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I won $100 this morning... but the sorry a** loser didn't give me the money.

I parked next to a guy who was also just parking at Denny’s when I went to get breakfast this morning. He had a blue 350Z. When I revved the engine before turning off the car (my dad taught me to do it whenever I parked because it’s better for the battery, I’m not some retarded punk kid), the guy and his friend/brother/whatever looked over as he was getting out of his car. When I stepped out, he said, "Nice car, how fast is it?"

I replied, "Not that fast, but fast enough for my grandpa driving a**."

"What's it got?"

"Not much, just bolt-ons... maybe 450 or so at the crank."

"I've got a turbo kit on mine, and I want to test it out, but nobody wants to race me."

"I'll bet," I figured I'd patronize him a bit, make him feel good about the money he spent. Plus, I don't like street racing. "I wouldn't want to mess with you either."

"Come on, let's race, the freeway's right there." He then added, "I'll give you $100 if you beat me."

That caught my ear (yes, I'm so poor that $100 gets my attention). I remembered reading about a Greddy turbo kit in Car and Driver that made the car have a bit over 350 horses to match the 350Z name, and I figured that he had exhaust and stuff to bump it a bit more. So maybe his car and Jenny's power to weight ratios were about the same. It would be an interesting race.

"What if I lose?" I asked, not having nor wanting to lose $100 myself.

"Nothing," he answered.

At that point, I knew he wasn't going to give me $100 if I won, but my curiousity was perked. I knew it's stupid to race, but it was kinda dry now after yesterday's rain... and there wasn't much traffic on I-80 yet. So we got back in our cars and I followed him to the freeway entrance which was just down the street less than a hundred yards. When I lined up next to him and dropped Jenny into 2nd, I put up 3 fingers and pointed to him to do the honking. With the popularity of "Street Fire dot com" just about everyone knows the "3 honks" start, so he figured it out and started the honking.

I was lucky enough to see him through his window and watch the honks so I could have a visual reaction rather than auditory (people react faster to visual stimuli than they do audio), and when I saw him start to press it the third time, I got on it just in time to start at the 3rd horn, canceling out most of the honker's advantage (everyone reacts faster to their own actions).

I think he still got a few inches on me at the start, but we ran pretty much even, with Jenny's sexy engine sounds barely able to be heard over his more free-flowing exhaust. When I pushed the shifter up into 3rd, I fell back half a car or so. I got scared because I thought he was just going to keep pulling away!

"Come on, Jenny, please! You can do this!" I spoke to her encouragingly.

At that point, it seemed like she listened and came alive, because that's when we started walking up and passing him. It was so exciting, and I was all "YES BABY! YOU DID IT!" I kept on it up to 135-140 mph, when we had a huge lead by then and she was at redline in 3rd and ready for me to shift her up into 4th. I took the next exit and made my way back to the Denny's and waited for him to come back for 15 minutes. But as I expected, he didn't show up with my $100.