Speed and responsible driving

I’ve had had the pleasure of driving very expensive, very rare cars hard and fast, and have driven on roads all over the world, as well as on circuits and race tracks I used to only see on television. Driving in a wide variety of conditions, on other people’s (often very expensive) cars has taught me one thing: safety first. It’s no joke to crash a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ford GT, Nissan R35 GTR, a plethora of Porsches, a BMW M or a Merc AMG. I’d kill myself in shame if I survived crashing one of those cars.

That’s not to say I drive like a pansy. Sure, I’ve had my own fair share of overspeeding both here and abroad. But I never take any stupid risks to impress other people, least of all myself. I always stick to what I feel is safe.

Last Sunday, I found myself driving my Supra with great pleasure up and down C5 at moderately fast speeds as the caged beast finally seemed free. My Supra’s your typical Japanese tuner car i.e. KSP or kulang sa pansin:  bright red paint, wide-body kit with a careful mix of carbon fiber components, big wheels, an even bigger GT-style wing and a very loud exhaust. It’s decently fast, dyno’d at just under 400 whp but I don’t think the modern supercars of today will even break a sweat with my Supra.

Driving along, I saw another shiny red two-door coupé with an even noisier exhaust note. It was a DC5 Honda Integra Type-R, also with equally wild looking bodykit and carbon-fiber GT wing. I gradually sped up to give a friendly honk and admire his Integra Type-R. Lo and behold, when the Integra driver saw me coming, he floored it and unleashed what sounded like a billion angry bees as the K20 engine went into vtec mode and overtook me, only to run into traffic. It was a kid and he wanted to race me. I let him go ahead but he’d slow down, wait for me then floor it again to bait me. I didn’t want to bother because it was unsafe and the Supra is a huge car with a laggy turbo engine: you can’t just slice and dice in traffic.

I was at a huge disadvantage compared to the smaller and more responsive Integra. Seeing that road conditions didn’t permit going any faster than 60 kph, I kept my cool and watched the Integra drive as fast as he could. Growing old means you get sneaky and take the path of least resistance so I carefully overtook cars between 60 kph-80 kph, keeping things safe while the Integra driver was going all-out. He was an inexperienced driver because every time he floored it, he wouldn’t look far ahead enough as he’d quickly run into traffic, brake hard, often with tires squealing, overtake then drive even faster. On the other hand, I was looking far ahead, carefully overtaking cars and widening the gap between us doing completely legal speeds and the engine revving at a steady 3500-4000 rpm, which probably annoyed him a whole lot. Finally we lined up on a clear stretch of road and both went for it. By the time I got into 3rd gear he was so far behind it was no contest. Afterwards I thought it was enough as it was getting dangerous for the Integra driver, who in the process of trying to leave me behind, had almost crashed three times into slower cars, and almost sideswiped a traffic officer.

When I finally passed him again in traffic, I gave a friendly wave and honk and he didn’t even want to look at me. Probably embarrassed, not so much because I beat him at his own game without even trying or doing anything dangerous, but because he just endangered himself and the lives of so many other people on the road so many times only to lose.

In hindsight, that Integra could have dusted my doors very easily had he looked further ahead and kept his cool. But I know I shouldn’t have taken the bait after all and spared us all the risk. Of course, it was fun.