Not an LS1, but at least it wasn't a ricer

[transam1998]

Since I don't yet have any kill stories to share from my TransAm

Before I bought my Transam, I raced a modded 1986 Dodge Omni turbo that made about 320 hp and 310 lbft of torque, the car weighed 2500 lbs even with me in it. I have enough kill stories in that car to fill this forum.

My first kill was a 60s Corvette. I was following behind him in traffic. When he floored it, I just pulled out and passed him. I then slowed down and waited for him to pull alongside me so I could tell him he had a nice car. He refused to pull up. I kept slowing down until we were going about 15 mph in a 45 mph zone, he still wouldn't pull up. I continued to slow until I was almost stopped, at which point he gunned the throttle, did a half a donut and went the other way.

Another Corvette kill was a 85-87 Corvette. I wasn't going to waste my time, but he wouldn't leave me alone (why anyone in a Corvette looks for Omnis to race is beyond me) and I had a passenger who had never ridden in the car before and was itching to see what it could do. We were rolling along at 35 mph, I dropped into second and gave the car a blip, then started accelerating slightly, when he floored it, I gave the car enough throttle to hold the rpms at 6000 with the tires spinning (always loved that monsterous fwd traction) until the car caught up with the tires. By then I was about 1 car length ahead. I put the car in third and pulled about another 2 1/2 cars on him then lifted. At the next light, he wouldn't even look over at me but his girlfriend was laughing her @ss off. My passenger's eyes were about as big as dinner plates.

There was a cool drag strip kill. I raced a mid 80s IROC Z Camaro. He ran 13.5 @ 100 mph and I ran a 12.72 @ 112 mph (again, gotta love those neck snapping fwd launches). This is the first time I had ever raced this car at this track and the announcer was kinda poking fun at me until I hit second gear and started motoring around him. The announcer then came on and said, "You know, I used to see the cars and laugh at them but now that I see what they are capable of, I'm not laughing". After I crossed the finish line, someone keyed the mic and you could hear laughter in the background and someone saying "112?", then the announcer announced the times. After I returned to my friend sitting in the stands, he said that I should go find this guy I just ran and buy him a beer. When I asked why, he said that he was sitting behind the guy's girlfriend when he returned to the stands. The first words out of her mouth were "All that money you wasted on that thing and that little sh!tbox kicked your @ss". I kinda felt bad after that.

There was a modded Talon that I ran on the freeway and stayed ahead of up until about 152 mph where the steering started feeling mushy and I realised that the front end of the car was lifting up. I never went that fast again.

Other kills included a Mercedes 300 SL, Porsche 911 Turbo (13.8 @ 101 mph) a Viper on a public road, (I always thought that this Omni was faster from a roll than it's 1/4 mile et and trap speed showed, possibly because I always had to launch it soft) A '99 Camaro SS 6 spd on a test drive with the salesman riding shotgun. This was off a cloverleaf from about 30 mph to about 125 mph, started behind him a managed to pull about 3 carlengths, A ferrari 308 GTS, a 70s Challenger, A tubbed, gutted, lexaned tube framed 70s Camaro with huge slicks and a loud motor from about 40mph up to 120 mph on the freeway, I think he was shaking it down. (probably a nitrous car and he was off the spray.

I guess this post is big enough, I'll quit now.