Firstly, I'm not going to claim a kill here (neither did I even think I could kill a Carrera GT when I started playing with him), but I'll damn well claim it was a lot of F*U*C*K*I*N*G fun trying!!

This afternoon on the way to play 9 holes I was cruising down the freeway at about 70mph and after passing a few cars the whole 4 lanes seemed kind of wide open. About 1/2 mile in front I could see a sporty looking convertible of some kind. At that distance and with my slightly poor long distance vision, at first I thought it was a F360 Spyder. My exit was about 2.5 miles away, so I decided to catch up and see what this was. I sped up to a little over 90mph and closed in within about a minute and then to my excitement I saw it was a Carrera GT. He was cruising in a little bit of traffic and I guess he must have noticed the empty freeway behind him and then suddendly noticed me there, because he sped up a little and slipped between a few cars - taunting me perhaps! So I followed and then my exit approached and I was debating making my tee time, or trying to entice him. But lo and behold, he moved over to take the same exit as me.

We rounded the exit and I was about 2 car lengths behind him and selected manual mode (2nd gear) on the steering wheel. When we got on the main round he totally floored it, and so did I and as I changed up to third I was still with him, so much so that I had to ease off because for a brief moment I felt like I was at risk of rear ending him??!! Maybe he missed a gear change?? Anyway, as I got back on the hammer he was clearly hard on the hammer now, and man you should have heard that lovely V10 just screaming.... I felt like I was at a Formula 1 race listening to those 3 litre V10's screaming around the track... And then he started to pull away from me, but surprisingly not by as much as I thought he might. By the time we reached about 90mph (and we both needed to back off as we approached traffic) he was about 5 car lengths in front of me. We had to travel at about 50mph for about a half a mile behind some traffic and as we rolled up to a traffic light I changed lane and pulled up along side of him and gave him

He didn't even do a single thing, in fact he looked a little angry actually... Maybe he did some quick arithmetic and realized he'd paid about $80K per car length more for his car than I'd paid for mine :v

I didn't bother trying anything else with him as clearly I surrender to his car and it was July 4th with lots of cops out policing roads. In fact as I continued on to the golf course about a mile ahead I passed a cop who had JUST pulled over a car in a section of road that was only 25 mph.... Just imagine.....

But hell that was fun, and that screaming v10 was just F&*%ing awesome!!

Can't Mercedes just lift that 3 litre V10 Ilmor engine from the Formula 1 and slap a couple of superchargers on it and drop it into a E-class.... How about that?? We could all drive the 2007 E30!

 

When you spend a half mil and only pull 5 lengths on another car....that must have really pissed that guy off.

Bet he was expecting to see you vanish in the rear view.

Thanks for the story.....

So that means that my car (Klee Stage 2 with K&N) would have........

 

I think anyone with a modded E55 would have a pretty good shot - in fact I'm gonna bet Derek would give it a run for it's money... the Motor Trend test has the Carrera GT doing 1/4 mile in 11.1, so Derek is right there!

 

interesting story

 

The Carrera GT would destroy the E55 in every catagorie, straight line and around the track, drag strip, you name it. To get buy 500k to get 5 car lengths comment was stupid, the Carrera GT is not a muscle car, it is a track car. I love MB to death, great story, but the CGT driver was not very skilled.

 

I once drove a W210 E55 against a friend's F40 and believe it or not, in real life on public roads, the difference is not as drastic as one reads in magazines.

 

So , how'd you shoot ?

 

I have owned many Porsches and have been in the CGT and it is a AWESOME car which can not be compared to almost anything on the road. The whole car goes up to my waist, so low and wide. It will go down in history as did the 959

Having said that, the only category that the E55 will not get destroyed in is a straight line shoot out (and if modded) will even be closer. Our modded E55's are running easily 1/4 times in the 11's so maybe a few car lenghts if that.

 

Precisely why all the arguing about M5/E55 is so assinine. No one will ever be able to drive the cars the way they are tested in the magazine's. But hey, if it makes someone feel better that their car was "x" times faster than another in a magazine on a closed track, more power to them.

 

The truth is that a CGT will not pull away from an E55 very quickly. A car that runs a 0-60 in 3.8 vs. one that runs it in 4.4 will not "kill it" from a 30 MPH roll. The difference will be a slight pulling away. Anyone who has done any street racing knows that a few tenths at 100 MPH is a few car lengths.

 

mark

 

Nice encounter!! I would have loved to at least hear that V10 at WOT on the road --if only for a short run.

Keep in mind many high end Porsche drivers are older and very conservative when it comes to their cars. I've come up on many late model turbo's and GT2's in the "fast" lane, usually driven by middle-aged men and usually they pull aside to let me pass. Likely this Carrera GT driver was just playing a bit, but not truly racing. Wouldn't you, given such responsibility for a very expensive automobile? Heck, I don't even drive as crazy as I used to most (80%) of the time. I've seen too many bad things happen to good people on the road & track (e.g. Ben in lj) and really don't care if some riced out Honda wants to overtake me while I'm cruising at 80 or so...

 

E55 vs CGT is like clash of the titans. It's not easy to smoke one another. In fact 5 car lengths in 1/2 mile is quite a lot to me.

 

PREACH BROTHERMAN

 

I was at an autocross 5 weeks ago and I was in the paddock next to a GT3. This guys biggest complaint about his new car was that everyone and their mother tries to race him. He was worried about kids smashing into his car or putting him into bad situations. He likes to do all his racing at the track where the conditions are controlled and more experienced drivers are around him. If I had that car, I too would keep a cool tool while ridin around town.

 

Sound like fun, the chances of running into a CGT that actually are willing to play are small, even in the US. And the sound of that thing must be mindblowing......

Regarding the 5 carlenghts loss, that sounds about right and are actually a lot considering that you where right up his tail at your shifting point to third gear.
How much speed is that ? app 65 mph or so.... so if you guys raced until app 90 mph and he then gained 4-5 lengts on that short time its a major difference.

How much time does your E use from 60 to 90 mph, 4 sec or so, that means in 4 sec he pulls you +20 meters.... Thats kind of impressive when we know how fast the E55 is....

The fact that he did not pull until you hit 3rd gear could easily have been an underestimation on his part, not realizing how fast the E55 is and that he did not bother to downshift.....

But do not forgett that if both cars are driven correctly the difference from 0 until 125 mph is close 4-5 seconds..... but as others has said, on the streets the drivers are an important factor.....

 

Not sure of the exact speed at the shift to 3rd (65 sounds about right) nor the time from 60 to 90mph... Hell it all happens so fast and I was on a secondary road tailing him whizzing past cars in the other lane and a barrier in the center that you really spend more time concentrating on keeping it all safe than making sure you try to measure everything precisely.... But anyway, I wonder if he'd done something like changed down to 1st when we took the corkscrew on the exit ramp and hit some kind of limiter and then changed to 2nd, when I was in 2nd going to 3rd? What does anyone think about this?? This might explain the concertina effect where I thought I might rear end him, then perhaps he pulled these 4-5 lengths on me cause he was in second for part of it or something.... Anyway, it was a lot of fun that he wanted do this as you pointed out....

 

I know it is nt easy to meassure the correct distannce in such a speed, so anything is an apprixomate guess.

I do not know the gearing on the CGT, but I would guess the 1st to be long, and the rest to be close spread. I would not be supprised if the 1st gear on that thing reached close to 60 mph. Even my old ALPINA B7 reach 50 mph in 1st. ( 5 speed manual)

Anyway, the main point is that you had fun, right..... If you are going to get beaten, you cant find a better car to get it from.....

 

...I blame your bag of clubs in the trunk, otherwise this would've been a closer race! :p

Nick

 

Don't ask.... I think the excitement of the race musy have put me off my game