Some older guy was driving a Saturn Ion and it had "shiney rims"...

[Blu_Redline]

The most fun on my recent road trip to Florida came from those drivers who wandered up behind me and loitered by the bumper for a while as they were taking in the Redline's breath-taking styling only to come up to the door and try to impress me by showing me that I was driving "just a Saturn with shiney wheels". ( I am assuming that Saturn's lack of advertising leaves the general public not knowing about a Redline or even the fact that it is not just a regular Quad Coupe with shiney rims.)

A case in point was a car on I-26 near Columbia SC who did the afore mentioned after I passed him in the left lane while doing 75 mph in cruise. I guess his ego could not take me cruising by him at 75 mph, so he did the lookie-lou at the bumper, then the side-by-side at the door and then "blasted ahead". That means, he and his Probe GT took 30 seconds to get 1000 feet in front of me. I never took it out of cruise and he slowed down and got caught up in traffic and I went ahead of him again. Here he comes for round two. He "blows" by me doing maybe 85 mph, while I maintain my 75 mph in the left lane. He gets log-jammed again and I pass him a third time, still in cruise control. Now he gets freed up and starts coming up on me again, this time I get out of cruise and go down into 4th gear and the car sounds sweet at that high RPM. He gets beside me and I match his speed MPH by MPH, so he cannot pull ahead. We started this at around 75 mph, and I kept it up until at around 85 mph, my foot accidently slammed the gas pedal to the floor. At 120 mph, I backed off and coasted back to 75 and engaged cruise once again. His headlights were only little dots in my rear-view mirror. I can only say that me "blasting" away from him was WAY more impressive than when he did the same to me. I literally left him like he threw out an anchor. I wonder if he'll tell his friends about the Electric Blue Saturn Ion with the "shiney rims"?

As an after thought while reading the preview of the post, it came to me that my license plate might have something to do with the way these people act towards my Redline. It reads " ZOOM BY U". Maybe next time I'll try to get " BYE BYE" or "2 FAST 4U"

[goofyguy]

So your back home already. Hope you had fun while you were here. And next time you come this way be sure to call Barry. Im sure summers are better for the STC and track days are weekly.

[Barry]

It was great meeting you and we had a good time in spite of the heavy fog. My pictures look terrible, but I will email them to you just the same. Next trip you plan, call me and we'll do it again. Barry and Family

[Blu_Redline]

I have one or two pics from the parking lot that are "ok". I need to remember that when I use the exposure compensator, it is like using a slow shutter speed and things will get blurred if not absolutly still. The fog didn't help either. The 30 sec video clip turned out ok, though. What I should have done was go down to the exit and make a vid of you leaving and going down US 19. That is the way all Redlines should sound, I was quite impressed. That dual exhaust system was money well spent, IMO. Next time down, I will look you guys up for sure.

John