Quote:
Originally Posted by S4Aero  You'll probably remember my first run-in with the ML 63 AMG on a previous thread.
Today was part two.
I have a restaurant on a heavily traveled road, and today the owner of the Bad Benz stopped in for lunch. He apparently asked who owned the RS, because one of my servers told me that "the guy at 83" (one of the table numbers) wanted to see me.
I thought that I recognized him, but I introduced myself after the server left. Nice guy, albeit a little bitter about the last race.
He had an interesting proposition - a little street race for $100 US. I'm not one to bet (except on golf), but this guy was pretty cocky about the outcome. The rules would be from a rolling start (at 20), down a four lane highway that narrows to two lanes after about 3/4 mile, then a sharp left onto a two lane road. The two laner is a little twisty. About 1/2 mile down the road there is a series of turns - left hand up, sharp right down, gentle left, sharp right up and over a freeway. We agreed that the first car to the bridge was the winner.
These roads are very lightly traveled.
When he finished lunch, we headed out.
We each left $100 at the bar of the restaurant.
The race was on. I had him at the roll, but hit the rev limiter going into 2nd. He immediately pulled about 2-3 car lengths going into the narrow section. I made up the ground in the first turn, and was right on his tail. There was no way to pass him in the straight though, I pulled out to try, but only made up about 1/2 car - not enough.
My only chance was in the series of turns coming up. I figured that there was no way he could corner as well as the RS could.
I was right. When we hit the first lefthander, he braked pretty hard, I downshifted into third and went right by him. He braked harder going into the sharp downhill right while I stayed in third and stretched the lead to about 6 car lenghts. He never got close after that, and I was coasting across the bridge with him about 500 feet behind.
We took a leisurly pace back to the restaurant from there (I still wouldn't let him pass). I didn't really expect him to come in, but he did. Stand up guy. I took his $100 and bought him a drink. On his way out he made a quick comment about the "M3 he has on order". I'm guessing I'll see him sometime in '08 with a new bimmer. Hope MTM has their supercharger available by then...
edit - this is not meant to condone street racing or gambling on said racing, but it was a lot of fun! |
Great story. The owner of the ML63 SEEMS to be car enthusiast (although a cocky one), being the owner of an AMG and ordering the upcoming M3. Therefore, he must have known that the RS4 has a handling advantage over his big truck in the turns, no matter how fast it is in a straight line.
Having said that, you must be a fairly good driver when it comes to cornering at speed. Even though your car has higher cornering limits than his truck, that fact that you seem to blow right by him in a turn tells me that either a) you are a far more confident/superior driver than he is when it comes to fast cornering, or b) he is NOT a very good driver at all or doesn't understand the dynamics of taking a car into a corner at speed (like proper braking zones, when to apply throttle, etc), or c) both of the above.
Usually, cars blowing by another car in a turn on a track (when it comes to NON-professional drivers) is more about differences in driver skill/courage and less about differences in cars' handling abilities.