On to Clark Speedway!
Back to the story, I asked my buddy, let’s call him Mark, to go watch at Clark. Also suffering from the need-for-speed itch, he got prepared in under 20 seconds and asked me back what am I waiting for? Oh and get this, he owns an SR20DE powered owner jeep, smoked a lot of hond… other cars. By the way, SR20DE/T engines are referred to as Baby Godzillas. So off we go, departed at around 9 am, with Mark on the passenger seat as the navigator, we left the smoker owner sleeping in the garage and took the A31 cefiro to economize on fuel. Well, taking 2 vehicles is a bit heavy on the pocket fuelwise. We are just going to watch anyways, not race.
We fueled up at our favorite gas station who pumps out the cheapest gas in the area and before we knew it, we were entering the NLEX toll gate from Mindanao Avenue. I could barely control the urge to floor the gas pedal when I saw the spectacularly enticing, clean, wide, smooth asphalt that lay before us after passing the toll gate. Gas is expensive, gas is expensive… was my motivating phrase to control the urge. We started to look for vehicles to draft from. We kept switching from cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks as we built up speed and each of them slowed down. We stuck with each vehicle travelling fast enough but not sacrificing fuel economy. Everytime a faster vehicle passed by, we switched to drafting it until it slows down or another passes by. In the middle of the Bulacan stretch (I did not notice where we were exactly and I am not familiar with NLEX either), we were already drafting at around 100 kph on my speedometer. You can feel the wind resistance’s effect rise when you get out of the draft.
Then this Mercedes SUV came along, an older version of the Brabus I think, who was running faster than the one we are currently drafting. I decided to draft it instead quickly changing lanes. The driver got irked somehow of my quick lane-change and very close tail gating that the SUV pulled away so quickly and left us clear out of the draft.
I just sat there for a second and tried to think if it was really enough to offend him with my maneuver. I was just trying to save fuel by tail-gating him, I mean drafting. And we were left there admiring his incredible acceleration rate. From my past experiences, only 3.6 liter gas fed engines can accelerate like that. Then in a flash, like a sudden poke from behind, it dawned on me, he wants to play “catch up if you can!” Backed up by an ego the size of a 30-wheeler “road-train” truck, I downshifted 2 gears down, floored the gas pedal, released the clutch at 5500 rpm and away we go! I let the blow-off valve (BOV) rip on the upshift, released the clutch before the rpm went down below 4500, and the SUV’s acceleration seemed to slow maintaining the considerable lead. 30 seconds into the run, I was reminded by my navigator to let the turbo breathe by releasing the gas pedal for a millisecond, it let loose a startling loud mix of a hiss and a boom which sounded like a blood curdling scream of an extremely pissed monster (sounds like Godzilla?!?). This is the closest I can describe it, with adrenaline disrupting the delicate senses. At almost 7000 rpm, blow-off valve rips again, simultaneous with 5th gear upshift. With no more gear left, I took quick alternating gaze on the road ahead and my gauge cluster, taking mental notes of the distance of the SUV and the vehicles up ahead, estimating all of their speed in relation to ours. I flashed a glimpse at the speedometer which now quickly passed 175 kph. When I returned my attention to the road ahead, the 2 lanes were blocked by vehicles up ahead and we are closing in incredibly fast, with the SUV now only 2 meters ahead on the other lane. I quickly slammed on the brakes just enough for a controlled threshold skid, too much wheel lock and we will make the headlines next day. Blow-off valve released a very disappointed scream when I released the gas pedal. While maintaining a controlled, high rate of deceleration on skid threshold, I noticed the SUV’s brake light illuminate, and see him glide uncontrollably towards the center of the highway effectively occupying 2 lanes. Thanks to his antilock braking system (ABS), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), traction control system (TCS), emergency brake assist (EBA), electronic stability control (ESC) and whatever alphabet noodle soup combinations installed on those expensive SUVs, the driver was able to control his pretty quick deceleration. As for me, I do not have any noodle soup combinations on my car, but I have GOD watching over me, plus the skills he gave me, is what I faithfully believe can safely stop any car I drive.
After slowing down and waiting for the blockers to open up, he proceeded to overtake past the blockers and we followed suit. This time, the SUV maintained a steady 100 kph. From my point of view, the driver is still gathering his wits that got scattered during the panic braking. I pulled up beside and took a glance at the driver but the window was tinted. I think I poked him again by pulling up beside him because as soon as I looked at the driver’s window, he sped up again. Wanna clearly see who’s fast and who will be furious eh!?
Here we go again! Find out who wins on Part 4….
Kapatid, where’s your Part 4?