Story Peeps Change Lives

Race Corvette C5 Vs Mustang Saleen

Member: VinceM

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July, the sun was shining and my girlfriend and I were enjoying my 2000 White Saleen Convertible Speedster on a highway that stretched from my hometown all the way down to the beach which was about 60 miles away.

I was 21 years old at the time and if you read my other stories on storypeeps, then you know I had the need to speed; like a fat kid has the need to eat ice cream every day.

We were cursing at 70mph and really enjoying the 90 degree day with the wind in our hair and the stereo booming Family Affair by Mary J. Blige.

A red C5 Corvette pulls along side of me on the two lane road and I immediately knew what was going to happen next.

I looked to my right and saw a 30 year old black dude with a smile on his face, I couldn’t resist smiling myself, because we were both thinking the same thing and that was “LETS RACE!”

I downshifted my car into third gear and the v8 growled with anger as I floored the gas pedal and my car lunged forward. My friend in the vette got the picture and before you know it, we were both speeding way past 120mph. This 2 lane road did have cars or obstacles as I call them back then for us to avoid and steer clear of.

My girlfriend Alex, was no stranger to me racing, but I think anyone would get a tiny bit squeamish when you’re doing triple digit speeds with no intention of stopping anytime soon.

She nervously yelled “baby” a few times but the adrenaline took over my mind and the only thing I could think of is that I want to destroy this vette so I can have bragging rights.

This race was the fastest and longest race of my life. This race was also the windiest, LOL. I hardly raced my car with the top down, because once you pass 120mph it gets pretty windy and the wind makes my eyes water at those speeds.

Five minutes into the race, you could see tears streaming from the side of my eyes and across my cheeks as I peered intensely at the road ahead examining the movements of each car ahead of me.

My car was no slouch, I’ve purchased every little go fast goody along with 4 piston caliper racing brakes to help me decelerate in case of emergencies and I did have a few of those in my day.

The Corvette and I were neck to neck as we weaved between cars back and forth at speeds surpassing 150mph in our tenth minute. This race seemed endless, my friend in the vette didn’t want to give up and I certainly had no intention of losing this race either.

Before long a group of street bikes joined the race during a time when we had to slow down to about 115 mph, because cars blocked the lanes ahead.

I noticed that the street bikes were racing with us, when I saw a crazy guy popping a wheelie next to me at the same speed I was going!! I couldn’t believe the balls on this guy, I mean at that speed if you screw that wheelie up, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be a goner.

The bikes were obviously much faster than our heavy cars and soon they disappeared from our sight by gunning those rice rockets into speeds in excess of 170.

My friend in the Corvette did have the upper hand engine wise, because his car was capable of 175mph top speed.

My car could only muster somewhere around 160, but I really couldn’t tell the exact speed because my speedometer only goes up to 150 and the needle just kept dropping past the 150mph mark.

15 to 20 minutes later, I was at the beach making a record setting trip time from my hometown all the way down to the shore. Usually it would take me 45 minutes with moderate speeding, but that day my average speed once we started racing had to be around 140, even with the slowdowns for traffic and sometimes for safer cornering.

My fellow racer gave me a thumbs up when his exit came up as did I with a smile and we parted ways.

I have to thank my girlfriend for putting up with me that day, because I’m sure she was scared even though she’s been with me in various cars at triple digits speeds before.

I gotta say, sometimes we really do something stupid in our lives, but somehow we’re proud of that moment regardless. Looking back at that day, I know I broke the law and that we could have been injured or killed, but the fact is that during that moment of racing I wasn’t thinking about crashing. I knew I was in control and I felt completely focused and committed to winning. I guess what I’m saying here is that I don’t condone people racing and endangering the lives of others, but some people do have experience driving really fast.

Long story short, kids don’t be stupid and kill yourself because you want to prove a point or feel cool for a whole day or week. If you crash when you’re racing in the triple digits, you’ll be lucky to walk again if you don’t die in the process. I’ve totaled a few cars in my day and trust me it wasn’t fun at all. In fact one of those times I went from not believing in God to believing again, but I’ll write that story here some other day.

Comments  

 

-1 #2 and what would you of done had there been a car in your lane — kobra000 2010-06-26 01:38

yeah and a family of 4 pulls out in front of you in there minivan and then all of a sudden Little Susie and johnny's 3 year old lives are cut short needlessly. cause someone just had to show off.if your going to race,do it at the track.

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0 #1 RE: C5 Corvette versus Mustang Saleen — VinceM 2010-02-23 16:19

Nice race to go with this story!

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