Lookie lookie
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Ran a supercharged Viper
I don't normally post stories but this was kinda funny because this guy was doing his best to make Viper owners look like jerks and he was one of those guys that hadn't realized that there's always someone faster but you just have to hope you don't run into them. Luckily I know not all Viper owners are jerks because he put on a convincing display.
I was driving home from the WNBA basketball game Friday and decided to head down toward Woodward. So I'm heading down the hwy and then I hear this really loud car merge into traffic from just behind me. The car goes flying by me on my right and I see that it's a competition coupe version of the Viper GTS. I immediately see him as being easy prey so I down shifted and
followed him while he was flying through traffic. We both got off at the Woodward exit. We were in traffic and the light turned red so I got over and got beside him. He immediately looks over at me and emphatically says "You don't have a chance! There's NO way you can beat me!" So I tell him that I think I've got a pretty good chance of beating him. He then says even more emphatically "There's NO WAY you can beat me!" You don't
know what I've got under my hood." So I tell him that he doesn't know what I've got under my hood either. So he says "I know about those cars and there's no way in $ell that you can beat me! I just dynoed yesterday and I've got 700hp" and I say that if we both take off at the same time I think I've got a pretty good chance against him. So the light has turned green by now and
all the cars have been honking behind us because we're being ghetto and holding up traffic while talking on a busy street. So I say we'd better go and he pulls off and I get behind him. He then spontaneously decides to pull into the gas station at the corner. So I pull in and we both hop out of the cars. I walk over and tell him he's talking big trash and say he must have a Doug Levin supercharger to be talking that much trash. Then I asked
him if he knew my friend Sean and he said yeah. So I told him that I work with Sean and he said "Yeah but you don't know me and if we race you're gonna know me then!" While saying that he's opening his hood. So he gets the hood open and I immediately recognize the Roe supercharger kit that Sean's been
wanting to buy. It was the cheaper unpolished version but I was being nice so I didn't rag on the guy for getting the cheap version. Then this guy in a CFIV Camaro comes over and asks if we are going to race. We both say "No"and then quietly I asked him if he's game. He says just name the place and asks how much money are we betting. I said I'll race him but not for
money. Then I said a little north of here should be a safe spot and I tell him that we'll go from about 35mph and he says that sounds good and we take off.
I thought about raising the boost but figured I wouldn't because I wanted to see how close the car was with the boost the way I normally drive and not with it at max pump gas level. We get to the spot and line up at about 37mph and I ask him if he's ready. He says yeah and I reach over to turn my Sade CD off and I hear "Waaaahhhhhhhh" and look over and the guy is already taking off!
I thought since he was so cocky that I had no chance that he'd let me do the 1-2-3 count and then we'd go even like I had said before or he'd at least let me go first since I have "No Chance!". So I immediately floor the car and by the time I react and build boost his rear end is a little ahead of my front end. I run even with him through 2nd gear, quickly shift into 3rd and the car fish tails but I keep it floored. The car gets back in line and continues on and then he finally has to shift and I jump a little closer but still not gaining on him once he got on the gas again. Basically I ended up right where I was when I realized the guy had jumped the gun and taken a head start. Finally we both let off and I pull up next to him and say it looked pretty even to me. He says "Yeah but I was in front!". I'm thinking that's because your chicken butt wouldn't wait for an even start but I say "That's just because you left first. After I hit the gas you didn't leave me one bit." Then I said "If we ran even I think I would have beaten you." It probably would have been the same result except I would have been the one in front when it was over but since he went from "There's NO WAY you can win!" to "Yeah but I was in front" I figured I'd give him something to think about. The guy didn't say anything this time and had kinda a scowl on his face. So I chuckle to myself, told him he needs more boost, waved good bye and headed back South to Woodward. I then called Sean and told him about it and he met me at our Woodward meeting spot. Later the guy drove by and Sean recognized the car and said he had seen him before but didn't really know him.
So that was my long version of my race with the supercharged Viper. After that encounter I think I'll be ok when Sean gets his supercharger because I was only running 18psi (AEM logged it) at that time and probably could have caught the guy if I turned it up 2psi while we were in the gas station. The car is dyno tuned to run 22psi on 94 Octane so I could have safely turned the boost up a little at the gas station and pulled on the guy. If anyone runs into the guy be aware that he's not very fair, a little rough with his manners but definately nothing to worry about for a well tuned single turbo Supra.
Mods: Buschur T66 turbo kit, Buschur fuel system, 6speed, AEM, BPU.
