I dunno what happened, this is no BS, tell me what you guys think

I was drivin on I-80W towards Vacaville from Davis, on my way to see Spiderman2(FCKIN AWESOME), and I'm speeding of course, as usual.

I noticed this Black BMW 5-series pullin semi-hard in front of me. It's a previous generation 5-series, the one right before it was Bangled. He's not goin as fast as I'd like, so I move to pass him he was goin around 75-80. I like to cruise at 85.

I don't really care for BMW's, so I didn't bother to look at his model, 525 528 530 540? They have so many different ones. But I did recognize it as a 2002, as my brother owns one and they have distinctive tail lights, kinda neon glow like. I've got three people in my car, counting myself, he's got three as well.

Anyway, as I move to pass, I see him stare at me and hear him downshift and floor it. I'm thinkin, no way I can hold up, but hell I'll try and see how bad I lose (I got a 2005 xA 5spd, no performance mods besides Hotchkis Strut bar). So I downshift hard, as he's already pullin on me. I dunno if he let up a little or not, but as I slam it, I start gaining on him. . . 85, 90, 95, I'm neck and neck, 100, 105. . . I'm passing him and I can still hear his engine screaming. I rocket it up to 110, and he's just half a car length behind my rear bumper, and I see him tap the brakes.

What gives? Am I REALLY faster than that $45,000+ BMW? I mean, he got beat by a Scion, a measily $12k Scion (don't get me wrong I love my car). I mean I understood when I could beat em in my old 90 v8 LS400 (before and after mods), but damn that's embarassing to for a car of a "performance" stature to be beat by a Scion. Yeah, the Scion will never live up to the BMW's handling and/or level of luxury, but c'mon! I only got 1.5L !!!! I really lost all appreciation(if I ever had any for BMW) when this happened. I guess he must have had the 2.5L model, if they offer it in the US. I know they offer it somewhere because my brother has that model in Thailand. Tisk tisk, BMW, and thanks Toyota/Scion engineers for shoving a fat boot through any critics ratings of the Scion's highway performance. Apparently those critics never drove a BMW. And don't get me wrong, BMW's I'm not saying I'm better than a BMW, just sayin that for the price, the BMW should really be able to beat me without a sweat. Holding up would be sufficient but losing??? Whaddaya guys think?

 

Interesting story, maybe the guy in the beamer didn't know how to drive...

Good job on the kill though...

 

possibly, but it seemed like an auto. . . I could hear him very well, as I had my windows cracked, and I didn't hear any engine braking, nor did he leave it in gear to slow down which is odd for a manual. I would guess that he was auto, as his engine went from screaming to mute, and I saw a tap of the brakes. But yeah, it's possible that the driver was unexperienced, or maybe was autoshifting and forgot to shift? I dunno anything is possible. Hahaha, I bet he got a lot of crap from his passengers. Serves him right for bein a dick trying to show me up. I was tryin to pass the a-hole, not race him!

 

And for you guys that have gone this fast, when do you shift out of 4th? Man that gear goes a LOOONG way!!! I wonder how far 5th gear will take you at max, but then again the ratios of 4th and 5th aren't too far off. . .

 

he may be on a lease car. when he hit 100, that may just enough to scare the ____ out of him. i know those morons making only 25k a year and spend all their $$ on a BMW.

 

maybe daddy's car??

 

Or maybe he wasn't flooring it? But damn, his engine was screaming right past 100, and I had already passed him by then

 

Man its the fact that you even hung with him....... Im thinking of switching and getting a xA it would be cheaper and the looks are starting to grow on me

 

And the box has grown on me , I love my xA and am gonna stick with it. . . but I bet all that room in the xB really is useful. Maybe one day I will have one of each.

 

Something doesn't sound right. I've driven a new 5 series and there is no way our cars can hang.

 

see that's what I thought too. . . but the only thing I can think of in his defense is that maybe he was a 525/28. With the added weight and loss of power from his auto. . . it may just be possible to beat it.

But I've raced a 540 before in my 1990 Lexus LS400(when it was stock) and lost, but my car is about 10 years older than his in its defense.

If it were a 540, no way, 530? Do they make those? Hey, MAYBE? :? I dunno really. But now that I REALLY think about it, if he had an engine smaller than 3.0L(twice the size) and even with twice the output (say 216hp, which is about average for BMW 6cyclinder engines), his car weighs nearly 4000lbs. With the benefit of manual, it actually would make sense that I could hang with him, and I didn't beat him by a lot either. . . it was like half a car length. So it's probably not that far off of a match up,on paper anyway. I think the main thing is that we are actually giving our Scion's less credit than they deserve. I know I did. In our 5spds, our performance is about average, bordering on slightly above average, as 0-60 bests civic, corolla, 4cyl camry, last I checked anyway. This car ain't no supra, but it's no slug by any means.

 

No offense, but I think he let you win. lol... You probably surprised him with your acceleration, but he could've beat you if he wanted to. I personally don't do that kind of stuff. He probably realized what he was doing and slowed down. Also, what would it look like when the cops pull you two over for racing. The cop would've laughed at him, "What are you doing racing a sub 100hp car with 3 people in it?" He probably has a top speed of 140 or higher..you were creeping up to the mythological 120 (which not a lot of people can achieve, especially you with 3 people in your car).

He was definitely holding back...

 

I have had 4 bmw's this year all 2000 and up...I must tell you as a owner of a Xa....you would have lost bad.....he must had tickets...because it could have blown the Xa off the road in 3rd gear........sorry i love my xa...but its no BMW

 

Maybe the Hotchkis strutt bar gave you 30hp? hehehe j/k

 

This is the California State Patrol, your ticket is in the mail.....

 

1. He waent "MASHING"
2. He didnt know how to drive
3. ARE YOU SURE HE WAS RACING YOU ?????

 

nice story...our xa's arent that bad at the stoplight either...i had posted a kill story earlier this year when i had raced my coworkers 5-speed bmw 1994 325 after work. all day he had been making fun of the 96 whp of the xa , so after work we decided to race at a stoplight..all i have are rota subzeros on yokohama avs es100 and a cold air intake yet it was enough to beat my friend by two car lengths...of course he wasnt a good driver at all because i had raced another friend with an older 1992 325 and he smoked me by three car lengths at a dead stop...i love these cars but they just arent enough in the stock trim to represent on the streets especially against a 5-series. im sorry but i think the other guy let off or wasnt trying

 

I dunno, but I agree, the xA is NO BMW. But I'm sure he was racing, I could hear the engine, but anything's possible I guess. Secondly, we were accelerating from 80-110. . . so I assume he was racing, but you're free to think what you want. But yeah a 540 would have killed me, but I was thinking that maybe a small six BMW would make it possible, especially with the added weight. I can't get complete specs for the 525i auto, but I found these online

0-60 8.5s (auto)
0-60 7.8s (manual, huge diff!)
1/4 mi (manual) 15.8s @88mph so auto would be considerably less

This data is for a 2004, the updated Bangle model and the newer generation than the one I raced. So logically the older model SHOULD be slower? I have no idea. Data collected from:
http://www.modernracer.com/bmw525i.html

The xA posted 0-60 in 8.8s, and I forgot the 1/4 mile time Motortrend recorded, but it was in the the 16s range. So he clearly wouldn't have blown my doors off, assuming he was an auto 525i. I guess he let up a little, and then punched it again. But it's not as far off of a match than I thought, and if this data is correct, I'm right. But yeah, this in no way says that BMW's are ____, and the 540 kicks ___, I know that from experience. And the 3 series, can't go wrong there!

 

just curious if there are xa's out there that are racing in any organized events whether drag or solo..these cars are very spirited and i bet would be tons of fun to toss around some corners...

 

The obvious answer is that he had any 1 of his wife, mother-in-law or dad in the car. I know that if it were me, I would hear shrieks and moans, pleads and being disinherited until I slowed down as they get scared about everything. If he were by himself, it would have been a different story......