Muscle car envy, or just plain stupid ?

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Jason Cunningham

Jason Cunningham

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Calgary,Alberta
I drive my nicely restored 70 340 Swinger as much as I can in the summer, ( 10,000 miles in the last 5 years ). Just about every time I am out enjoying my car, some late model Mustang or Transformer Camaro, or even a Dodge diesel truck challenges me. I think it's kind of funny, because I am not about to street race with any of these clowns, and jeopardize my drivers licence, or classic car insurance. My Dart is a badass looking car. Is this a case of Little Man Syndrome, Muscle Car Envy, or just plain STUPIDITY ? I might add THAT I HAVE NEVER BEEN CHALLENGED by a LATE MODEL CHALLENGER OWNER.
 
Ever see "Back To The Future III"? Picture Needles behind the wheel every time one of these clowns challenges you!! It's worth a great laugh!!!
 
Yeah, the last time I drove my car, some guy in a new Mustang GT ragtop drove beside me for like 5 minutes straight, trying to agitate me. Then he took off like a total idiot, grabbing gears at like 5000 rpm. ( In a 60 kph zone ! ) He DID kind of remind me of NEEDLES !
 
Every time I take out one of my cars I get buzzed by the kids in Hondas with the baseball caps on backwards wanting to race. They are like gnats and it used to ruin the ride for me.

Then a thought occurred to me and it works great.

What I do now is I keep an old parking violation ticket in my car. Looks the same as a speeding ticket. When they buzz me and rev at the light. I just hold up the ticket against the window, point back behind me like I just got a ticket for speeding, and shrug.

Suddenly there is solidarity, thumbs up, respect, and they understand being busted and leave me alone to drive.

Original ticket from 2002 = $42

Being left alone to drive and cruise around as I please.....priceless.
 
Kmrumedy said:
Every time I take out one of my cars I get buzzed by the kids in Hondas with the baseball caps on backwards wanting to race. They are like gnats and it used to ruin the ride for me.

Then a thought occurred to me and it works great.

What I do now is I keep an old parking violation ticket in my car. Looks the same as a speeding ticket. When they buzz me and rev at the light. I just hold up the ticket against the window, point back behind me like I just got a ticket for speeding, and shrug.

Suddenly there is solidarity, thumbs up, respect, and they understand being busted and leave me alone to drive.

Original ticket from 2002 = $42

Being left alone to drive and cruise around as I please.....priceless.
Click to expand...

Good idea
 
Every time I take the chopper out I get some knucklehead trying to get me to race them. If I am on there driver side & the window is down I will give them a couple of gear blast. A while back I had a 02 GSXR1000. Was cruising home from work at midnight and somebody in a Mustang dropped a couple of gear and mashed the go pedal. He backed off and waited for me. We were pretty much even up to I backed off at about 160. He slowed down and followed me into a gas station. Guy was in his early 70's. Twin turbos under the hood....
 
I've never had a street challenge in the Plymouth.... Lots of thumbs up but never a challenge. Must have something to do with the sound and body shake of a 10 second car rumbling down the street that keeps the kids in their place...:)
 
Well, when people are young or just young at heart they like the process of blowing the cobs off the valves in little street competition.
Lots of these type people probably either have great lawyers /money, are stupid or were raised where no one lives.
Living in nowhere, you can do it. Living in town, you can go to jail or have your hands chopped off for attempted murder of oxygen molecules.

I'd just ignore the idiots if they are going to risk their license and involve you in an in town street race, considering the laws these days.

Screw em. When I was a kid, I would race anybody in anything. We raced a citation against a yz80 on a backwoods straight. yz beat me to about 75 mph. Running down the highway and the rice burners came up, we would ask them to be sure and wind their rubber band first. Then we would blow carbon and tire chunks onto their windshield and hold it on the floor for 2 miles to make a point that we were drivin gas burning piston clanking smoke belchin air polloutin four wheeled buggies from detroit city.
 
Get a lot of that on the highway , mostly BMW M cars trying to get me to run .
 
Coolest thing I ever seen. Was getting gas just down the street from my house. From behind the building comes a Fox Mustang. Had a chute on the back and an 7.70 on the window. Was talking to the attendant and he said it was his Dads car. Twin Turbo big inch Windsor. Was running on race fuel but was told that he normally runs it on pump gas on the street. A few weeks later I was out on a bike ride, about 250 miles from home and there was this Mustang, cruising thru the woods of northern AZ....
 
never get challenged... but kind-of wish I did! My car's pretty fast. Though I do intend to take it to the track this summer and see what it can do!(safe/legal)
 
Two stories here. Shortly after I got my 78 Ranchero I was sitting at a light while going to pick up my wife. It was nothing great. It looked like crap and was a boat, but the engine ran great. So I'm sitting there and these kids pull up next to me in their fast and furious civic, revving it up and trying to challenge me. I laugh and wave them off like "No chance." They continue to rev the car and roll it back and fourth. Then the light turns green and they go to ram the pedal down and...... stall it. I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Then feeling like they needed a lesson I slammed my pedal down and burned some tires in their face and laughed and laughed and laughed. Didn't break any speed laws in doing this.

Lastly shortly after I bought my 67 Ranchero I was heading home from work and while waiting at a light this gorgeous Road Runner 440 pulls up next to me. The girl behind the wheel starts revving the engine and taunting me. Even in a perfect world there was no way I was going to beat that car if I were stupid enough to race her anyway. We just nodded to each other and went on our way. Gorgeous car though.

Most people don't try to race me though and I've pulled up along side more than a few newer muscle cars and older ones. Most just ask me what year El Camino I'm driving when its my Ranchero and when in the Dart most people just shout "That's Cool!" I usually just laugh at those that try though.
 
Just run open headers...then you can't here most of the cars that rev their engines. I try to stay away from street races but if I don't like the way the driver looks then ill give it to them. I learned to stay away from subarus though.
 
No wonder, there everywhere under my shirt under my hair. They are nice cars but to
me they are turning into "cookie cutters" And they want to race you with + 40 years
technology?

Its like mosquitoes, you go out on a nice day and there is so many of them attacking you.

Darryl
 
stumper said:
I've never had a street challenge in the Plymouth....
Click to expand...
same here- funny thing is, if I'm in my Stealth, it's the same as the OP said (including TONS of Dodge deisels). And they lose.

But no one ever tries my Duster, and that they'd actually beat.
 
Lol, it's horrible for me too. It's like I have a sign on the back of my car that says "race me" in big bright neon letters. Believe it or not, corvette guys are the worst by far.
 
Last year the wife and I were in the Dart and some kids in a souped up lincoln or whatever it was challenged me so I obliged and spanked them to the next light where they proclaimed it wasnt fair and that they would have to drop off a couple of passengers, so I informed them ok then I need to drop off my backseat full of groceries. Many years ago I had a 69 Road Runner 440 4 speed when the 5.0 mustangs first came out-well this big shot challenges me so we go to a deadend street to race- 1st time I dont get past 3nd gear and im tearing him up, so he cries about missing a shift and wants a rematch-2nd time I dont get past 2nd gear tearing him up worse, so I tell him to come back with a real car and leave. I love a good challenge:D:burnout:
 
Ok 1 more and "cosgig" will like the memory here-back in 1970 our family owned a 70 Road Runner 440 6 pak convertible as our family car. Well one day dad, cosgig and I were coming home from somewhere with our tilt bed snowmobile trailer in tow and some clown in a hot (he probably thought so before meeting us) Corvette put the challenge to ole pops so he obliged and proceded to spank this guy horribly. We get to the next light and he calls out that he needs to go tweak his car and he demands a rematch as the Vette wasnt running up to par, so dad returnes the callout that we will be right there waiting for him after we hook up the other 2 carbs. Needless to say he makes a hasty departure to the right and we never see him again. I would like to thank him for the awesome memory though:cheers:
 
Before my brother converted his 65 Coronet drag car over to a full drag car it was street legal. Had a built 383 and electric cut outs. Pulled up to a light and some kids in a Camaro wanted to race. He flipped the switch and the sound of exhaust opening up made those kids eyes go wide open. He reved it up a couple times and the light turned green. We just drove away like normal and they kinda just sat there, and when they finally went they hung back and wouldnt pass us. Flipped the switch again to run thru the mufflers and proceeded on our way. We laughed at that for a long time.
 
Was cruising in my '84 short wide, it had a built 440/4spd, locked 4.88's, ET Streets etc, the thing was ridiculously loud with a very low deep exhaust note. It would set of car alarms idling through parking lots. So anyway, pull up to a redlight and a kid in a fart piped white Honda starts revving his turd fit to throw the rods out of it, and I ignore him. Light turns green and off he goes, albeit slowly.

This goes on for the next three lights and we hit a clear stretch of road. He's still making an *** of himself goosing the Honda. I was loafing along in fourth, finally got a belly full. I slipped it in second, mashed the clutch and when the 440 hit the limiter at 6700 I moved my foot off the clutch pedal. I'm pretty sure you could hear the motor for six blocks around. It scared the kid so bad he jerked the wheel of the Honda and he wobbled over into the center turn lane.

Grinning like a fool, I dropped it back in fourth and continued loafing down the street.....
 
I rarely get challenged in The GTX, but occasionally I get asked to rev her up. I usually oblige them and they are thankful. When I get challenged at a stop light, I sometimes engage the line locks and let her rip. :burnout: Then when the light turns green, they never hit the gas hard.:finga:

A couple of times, I was challenged by a hopped up car or mini-truck (Ford I think) and I raced them up to the speed limit and backed off. They got the message, while I didn't break the law. (Though in NJ this would probably still be considered wreckless driving - a very big ticket.). I'm glad that my wife is a lawyer!:D
 
As a youngster, I'd rev up whatever low po mobile I was driving, just hoping to hear them let er rip! I didn't care about a race, I just loved the sound of a.muscle car going through the gears. Still do!
 
I want to add electric cutouts to mine. When they rev theirs I can hit the switch ,rev it and change their mind.
 
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