 

[Daniel Jost]

Oops!!!!

I kinda know how that goes, did they get you on radar, i was on the gun doing 98 in a 55 last weekend not a very good idea, ill never do that again. The worst part is im 17, and am already missing points from speeding last year. ,Dan

 

[jurassic five 7]

^^^^yee-ouch!!!

That hurts man, getting the car takin away along with going to jail...the cops must have hot roddin the car while pulling it into the impound.

and to Daniel...i dont know....I think you're blowing HOT AIR! I never knew a hot air could go that fast :wink: Hope ya just slow it down a bit...being 17 also I can relate

-Adam

 

[FlaBoy]

Just be glad you weren't in florida... if I recall, recent changes to the law allow the police to sieze (as in, you dont get it back) your car for even a first offense on street racing. Be glad you still have a license and still have a car

And I'll have you know, even stock hotairs can run that fast... the one nice thing about working nights is that going across the Howard-Franklin bridge at 3am every day, i can do some "high speed tests" with pretty much no worries about cops

 

[Scott Long]

Wow that sucks man, but you beat him in the 1/4 mile so hopefully he will agree you won if you ever run into him again.

I have a friend that lives in St. Charles and I was supposed to come down for this weekend but haven't got my tax money back yet so I can't justify a vacation. We were gonna hit up Gateway on Saturday. He has a white SC that runs 11's and he just put an Autorotor 1.7L twin screw supercharger on it so he's hoping to run 11's without the nitrous this time. He also has a black SC w/ a turbo 347 that traps 129 mph....

Anyways, I used to cruise Lindbergh Blvd. and try to find some action on fridays and saturdays but luckily my friends and I never got caught by the cops. We'd usually head out of town a good ways to the country to run, not on the highway. My friends son in-law is a STL cop, so he can usually get a break from the locals. That and he one time told the cops he was borrowing his sons car and he wasn't used to it. They let him off doing 15 over on his way to work.

He also has a black SC w/ a turbo 347 that traps 129 mph....

Glad the impound didn't **** up your car or hot rod. I would be terrified if they impounded my ****. I'm gonna have to wire up a hidden ignition kill so if I get arrested I'll flip the switch and they won't be able to start my car till I go pick it up. Just in case, not that I'm planning on getting it impounded.

Hope the judge goes easy on ya, they like to punish you by sticking it to your check book. Get a lawyer.

 

[dragonational]

WOW not cool man. At least you won... well in my opinion you won, anything after the quarter is just fun in my book. Glad to hear that you got the car back and that it was ok. Good Luck man.

 

[Darth LC2]

OOOOOOOOh, snap that hurts! Got to watch those cops. We are being told to exercise our option to impound and jail people up here where I'm from. But cool race anyway! Don't race your car on the big end in overdrive. It kills your pull because the car starts detonating. I found that out from experience. The car your racing , unless it's super slow will pass you like you put out an anchor when you hit overdrive.

 

[ThikStik]

Gee, doesnt thatcop know that there are 20 million illegal aliens that tend to not have licenses , ID and insurance while they drive.

 

[turbojimmy]

The whole jail and impound thing sucks, but that's the chance you take f'ing around on the street. If you shifted to OD the 1/4 was long over - should've hit the brakes to indicate you were done.

I can't believe how much power people are getting out of those Neons with stock internals. A local kid has one (I haven't had an opportunity to slap him around with the GN yet) so I popped onto Dragtimes to check them out. They seem to go fast with relatively few mods (sound familiar?). Good thing they're wrong-wheel drive.

Jim

 

[SilverSleeper]

Yeah, the SRT4s are pretty mean little machines. My friend just bought an 04, with a few things already done to it. We figure is has at least stage 1, if not stage 2 done to it already. Has bigger turbo, injectors, computer upgrade, among some other things.
I like it. Its all black too
The biggest problem is launching it. He cant get it to launch worth anything, but once its going, its kinda scary. It has the stock 17"s on it, and 1st gear and most of 2nd are worthless for traction. Previous owner was a older man, who took really good care of it,and its not riced out at all.
So, just talking from experience, they are not stoplight racers. They will want to run from a roll, because being FWD, they have no traction from a dig, even more so than some other FWDs. Thats their main disadvantage. They wake up about 3 grand (similar to the NA 2.4 in my Cruiser), so from a roll...keep it under 20mph. After that, they are in their powerband and getting traction, so watch out.

 

[Brer Rabbit]

Go in with an attorney.

Dont mess around, pay an attorney to handle this matter and Im sure U will get an acceptable deal. U should keep ur license and an extended probation on top of a pretty heavy fine. Good luck.

 

[Gary Wells]

Be thankful that you guys did not get caught out here in sunny Kalif. Some cities and counties out here in the Peoples Republik of kalifornia have a crush law for drag racing on the street. They actually confiscate and crush cars out here for street racing. I quit watching the street scene out here about 6 years ago because they actually ticket spectators.

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

Sorry for the bad news
We have strong ¼ mile cars
But on the HWY we are just 3500 Lbs. of scrap metal
Loosing on the high end is still loosing unless you got of the pedal.
I hate to say it but imports own the HWY...

 

[Darth LC2]

Good heads, good cam, and good turbo=NOT SCARED ON HIGHWAYS!

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

Suspension and handling is a big part of it as well, .not just raw power
And don’t forget final drive ratio and max RPM.
BTW i allways try until i their car looks like a matchbox. from how far away they get.

 

[Darth LC2]

True! I'm just talkin straights. I can get down and boogey with a few people in the corners with my car. But by no,stretch of the imagination is it a f-body or Corvette. But as my car set with the combo in my sig., my top end was fairly impressive.

 

[TommyV8]

Did I read about you and the "Neon" in the paper? It was an article about the crackdown on that particular stretch of highway.
I wonder if that red SRT-4 is the one that ran 11.78 at Gateway.

 

[1987BuickGN]

Funny I should see this today. I had to drop a SRT-4 off for service at a Dodge dealer today for our used car department, and of course I had to keep up with traffic................. Those things run pretty dang well. I drove ALOT of WRXs at the other dealership I worked at, maybe its the AWD vs FWD thing, but that SRT seemed like it pulled alot harder! Really likes RPM!

And as far as your ticket and time in jail, that sucks. Here in Texas they are trying to pass a law where you loose your license and they crush the car. Ive seen it printed in a few local papers, but its been awhile back. Not sure where they are with that one. They are trying to get a grip on street racing, and they figure if they crush em, people might think twice about running their pride and joy down the street.

 

[hbsky]

Sorry to hear about that. Experiences like these have really toned down my street racing; I have had too many friends get jailed. Not to mention when you have racing on your record there are no more "warnings" for tickets! OUCH.

 

[suicide six]

Agreed about street racing,I know temptation is tough and everyone likes to prove a point but the outcome is too high.Sorry to hear what happened to you.Just think what youd feel like if some kid got hurt or worse.Save it for the track or at least an area not very populated. Not sure what a lawyer can do.