by Flack » Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:02 am
Prior to owning my Subaru, the fastest I had ever driven was 120+ in, believe it or not, a '95 Dodge Neon.
That Neon was the first new car I ever owned. I think it was the first car I ever bought that didn't already have 100,000 miles on it when I bought it. I bought it in the fall of '95 and paid full sticker price. Four months later, I moved to Spokane, Washington, and took the Neon with me. The winters were so harsh there that I had studded tires put on the Neon, which, much to the chagrin of everyone, I never removed. The following summer, you could hear me pull up from the little clickity-clackity sound the metal studs made on dry pavement.
The thing about that Neon was that it was really quick. Before owning one, I just thought they were cheap little kid cars. It was quick off the line, though. I always used to imagine that somehow at the factory they had messed up and put a race car engine in just mine.
In the spring of '98, my wife and I moved back to Oklahoma. My wife rode with my dad in a rental truck (towing her car) while I drove my Neon back to Oklahoma. We had passed through Idaho and had just entered Montana when I saw a speed limit sign that said "Reasonable and Prudent". No speed limit!! Coming out of the mountains, I pushed the pedal to the floor to see what that Neon would really do. The needle quickly jumped to 100, and kept going. The speedometer only went to 120, but the needle went past that and buried itself around where the 130 mark should have been. Within a few seconds I decided that was probably beyond reasonable and prudent and I quickly took my foot out of it.
My first three cars were a 5.0 Mustang, a Formula Firebird, and a Buick Regal with turbo, and hands down that Neon would have whipped all of them. Of all the cars I've owned, that Neon was probably the second fastest, behind the STI.
Fast forward a few years. Now I own a Chevy truck that is governed at 98mph, hah.
Prior to owning my Subaru, the fastest I had ever driven was 120+ in, believe it or not, a '95 Dodge Neon.
That Neon was the first new car I ever owned. I think it was the first car I ever bought that didn't already have 100,000 miles on it when I bought it. I bought it in the fall of '95 and paid full sticker price. Four months later, I moved to Spokane, Washington, and took the Neon with me. The winters were so harsh there that I had studded tires put on the Neon, which, much to the chagrin of everyone, I never removed. The following summer, you could hear me pull up from the little clickity-clackity sound the metal studs made on dry pavement.
The thing about that Neon was that it was really quick. Before owning one, I just thought they were cheap little kid cars. It was quick off the line, though. I always used to imagine that somehow at the factory they had messed up and put a race car engine in just mine.
In the spring of '98, my wife and I moved back to Oklahoma. My wife rode with my dad in a rental truck (towing her car) while I drove my Neon back to Oklahoma. We had passed through Idaho and had just entered Montana when I saw a speed limit sign that said "Reasonable and Prudent". No speed limit!! Coming out of the mountains, I pushed the pedal to the floor to see what that Neon would really do. The needle quickly jumped to 100, and kept going. The speedometer only went to 120, but the needle went past that and buried itself around where the 130 mark should have been. Within a few seconds I decided that was probably beyond reasonable and prudent and I quickly took my foot out of it.
My first three cars were a 5.0 Mustang, a Formula Firebird, and a Buick Regal with turbo, and hands down that Neon would have whipped all of them. Of all the cars I've owned, that Neon was probably the second fastest, behind the STI.
Fast forward a few years. Now I own a Chevy truck that is governed at 98mph, hah.