[YogsVR4]

I went to my folks place a town over for dinner last night. Its always a good meal when I don’t have to cook. On the way I saw a Civic, it had a spoiler on it that was so high it would doubled as a lightning rod if it was stuck in the ground. It was a few cars ahead of me in the right lane while I was in the left one. A red light was ahead and I didn’t think much else of the car.

Of course everyone stopped at the light. When it turned green I heard an engine rev to who know how many thousands of RPMs and then squawk the tires. Sure enough it was that Civic. He took off from the light as fast as he could (I assume) and I thought he was involved in a race with the car next to him. That car was a Buick Regal and it apparently wasn’t informed of the race because it drove off at a normal pace.

After seeing that, I figured we have ourselves a punk ass kid thinking he’s driving gods gift to the road. So I decided I needed to pull up next to him and get him to go.I usually don’t race civics because the cars I usually drive (the VR4s) way out class them. But this time I was driving my 93 Dodge Shadow ES. It’s the model with the 3.0 V6. (In fact all of my cars have a 3L V6 block in it – strange how that it worked out that way).

Fortunately I the two cars in front of me pulled off to Carters (grocery store) before we got to the next light. This gave me the chance to catch up with the little moving radar tower. He was still in the right lane and I was still in the left. Another stop light is about a quarter mile away over a hill so no race is going to happen till we see the color of that light.

To my great fortune the light turned yellow when we crested the hill and there were no other cars between the light and ourselves. We got to the (now) red light and I looked over and started revving as good as my old beater car could handle. I had time to assess the other driver. It seemed my earlier assessment was accurate. It looked like a punk ass kid who was thinking he was driving gods gift to the road.

He revved back and we waited for the light to turn green. A few cars turned into our lanes but there were only a few and they had gotten several hundred yards away before our light turned. I took the tach up to 4500 rpms and let the clutch drop. Oops. That is not the best way to launch a FWD car with 170 foot pounds of torque. The tires squealed like mad and I couldn’t even hear his car over the noise. The good thing was I didn’t see him in front of me after a couple seconds and the tires finally bit in. First to second to third in pretty rapid accent. By the time I shifted to third I looked in the passenger mirror and he had to be a good two – three car lengths (compact car lengths) behind. Third is a very strong gear on my car so I started to really pull away after that.

At that point I know I had stomped him. Not only did I get ahead of him, I was increasing that distance. I put her in fourth and backed off the gas – no need for a ticket. He of course is still pushing for all he can and catches up after a few seconds. I am anticipating a “fly-by” but he doesn’t do that. He backs off the gas and paces me. I look over and smile as he pulls beside me. He gives me a look and points down the road. He want to go from a high speed role.

I give him a nod and he stomps on the gas and away he goes. I expected a countdown or something, but I was ok with him doing that. I slammed my foot down on the gas and reeled him in like a dead tuna. It wasn’t even a challenge.

I pulled up next to him in about five seconds and started to pull away at an increasing rate. By this time we were going over 70 (at least I was) in a 45 so I slowed down and the Civic caught up. I looked over and gave him a smile again and he gave me his IQ – I mean his little finger. Then he pointed and laughed at my car. I guess he thought it was funny a 35 yr old guy driving an old economy car like this. All I could think of was my ecno box just stomped yours you little shit head. I slowed down more and he continued to speed on away.

To anyone who is thinking – why is he driving the Shadow when he has all those other options – I wanted to give it an oil change and my dad has a garage and all the tools I need to get the job done, so it seemed like a good time to get it done.

Since it’s a pretty small population around here, I will run into him again. Maybe I’ll be driving one of the nicer cars (the Chevy Venture doesn’t count btw) and I’ll make another exception to my Civic rule.