Well for me the troubling part was that it was John neglected to mention that it was a 1997 Chevy Pickup truck w/a straight 6..and Johns speedometer was set to kilometers, not mph.

A Yugo could outrun Johns car....bait bait :-).

I had a Sunbeam Tiger years ago...ultimate sleeper, I would bait and crush Corvettes and Jags....

John, you're nuts but sounds like you're having fun. My life is somewhat parallel to yours having lost my first wife when she turned 40...As we say in the Backpacking Forums I have been on for years:

Hike Your Own Hike

but yeah....be safe

 

30 some years ago during my misspent youth I had an RX7, which, while not in the same class as our XKs, was still a nice car. About a month after I bought it, I was driving from the Florida panhandle to New Orleans. It was early on a Saturday morning, maybe 6:00 AM and while not raining, the roads were a little wet from a rain shower an hour or so earlier. There was a car in front of me that just would not hold a steady speed. First he'd be doing 60 mph, then he'd be doing 45 mph, then back up to 55 mph. It was really annoying, especially as I was tired from getting up early and just wanted to set the cruse control; I didn't even care how fast we were going as I was not in a hurry. We were the only cars on a two lane road that early in the morning so when we came long straight away, I pulled out to pass him, not even paying attention to what he was driving. He was doing about 50 mph when I pulled out so I pushed the RX7 up to 60 mph. However, when I looked in my side mirror, he was just off my right rear quarter panel. I increased speed to 70 mph, then 80 mph, then 90 mph with him still off my rear quarter panel. I finally passed him at 120 mph and was rpm limited in the RX7. Now I was interested in what this guy was driving; I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw an SS on his front grill. Not wanting to crash my new car at 120 mph, I took my foot off the gas and started to coast, at which time he pulled out and passed me. As he drove by I noticed he was driving about a 1971 Chevelle Super Sport, which, if memory serves me correctly, has a 396 cubic inch V8. A nice car but very unassuming.

Today I may may step on it sometimes at a light when next to some kid who thinks he has a hot car, but I never take it up (too much) past the posted speed limit. It's just not worth it to me any more.

Mark

 

Great example of "more enthusiasm than skill".....in this case multiplied by the adrenaline effect of a race.

Nowadays you can go to a showroom and simply buy a car that has acceleration and speed capabilities that not-so-many years ago would've been seen only on all-out track cars. You can't just buy skill and discipline, though.

My job puts me in the position of caring for some extremely fast cars and I'm expected to exercise them from time-to-time. I'll be the first to admit that, although I like powerful cars, I have nowhere near the skill or experience to safely drive them at anywhere near full tilt.

So....I don't.

Cheers
DD

 

Given these two I will say (without insulting our own forum Vette owners) that most Corvette guys I meet have heads much bigger than there brains, hence the stupidity shot on video.

Add to this one the idiot who won the Lambo a few months back and was taking his buddies for rides and crashed it into a brick wall because he had no clue how to drive a real high performance car.

While a XKR isnt in the league of a Ferrari, Porsche turbo, Lambo or anything like that I was on a straight flat road I have driven thousands of times over the last 5 years, under moonlite light (its very bright where I live) surrounded by nothing but farm land for 10 miles (7 to a stop sign then 3 more to another one). If this had been anywhere else I would have never played with this guy. Still doesnt change the fact that a Coyote could have run out in front of me and I could have crashed but then last night someone in PHX was driving home minding there own business and had a drunk rear end them while they were driving 50 on an expressway and killed one of the passengers. Again, as I say, when its your time its your time. Just my opinion and nothing more. If we all thought the same the world would be a boing place.

 

I think that's the point most people here are making.
I agree, 'When it's your time....' etc.....
But an innocent person doesn't deserve their time to be up because of someone else being stupid.
Once again, NOT a dig at John, but an observation I'm sure we ALL ought to consider now and again.
Roy.

 

Do not play games with other people on the highway, that is how people get into wrecks or end up in the crossbar hotel.

Ask the Carrera driver who did what you did and then went to jail because it was really an unmarked patrol car he tried to race. Happened last weekend, tickets and jail time are not worth proving you have the faster car.

Want to see how fast your car is, go to a track or go out onto the salt flats, not a highway where I am driving with my kids.

 

I am old enough to know that is dangerous, and i am 21!...however last night after picking up my girlfriend, some guy in a dodge caliber thought he was faster than my 05 XJR. I'm sorry, an aluminium body with a s/c 4.2 is not even worth racing your oversized hatchback...but i did. He was obnoxious at the light hitting on my girlfriend. Saying he's going to "whoop my old-man car" i got ahead of him and slowed to maybe 45 (limit was 55) and he went into the oncoming lane to pass me, so by the time he got next to me, i stomped it and left him in the dust whilst flipping him off through my sunroof. I'm sorry, but i am superior to you probably drunk sir, and will not stand for your insolence lmao

 

Really??? Could have been fatal on two counts--racing is the first and getting some guy really pissed off is the second. There are too many nutjobs around these days to be flipping off random jerks.

Doug

 

Another patient in need of a shot of dumb-*** vaccine....

 

To lighten the mood here, but still prove a point....
MANY years ago I had a lovely black/gold JPS Lotus Europa twin-cam.
On my way home on a dual carriageway, I went to pass a standard saloon - nothing particular. I was doing around 70.
The saloon had 4 little 'squirts' in it - they hardly reached the top of the door edges!
Believe it or not, the driver deliberately swerved AT me, forcing me onto the central reservation, and dropping back.
He continued to swerve all over the road in front of me so I couldn't pass.
He was probably flat-out at around 85!
I was young, stupid, and VERY angry!
I tried to pass him every way I could, even on the inside!
He was having none of it!
(Is this a disaster in the making I now ask myself, some 30 years later???)
We eventually came up to a roundabout and I ROCKETED past him - I went the WRONG WAY round the roundabout!!!
I was about 100 yards in front by the time he exited the roundabout.
He flashed his lights and tried to chase me!
It was hilarious!
The 4 little idiots were waving fists at me etc so I enjoyed dropping back so they caught up, then flooring the Europa letting them eat dust.
I did it about a dozen times until we reached a set of lights.
The little jerks pulled up behind me and sank lower in their seats.
I was laughing, but FURIOUS!
I got out of my car, walked back to them shouting all kinds of abuse, debating their parentage, genital usage and sexual possibilities.
I got alongside the 'midget' driver and looked in, as the doors opened and four 6-foot+ HULKS exited the car - the car had low rally seats fitted!!!!
I was in my Europa and jumped the lights before you could say 'coward'!
They chased me all around town and I only lost them by pulling in to a Police station car park!!!
Moral????
Mind who you race, or insult - he may be in a cr-pbox, but he MIGHT just catch you at the next lights, and he might be a damn sight bigger than you!!!
Roy.

 

Roy - lol!!!!! Thanks for the grounding.

Steve

 

Another light moment???
Before the Europa, I had a Signal red Lotus Elan S3 coupe. (Would you believe, it was actually Colin Chapmans own, personal car before me - It even had the VERY rare 'signature' steering wheel - if only I had it now!)
I worked for a display company, and we were on site at the Suffolk show ground in Ipswich.
I proudly parked my gleaming Elan outside the exhibition tent I was working in, leaving the keys in the ignition in case it needed moving. (Things were so much more trustworthy 30-odd years ago...)
An hour or so later I came out to see a young 'yuppie' type sitting ON the bonnet, (hood) legs straight down the front of the car, leaning back on the screen!!!
He was boasting profusely to three pretty young girls about how fast HIS car was!!!
I deliberately did a wide circuit of the car and came up from behind.
In a matter of a second, I was in the car, started the engine, and accelerated in REVERSE very rapidly, dumping the poseur unceremoniously on the ground.
I hooted, and drove past him, and then parked a few feet in front.
I got out and smiled VERY broadly at the gawping girls, waving my keys at them as I went back into the tent.
Better than ANY road race!
Roy.

 

Any more amusing stories?

Roy has a new thread here https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/o...14/#post499442

 

Roy - what does gawping girls mean????

 

Its fun! I've done and I'll do it again.
Enjoy, use your head.

 

Same as gawking, staring with mouth open.

 

My brother put it well, "I neither condone nor condemn."
Cars are fun. Driving briskly is fun. Danger? it lurks and sometimes we seem to seek it out. I don't always live as well or as wisely as I know how.

It is fun to read some of the stories.

 

I realize that we're all wired differently, but from my perspective, just like people with real money never have to show it, people with real cars don't have to show it either.

Also, I survived a serious car wreck that occurred 32 years ago (a driver was going the wrong way on the freeway, and I was the unlucky person who received the head-on collision.) Believe me, once you experience something like that, you will always drive defensively...never offensively.

Jags are a thing of grace and beauty. Honor their grace and beauty. Don't cheapen it with stupid driving tricks.

Finally, always wear your seatbelt, and try to never drive angry.

 

The only time I drive "sedately" is when I am in customer cars, I drive my own like I stole them....... Can't help it....... Only ever had 1 big accident when I did something stupid (I was young) and got T Boned by another car doing about 70 I was in hospital for weeks with a broken neck and in a stiff neck brace for 6 months, luckily the occupants of the other car were fine, still didn't slow me down..... much..... Nothing wrong with speed as long as you are aware of your surroundings and dont do it in stupid places, give me a long straight and an empty road

Probably why I built my track XK8, as I got older self preservation kicked in but you still want your jollies, and speed is how I get mine, doesn't have to be fast cars either, anything fast, I love roller coasters

 

A rice burner was it?

I just love old guys in fast jagulars.