It's so good....

It's been about one week since bringing home the 355. As rotten luck would have it I got pretty sick with some nasty flu/cold and the weather has been lousy. But finally, tonight I took my wife out to a nice dinner and we took "the new hotness"....

So I'm criusing down the freeway at a peaceful 70 mph and I see some lights of a sporty-car coming up behind me. It's a rice-burner with one of those huge exhaust tubes. He pulls up next to me and looks over....then he hits it and starts pulling away from me. With the slightest increase in pressure applied to the gas I effortlessly catch up to him (perhaps he needed a even larger exhaust tip??)...

So I match his acceleration and notice another hot-dogger coming up fast behind both of us, some kind of BMW. The Beamer moves past us and I let him get about 20-feet in front. At this point I'm upto 85-90 and the Beamer is probably pushing 100.

So I lean over to my wife with a big old grin (sorry Dave, this story doesn't involve Road-Head)..and give her the nod. I say "tighten your seatbelt, I'm dropping this ***** into some lower gearing and we're about to make the jump to light-speed"...

Now...I don't recall whether I went from 6th down to 5th or 4th.....whatever I did came instinctively, but it was profound. The exhaust burst aloud proclaiming the impending doom which was to lay waste and put to rest the undeniable thirst these cars have. Oh yeah, it was time to bring online the full potential of those 40 humming valves and open up a can of whoop-ass.

The 355 just pulled away from those cars and just plain put them in the rear view mirror so fast it wasn't funny. In fact, it happened so fast it was almost of no consequence.

After putting significant distance on both fallen prey....I decided to let up. A quick glance at the speedometer showed me dropping down through 140 mph....and I the 355 wasn't even near slowing on the acceleration!!!

Eventually the rice-burner and BMW caught up. Both drivers had a HUGE smile on their face and gave me the thumbs up. We cruised until our offramp.
I'm still blown-away at how easily this thing runs at speed. At 140 mph it feels like most cars at 85 mph.

Ya know...this thing could become real addictive...ya think?

 

But the nice part was that the other guy was cool about it, when he caught up (after I shut it down and cruised back to 70mph) he was all smiles, thumbs-up & happy. He could have flipped me off or given me the hateful look.

I'm a bit tied in modifying the exhaust. I keep struggling with the notion of spending $3,800 to just blow a few more decibels out the rear. Despite whatever income I have...I just keeping working the value-per-dollar and find myself coming up short for that kind of money.

The other issue is this: the only time you want that noise is when your on the hammer and want to sound loud. All the rest of the time it's about the music and enjoying yourself. My wife is already mentioning how loud it is...do I really want to take it louder????

I've heard that I can take some baffles out of the stock exhaust, that ought to make it a bit louder. Either that or wait for a deal on a used exhaust. I'm sure the tubi/Capristo sound great...but what about after a couple hours and when you wanna enjoy some sweet tunes as you cruise up the coast.

HEY, this thread was about cookin' rice. And Tony...where's my larger picture of those two hot-asses??? you promised!

- Steve

 

ahhh....just ass promised

got any front-shots of that? I was so impressed I had my wife take a look. Ah the wonders of spandex & lycra!!!

 

Well...since I didn't get a 'vette (like the millions of other guys who score a few bucks)....I'm both inclined & obligated to dis 'em.

The vette is like any other American car. It looks like a sports car, it has your typical high horsepower American muscle that can pull out and pull some good speed, BUT you can't turn 'em, you can't brake 'em and aside from a straight-out stretch of highway...the F-car will toast 'em.

The F-cars are based on true race car evolution. The vette is all about GM trying to make what looks like a real sport car. When you get them upto speed, the F-car is at home and stable as a rock....the American car makes ya wonder what your life insurance policy is rated for.

This thread was just about my first experience being "challenged", just sharing an experience....didn't want to turn it into brand competition thing. I'm sure there are plenty of faster cars. I bet there's a few VW bugs with HUGE engines that will leave me in the dust. No biggy. What I've learned is this: there's power, speed, handling and all sorts of categories to address...BUT there's just something about a Ferrari and the experience that can't be captured, labelled or understood until you own one.

...and that's all I have to say about that. Life's like a box of chocolates: you never know when a Ferrari will come screamin' and make you drop the box.