Wanna drive fast? Now’s your chance!
7Over March and April this year, the highways and freeways have been nearly empty. Just a few truckers and the people who need to be on the road have been out.
Now the traffic is coming back.
If you wanna remember what’s lt like to drive stupid-fast for a few hundred yards;
and if you happen to be in close enough to a flat, level, safe, dry, wide-laned, well-designed, empty completely rural road w no curves and high visibility:
Next week, that road will have traffic. Possibly even at 3am.
Tonite, it might not.
So, hit that accelerator!
(For a few hundred yards, perhaps)
Or don’t.
And watch out for all the idiot deer and other night critters.
Any traffic citations, arrests, impoundments, accidents, vehicle damage, injuries, relationships damage, increased insurance premiums, co-pays, rehab, subsequent feelings of adolescent-stupidity-remorse, etc, etc, etc, are entirely the driver’s responsibility.
PS. You are supposed to do this only when:
Completely rural - hopefully, no buildings in sight
Road completely empty, straight, and in great shape
You are a sober, responsible fully adult person
You are a good driver
Hopefully, you have no passengers.
If you do have passengers, they are also sober, responsible, full adults, and they freely agree to this
No inclement weather
Vehicle in good shape.
/giphy stupid fast
By next week, we’ll all be checking for bad traffic and picking the least congested route again.
- 11 comments, 27 replies
- Comment
I paid twenty dollars to drive my minivan around the track at Richmond International Raceway. Best deal ever.
@sammydog01
@sammydog01 what was your max speed?
@sammydog01 how many times did you get to drive around?
@tinamarie1974 They had a pace car and it was maybe 60? But the track is heavily banked. It was scary. I need to do it again.
https://www.richmondraceway.com/About/RR-Cares/Track-Laps.aspx
@RiotDemon Five laps. It was mostly muscle cars. And one minivan.
@sammydog01 60 banking in a minivan sounds scary. I miss driving my Ranger on the off ramps on the highway. They’d have a sign posted for 25mph and I’d hit those things around 50.
Driving a TC wasn’t too bad either. Totally different feeling. So low to the ground. The ranger cab rolled a lot more.
@RiotDemon TC?
@sammydog01
/image scion tc
@RiotDemon Ooh, pretty!
@sammydog01 they were alright. Made by Toyota. Unfortunately it wasn’t really Toyota Camry quality.
Sporty though.
@RiotDemon @sammydog01 that is cute
@sammydog01 I did the same thing last summer at Richmond. I would purposely lag behind the car in front of me, then floor it. I got up to about 75-80 and would climb the banking in the turns. My friend in the passenger seat thought we were going to scrape the wall a few times.
Cripes around here they go incredibly fast anyway. Over 90 for sure and I’d bet faster than that on occasion. Sometimes they just fly by you in a blink of an eye in a 70mph zone where the slow lane is going 80. And then there was the day 2 motorcyclists were doing wheelies down the highway. And speeding. I dropped way back so if they caused a pile up I could avoid that.
Dad once did that with the 1940 Packard (which was 25+ years old at the time). I don’t remember how fast he went but it was fast enough he and mom had “words” over it.
The fastest I ever got to go in a car was around 130. I was the passenger in a 66 Chevelle. It was exhilarating. I didn’t know it was going to happen.
While driving I’ve gone around 105 in a Ranger and around 100 in a sedan.
One day I’d love to go to the drag strip. It’s just not safe on the street.
@RiotDemon Holy shit! Was that on a straight section of a highway (the 130mph)? I am not even sure the cars I have owned would even go that fast despite what they have the speedometer numbered up to. Are you sure your profession shouldn’t be race car driver?
In one of the MBA classes I taught online an ex-NASA rocket engine engineer was now working for a top race car team. Some of his stories in the class were pretty interesting. I no longer remember how fast some of the cars that he worked on went (these were straight track races) but I do remember wondering what would happen to the driver if the car flipped. These were the kind of race cars that had the parachutes behind them.
@Kidsandliz the 130 was not on the highway. It was in a town. I wasn’t driving.
@RiotDemon Even though you weren’t driving you had said it was exhilarating- that is what I was referring to. I would imagine that the race car drivers find that exhilarating as well.
Glad whomever was driving didn’t get in an accident and didn’t get a ticket.
@Kidsandliz ah gotcha. I’m an adrenaline junkie, but I try to get it safely. Rollercoasters are my jam.
@RiotDemon Yeah safely is the word for sure.
Fair warning that the ticket for going 115 on the 5 in wine country Northern CA is a LOT of money.
@Thumperchick From a friend, right?
@mike808 nah. A very young and foolish me.
@Thumperchick N. Calif has always been pretty tight for speeders, even back in the late 60’s-70’s.
Down in San Diego, I was young & stupid but needed to test my vehicles.
I-5 going north towards LA had some stretches that had no speed limits for me. My '66 Impala got the speedometer pretty much pegged a few times. I’d pop a little rock & roll in my 8-track and go. Ya just had to know where the cops were…
On the right stretch of road, this time of year, doing this fast driving with the windows at least partially open can be quite pleasant.
@f00l Not with my hearing aids turned on- ouch!
We live on windy mountain roads, which are pretty sparse to start with, now almost entirely empty.
The midlife crisis rally crowd has been chasing each other up and down the hills in their damn-I-wish-I-could’ve-had-this-when-I-was-20-mobiles - the sheriff finally had to set up some blockades to catch them and tell them to go back home …
/youtube Grateful Dead Truckin
It’s been a long, strange trip, pardner.
I’ve done about 560 miles per hour in an MD-88!
@PooltoyWolf
You had a wolf for company, I see.
@PooltoyWolf but did you get to bank at speed?
@f00l I sure did!
@JnKL That’s called crabbing!
I’ve been loving the light traffic. While I usually end up doing about 80 on my way to work (295 in NJ), I’ve found myself hitting about 95 once in a while the last few weeks. Have to remember to keep Waze running and keep an eye out for state troopers. Fastest I’ve ever driven in a car is about 115. I’ve hit 130 on my motorcycle. Above 90 or so time seems to slow down a bit. When I realized I was doing 130 I figured it would hurt an awful lot if I went down and common sense took over.
@cinoclav
Yes, I will regret the return to normal traffic;
even though I know we need our economy back whenever it’s safe to try to get it
The time for this was about six weeks ago. The week of St. Patrick’s Day I got unofficial word that the state patrol was not pulling over speeders. Had a couple trips across the state for work that went a little faster (not too much, though—I’m sure even not pulling over speeders doesn’t mean not pulling over careless & reckless once you reach triple digits).
I have observed fewer officers running radar these past few weeks. But they are still out there. Had a deputy pass the opposite direction running Ka band yesterday while I was on my way to a work site.
Across town we have a 1.6 mile long bridge across a lake. Divided highway and pretty much a straight shot. It does have a gentle curve. In the middle of the night the thing is deserted. If a car can’t get to its top speed in a mile and a half of deserted smooth concrete, it pretty much isn’t going to get there.
@djslack
Our cops have been ticketing all along AFAIK. At least, I’ve seen them out with their captured prey. But with a really relaxed attitude about it; maybe giving the “OK” to an additional 10mph?
They’re mostly on the outskirts of cities and towns. If I get 50-100 miles into the far end of nowhere, it’s unlikely I’ll see one.
I usually don’t drive at insane speeds. You have to focus so much more intently. And I don’t want a ticket; or to be a victim or to create other victims.
But the super-empty roads have called out to me lately. Esp when I’ve had the windows open, which means pretty often since at least mid-March.
Of course, I would NEVER do that …