A good friend of mine had recently bought himself a brand new 2014 Focus ST. I'm not going to lie. That car is sharp. I was surprised at how fun it was to drive, but I digress.
He has heard me talk about how quick my car is and how I can pull on this car or that car, so he starts talking smack. "You REALLY think your car is that fast? You REALLY think you can hang with all 250 HP I'm toting around?" Granted, he wasn't being serious by any means, but it still gave me incentive to try lining our cars up so I can end this playful banter altogether.
A couple weeks go by as he puts some miles on his car, breaking the engine in properly. He finally sent me a text, inviting me to the drag strip with him and another friend of ours, to which I quickly accepted. The night we agreed to head out, I stopped by a DIY car wash place for a quick scrub down so my car was at least presentable. I ended up soaping my jeans more than my car, cursing and muttering profanities under my breath as I hustled so I wouldn't be late to the rendezvous point. Before long, I was pulling into a parking spot next to a silver Focus ST with fresh window tint.
The trip to the drag strip wasn't very exciting. I had one Miata try to pick a fight with me, so I downshifted and nailed it for a whopping two seconds. He immediately shut down and never tried again. :lol3
As we pull up to the drag strip, we were fortunately early. There weren't too many cars in line, so we hopped in line and waited for 9:00 p.m. to roll around so we could get a couple passes in. Before long, 9:00 p.m. came around. Then it was 9:30 p.m. Then 9:45 p.m. No cars were moving, the track had already been prepped, the lights were fully functional... what was going on? The answer was quickly revealed as we saw a truck driving like a bat out of hell on the shoulder of the road, working his way up to the track paddock. Apologies were pouring from his rolled down window as he hustled in the building to grab his headset and get things rolling.
A few cars made some passes ahead of us, running a variety of times. My buddy and I rolled up to the line together, those two staging lights illuminating everything in our line of sight. Yellow... yellow... GREEN.
Side Note: Launching my little car is difficult. I haven't really practiced much (no real reason to since I never race from a standstill [legal racing, obviously...]), so I knew getting off the line would be tricky. Having a super-duper stage 2 clutch thingamajig didn't really help the situation, despite my effortless daily driving with it.
Pass 1 - I did nothing but spin, so I let off a little, got back into it, started spinning, let off again, got back into it... Yeah. It wasn't too exciting until I actually caught traction. Once I snatched second gear, the tires squalled again and the rear end gave a little side hop. Grabbing third gear, the tires chirped again. I ran third all the way out and, sadly, shifted just a little bit too early. Ultimately, I ran a 14.3xx @ 100.x MPH. The Focus ST? 14.9xx @ I don't remember MPH.
Pass 2 - I decided to roll into it a little smoother and not be nearly as aggressive off the line. Due to this piss poor idea, I ran a 14.7xx @ 100.x MPH. My buddy ended up missing a gear and ran a 15.9xx. It was pretty bad for the both of us. But wait... I still trapped at 100 MPH. How the hell...?
Okay. So the drag strip is not really my forte. The line was growing extremely long for passes, so we decided to just watch some cars run. There was some little rotary equipped car with a hell of a turbo setup that ran a low 10.xxx, an old Camaro that ran somewhere in the high 9.xxx range, a "first-gen" R35 GT-R that ran an 11.5xx (my god... that car launched so beautifully...), and a few other fun toys.
Well... we started getting tired, so we decided to retire for the evening. On the way home, my buddy (who was right in front of me) called me and said, "Hey! Let's stop by the Other Track!" I grinned, knowing that magical track with those really long straight stretches were a specialty for this little go-cart from hell.
As we worked our way to the Other Track, I set my phone up in my headrest, angling it to the window so I could try and capture what would happen. Just as I finished setting up my phone, we lined up next to each other at the Other Track and I hit the record button. I quickly rolled up my windows and closed my sunroof to ensure I would have minimal drag on my box of a car. About the time I closed the sunroof, I heard him punch it. I promptly returned the favor and put my pedal to the floor.
See for yourself what happened. (I apologize for the lack of lighting, but as many of you know, there isn't much light on vacant places of the Other Track late at night.)
[Video coming soon. Need to re-upload it.]
He has heard me talk about how quick my car is and how I can pull on this car or that car, so he starts talking smack. "You REALLY think your car is that fast? You REALLY think you can hang with all 250 HP I'm toting around?" Granted, he wasn't being serious by any means, but it still gave me incentive to try lining our cars up so I can end this playful banter altogether.
A couple weeks go by as he puts some miles on his car, breaking the engine in properly. He finally sent me a text, inviting me to the drag strip with him and another friend of ours, to which I quickly accepted. The night we agreed to head out, I stopped by a DIY car wash place for a quick scrub down so my car was at least presentable. I ended up soaping my jeans more than my car, cursing and muttering profanities under my breath as I hustled so I wouldn't be late to the rendezvous point. Before long, I was pulling into a parking spot next to a silver Focus ST with fresh window tint.
The trip to the drag strip wasn't very exciting. I had one Miata try to pick a fight with me, so I downshifted and nailed it for a whopping two seconds. He immediately shut down and never tried again. :lol3
As we pull up to the drag strip, we were fortunately early. There weren't too many cars in line, so we hopped in line and waited for 9:00 p.m. to roll around so we could get a couple passes in. Before long, 9:00 p.m. came around. Then it was 9:30 p.m. Then 9:45 p.m. No cars were moving, the track had already been prepped, the lights were fully functional... what was going on? The answer was quickly revealed as we saw a truck driving like a bat out of hell on the shoulder of the road, working his way up to the track paddock. Apologies were pouring from his rolled down window as he hustled in the building to grab his headset and get things rolling.
A few cars made some passes ahead of us, running a variety of times. My buddy and I rolled up to the line together, those two staging lights illuminating everything in our line of sight. Yellow... yellow... GREEN.
Side Note: Launching my little car is difficult. I haven't really practiced much (no real reason to since I never race from a standstill [legal racing, obviously...]), so I knew getting off the line would be tricky. Having a super-duper stage 2 clutch thingamajig didn't really help the situation, despite my effortless daily driving with it.
Pass 1 - I did nothing but spin, so I let off a little, got back into it, started spinning, let off again, got back into it... Yeah. It wasn't too exciting until I actually caught traction. Once I snatched second gear, the tires squalled again and the rear end gave a little side hop. Grabbing third gear, the tires chirped again. I ran third all the way out and, sadly, shifted just a little bit too early. Ultimately, I ran a 14.3xx @ 100.x MPH. The Focus ST? 14.9xx @ I don't remember MPH.
Pass 2 - I decided to roll into it a little smoother and not be nearly as aggressive off the line. Due to this piss poor idea, I ran a 14.7xx @ 100.x MPH. My buddy ended up missing a gear and ran a 15.9xx. It was pretty bad for the both of us. But wait... I still trapped at 100 MPH. How the hell...?
Okay. So the drag strip is not really my forte. The line was growing extremely long for passes, so we decided to just watch some cars run. There was some little rotary equipped car with a hell of a turbo setup that ran a low 10.xxx, an old Camaro that ran somewhere in the high 9.xxx range, a "first-gen" R35 GT-R that ran an 11.5xx (my god... that car launched so beautifully...), and a few other fun toys.
Well... we started getting tired, so we decided to retire for the evening. On the way home, my buddy (who was right in front of me) called me and said, "Hey! Let's stop by the Other Track!" I grinned, knowing that magical track with those really long straight stretches were a specialty for this little go-cart from hell.
As we worked our way to the Other Track, I set my phone up in my headrest, angling it to the window so I could try and capture what would happen. Just as I finished setting up my phone, we lined up next to each other at the Other Track and I hit the record button. I quickly rolled up my windows and closed my sunroof to ensure I would have minimal drag on my box of a car. About the time I closed the sunroof, I heard him punch it. I promptly returned the favor and put my pedal to the floor.
See for yourself what happened. (I apologize for the lack of lighting, but as many of you know, there isn't much light on vacant places of the Other Track late at night.)
[Video coming soon. Need to re-upload it.]
1991 S52 318is vs. 2014 Focus ST
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