Thread: C70
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Old 05-11-2001, 05:14 PM   #1
JD@af
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Location: West Hartford, CT
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Thumbs up C70

This is a killer ride. I remember my one and only race with one. It was a race for the ages.

I had just left my friend's place in Ridgefield, CT one night, and right after I pulled out onto Route 116 North, some guy got on my ass, apparently in a real hurry. He stayed on my tail for a few seconds, and then crossed the double yellow line on this two-lane, 35-mph road and flew past me. I was eager for a little action myself, so I hit it and did my darndest to stay with him. He soon turned off onto Saw Mill Road, and I kept on his flanks as he sped down past Ridgefield High.

Due to his turbocharged assistance in terms of torque, he would continually get ahead of me every time we had to slow down and then re-accelerate. But I kept catching up to him once I got into my powerband more. There was one point at a stop sign where I tried to get past him, and began to pull up on him in the left lane, but once his turbo spooled up, he pushed ahead of me again. I figure that since at the time mine was a bone stock Integra GS-R, I held my own.

After four or five miles, that shiny, black C70 turned off onto a side street and went on his way, while I continued on to Route 84, giving a few complimentary blips of my horn as I drove past his street of escape. I remember that was the night I discovered that I could go 70 in second gear, staying just out of redline rpms (8,100), as I looked down after he turned off, and saw that I had forgotten to upshift!

That was one of my most memorable races, I guess because I was younger and more impressionable. Your first flirts with extreme speed, especially on back roads intended for use at perhaps 50% of that speed tops (most of Saw Mill Road in fact has a 25 mph speed limit) make for the greatest of memories. In revisiting that stretch of road, I shudder to think how we both managed to stay on that narrow piece of asphalt at such insane speeds, and confidently away from the plethera of trees, mailboxes, and Colonial age stonewalls adorning both sides of the road. The beauty is that extreme circumstances make the rush that much more intense.
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