liveforphysics
100 TW
Early Sunday morning, got off work, went to drive to my parents place. I'm buzzing along about 140-150mph on the GSX-R 1000, delightfully low traffic, no cops in sight, I'm happy as a clam just zipping along at a comfortable speed for the conditions. I take the exit off the freeway, and I'm waiting at the stop light. About 45seconds later, I notice blue/white flashing lights racing up behind me. I roll to the shoulder a bit to let him pass, and thought, phew! Glad he didn't see me buzzing down the freeway! Hmm... he pulled in right up behind me... 
Maybe he did see me... He does the normal hand-on-gun felony traffic stop procedure thing, orders me to put my hands on my helmet, then shut off the bike, then remove the helmet, etc etc. I'm totally relaxed and calm with him, and tell him it's a beautiful morning for riding. He eventually calms down, asks me why I was going so fast etc etc, I told him it was just nice not to have traffic on the freeway, and that I was just enjoying the ride, and letting the speedo numbers be whatever feels comfortable for the conditions. lol. I asked him how long he was behind me, and what speed he measured me going, he said he didn't catch up with me until after I took the exit, but that he was going 110mph, and I was steadily pulling away from him. I told him I would have pulled over sooner if i had known he was behind me. lol Anyways, he says these speeds are reckless driving etc etc, I tell him that seems like an awful strong term for somebody just enjoying a brisk commute home from work on a beautiful low traffic Sunday morning. He says he can't write a ticket for more than 30mph over the speed limit and not make it reckless endangerment or reckless driving etc, I tell him that 30mph sounds fair to me. He gives me a stern look, then goes back to his car for about 5mins, walks back up and hands me this ticket.
I super lucked out! He wrote it for 30mph over I was so happy I shook his hand and told him thank you when I saw the ticket.
Anyways... I get to my parents house, get a napped until my buddies shop opened at 10am, rode over, picked up my new clutch rebuild kit. This is because at the last event, my $1,200 twin disk did exactly what I ask of it, and died in the process of cushioning shock from the more expensive parts of my drive-train. This clutch lasted over 1,500 miles! Under $1/mile for a drive train part is damn cheap for a racecar, so I'm definitely happy with the product. I get home, pull the tranny in about 40mins, rebuild and inspect the clutch setup in about 1hr, put it back in the car in about 1hr, hook everything back up, and take a little trip up and down the driveway to make sure it's full disengaging/engaging etc. Everything is fine, I'm happy, I get some lunch and fall asleep till about 7pm (I work nightshift, so day sleeping is normal for me). I decide to spend a half hour or so getting the car all setup for the street, swap in fresh N20 bottles, throw in the dummy bottle-in-gym-bag in the back hatch, drop the tire pressures down to about 10psi (warm) on the BF goodwrench drag radials, and decide to go have a gentle ride around town bedding-in the new clutch.
So, I come across a pair of cars I'd never seen out before (maybe because I normally only roll past midnight.) A classic restored 70's big block Camaro, and a restored mustang conversion made to look like a 428 mustang. Lots of wax, polish, chrome, etc, perfect paint jobs, and a couple of mid-life-crisis age guys sitting and talking in them. I pulled in, pretended to be admiring the cars (I actually only admire domestic trash when it's getting crushed). I looked for a rubber layer in the rear wheel wells, nope, both clean. Tires? Not drag radials, and looking properly inflated. Both engines had loud exhaust, but ran as smooth as a sewing machine at idle, and neither had sickly sweet exhaust, or fuel spitting out at idle. I had seen enough, I knew what we had here was a couple of 14-15second cars that had never been to the track.
Pretending to be a newby, I ask them which car is faster course. Much discussion between them on this, as I expected. lol. Neither guy had a clue about cars, and it was pretty clear both had paid the money for turn-key pre-built hotrods, both were under the impression they were fast cars. I suggest they find out which is faster, and told them I know of a good secluded spot only a few miles away to make it happen. They initially both said they couldn't do that, but after some mild influencing, and telling them it's a dead-end road, and I would start them and block any potential traffic on the other side, they didn't really have a reason left not to race. I told them they gotta at least make the race interesting with a little wager. Mustang guy was pretty damn confident, and suggested $150. Camaro guy checks his wallet, and it turns out both of them only had $20 bills, so they settled on $140. lol Classic stuff here.
At first, I wasn't really even planning on racing myself, just thought it would be a fun time to watch these clueless guys fumble around trying to race each other in slug-mobiles. I lead them out there, and as they are lining up to race, I tell them that I get to race the winner. Both guys laugh, and mustang guy says, "with what?" I tell them the little civic of course. Mustang guy says "MAYBE you can race the losing car, just to make it more fair." I said that would be fine. I get them staged evenly, go to start them, and Mustang guy takes off as soon as I raised my hands. lol!! He stops when he sees the Camaro isn't moving, and reverses back to the start. I go over how the hand signals work with him briefly, and line them up again. They race, camaro guy at least knew how to power-brake it a bit closer to the torque converters stall speed, and his much better launch over mustang guy, but mustang guy's car seemed to have a whole lot more power, and went past camaro guy pretty easily. They both looked like 15second cars to me. Camaro guy counts out the money to mustang guy like he was a grocery store clerk or something. lol Both guys were actually happy and excited and hi-fived each other and me. LOL I'm thinking adrenaline is not something they feel very often. lol
So, excited Camaro guy now thinks that he is going to get to stomp my Civic, and he is excited to race again. He tells me he wants a shot at winning his money back, but he only has $80 cash left on him. I tell him, I will race him 2:1, so if he wins, I pay him $160, if he wins, he pays me $80. He is actually giggling as we shake on this deal, and the Mustang guy tells me that I'm going to learn my lesson racing a muscle car with a "little 4-banger." I told him it's good for people to learn lessons sometimes.
So, we line up with Mustang guy starting us. It was the most elaborate staging process I've ever seen. lol, he seemed to want to get it down to the inch of being perfect or something, I think the lasers at the track give a wider margin for error. lol. I don't use my 2-step or launch control, and obviously don't need nitrous here. I just accelerate, and short-shift at like 5,000rpm, carefully applying just enough to stay about 1-1.5 car lengths ahead until the end. We go back to the start, and Camaro guy still seemed very excited and happy, and hi-fived both of us again. LOL! Then he paid the $80, and told me he was amazed that my car was able to keep ahead of him.
Now, Mustang guy just watched this race, and saw my civic only a little ahead of the Camaro that he beat by a much larger margin. So, he is VERY confident he can beat me. Camaro guy is also fully backing Mustang guy with encouragement to redeem the respect of american hotrods. etc. lol Mustang guy is feeling pretty cocky here, because he just made an easy $140 off Camaro guy, and wants to bet $200 if I've got it. I always keep about $2k cash in my racecar, so I tell him I can back a $200 bet comfortably. Camaro guy lines us up (fortunately, not a NASA precision staging procedure like Mustang guy did. lol), he starts us, I didn't launch early at all, but I did launch fairly hard, I didn't want to get too far ahead, so I kinda backed off, then as he started to get near me, I ran out 2nd gear to about 8k, shifted to 3rd, just kinda took it easy, short shifted 4th, and finished with about a 3-4 car length lead on him. I would have made it closer, but its actually tough to have to dog-it so badly after a decent launch. Anyways, another super easy win, we drive back to the start, Mustang guy is really confused about why he didn't win, and says he heard my car's engine sound change and had a burst of acceleration etc. I tell him that it was just my vtec hitting in 2nd gear (which is actually what it was, no need for the nitrous with these guys.) He tells me he wants to look under my hood, and inside car car. I don't normally pop my hood, but I knew these guys would never find any of the hidden bits, and wouldn't know what they were looking at anyways. So, I pop the hood, and pop the back hatch. They both look under the hood for a while, all they see is a plain-jane looking engine with no shiny bits at all (unlike the blind-you-with-chrome engines they both had.) He looks in the back hatch, see's the gym bag (with bottom cut out for the bracket to mount), unzips it victoriously and see's the dummy nitrous bottle mounted on the bracket there with a dummy tube coming off it that goes to nowhere under the car. They are both extremely proud of themselves, and now they are convinced they know how I won.
I was actually totally content with the $280 I had made from these guys all ready, and didn't feel like I needed to take anymore from them. So, I was totally honest, and told him I didn't use any nitrous when I raced them, and that the bottle in the gym-bag is just an empty bottle hooked up to nothing. I told them I use it when I want to try to re-race guys who think I won from nitrous the first time, and milk more money from them. They aren't buying that at all!! LOL! I tell them, hey, it's got no bottle heaters on it, and if I had just used it, the thing would be frosty cold, and the line would be wet from condensation. They aren't buying that at all either! LOL! I grab the 9/16" wrench from the glovebox to unhook the bottle line and crack the bottle valve to show them it's an empty bottle. I unhook it, I crack the valve, and sure enough, it's got a tiny bit if nitrous left in it that blasts out (like maybe 1lbs of nitrous left in a 15lbs nitrous bottle.) So, Mustang guy demands that I re-race him again with the bottle out of the car. He says it's only fair that I give him a chance to win his money back with no nitrous bottle. I tell them that bottle is just to make re-bets with suckers, and that it's not going to have any difference in the out come of the race at all. lol They don't believe me! Demands the re-race still! So, we take the bottle out, Camaro guy holds on it it, and we both put up $200 again, he is chuckling to himself and Camaro guy about how much he is going to win by now. lol
We line up again, race, I carefully dog the race as much as possible, and win by a couple car lengths once again. He is confounded by this when we get back. He is angry when he pays out the cash this time, Camaro guy gives me the bottle back, no high-fives this time, and they both drive away. I managed to avoid laughing until after they were gone, then re-mounted my dummy bottle and dummy line, and drove back to the strip area with $480 more cash in my pocket, and couldn't stop smiling every time I thought about how they practically forced me to hustle them, and wouldn't take no for an answer, even after I told them the truth about the second bottle. I've been laughing each time I've thought about this day lately, so I decided to share it with you guys who also might enjoy a chuckle.
Best Wishes,
-Luke
Maybe he did see me... He does the normal hand-on-gun felony traffic stop procedure thing, orders me to put my hands on my helmet, then shut off the bike, then remove the helmet, etc etc. I'm totally relaxed and calm with him, and tell him it's a beautiful morning for riding. He eventually calms down, asks me why I was going so fast etc etc, I told him it was just nice not to have traffic on the freeway, and that I was just enjoying the ride, and letting the speedo numbers be whatever feels comfortable for the conditions. lol. I asked him how long he was behind me, and what speed he measured me going, he said he didn't catch up with me until after I took the exit, but that he was going 110mph, and I was steadily pulling away from him. I told him I would have pulled over sooner if i had known he was behind me. lol Anyways, he says these speeds are reckless driving etc etc, I tell him that seems like an awful strong term for somebody just enjoying a brisk commute home from work on a beautiful low traffic Sunday morning. He says he can't write a ticket for more than 30mph over the speed limit and not make it reckless endangerment or reckless driving etc, I tell him that 30mph sounds fair to me. He gives me a stern look, then goes back to his car for about 5mins, walks back up and hands me this ticket.
I super lucked out! He wrote it for 30mph over
I was so happy I shook his hand and told him thank you when I saw the ticket. Anyways... I get to my parents house, get a napped until my buddies shop opened at 10am, rode over, picked up my new clutch rebuild kit. This is because at the last event, my $1,200 twin disk did exactly what I ask of it, and died in the process of cushioning shock from the more expensive parts of my drive-train. This clutch lasted over 1,500 miles! Under $1/mile for a drive train part is damn cheap for a racecar, so I'm definitely happy with the product. I get home, pull the tranny in about 40mins, rebuild and inspect the clutch setup in about 1hr, put it back in the car in about 1hr, hook everything back up, and take a little trip up and down the driveway to make sure it's full disengaging/engaging etc. Everything is fine, I'm happy, I get some lunch and fall asleep till about 7pm (I work nightshift, so day sleeping is normal for me). I decide to spend a half hour or so getting the car all setup for the street, swap in fresh N20 bottles, throw in the dummy bottle-in-gym-bag in the back hatch, drop the tire pressures down to about 10psi (warm) on the BF goodwrench drag radials, and decide to go have a gentle ride around town bedding-in the new clutch.
So, I come across a pair of cars I'd never seen out before (maybe because I normally only roll past midnight.) A classic restored 70's big block Camaro, and a restored mustang conversion made to look like a 428 mustang. Lots of wax, polish, chrome, etc, perfect paint jobs, and a couple of mid-life-crisis age guys sitting and talking in them. I pulled in, pretended to be admiring the cars (I actually only admire domestic trash when it's getting crushed). I looked for a rubber layer in the rear wheel wells, nope, both clean. Tires? Not drag radials, and looking properly inflated. Both engines had loud exhaust, but ran as smooth as a sewing machine at idle, and neither had sickly sweet exhaust, or fuel spitting out at idle. I had seen enough, I knew what we had here was a couple of 14-15second cars that had never been to the track.
Pretending to be a newby, I ask them which car is faster course.
Much discussion between them on this, as I expected. lol. Neither guy had a clue about cars, and it was pretty clear both had paid the money for turn-key pre-built hotrods, both were under the impression they were fast cars. I suggest they find out which is faster, and told them I know of a good secluded spot only a few miles away to make it happen. They initially both said they couldn't do that, but after some mild influencing, and telling them it's a dead-end road, and I would start them and block any potential traffic on the other side, they didn't really have a reason left not to race. I told them they gotta at least make the race interesting with a little wager. Mustang guy was pretty damn confident, and suggested $150. Camaro guy checks his wallet, and it turns out both of them only had $20 bills, so they settled on $140. lol Classic stuff here. At first, I wasn't really even planning on racing myself, just thought it would be a fun time to watch these clueless guys fumble around trying to race each other in slug-mobiles. I lead them out there, and as they are lining up to race, I tell them that I get to race the winner.
Both guys laugh, and mustang guy says, "with what?" I tell them the little civic of course. Mustang guy says "MAYBE you can race the losing car, just to make it more fair." I said that would be fine. I get them staged evenly, go to start them, and Mustang guy takes off as soon as I raised my hands. lol!! He stops when he sees the Camaro isn't moving, and reverses back to the start. I go over how the hand signals work with him briefly, and line them up again. They race, camaro guy at least knew how to power-brake it a bit closer to the torque converters stall speed, and his much better launch over mustang guy, but mustang guy's car seemed to have a whole lot more power, and went past camaro guy pretty easily. They both looked like 15second cars to me. Camaro guy counts out the money to mustang guy like he was a grocery store clerk or something. lol Both guys were actually happy and excited and hi-fived each other and me. LOL I'm thinking adrenaline is not something they feel very often. lol So, excited Camaro guy now thinks that he is going to get to stomp my Civic, and he is excited to race again.
He tells me he wants a shot at winning his money back, but he only has $80 cash left on him. I tell him, I will race him 2:1, so if he wins, I pay him $160, if he wins, he pays me $80. He is actually giggling as we shake on this deal, and the Mustang guy tells me that I'm going to learn my lesson racing a muscle car with a "little 4-banger." I told him it's good for people to learn lessons sometimes. So, we line up with Mustang guy starting us. It was the most elaborate staging process I've ever seen. lol, he seemed to want to get it down to the inch of being perfect or something, I think the lasers at the track give a wider margin for error. lol. I don't use my 2-step or launch control, and obviously don't need nitrous here. I just accelerate, and short-shift at like 5,000rpm, carefully applying just enough to stay about 1-1.5 car lengths ahead until the end. We go back to the start, and Camaro guy still seemed very excited and happy, and hi-fived both of us again. LOL! Then he paid the $80, and told me he was amazed that my car was able to keep ahead of him.
Now, Mustang guy just watched this race, and saw my civic only a little ahead of the Camaro that he beat by a much larger margin. So, he is VERY confident he can beat me. Camaro guy is also fully backing Mustang guy with encouragement to redeem the respect of american hotrods. etc. lol Mustang guy is feeling pretty cocky here, because he just made an easy $140 off Camaro guy, and wants to bet $200 if I've got it. I always keep about $2k cash in my racecar, so I tell him I can back a $200 bet comfortably. Camaro guy lines us up (fortunately, not a NASA precision staging procedure like Mustang guy did. lol), he starts us, I didn't launch early at all, but I did launch fairly hard, I didn't want to get too far ahead, so I kinda backed off, then as he started to get near me, I ran out 2nd gear to about 8k, shifted to 3rd, just kinda took it easy, short shifted 4th, and finished with about a 3-4 car length lead on him. I would have made it closer, but its actually tough to have to dog-it so badly after a decent launch. Anyways, another super easy win, we drive back to the start, Mustang guy is really confused about why he didn't win, and says he heard my car's engine sound change and had a burst of acceleration etc. I tell him that it was just my vtec hitting in 2nd gear (which is actually what it was, no need for the nitrous with these guys.) He tells me he wants to look under my hood, and inside car car. I don't normally pop my hood, but I knew these guys would never find any of the hidden bits, and wouldn't know what they were looking at anyways. So, I pop the hood, and pop the back hatch. They both look under the hood for a while, all they see is a plain-jane looking engine with no shiny bits at all (unlike the blind-you-with-chrome engines they both had.) He looks in the back hatch, see's the gym bag (with bottom cut out for the bracket to mount), unzips it victoriously and see's the dummy nitrous bottle mounted on the bracket there with a dummy tube coming off it that goes to nowhere under the car. They are both extremely proud of themselves, and now they are convinced they know how I won.
I was actually totally content with the $280 I had made from these guys all ready, and didn't feel like I needed to take anymore from them. So, I was totally honest, and told him I didn't use any nitrous when I raced them, and that the bottle in the gym-bag is just an empty bottle hooked up to nothing. I told them I use it when I want to try to re-race guys who think I won from nitrous the first time, and milk more money from them. They aren't buying that at all!! LOL! I tell them, hey, it's got no bottle heaters on it, and if I had just used it, the thing would be frosty cold, and the line would be wet from condensation. They aren't buying that at all either! LOL! I grab the 9/16" wrench from the glovebox to unhook the bottle line and crack the bottle valve to show them it's an empty bottle. I unhook it, I crack the valve, and sure enough, it's got a tiny bit if nitrous left in it that blasts out (like maybe 1lbs of nitrous left in a 15lbs nitrous bottle.) So, Mustang guy demands that I re-race him again with the bottle out of the car. He says it's only fair that I give him a chance to win his money back with no nitrous bottle. I tell them that bottle is just to make re-bets with suckers, and that it's not going to have any difference in the out come of the race at all. lol They don't believe me! Demands the re-race still! So, we take the bottle out, Camaro guy holds on it it, and we both put up $200 again, he is chuckling to himself and Camaro guy about how much he is going to win by now. lol
We line up again, race, I carefully dog the race as much as possible, and win by a couple car lengths once again. He is confounded by this when we get back. He is angry when he pays out the cash this time, Camaro guy gives me the bottle back, no high-fives this time, and they both drive away. I managed to avoid laughing until after they were gone, then re-mounted my dummy bottle and dummy line, and drove back to the strip area with $480 more cash in my pocket, and couldn't stop smiling every time I thought about how they practically forced me to hustle them, and wouldn't take no for an answer, even after I told them the truth about the second bottle. I've been laughing each time I've thought about this day lately, so I decided to share it with you guys who also might enjoy a chuckle.
Best Wishes,
-Luke
Awesome story Luke cept maybe the domestic trash comment 
. It weighed 2280 with me in it iirc. I'll have to find a pic or two to scan. It was pre digital era 
