treynor
Enthusiast
It was bound to happen eventually - with the gorgeous weather here in NorCal, both my wife and I were driving our convertibles. She took the SL65, while I opted for our supercharged Viper SRT/10. As fate would have it, we met up for dinner before heading home.. and afterward found ourselves driving home side by side. A red light with two clear lanes beckoned. I clicked over and took the free lane, looked my wife in the eye, and revved the V10. She grinned back, and it was ON.
I checked the rearviews carefully, but there was nary a cop around and the road (bayshore fwy) was 50 MPH with no side streets or parked cars. I brought the revs to 1100 and watched the light like a hawk. The cross light went yellow, I eased the clutch slightly out until it began to catch... GREEN! I feathered out the clutch and rolled smoothly into the throttle to get the SRT moving, the same technique which netted me low 1.9 60's at the 'strip. The SRT bit and I nailed the throttle. Alongside me my wife was accelerating as well, and the SL65's turbos came online at almost the same moment as I went WOT in the Viper. The two cars lunged forward instantly with the raspy scream of 22 cylinders and 1500 combined horsepower. The SL started to PULL the Viper (!!) momentarily as its midrange torque kicked in, but then the Viper surged back to parity as the SL's turbos ran out of steam and the Viper's Novi2000 reached peak boost. With a howl of protesting rubber, both cars lost traction at the same time at ~40 MPH, but the SL's electronic brain reacted more quickly than I and the SL pulled a full carlength as I scrambled for 2nd gear. A moment later the SL shifted as well and the Viper started reeling it in... until 70 MPH when the blown SRT spun its tires *again* (argh!) and the SL sailed away. Liz shut down at about 100, but the race was effectively over - the SL's traction control and monster midrange were too much of an advantage over the Viper's limited grip, and in 3rd gear the Viper wasn't gaining on the SL. With stickier tires or a longer race I think it would have been a different story, but that race has yet to be run.
So the current score: Wife:2, Treynor:0
I checked the rearviews carefully, but there was nary a cop around and the road (bayshore fwy) was 50 MPH with no side streets or parked cars. I brought the revs to 1100 and watched the light like a hawk. The cross light went yellow, I eased the clutch slightly out until it began to catch... GREEN! I feathered out the clutch and rolled smoothly into the throttle to get the SRT moving, the same technique which netted me low 1.9 60's at the 'strip. The SRT bit and I nailed the throttle. Alongside me my wife was accelerating as well, and the SL65's turbos came online at almost the same moment as I went WOT in the Viper. The two cars lunged forward instantly with the raspy scream of 22 cylinders and 1500 combined horsepower. The SL started to PULL the Viper (!!) momentarily as its midrange torque kicked in, but then the Viper surged back to parity as the SL's turbos ran out of steam and the Viper's Novi2000 reached peak boost. With a howl of protesting rubber, both cars lost traction at the same time at ~40 MPH, but the SL's electronic brain reacted more quickly than I and the SL pulled a full carlength as I scrambled for 2nd gear. A moment later the SL shifted as well and the Viper started reeling it in... until 70 MPH when the blown SRT spun its tires *again* (argh!) and the SL sailed away. Liz shut down at about 100, but the race was effectively over - the SL's traction control and monster midrange were too much of an advantage over the Viper's limited grip, and in 3rd gear the Viper wasn't gaining on the SL. With stickier tires or a longer race I think it would have been a different story, but that race has yet to be run.
So the current score: Wife:2, Treynor:0
