Eventful weekend, the DSM cruise!

[Sleepr awd]

Annual DSM cruise
was freaking awesome. If anyone remembers, i held the march mitsu meet and it was NOTHING compared to "Rob's Famous DSM Cruise". There were somewhere from 75-100 cars there, and a little bit of everything too dsm's, 2g's, 1g's 3g's, cobras, ls1's and Volvo's and audi's. not to mention the 240 crowd. After a long while of eating and conversating, and bullshitting with the nicer cars they finally got together and got people to head out on the cruise.



(dyno'd at 382whp on ripp stage 3 supercharge system.)

we had 4 rows of that many cars, then also cars parked on the sides of the roads, and even more joined in on the cruise
The Blue striped white neon is featured in the story as "the neon"

before you laugh, look for a front mount...

featured in story as "the other 3g" but not the black 3g

"Rob's" spyder dyno'd 460whp with room left on the 1600cc injectors for more

featured in story as my friend's white 2g that turned around

about 1/3-1/2 of the cars that went on the cruise, i would have been across the bridge already and on the first or second turn.

We headed out of town slowly because most of the cars were held up at the bottleneck stoplight along the way. Only about 5 cars that were at the meet didn't make it on the cruise. On the way north 15 miles on the highway we were traveling so slow it wasn't even funny. 35-55 in a 70 zone isn't exactly booking it, but being like that for 15 minutes allowed all the cars to catch up. I got lucky and ended up about 15 cars from the lead car so i knew where we were going and wasn't just following the blind. Finally after those 15 minutes were up, we pulled off the highway and onto a smaller country backroad. We winded through some of missouri's hills and were able to get some pretty good excitement in. Everyone slammed it as we began through the first of the turns, and the lead car was mindful enough to slow down excessively for the sharper and more dangerous of the turns.

My poor 3g was keeping up with the 350Z in front of me despite what the track numbers say. let's just say that the driver wasn't very ballsy. I'd dip around every corner and only once did i actually push it just a hair too far and lose a little traction. the Dayton ZR's on the car really grip for the money. And after a spirited 20min drive we turned in through a very small town to a school parking lot. Sadly, one dsm had already broken down, but he decided that a dipstick that was blowing out wasn't going to stop him from riding the backroads like they should be ridden. After stopping and letting the cars cool down for an easy 20 minutes, we started back out. This time, i was passed up as every one of the slower cars pulled out before me leaving me behind some of the slowest dsm's that must have been on the trip.

This road was in much better shape, corners were smoother and the concrete was solid with no dips in the road from rain. The cars in front of me slowing me down though, made for a very frustrating 2nd leg of the tripGoing around each corner meant starting 6-7 cars behind them and ending up on a bumper almost. By this time more than 15 cars had dropped out because they were either too slow or didn't have death wishes. At the next pitstop, i made a point to cut in line and get behind another 3g. It was a smart idea, because everything his car could do, i could do, and it kept me out of trouble for most of that leg. During the stop, i began to talk to the 3g in front of me and i commented on the neon that was sitting near the end of the pack. "that's mine" a guy out of no where said. i said, "Really! man i hope it can keep up" "It'll be on your ass through these turns. it handles a lot better than you'd think it does." well now the guy was just being cocky, so i fed his ego and found out he was going to try to get in the middle of the pack just in front of the two bikes that had tagged along.

The hills were bigger, the turns were sharper and narrower. After a 30 minute cool-down this time (car trouble again) We started back up for the last leg of the run. the hills were crazy and on the first two it felt exactly like a roller coaster. Luckily my passenger knew the road so i knew where the trouble hills were. the last leg was the best of the 3. Right behind cobra mustangs this time , the other 3g and i were able to keep up on the turns and even screw with the cobras a little bit. hill after hill people were out on their porches watching the ~70 cars drive by at a fair amount of speed. Each turn was dangerous, and i had to hold back more than one would think on these roads. My passenger was beginning to sound like a rally navigator though, as he spouted off each turn, i took it with ease. Turn after turn, and hilll after hill until we began to go through a small town and everyone slowed down a great deal so as not to cause trouble in the town. we take another turn and back out onto the open road. The Cobra mustangs that had complained about us being too slow were now holding us back on the road that i was now familiar with. I look to my right and i see my friend's white 2g pull off and turn around. I thought to myself "that can't be good", but i kept on. I sped up and slowed down trying to antagonize some speed out of the cars in front of me, and 5 minutes later everyone came to an abrupt stop right after a small bridge, hill, and turn (it was an all at once thing). It was the end of the last leg, and the little hill and turn i had stopped on made my ass-end slide out from underneath me and toward the guardrail. luckily, nothing happened and it wasn't much but enough to scare me.

We all pull into the parking lot and i started talking to the guy in the 3g in front of me. By this time my adrenaline was pumping and i was ready to get back out there and go again, but my excitement was held back by the 3g guy getting a call from one of his friends. The neon that had earlier been talking about how great his little car was had flipped over and another 3g had spun out and almost flown off the road. Those hills were dangerous as i'm well aware. A friend of mine had totalled his protege out there just going a little too fast over those hills. Luckily, no one was seriously injured and the only thing he received was some road rash on the hand holding him in his seat through the sunroof. and the other car was able to drive away. The stories that followed that accident spread like wildfire because, well i had to tell someone.




It was the best meet i've ever attended, and i hope next year some more people will be able to join in.

[2000LS1Z28]

Man all those DSM's an no mechanic?????!!!!!! Woooiieee, that's asking for trouble. J/K

Sounds like the SRT-4 owner got too cocky. I dunno that much about the handling on those cars.

[CassiesMan]

Nice, wish I coulda been there, but I was helping my gf move out in STL. But we did get to go to a nice carshow where the smallest motor present was a 402...

Also, what roads are those, and what small town did you go through...did you terrorize Fultron on the Power Plant Run?

[Sleepr awd]

not an srt, just a plain neon

we terrorized the west side of town, from north to south.

and... every dsm owner is a mechanic.

[VR43000GT]

Oooo, that is a pretty Sylvia

Looks like a pretty big meet thought. Can't wait to go to a 3/S gathering.

[Sleepr awd]

MORE PICTURES~!!!

56k DEATH!!





the neon w/ blue stripes is the one featured, the other one at least knew how to drive.






i'm behind the 350Z

I'll post up vids when they are available to me, i personally had no camera, so i'm sol as far as that goes. next year i'll be sure to get EVERYTHING!!!!

[TorchedStealth]

That looks like it was a lot of fun. I really want to attend a meet like that someday.