That Empty Feeling
 

I was on my way to work (7 hour commute from Bay City Texas to MOrgan City Louisiana) when at a small town along the way I find myself at a stop light. All of a sudden a riced out (but nicely riced) Celica GTS pulls in beside me. The first thing I notice is the obnoxious exhaust note taunting me as the driver rev's his challenge to me. The next thing I notice is how the pretty young girl in the passenger seat is smiling wide (I just know they where talking bad things about my RX8). And finally I notice the lights turn yellow on the crosslanes, green will soon be here. As my foot lightly presses the gas, something comes to mind. (So many forum members are pitted against street racing. So many have pointed out the dangers and the stupidity.) The ricer inside me guns my engine once, I know I can take him, but not only to wipe the silly grin off their faces, but to show my 8 that we dominate. I scan the streets, its 1:30 in the morning, streets are empty, no cops nowhere. (Again I remember the countless posts about "Keeping it on the Track") FInally green, and tires screech to high heaven, breaking the still silence of the early morning. And I see the Celica's lights pull away as I accelerate normally. I didnt take the bait. I did the responsible thing didnt I? Then why do I feel so empty? Is it just me, or can I feel the shame my poor 8 is feeling too? I shiver a few times trying to shake the ill feeling, then continue on my way to work. And here I am now, offshore on an oil platform typing this post, feeling like I disappointed my only son. Its just a car, ISNT IT?

LOOk, you did do the right thing...think of this:

What if I caused, somehow, for the stupid kid to crash into something. Killing himself, his girlfriend...or someone else.

What if I crashed my beloved 8 or killed myself or someone else.

I understand your pain, like if you punked out or something...like you let your RX8 down or something...don't do that, you did the right thing. What did you lose that night? You know you are faster...then who cares what that guy thought.

If anything make somes cards and tell people like that...that you will meet them on a track time and date here please: (On the back...here is a preview of my rear lights for future refrence)

Note: You care too much about someone other than yourself or what you APPEAR to be to end up hurting someone out of stupidity or imiturity.

GROW UP!!!

That's the card...now we need to make them for all of us!

Good luck...and don't worry about it, perception or apparance means nothing in real life!

You big pussy!!!

J/K :D ... it's not worth going to jail for... and there's too many stupid kids with no real driving experience that spend all day watching the Fast and the Furious over and over out there... accidents waiting to happen.

Seeing this post, sometimes I wish my car can do this.

https://www.rx8club.com/image.php?u=...ine=1074055762

That'll show them! :D

LOL...I wish it could too...LOL

You aren't immature for wanting to smoke the Celica. It's almost like an instinct for me. I always like to take off from a stop light and leave everyone behind. Not street racing definately, but it's like a mini-rush.

You did the right thing, but know how you feel. It sucks to have to swallow your pride sometimes.

You actually made the dumbass in the celica look like a moron. You know your car's faster, so you didn't need to prove it to him. I love doing this to people. They rev their engine, I rev mine, and then let them take off and squeal tires while I calmly take off at a normal pace. Save the fun stuff for real challenges, like Tail of the Dragon and the track.

I had a RX7 pass me going opposite directions. I saw him but didn't pay a lot of attention except I did notice he was paying a lot of attention to my car. He raced down to an intersection and turned around in hot pursuit of my RX8. I'm driving 55 and he's screaming to catch up. He pulls along side and looks at me ;) ... I look at him.. I have this HUGE $#1% eating grin on my face. :D He just knew we were about to take off. He floored it and I didn't budge off of my 55. He apparently got pissed and aggressively slowed down to give another go. He had a look of disgust and I still was grinning like a jackass eating briars. As we approached a section of the road he could cross over to go the other direction, he slammed on his brakes, thru it into a beautifully controlled slide for a 180, and screamed off into the sunset. Me, I still couldn't wipe that ear-to-ear grin which broke into a belly laugh. I truly enjoyed that brief interlude. All said, you can enjoy your car for what it is (which is awesome) and let those guys do their thing. Take it to the track when you get that itch. :D

I agree with everything you guys (and you too elara) have said. Doesnt make it feel any better though. I mean, let me get your opinions on this. Empty street, very late night/early morning. No bystanders, just you, your oponant, and the road. Would a quick stop light to stop light drag hurt anything? Because seriously, I think my 8 will be calling me a pu$$y in my dreams tonight. I mean, it is frustrating when I hear people say bad things about the 8 like its lack of hp, its lack of torque, and all the other comments that uneducated people say about rotaries. I think every now and then we just have to let our 8 do the talking on these lonely desolate streets, and one by one, word will spread that the 8 is nothing to be laughed at, but respected. Or am I already dreaming?

I have been in similar situations on my motorcycle where stupid people think their Mustang or Camaro can dust 600cc+ Sportbike. When the light goes green, I let those retards take off. Every once and a while, ill let them go 100 yards down the road,and then ill zoom past him and give him the finger and slow the hell down. I agree with the keep it on the track mentality. Ever since I started getting into racing and track days, I have given up street riding on my motorcycle. Doing 130mph down a straight before leaning your bike into an 100mph corner takes the excitement out of riding in Atlanta traffic. Thats why I got my 8...high revving motorcycle like fun with 4 wheels + 4 doors.

this is a hard thing to do.... i do it from time to time.
but once the other car screams off like a dumbass, i just laugh and say out loud..
"ha ha, made u jump" :D



plus, i dont see the need to waste gas on the other guy...

i was gas pedal happy at the earlier days when i got my 8.. but have learned from them. ;) .. i guess i got it out of my system after a while...

I used to match the "rev on" thing and then fool the stupid fuck in the other lane, and then a bunch of fellow RX-8 clubbers flamed me for saying I enjoyed doing that.

Now I go the opposite scam route. If the guy doesn't look like he's going to pull a gun or anything, I just roll down the window and talk to him and complement his way cool car and how fast it must be. Then the light turns green and i motor off and he motors off all confused.

Think of it this way: is the empty feeling of not giving into the racing instinct worse than the empty feeling of having been beaten by some hopped up piece of crap?

I'm with Elara on this one. Let the racers enjoy the empty feeling of having pulled a perfect launch only to realize they're racing only themselves and the ultimate demise of their tires, transmission and engine.

Oh, OK, sure, win a few fair races...on the twisties. We own that piece of the performance envelope.

I don't know if you've ever actually tried to race from light to light in your 8, Catalyst, but you probably saved your dignity by not racing the other car. The 8's tremendously slow from a dead stop. Or from anywhere from 0 to 20, for that matter. If you were on the highway, he'd be seeing your taillights off in the distance. As for whether what you were wanting to do was right or wrong, that's totally subjective (aside from that thing called the law), but for me, personally, I reiterate a sentiment I've expressed before: a sports/performance car is meant to do more than look pretty.

Silver, did you finally get your 8 back up and running?

Seems like when I drop the clutch at 4K Im doing over 20 in less then a second. I guess thats tremendously slow. Sometimes I wonder about the people on this forum. Do you know how to drive a rotary? Cause it dosent seem like it.

I drive my 8 the same way I ride my Gixxer. Nobody ever seems to bother me...

"Now I wanted to tell Chip that it was a bad idea... but I was high, so all that came out was 'Well nigga, sometimes you gotta race, shit, I don't know'"- Dave Chappelle

Thats whay I NEVER give my friends rides in my 8, they tend to instigate events.

I drive an A/T, and I wasn't necessarily speaking about a launch, so getting to 20mph IS tremendously slow compared to a manual, but thanks for the attitude anyway, Niga. Apparently you have the low-end torque that no other 8 owner has.

Well, there is a huge difference off the line with the 6MT... the AT crawls up to 30-40mph before taking off.

This explains everything...AT really kills the RX8, go get a 6spd...LOL

theCAT it seems you want us to approve you raceing people in the street but while I've done it once (being stupid) with my Probe GT (I took the guy in the CRX) I think you did the right thing...and when you do the right thing there is no remorse.

If you want to race and not listen...that's up to you, but I think you did the right thing and should not have EGO problems now because of it. If you want to make your EGO feel better go get a Viper...500HP tends to make those punks go away without even looking at you twice.

But, I understand your issue. How will you feel better about it, well remember you did the right thing and the RX8's EGO was not hurt at all...it's to sexy and sepcial to care about a Celica...I mean please!

Good luck getting over this! :D

You think *you* felt bad, how about the two in the celica when they saw that *they* took the bait - alone. Be proud. How did the girl feel when she realized who she was with? Or the guy when he knew he had to face the girl? Virtue sometimes is its own reward - or seems so, anyway.

Reminds me of the classic scene in To Kill a Mockingbird, when the racist spits in Gregory Peck's face. Every nerve in Peck's body screams out to belt the guy into next week, but he gains control of himself. Meanwhile the racist is cowering from the blow he expects to fall on him.

I have to go against the grain on this one. I don't condone street racing, but to quench you thirst you should have. If it causes you so much agony to post on this board and sweat at night.. hell I wouldn't have given it a second thought. You said so yourself "1:30 in the morning, streets are empty," etc etc. Enjoy what you paid for. Doesn't mean do it every time, but let's be honest people, we arent' all saints al the time. Flame away... :cool:

It would have been close. My bro has a GTS and are easy to tune. ;)

Nice job! Don't race on the streets. It's not worth it if something bad happens. They don't call them accidents for nothing.

Here's a funny thing that happened on Thanksgiving day. My brother in law came over for dinner, and since he hadn't had a chance to take my car out for a spin before, we jumped in and took it around a few blocks. I drove it first to familiarize him with its handling, and to make sure it was fully warmed before it was fully flogged.

So, he jumped in, and I warned him about how quickly you can end up bouncing off the rev limiter if you're not careful. He started out well enough. Not speeding or anything, just going down an empty street jerking the wheel back and forth marvelling at how light on its feet the car is. Next we come to a stop light where there's a car already waiting for the light to turn green. When the light turned green, we start take off but not much is going on. He realizes he has it in third and not first. He corrects and stomps on it through first, into second we catch up to the car that was at the light, then the car jerks back and forth a couple times. He was bounced it off the rev limiter twice, then realized that he should shift.

The whole time we were talking and laughing about his crappy driving, but I guess the guys in the car that was at the light thought he was trying to race him. They began to rev their engine and such. It was a Sentra SER :rolleyes: Anyhow, they took off as fast as they could pedal their little car and we continued on cruising in third up to the next light still laughing at how crappy my brother in law's driving is.

I think the nerve is hit on street racing. I have seen accounts here in CO where folks were racing on the streets, 1 am, 2 am and other times. I have seen what is left of the cars that lost control, the cars that hit others not racing, the deaths, the crying parents, the crying wifes. Hey!! its just not worth it. Let the ricer go and enjoy the fact you still have your car, you didn't get a ticket, you didn't kill someone. Go to a drag race track, pay the entrance fees and race that ricer one on one. I know I have seen a post somewhere on the AT and manual race issues and a guy there said he owned an AT and a manual and he didn't see where the manual has all that advantage. The RX8 is a good all around car and not a drag racer no matter what you have.

Plus, you'll have a much better story/memory if you don't race him. You'll talk about this event much more than if you had beaten him. ("Wow, I beat a Celica tonight.") My dad still talks about one time he was driving my Porsche 928. Two punks in a beat up 4X4 pulled up at a light next to him and revved the engine. One says "Want to get it on?" My dad calmly looks over at their beast and says "Yeah, right."

Maybe this will help: About 10 years ago, I was in my supercharged Miata (which, honestly, was not terribly quick; maybe 0 - 60 in 6.5 seconds), and I came up next to an E36 M3 driven by a 40s-ish fellow.

We were on a back street with no one around, and I revved and revved and pulled away and slowed down, trying to get him to race me. He didn't rise to my bait. And guess what?

Ever since then, I have felt like a total idiot whenever I recall that episode. I've always thought that he showed real class in ignoring me, and that I did a ridiculous thing. I suspect the other guy in your story feels a bit stupid now, too.

Clearly you have never driven a celica(my gf has one, I drive it occasionally)...they are excruciatingly weak from an acceleration standpoint. That is why they are chick cars, they look great, but have no power. I think it has the same engine as a corolla.

I don't think it's terrible to take off, but just accelerate until to the speed limit to prove your point

CATALYST has got the touch, he's been bitten! Need For Speed!

GTS buddy? Try same engine as the Lotus Elise

sorry...the GT has the corolla engine...it is still not as fast as an 8

Oh...well, in that case, Catalyst should have smoked that dude! Thanks for the clarification. That's hysterical now that I think about it.

You did the right thing. You feel empty because down deep you really wanted to try him and his pretty girl. It's an ego thing. Nothing to be ashamed of. You showed maturity, which can sometimes be hard in a car like the 8.

Well this video will make you feel better...

http://www.350zmotoring.com/forums/a...ic/9026-1.html

This video has been out for years, I think everyone here agrees that the driver was driving like a grandma.

In other words, no one cares try something new next time.

P.S. the rx8 beat all the other cars off the line. Hmm.

The MY03+ is pretty damn close.

...and this proves what? The Lotus is a fast car because it is VERY LIGHT and not so much because the Celica engine is soo soo good. I think the Celica is OK (still a chick car) and it's engine is NICE...but the RX8 Vs "stock" Celica...no race at all, just the Celica "chick" looking at the great RX8 rear lights.

Ego aside theCAT...you did the right thing, go take it to a track and regain your EGO!

My dad had an 03 Celica GTS, it seemed pretty quick to me. This ricer I am sure had modded the engine as much as the body (I would hope so anyway.) But in the end, isnt it all in the DRIVER?
Speaking of tracks, anyone know of a track near Bay City Texas? I dont recall knowing of any, but would like to find one. I do let my 8 sing now and then on single lane country roads late at night (there are a lot of these roads where I live, just you, the 8, and rows upon rows of farmland) and only danger there is a deer or hog jumping out in the way, in which case it and I would be in trouble depending on how fast I managed to get. I know the RX8 isnt all that fast, but its at these times, on these roads, when all I know is the hum of my rotary, the line where my headlights stop and darkness begins, my 8 urging me onward (faster) as she beeps her warning of redline, and we could be doing 100, or 600 miles an hour, it doesnt matter, because nothing comes between the love a man has for his car, and the love she gives back when, uh oh, 6th gear, a few more RPM's to work with!!!

she is a tempting mistress....you can just hear it in the back of your mind....come on....don't you want to go just a little faster???....

Every time I get tempted....I remember I have 4 kids.........that will have a shitty life if their dad kills himself in a car. I have rally raced, and done some track racing.....but the streets scare me. You may be a great driver.....It's always the other idiots that get you killed.

Perfectly said...bravo!