02transhawk

The other day a friend of mine asked me what is the fastest speed I had ever been in a car, and my thinking brought up a story I thought I would share. SKIP TO BOTTOM FOR RACE!!!

About 2 years ago, in the fall of 03, while I was stationed in Germany, I used to take my 1994 Formula out around dusk and drive to a little town about 1 hour away to get ice cream, did this about every other weekend or so.

A little about my car: It WAS a built LT1, bored .020 over with lunati crank, rods and pistons, ported, polished LT4 heads with larger intake and exhaust valves (don't remember exact sizes), had the LT4 hotcam, ported blueprinted intake, custom tuning, headers, all the work I could think to do while maintaining an every day driving motor with 13.0 compression. Upgraded fuel pump, fuel management, ignition , custom cold air induction (2 induction points). Race built M6 with stock rear end w/ 3.55's and limited slip. The suspension was completely custom (lots of heavy duty custom sway bars, control arms, the rear shocks were moved more to the center, the front spindles were custom made and changed to a double wishbone set up with in-car adjustable pressure. The inside of the car (rear) was tubbed (to allow the 335 tires) and lightened with fiberglass and lightweight carpet, deleted the gas tank and put 12 gallon fuel cell in hatch area. 75% of the time I ran 100 octane gas that I purchased from Hockenheim ring. Anyways, the car had around 470-480 rwhp (never dynoed with upgraded fuel-ignition-induction parts.

The race: I was cruising along about 85-90 mph on one of the Autobahns (A5-for those familiar) and I get passed by a ferrari and instantly knew it was a 355 and knew the top speed capabilities. Well, I used to destroy porsches, vettes, vipers and older Ferraris at the ring, but never had the chance with a newer one. So I played catch up for about 5 minutes and he was slowed by traffic at a small town. Well, after traffic cleared, I rolled down the pass window and beeped to get his attention, he looked over and I pointed straight. He smiled and nodded. I showed him 3 with the fingers and pointed at the horn, and he nodded in agreeance.

We were cruising about 65, so I placed the gearbox in third and got ready. I give him the thumbs up and he shows he is ready. 1..2..3 honks and we take off. He instantly jumped about 3/4 cars in front of me, but soon after I shifted to forth we were neck and neck. He made a shift and I jumped in front, but when I hit fifth, he caught back up...and again we perfectly side by side. As I neared the end of the speedo, around 155 mph I started gaining on him, and surprisingly, the car was as tight and smoothe as could be. I think we both shifted about the same time, when I hit 6th he did not catch up at all. I neared 5000 rpm's and could see him fading back pretty good. I stayed in it until arount 5300 (really wouldn't go any more) and the longer I drove the further back he got. All in all, I would say he was about 5 cars back.

I tapped the brakes to let him know I was done and we both cruised down to 85 together. I saw an exit with a gas station, so I signaled and he followed. I struck up a converstation as good as I could-he was german but spoke a little english. He informed me that his car was a 1997 1997 Ferrari F355 Berlinetta that he had purchased used in 1999. I told him my speedo runs out at 155 and asked how fast we were going. He said he was around 290kph (approx 180), so a rough estimate was I was going about 185. This was good news, I knew 160 mph was no problem, but I never thought I would ever see over 170 or 175. He was very suprised when I told him I only had about 20K in the car. I think I won this bang for the buck race.

He bought me a beer and we chit chatted for about another 30 minutes before I headed back without my ice cream!

Believe what you will, but this was something I didn't think would happen either. Was a very fun night, except I had to eat blue bell when I got back on base!



P.S. the car was sold to a buddy for $4500 because I wrecked it just a little, and ran outta money - the car need other work as well.

roy

been going to Hockenheim since 98 with my camaro and i can honestly say i don't know your car and neither do any of the other Fbody, vette and viper folks. Must not have been much of a contender there unless you got some video to back it up.

Calling

02transhawk

I only went took my car to Hockenheim twice, around July of 02 , a few other times before that just to watch. Actually, I went 4 times, but the other 2 were at night when I just kinda snuck on. And I never saw any other f-bodies when I went. In fact, all the people then told me they hardly see f-bods around there. Reason being, none of them could drive or couldn't keep up, just what I was told. It was hard enough getting in, but when I brought my certificate from Bill Scott Racing School, they let me on.

And no, unfortunately I don't have any video, never had a digital camera back then. One of the other guys might, an aquaintance of mine had a yellow 01 Z06 with a camera mounted in the car may have some footage, but that was like 3 years ago, I don't even remember his name...so sorry to dissappoint you, but no video can be provided.

roy

Would this acquaintance first name be Nick.
Here is a vid for a little reminisce of Hockenheim hockenheim bits

ivans02ss

Nice vid there roy.

02transhawk

I wanna say Nick sounds familiar, but I am unsure, only met him once and when I saw him it was the "hey man what up"...that is why I said acquaintance. And the vid does remind me of the place...I wish I woulda gone there more often when I was there, cuz there is not much here...road Atlanta is a ways away.

Nice vid by the way.