Wow. What a blast! It's been so long since I was in a real, live impromptu race. And, I won, too! Made me feel 20 years younger.
Driving the Jetta into San Francisco for dinner with some friends on Thursday night, I take my offramp and notice a black 1996-99ish Benz E class on my bumper as I'm coming to the first stop sign. Second stop is a right turn, blind corner with a flashing yellow - I come to just about a full stop, as I always do right there, to check for the usual speeding traffic, and black Benz starts honking. I pull around the corner and Benz zooms into the lane on my left, then has to hit his brakes hard for the red light. I look at frantic Mr. Benz, and notice that he's obviously in a ridiculous hurry, and looking over at us, so I say, " Are you really in THAT big of a hurry?". To my surprise, he says, "Yes, I am!" Eyes wide, and face flushed, he looks like he's gonna blow a gasket.
We're laughing as the light turns green and Benz nails it, so I do, too. It's an industrial area - so what the hell? Tires squealing and hopping, I'm fighting TDI torque steer as I realize that I'm keeping ahead of him. I can hear his engine yelling, and I know he's trying, but my lead is growing as we crest a small hill and see the next red light. What do you know - Taxi in his lane, but mine's clear. I love it when that happens.
I let off and come up quickly on the light, and Benz gets behind me. We laugh some more as we see the guy mouthing the word with a puzzled look on his face - biodiesel? Then, as he's reading the big silver sticker on the back window, "Powered by recycled vegetable oil", I reach down and flick on the evry mod. Red light turns green and black Benz turns blacker. "I smoked him" took on a whole new meaning. Once past the taxi, Benz jerked it into the left lane again, unable to keep pace or see clearly, just as I was slowing to take my fast approaching right. He finally roars by me as I'm turning onto the side street. We had another good laugh about it at dinner - if only the guy knew that I beat him while running on waste oil right out of the fryer of a restaurant only blocks from where our little showdown took place!
I guess my age is showing though: 20 years ago it was Mustangs vs Camaros, now I'm racing suits in their E-Class Benzes. Still, the same old thrill was there.