3 way run, Concorde, ZX2, Eclipse (old story)

[AWP9521]

Since there have been a few old races posted I thought I'd throw in one.

It's May of last year and it's about 8:15 in the evening and my Son and I had just picked up the wife from work in our 95 Concorde (3.5 V6) and was getting on the interstate heading home, the ramp goes right onto a bridge from the left and I just started crossing the bridge when all of a sudden this black Mistubishi Eclipse with loud exhaust blows by me on the right and is shortly followed by a red ZX2 also with a loud exhaust, my son screamed out "hey that's Greg!" (one of his school buddies who is driving the Eclipse) So I said well lets see if we can have a little fun. I floored the Concorde and followed them up a ramp into a 6 lane highway (3 lanes each direction), the Eclipse and the ZX2 went into separate lanes and I followed behind the ZX2, after a signal all three lanes were open so I took one and the other 2 each had one.

A light about a 1/4 mile down the road had just changed as we approached so there we sit, I'm in the far left lane with the Concorde, the ZX2 is in the center lane and the Eclipse is in the far right. My kid yells out to the buddy in the Eclipse to say hi and the ZX2 and the Eclipse are both reving it up, I disabled the Concorde's traction control and put it in neutral and reved it up a few times, the guy driving the ZX2 looks over and nudges his buddy in the passenger seat and points over to the Concorde and his buddy starts laughing. I more or less knew from the start the Eclipse would most likely kill us both but I also have a friend with a stock ZX2 and we raced at the strip once and he just edged me out at the finish (slower reaction off the line) but the times were virtually identical so I knew I could at least possibly give this guy a run.

The light turns green (finally!) and it's on. Immediately the Eclipse as expected takes off and starts leaving the Concorde and the ZX2 behind and keeps on pulling away (again no surprise and was expected), ZX2 and I launch and he pulls about 2/3 of a car on me because I caught the vinyl strip across the road and lost tracion for a quick instant, he shifts to 2nd and I gain about 2 feet of the deficit back and hold it, The Concorde's V6 hits 4200 and starts pulling on him and I get another few feet until I hit redline and the tranny grabs 2nd and now we're holding again with the ZX2 now having about a 3 foot lead, he shifts to 3rd and I get a foot of the lead back, and the ZX2 driver is now starting to look concerned and his buddy is razzing him because this big ass car is hanging right in there. The ZX2 driver shifts to 4th and looses a few more inches and 4200 comes around on the Concorde and starts pulling on the ZX2 again until we are dead even, we're doing about 80 now and the Concorde hit redline and grabbed 3rd and we both bailed because we were rapidly coming upon another red light. We get stopped and the wife rolls down the window and the ZX2 driver does the same I look over and yelled "surprise!" The guy started laughing and said "yeah no shit!, Nice run man I thought I was gonna leave you sittin", I said yeah I knew Greg would make us toast but I just had to see if I could keep up with you.

Meanwhile the Eclipse had pulled into a BK on that same corner so when the light changed I got behind the ZX2 and we turned down a side road and doubled back to the BK to meet him. We hung around and BS'd about the run and looking over the cars for about a half an hour or so in the parking lot, The ZX2 guy showed me his CAI and said the muffler was the only other mods done to the car and asked what mods I did to the Concorde, I told him the only mod I did was pull out the air restrictor from the Intake tubing otherwise it's stone stock. Then we BS'd a little more and went our merry ways. So I guess we can call it 1 death and 1 dead heat, but admittedly, it was fun.

Cliff notes:
Eclipse and ZX2 flys by a Concorde on the interstate and the chase ensues.
Double kill from a dig for the Eclipse to a Concorde and a ZX2 in a 3-way race.
Dead heat from a dig between the Concorde and ZX2 in the same race.

Just an added note: The very next day on that same stretch of road, I lost the Concorde. I was in the far right lane and there was a line of stopped cars in the center lane, some broad didn't look in her right mirror to check for traffic and decided to let a guy in a Civic cut through the stopped line of cars to pull into an Arby's and we both met at the exact same time in the right lane effectively sending both vehicles to the wrecking yard for life. Civic Driver got a ticket for failure to yield and I got my first ever ride in the back seat of a Crown Vic Squad car back home.

[PearlGT]

good races but I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
What do you plan on getting to replace her?

[AWP9521]

Originally Posted by PearlGT

good races but I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
What do you plan on getting to replace her?

Thanks! Since that was back in May of last year, and after a months worth of haggling and bitching with the Ins. Co. over settlement, I finally got what I felt it was worth, I bought a very well optioned and low mileage for it's age 94 LHS. It's no speed demon (neither was the Concorde for that matter) but it's a roomy, comfortable, and great for long trips family car. Someday though I really do need a speedy toy to play with, my son has a Silver 89 Daytona Shelby 2.5 TI with an intercooler and a 5 speed that's pretty fun to run around in but he really don't like it when Dad and Mom hop in it and take it out for "midnight rides"!