[MikeB066]

Sunday night a friend and I went out for drinks. We did some catching up and decided to call it an early night. He parked his Lightning with valet so I had to schlep half a block to get my car off the street becaue I prefer to park my own car.

He pulled away in a cloud of tire smoke so I figured I would not see him again until we got together next. Imagine my surprise when after I finally got to my car, managed to reset the clock for the change of time, and eventually pull out that I should end up next to hisLightning at a red light.

He and I got our cars about the same time, though his Lightning is an '03 or '04, and we have been talking a lot of smack back and forth... this was the moment of truth, my CTS 3.6L against his blown 5.4L.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at things, I forgot to turn off my traction control and Stabilitrack. When the light turned green, I nailed the gas and worried only about late night pedestrians and cross traffic with no tire smoke or wheel hop. My buddy in the Lightning lit up the rear tires trying to pull out from the light, giving me a nice half car lead. Thanks to TCS I launched a lot better than he did, naysayers be damned.

It was all looking well there for almost half a block, I had him by half a car length or more. I was beginning to feel really cocky about things when he hit the sweet spot on the RPM's and the supercharger in the Lightning really made a difference. From that point on, there was no contest, he blew past me by a full car length to the next light. But, off the line and for half a block, my sedan was beating the best Ford's Special Vehicle Team could turn out, and I did it with 125hp less in a lot more comfort and style!

Now, I bet, if I had a supercharger on the 3.6, I could have taken him/ Who else wants a blower for their 3.6? Lingerfelter, are you listening?

A few disclaimers for the people who will inevitably cry foul about the circumstances of this story:
1. it was 1AM on a Sunday night in a low population, mostly commercial, area so the risk to pedestrians was minimal
2. since it was a Sunday night, very few of the commercial businesses were open, meaning auto traffic was almost non-existant
3. yes, I broke local speed ordinances and was participating in road racing, shame on me

If you are going to contribute to the thread, please do not rehash these previously stipulated confessions/admissions of guilt.

The Lightning and my CTS have been meaning to face off for months now, but we never found ourselves in the right place at the right time. No one was hurt, and he and I talked on the phone afterwards, sharing a good laugh about the relative strengths and weaknesess of our respective rides.

Now he's thinking about upgrading the Lightning with a K&N cold stack intake, creating a peformance mod race that I will inevitably win if I add a Volant and a rocket booster...

Next time, the road will involve turns, not a simple straight of way. Stay tuned for results.

 

[70eldo]

A few disclaimers for the people who will inevitably cry foul about the circumstances of this story:
1. it was 1AM on a Sunday night in a low population, mostly commercial, area so the risk to pedestrians was minimal
2. since it was a Sunday night, very few of the commercial businesses were open, meaning auto traffic was almost non-existant
3. yes, I broke local speed ordinances and was participating in road racing, shame on me

HAHAHA cool! Now that will certainly clean up the threads in forehand!

I think the problem of the Lightning is his (relatively) lower wheel pressure on the rear wheels. He will more likely spin and will lose some valuable time there. A K&N Won't make any difference there. He should easy on the gas to keep the maximum grip (just like your TC does. Unless he has a dragster :histeric:

But that was a nice race!

 

[RobertCTS]

The Lightning is a Ford truck isn't it? Trucks have terrible traction with no weight on the rear wheels. Did your TC light come on? If it did it was slowing you down a tad. zoom ZOOM!

 

[OldRoadDawg]

Sunday night a friend and I went out for drinks.

'nuff said . .

 

[SdMarineGuy]

Ford Lightnings are FAST He was probably too drunk to shift these trucks run 12's on the 1/4 mile track.

 

[AznPrydeRegalRyde]

Sunday night a friend and I went out for drinks.
A few disclaimers for the people who will inevitably cry foul about the circumstances of this story:

I hope to god it was your passenger who had a drink, or you were drinkin' Shirley Temples. Otherwise, no matter how many disclaimers you've got, you're still a dumbass!!

 

[RobertCTS]

I hope to god it was your passenger who had a drink, or you were drinkin' Shirley Temples. Otherwise, no matter how many disclaimers you've got, you're still a dumbass!!

Learned my lesson not to preach on the Forum. Specially directly at someone.

 

[haute_heir]

I hope to god it was your passenger who had a drink, or you were drinkin' Shirley Temples. Otherwise, no matter how many disclaimers you've got, you're still a dumbass!!

Not fair or justified Azn. At no point in his story did he say that either himself or his friend were drunk or had a few too many. Don't jump to conclusions, give him the benefit of doubt that even though he did drink, he's smart enough being an adult to know better than driving/racing while wasted. Many times I have went out and had 2 or 3 drinks with buddies and then drove, like many other people do. Just because you've had a couple, doesn't mean your drunk or over the legal limit.

 

[SdMarineGuy]

Yea when I drink a lot and drive I just close 1 eye and the 2 roads turn into only one. Works very well. :stirpot:

 

[MikeB066]

Azn, you make a good point because I did not completely qualify my initial statement, but after all the Halloween partying Saturday night this was just two drinks and catching up. Some people can go out for a drink or two without getting sloshed. So we were not being completely irresponsible.

I lost a friend who was road racing while wasted, and he was the passenger. He and the driver got blitzed, then went out on one of the most heavily trafficked streets in Houston to race. They were racing a Corvette in a hot rod pickup when the driver lost control. Poor Jason was not wearing his seatbelt and went through the windshield and landed on a decoratively spiked steel fence. Of course the driver was fine, just some bruises. That ended any desire or inclination I would have had to race while intoxicated. I have lost more friends and family members to drunk drivers than any other cause of death so it is something I am particularly conscious about.

As some have pointed out, a pickup truck is hardly a good platform for a high performance automobile. I just found it funny that the mighty Lightning could be bested so easily. I had him for the 1/8 then he took me on the 1/4 mile. Frankly, I was surprised by that. I honestly did not think I had a chance against him other than to keep within two car lengths. The end result was shocking.

 

[AznPrydeRegalRyde]

I'm not gonna apolojize for sounding harsh, guys. This new rating system has you guys moaning about everything. Seriously, I really won't lose any sleep if I get a red square. This forum has gotten way too touchy-feely. Maybe this is why people never give Caddies credit. Their owner's are a bunch of sissies.

Anyhow, back on topic. Mike, sorry to hear you've lost to drunk driving. I have as well. I personally won't race if I've had any alcohol or green. Police set legal limits, so I guess as long as ya don't get caught for racing, you aren't doing anything illegal. I realize too, that it was late at night, no traffic, extremely safe conditions and that the racing was probably more dangerous to your health then the drinking and driving was.
I won't back down on my views tho. I personnally think there should be a no tolerance rule for drinking/driving. I agree, I can handle a couple drinks and have no ill affect on my driving. But I also know many people who can't. And on top of this, I most definitely won't race after having a couple drinks. I really think thats the height of stupidity.
With that said, the conditions were safe. The only illegal thing you were doing was racing, and I do that frequently under simialr conditions w/o the alcohol.

Stay safe.

 

[AznPrydeRegalRyde]

About the race. They are fast pickups, I've heard of stockers pulling really low 13's. But that just goes to show that even with autos, it's still a drivers race. Those Lightnings are only RWD. You can easily mod them tho, with an LSD's, drag slicks, and a chip and see middle 12's. My ex-PSD had loads more torque then this Lightning, but it had AWD, which I would launch with. Without slicks, or some driver skill, any car within even 2 seconds of this rig could beat it ina stop light to stop light race.

I love my Ford pickups, if ya haven't allready nopticed. I just love my CTS more.

 

[pjohnesq]

Yo Mike...a kill, is a kill,is a damn kill...great job on the first 1/2 block....actually, great job Period! The CTS has performed greater than I expected.....

 

[Guest]

Ford Lightnings are FAST He was probably too drunk to shift these trucks run 12's on the 1/4 mile track.

Um, it's an automatic. They run low to mid 13's bone stock. If the L driver knew how to drive his truck, he would have smoked the Caddy.

 

[onephatguy]

Yeah, it's nice to get excited about a half-win. But, I am going to have to say it was the driver, not the truck that half-lost this one.:bigroll:

 

[TripleOught]

just out of curiousity, has anyone in here ran a 3.6 and 3.2 side-by-side? i was curious as to how much a difference .4 liters made from car to car. anyone have any clue or idea? maybe a stock 3.6 and a modded 3.2?

if not, anyone in the detroit area with a 3.6 that wants to lose to my 3.2?

:want: :lildevil: :tease:

 

[SdMarineGuy]

just out of curiousity, has anyone in here ran a 3.6 and 3.2 side-by-side? i was curious as to how much a difference .4 liters made from car to car. anyone have any clue or idea? maybe a stock 3.6 and a modded 3.2?

if not, anyone in the detroit area with a 3.6 that wants to lose to my 3.2?

:want: :lildevil: :tease:

You can take a road trip to cali so I can loose to your 3.2

 

[haute_heir]

I'm not gonna apolojize for sounding harsh, guys. This new rating system has you guys moaning about everything. Seriously, I really won't lose any sleep if I get a red square. This forum has gotten way too touchy-feely. Maybe this is why people never give Caddies credit. Their owner's are a bunch of sissies.

Anyhow, back on topic. Mike, sorry to hear you've lost to drunk driving. I have as well. I personally won't race if I've had any alcohol or green. Police set legal limits, so I guess as long as ya don't get caught for racing, you aren't doing anything illegal. I realize too, that it was late at night, no traffic, extremely safe conditions and that the racing was probably more dangerous to your health then the drinking and driving was.
I won't back down on my views tho. I personnally think there should be a no tolerance rule for drinking/driving. I agree, I can handle a couple drinks and have no ill affect on my driving. But I also know many people who can't. And on top of this, I most definitely won't race after having a couple drinks. I really think thats the height of stupidity.
With that said, the conditions were safe. The only illegal thing you were doing was racing, and I do that frequently under simialr conditions w/o the alcohol.

Stay safe.

I must apologize for gettin all bitchy to ya Azn. I just thought he should have the benefit of the doubt. I also would like to reinstate that I also do not agree with driving drunk, and I too in the 5 years of driving have lost 6 friends in 1 head-on collision, and another 2 buddies this summer suffered severe brain injuries and unrepairable physical damage after colliding into each other on their street bikes (they were both drunk, both pulling into their culdesac... they were brothers). I think drunk driving hits home for pretty much everyone, I just don't get why people still do it??? Lets not have to report any tragedies of members...

 

[MikeB066]

Based on the last few posts I think we should get a little touchy-feely and now is the perfect opportunity. I did not fully qualify my original post which left me open to a LOT of criticism. That was my own fault. I harbor no ill will or malice toward anyone who posted emphasizing the potential downsides of my little story.

Azn is completely right that people have become really hyper-sensitive in these forums, and this is an opportunity to wake up and realize that everything is subjective. Forum posts contain a lot of information, but they can never be construed as the complete story. Let's not come down on someone or defend a stranger without all the facts. This is supposed to be a constructive forum for sharing information, swapping stories, and helping others. Building people up or tearing them down does little to serve any of those causes.

The reputation system has long term value because if people feel that your posts, whether they agree with them or not, contribute to the community then your rep will rise. If you are perceived as being a nay-sayer in all things without contributing then your stock will drop. So is the world.

I would like to think that I contribute some thought provoking material, one way or another, but based on some reactions to other threads I have contributed to perhaps I overvalue my contribution. Ultimately, don't let politics or worse, political correctness influence your vote on a user's reputation, base it solely on whether they delivered information that was useful, informative, or entertaining to you.

Just trying to be the voice of reason in an unsound world... Yes, I know it is hopeless, but I have this over developed martyr complex, you see?

 

[RobertCTS]

Based on the last few posts I think we should get a little touchy-feely and now is the perfect opportunity. I did not fully qualify my original post which left me open to a LOT of criticism. That was my own fault. I harbor no ill will or malice toward anyone who posted emphasizing the potential downsides of my little story.

Azn is completely right that people have become really hyper-sensitive in these forums, and this is an opportunity to wake up and realize that everything is subjective. Forum posts contain a lot of information, but they can never be construed as the complete story. Let's not come down on someone or defend a stranger without all the facts. This is supposed to be a constructive forum for sharing information, swapping stories, and helping others. Building people up or tearing them down does little to serve any of those causes.

The reputation system has long term value because if people feel that your posts, whether they agree with them or not, contribute to the community then your rep will rise. If you are perceived as being a nay-sayer in all things without contributing then your stock will drop. So is the world.

I would like to think that I contribute some thought provoking material, one way or another, but based on some reactions to other threads I have contributed to perhaps I overvalue my contribution. Ultimately, don't let politics or worse, political correctness influence your vote on a user's reputation, base it solely on whether they delivered information that was useful, informative, or entertaining to you.

Just trying to be the voice of reason in an unsound world... Yes, I know it is hopeless, but I have this over developed martyr complex, you see?

Mike,
You're OK with me.
Bob