Rampage Road

On June 8, 2000, I drove my beautiful Pewter Metallic WS6 Trans Am home for the first time. It was one of those days that I will never forget.

I remember calling my wife on the cell phone as she followed me home and griping at her about being too close to my bumper. She wasn't, but anything within a hundred feet was too close that day. Let me back-up though and give you a little history of what brought me to that great day.

For as long as I can remember I have been drawn to speed. I remember seeing pictures of my father's '67 Chevelle SS and hearing the great stories he told me about it. My excitement for cars was later fueled by many trips to west Texas.

I used to stay at my cousin's house in Wilson, TX., a small one-stop-light town just outside of Lubbock. We would go out cruising and hunt down guys to race or, if he had a hot date, he would bring me along to drive while he focused on other things. Not like I cared, I was around 12 or 13 and getting to drive was the greatest thing in the world, though I don't know how his date felt about it.

A few years after that I finally got my first car, a 1976 Formula Firebird, when I turned 16. It was a great car until one day while heading to my friend's house she just died on me. Thinking I was out of gas or something I parked it and finished walking to my friend's house.

When we came back there was smoke billowing from under the hood. I grabbed a water hose from the house that I had parked it in front of, popped the hood and put out the flames. It was a disaster, the whole electrical system melted. The fire was from an exposed wire touching the alternator and catching the air intake duct on fire. My dad, being a mechanic, replaced all of the wiring and we decided it would be best to sell her.

The next car I owned turned out to be one my favorites, it was a 1976 Mustang II Cobra. I ran across this wonderful car in the newspaper so I asked, no begged, my mom and dad to go look at it.

They finally agreed and we headed for Arlington. When we got there the owner had to open the garage and pull it out. As that door opened I felt a small chill race through my body and then he started it up. That was all it took, I was totally in love.

The owner had rebuilt the motor and put a sweet cam in it. She also had a custom paint job, black with pearl blue stripes. I later added some new wheels and better sound system.

I enjoyed a ton of good times in that car and raced it all the time until she finally met her end. One night my girlfriend and I were heading home from a date. I had noticed something in my rearview mirror and while adjusting it, I hit an old pick-up truck parked on the side of the road.

I was only doing 30mph but caught it just right and it totally destroyed the right front end. I did not have the money to repair it and sold it to a junk yard for parts. Till this day, I regret ever getting rid of that car and hope to someday buy another and restore it.

My next car was a little 1979 Mustang with a straight 6 engine. It was nothing special which was kind of my punishment for wrecking the Cobra. I put some rims on it and drove the heck out of it. Doing donuts was one of my favorite things to do with that car, of course it required wet pavement to accomplish it. Some how it managed to survive a few years and then I sold it once I met Pam who had a 1980 L82 Corvette.

Pam had bought her corvette a couple of years before we met, fulfilling one of her goals from when she was young. It was dark maroon with striping like the special edition '82 corvette. Unfortunately, it did not run as well as it looked. It had a short somewhere in the electrical system which always ran the battery down. The previous owner did not take care of it the way he should of so we chose to sell it and cut our losses.

I then bought a 1987 Z28. It turned out to be a money pit so one day while out driving around I stopped by a dealership. They had just pulled this very clean looking Camaro out. I picked up the phone and called Pam.

We decided to end the headaches we had been having with the Z28 and traded it in on the great looking 1991 Camaro RS. This car proved to be an excellent investment. I drove it for many years and never had any major problems with it. But then I saw that awesome Trans AM commercial in 1999 and the game was on. I had to have one of those Ram-Airs.

In January of 2000 I stopped by the dealership to check out the new car and see what they had in stock. Well as usual a salesman started talking to me and did some figures. The timing was not good so I put it aside until June of that year.

When I went back, the dealer was trying to get rid of the last few 2000 models because the 2001 models were on their way in. So after some major negotiations I had my Ram-Air.

I hit 40K miles the first of February 2003 and enjoyed every one of them. It drives great, has one hell of a passing gear in it, and I have not had any major problems.

The first year or so I hit all the local area drag strips quite often. My best times while still stock was an 8.502 at Kennedale's 1/8 mile track and a 13.5 in the 1/4 mile track at Ennis. Click on the pictures below to view the video of those runs.

It is a total blast and I have met some of the greatest people. I plan on doing some modifications later this year and then hitting the track again. I find myself torn between racing or shooting video when I go out to the track. My equipment is quite heavy so it is usually one or the other. If you are interested, click the picture of the time slips to view a list of my times I ran at various D/FW tracks.