Early today, I approached an intersection to turn left onto an on-ramp of a local freeway. I selected the outside (open) lane of 2 left turn lanes that feed into this 2-lane on-ramp. A Mustang GT was sitting beside me at the red light in the inside lane.

The two ramp lanes merge into one lane before you reach the freeway, so when the green arrows light up, *everyone* races around the corner and up the ramp to reach the merge point first! The on-ramp has a very tight curve at the bottom, so you can spin out and end up in the grass if you're not careful.

I knew I had to get a good start. Not only did I want to reach the merge point first, I also wanted to avoid being right next to him in the curve. As we sat there in our cars, side-by-side at the light, I eagerly awaited the green arrows.

When the arrows blazed, I hit the gas pedal hard, taking off with no wheelspin. Mr Mustang spun a little before he could effectively give chase, which gave me a half-car-length lead at once.

As we entered the tight curve at the bottom of the ramp, I was still slowly pulling ahead. Much to my relief, I was completely ahead of him as we entered the tight curve. Good. No trading paint...

As I accelerated through the curve at the bottom of the ramp, my car was absolutely planted in my lane. As I approached the merge point, I checked my driver side mirror to see where he was. At that moment, he was about 3 car-lengths behind me, obviously out of the gas and just recovering from a severe sideways attitude. The rear end of his car had wandered into my lane after all. He had nearly spun out completely.

I pulled hard all the way up the ramp. I hit the freeway over 200 yards ahead of him, at which point I slowed down to the speed limit and engaged cruise control. A short time later, Mr. Mustang roared by me at triple digits, but I was laughing too hard to give chase. Besides, that particular stretch of freeway is a well-known speed trap. I thought I might get a chance to see him get spanked twice in less than 1 minute, but no such luck!

I haven't had a chance to do that in a while. What fun!



'03 G35 5AT Sedan, Garnet Fire/Willow
18x8 SSR GT1/Bridgestone S03/Eibach

 

Its always nice to get ahead of cars that THINK they have no problem of getting there first. In your case, it was all over right from the beginning. Two closely matched cars require no mistakes from the driver and who ever gets traction first.
You were on top of your game!

2003 G35 Sedan 6MT
14.35 @ 98.62

 

LOL, this doesn't surprise me, I went from a '00 Mustang GT into my G35, and I was driving the GT one day, and had a tad bit of trouble keeping up with a guy in a G35, so I had to check them out!

Brilliant Silver '04 Sedan

 

I get the impression many folks do not appreciate how quick our G35s are. Put a decent set of tires/wheels on them, add lowering springs & anti-roll bars, and look out! I don't really mind running below the radar, though. Stealthy is good...

'03 G35 5AT Sedan, Garnet Fire/Willow
18x8 SSR GT1/Bridgestone S03/Eibach