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Posted by: LateForLunch ®
01/22/2022, 06:33:53
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Anyone who goes that fast on that street (I know it well) wants to die. No question. He tried to take some other people with him, so he should go to Hell for sure.
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Posted by: Russ Walden ®
01/22/2022, 13:04:46
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LFL -
The speed limit in Montana used to "reasonable and prudent." I was testing the concept late one moonlight night in Montana in a Jaguar XK140M. I was approaching 120 when the flashing red lights got me.
It was a friendly conversation after I recited the "reasonable and prudent" line. He admitted that he was just bored and wanted to see what kind of car it was. He did ask me, "How fast will that thing go?" I said I didn't know, but I was trying to find out when he stopped me. We parted congenially, but I got into the mountains soon thereafter, so I didn't try again. Wouldn't have been "prudent." :-)
Things we do when we are younger and dumber.
Take care, Russ
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Posted by: LateForLunch ®
01/22/2022, 15:37:10
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...but you beat my fastest (about 110 on a surface street in my hometown Monterey Park, California, in a Super Bee). No, I wasn't driving - an older brother's bud took me for a spin one day. I was about 10-11. Monterey Park has a wide road running through a little valley with industrial parks (Monterey Pass Road) where locals could wind out their muscle-cars without much chance of being ID'd or chased by LEOs before escaping into surrounding residential back streets. The cops didn't even bother chasing anyone 'cause they knew it was impossible to catch or I.D. them.
We hit a straightaway, he floored it and the speedometer hit 110. I remember feeling...pensive. I had a similar feeling when I went to the batting cage and stood in front of an 85-MPH fastball for the first time - I intuitively understood there was a quantum difference between what I was used to as a youngster and what was possible for adults.
I have a movie/T.V. electrician friend (named Ed) who likes to go fast - he 'bought a 280 "Z" back when it was one of the fastest stock cars you could get. Early one Sunday morning when there were no other cars on the road, he decided to test the limits by accelerating downhill on the southbound Hollywood Freeway (in what is known as the Cahuenga Pass). He was up at what he thought was 150+ when he suddenly realized he was still going the same direction at 150 MPH, but was now upside down. The car had flipped over and he naturally thought, "Well, this is it - I'm dead," but even after spinning around a few times, he eventually came to rest completely unharmed.
Not only was he lucky to survive but was not arrested. Unknown to him, that year the "Z" had a design flaw that made it prone to flipping over unexpectedly, so when he submitted the insurance claim, even though they knew he was probably speeding, there was no way to prove how fast he was going (no skid marks). So, because of the design-flaw issue, they didn't want a lawsuit, and just offered him a new car.
He chose not to reproduce the experiment with the new one.
Modified by LateForLunch at Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 15:56:57
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Posted by: Russ Walden ®
01/22/2022, 16:04:07
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". . . a surface street in my hometown Monterey Park" is a helluva difference from a moonlight highway in Montana, late at night. I prefer the latter. :-)
I had been on that road before, so I knew it was flat and straight for a considerable distance. I had not had that car very long, and was anxious to try it out.
Fun stuff.
Take care, Russ
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Posted by: LateForLunch ®
01/23/2022, 18:42:29
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Speeding in a developed community is usually reckless. In this case the young man was not being highly irresponsible - the area was a well-known strip for gearheads to traverse (the cops didn't bother trying to enforce much) - Pass Road was wide, lightly-traveled (mostly big slow trucks) with long driveways from the parking lots out onto the main street - the roar of an approaching 450 V-8 at full throttle was enough warning for most.
As I recall there were no major collisions caused by high-speed collisions on that road - I would have heard about it through the grapevine - Monterey Park was (and still is) sort of a small town by today's standards - word got around fast if people died in fiery car wrecks inside city limits.
Modified by LateForLunch at Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 19:24:40
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