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I just came back from vacation, drove 230 miles home from Orangle City.
I know I've got a horrible habit, but I just can't help myself. Every couple of minutes I have to put my foot down and feel the surge of power and then coast back down, but I keep the engine from experiencing a complete vacuum and of make it profitable by playing with the commander, looking for improvements I could make while I have this opportunity. I kept writing down EGT vs fuel injector duty vs speed on a card that I can use later to make a graph about fuel efficiency at some point. These are moments out on the highway with not a car in sight that I pop on the dome light and make these little scratches on a note card.
At one point, with the engine noisy as all hell, as I was passing an on-ramp around a few cars, hiding behind them was a highway patrol car as he got on the highway next to me. Well, he got behind me after he noticed me (my car was loud as hell at that point). I kept on gliding along for about 30 seconds, speeding up and slowing down a little to show him I wasn't scared to tune my car up a little. Then, I closed my exhaust system and put my windows down.
Well, he must have been thinking that was just great. Almost immediately, he pulls up and passes me, and just keeps on going. I could almost hear him thinking "keep that thing shut kid". And then imagined my response, "but officer, it improves fuel economy and lowers egt this way. Just look at this notecard here... "
That wasn't the only fun I had, either. Along the way, a loud GTO came into view (almost as loud as my car, maybe the same). I normally cruise along on the right side, below speed limit, far from other cars (I avoid all other cars and let them pass, and get a good couple of miles in front of me before I put the pedal down). Well this GTO had passed me, and hearing my exhaust I suppose, started slowing down to line up with me, or so I thought. Well I was in a great mood for this of course. So I slowed down too, forcing him to keep decelerating to line up with me if he really wanted to. I was curious if he would I guess. I Noticed he had a passenger and the guy flicked the ash of a cigarette out the window. It didn't anger me or anything, but I do not like the smell. My attempt to slow down and get rid of him didn't work, so... what do you think I tried next? My adrenaline was pulsing in my ears and my head felt light, and I realized, "wow it still happens to me sometimes". When I started speeding up a little bit to pass now, I wondered what he would do.
He would have none of that, however. As soon as he saw me approaching he started inching up in speed as well. His car was in overdrive still, and as I expected, he was waiting for my car to make some noise. I left my car in fifth too and just started inching up on him, ten cars, five cars, I slowly put my pedal down, three cars, at which point he must have realized that he needed a better gear to keep me from passing, which is when I heard him downshift. Heh, I downshifted too, 4th gear speeds, we both put our feet down, me about two car lengths behind him. But not for long. His car was no slouch but I had passed him within a few seconds, and put a few cars on him just to be sure. And then I gently tapped my brakes
, allowing the car to fly by me of course, never saw him again.