[AMC-List] Confused in Phoenix

[Michael Bailey <route66rambler@xxxxxxxxx>]

  I had a most bizarre experience this morning after picking up my son from work.  While we were cruising Molly past a county mountain park, a Chrysler 300 came up on my tail so fast I thought he was going to actually hit me.  

He proceeded to honk plus accelerate up to my bumper over and over, and flipped me off several times. The speed limit in that spot is 40, but of course in Phoenix the custom is to run about 25 over, and the guy seemed irritated that I was not following the custom.  I never do these days, not for about 15 or 20 years now.

  Pretty soon there was room in the oncoming lanes, and as he blasted past, the dude in the passenger seat pointed at my Gremlin and laughed, flipped me off, then threw his coffee out the window.  All over my car. 

I don't know what it was, maybe because I hadn't had my coffee yet, and this guy was wasting it. Don't know.  But I already knew it was splitting out to two lanes on my side at 55, and surprisingly, when I slapped the gas, I had no problem keeping up.  "300 man" gets tight up on the next car and repeats the process with that person, then looks in the mirror, and seems genuinely amazed to see Molly running the same game on his tail. I couldn't stop myself from hitting the horn and running up on him a couple of times myself.  My 22 year old son was grinning from ear to ear.

  The guy goes into oncoming lanes again, and flies past that guy, more bird waving etc., only to find himself waiting behind a tractor, as the left lane was solid work trucks.  At this point the parkway on the other side is full of commuters, so that route is out.  When he looks in the rearview, there's Molly, irritating him something fierce from the look on his face.  I was starting to think it was the song "Beep Beep Little Rambler" coming to life. So I beep beeped.

  Pretty soon, he has a small opening on the left side of the road again, and blows past the tractor.  I didn't follow this time, because a couple of work trucks were turning off, and I knew there would be room, plus there was a dump truck in front of him.  I had time. Quick dose of leadfoot, and he's mine again.

  Mr. 300 checks the rearview once more, only to find a 74 Gremlin. AGAIN?  Beep beep. He had nowhere to go this time, because there's a stop light right there.  We ended up next to each other.  I didn't even look at him, just pushed in the cigarrette lighter and took out a smoke.  My son goes, "You're gonna do it, right?"  I didn't think I was going to, but as the green neared, I could hear the guy's idle rise as he tried to pre-load the torque convertor, and the front of his car began that little lift.  My hair began to stand up, and I knew I wasn't resisting. I notched the floor shifter into 2nd.  In front of us was a four lane state highway with a 75 limit.  As the moment approached, his car was beginning to surge forward a tad.  

  When the green hit, I dropped the hammer while camly lighting my cigarrette.  I had the guy cold on reaction time, but that ain't gonna get it by itself. And that's the strange part.  I heard one hell of a lot of fan noise, and them Flowmasters on the Chrysler were belting out a beautiful tune, but I never saw him come up next to me.

  I slipped the shifter into drive at around 55, a nice hard shift.  I watched as the odometer ticked off a half mile, still no 300, but I could still hear it coming.  My speedo was nearing the 120 mark, which I've always taken to mean more like 85 on a passenger car.  At the next exit the guy got off without ever getting next to Molly.  We went on home. 

  About an hour later, this guy and his friend were out in my driveway walking around my car.  He wanted to know "what I had".  When I told him it was a stock six, he insisted I lift the hood. I mean REALLY INSISTED. So I did.

  You could just about hear his jaw hit the ground.  Dude was dumbfounded. He asked about nitrous. nope, just stock carb.  He looked at his friend, dazed, and that guy just licks his index finger, makes a mark in the air, and says "Beep beep" with a big grin on his face.  The 300 guy turned beet red and told me he had 435 horsepower. I told him he's full of crap unless his car weighs 8000 pounds. Told him next time get an AMX.

 I don't know what happened, but I think his transmission is probably slipping.  The only "performance modifications" to Molly are a .020 overbore, a .260 cam, a trans rebuild and shift kit, and the twin-grip rear end that came with the original 3-speed manual. It's still got the replacement one-barrel I bought in July when I did the cam. No header.  My son then admitted that he also smoked a brand new Charger on a milk run without my knowledge.

Maybe I don't really need to build that six-pack, 5-speed setup after all.
mike



 			
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