shrike071
06-05-2007, 01:40 PM
So there I am yesterday leaving Home Depot in Woodstock GA with about 350 - 400 pounds of laminate flooring, trim, and other crap stuffed into the back of the wagon. I'm sitting patiently at the stoplight - hoping that all the extra weight isn't going to screw up my springs. (It didn't..) The windows are up and the A/C is cranking and I'm jamming out to 'Porcupine Tree' and their new album, which is punched up to the point that the subwoofer is making my intestines vibrate.
Barely audible over the prog-rock metal bliss that is Porcupine Tree, I hear the annoying sound of a buzzsaw... 'What's this? Did I blow a tweeter?' I think to myself. I lodge my gatorade in the center partition and turn down the radio expecting the worst.
It wasn't the radio.
It was the kid next to me revving the slammed Honda Accord coupe with a tin-can muffler and giving me the wild-eye. He can't see me through my tint - but I know he knows I'm looking at him. He revs the engine again. (Edit: The 2007 Accord V6 coupe ain't no slouch...)
Taunting me.
The light is still red.
I decide to cast my die.
I reach down and turn off the A/C. I power down the stereo. All I can hear is the music that is the S52 purring through the pipes - that f-ing annoying random misfire nonwithstanding. All I can hear, that is, until the Accord revs-up again.
I look around making sure that Woodstock's finest are nowhere in the vicinity because this is going to be noisy.
The coast is clear.
Looking at the light now, I see that the other signal has turned yellow meaning we're up next. Focus intensifies. One hand on the wheel, one on the shifter. RPM's up to about 2500.
Other light turns red. We're up. Accord matches revs.
Green.
Accord squeaks the tires and takes off. At the same moment, I dump the clutch and judiciously pour-on the loud-pedal. The car jumps forward like a cow stuck with a branding iron - oblivious to the extra heft in the back. The rear tires are screaming, but not as loudly or as wonderfully as the S52 at about 6500 rpm's.
Through 1st gear, I'm already ahead of the Accord by 1/2 car. I pound the clutch in, find second and dump out. The rear end jerks sideways and complies with a reassuring 'SCREEEEEE'. Now I'm up by at least a car. Clutch, shift, dump, Third. Again, the car responds with a squat and a smaller chirp. Approaching 60 and now I'm not walking, but sprinting away from the Honda.
The nose of the Accord drops down because he knows when school has been in session.
Lesson over
Never underestimate a station wagon.
Barely audible over the prog-rock metal bliss that is Porcupine Tree, I hear the annoying sound of a buzzsaw... 'What's this? Did I blow a tweeter?' I think to myself. I lodge my gatorade in the center partition and turn down the radio expecting the worst.
It wasn't the radio.
It was the kid next to me revving the slammed Honda Accord coupe with a tin-can muffler and giving me the wild-eye. He can't see me through my tint - but I know he knows I'm looking at him. He revs the engine again. (Edit: The 2007 Accord V6 coupe ain't no slouch...)
Taunting me.
The light is still red.
I decide to cast my die.
I reach down and turn off the A/C. I power down the stereo. All I can hear is the music that is the S52 purring through the pipes - that f-ing annoying random misfire nonwithstanding. All I can hear, that is, until the Accord revs-up again.
I look around making sure that Woodstock's finest are nowhere in the vicinity because this is going to be noisy.
The coast is clear.
Looking at the light now, I see that the other signal has turned yellow meaning we're up next. Focus intensifies. One hand on the wheel, one on the shifter. RPM's up to about 2500.
Other light turns red. We're up. Accord matches revs.
Green.
Accord squeaks the tires and takes off. At the same moment, I dump the clutch and judiciously pour-on the loud-pedal. The car jumps forward like a cow stuck with a branding iron - oblivious to the extra heft in the back. The rear tires are screaming, but not as loudly or as wonderfully as the S52 at about 6500 rpm's.
Through 1st gear, I'm already ahead of the Accord by 1/2 car. I pound the clutch in, find second and dump out. The rear end jerks sideways and complies with a reassuring 'SCREEEEEE'. Now I'm up by at least a car. Clutch, shift, dump, Third. Again, the car responds with a squat and a smaller chirp. Approaching 60 and now I'm not walking, but sprinting away from the Honda.
The nose of the Accord drops down because he knows when school has been in session.
Lesson over
Never underestimate a station wagon.