I suppose it’s the time my friend and I decided to do a top speed run in my ‘72 240Z while heading south towards Mexico through San Diego. This happened back in the later part of the 80’s, when I was still technically a teenager, but old enough to drink in Mexico.
I was counting up the numbers on the speedo while my friend looked for cops and was keeping me informed of just how much America we had left. Things were getting loud, since I’d accidentally shattered the drivers side window not long before this. But, with the hammer down, we continued on. As we passed 125, my friend yelled out that Mexico was rapidly approaching, so we should start slowing down soon, as we didn’t actually want to drive into TJ.
We still had a couple exits left (this was prior to the existence of the 905, for those of you that know the area), so I kept my foot down and let the speedo climb another 10 before getting on the brakes so we didn’t fly through the border into TJ and getting off at that last US Exit.
For a couple of kids that previously owned VW Beetles, this was a rush. Sure, we were fucking idiots, back then, and this certainly wasn’t the last time we did something like that on a highway. That would be the time we took his dad’s ‘85 Audi 5000 Turbo to 160 on the Silver Strand from Coronado to Imperial Beach., which wasn’t long after the Mexico run. This would have been before the little bridge over the road entering the Cays was built, so there was a really long stretch of straight pavement.
The turbo 5 had been tinkered with and was running 1.6 bar (about 23 psi) of boost, at the time. The aforementioned Z was faster to 100 (yes, we dragged them against each other from the light at the Amphibious Base), but the Audi’s superior aerodynamics (which for 1985 were exceptional), additional horsepower and taller gear ratios let it easily pull ahead at higher speeds.
Anyway, the 5000 Turbo had a speedo that indicated 160 and we pegged it that day. Before everyone gets up in arms about such speeds on public highways, it was at a time when literally nobody else was on the road. We passed no one at those speeds, we were only a danger to ourselves. And considering where we were, we knew the risk we were taking with law enforcement. I’ll admit that during that same time frame, I literally received 4 speeding tickets in that 240Z from the Coronado Police within a month. I was a menace to society!
But on the other hand, I had a lot of fun while injuring no one. The kind of fun that would likely get you jail time, today. But, the ‘80’s were a different time.
Ask me about racing a Neuspeed suspension equipped Mk1 VW Rabbit GTi with my Z through the Coronado Cays and discovering what lift-off oversteer was all about, sometime.
