Gen 1 vs newer Porsche

[desert_max]

Since this has become a great thread for collecting old stories, I have another one I’ll share.

Circa 1986 I was living on Lake Weir in a cottage in a little town called Ocklawaha Florida. I was heading into town to meet a friend, town being Ocala, which was about 10 or 12 miles down the road.

Running late, and riding my 85 ZL900 eliminator, I came up behind a late model light blue Ford with North Carolina plates and we both got stuck behind a slower car. I pulled out to pass and he did too at the same time. From about 40MPH or so, the back end of that Ford squatted down and he took off. Of course the eliminator was no slouch and I nailed it, he pulled over and I managed to get abreast of him, but had to work to get around him. I stayed in the throttle, hard in the throttle, looked in the mirror and he was right behind me. Deeper into the throttle, I looked in the mirror again and he was still right behind me, only this time red and blue lights in the grill were flashing.

I pulled over, stayed on the bike and he came walking up and put a badge in my face. Turns out he was a DEA agent. Says to me, “Son, if I was a traffic unit, you’d be getting multiple citations!”

I told him he was doing pretty good in that Ford and asked him what it was.

460 interceptor. Highly modified and apparently acquired as one of the spoils of a DEA case. He was pretty proud of it and I professed an admiration for it. Bottom line, he let me go with a shake of his finger and I hightailed it out of there. Good thing he didn’t check my pockets...

 

[Fire-medic]

Since this has become a great thread for collecting old stories, I have another one I’ll share.

Circa 1986 I was living on Lake Weir in a cottage in a little town called Ocklawaha Florida. I was heading into town to meet a friend, town being Ocala, which was about 10 or 12 miles down the road.

Running late, and riding my 85 ZL900 eliminator, I came up behind a late model light blue Ford with North Carolina plates and we both got stuck behind a slower car. I pulled out to pass and he did too at the same time. From about 40MPH or so, the back end of that Ford squatted down and he took off. Of course the eliminator was no slouch and I nailed it, he pulled over and I managed to get abreast of him, but had to work to get around him. I stayed in the throttle, hard in the throttle, looked in the mirror and he was right behind me. Deeper into the throttle, I looked in the mirror again and he was still right behind me, only this time red and blue lights in the grill were flashing.

I pulled over, stayed on the bike and he came walking up and put a badge in my face. Turns out he was a DEA agent. Says to me, “Son, if I was a traffic unit, you’d be getting multiple citations!”

I told him he was doing pretty good in that Ford and asked him what it was.

460 interceptor. Highly modified and apparently acquired as one of the spoils of a DEA case. He was pretty proud of it and I professed an admiration for it. Bottom line, he let me go with a shake of his finger and I hightailed it out of there. Good thing he didn’t check my pockets...

That's what the dogs are-for.

I have an acquaintance who worked for the state fire marshal's office. His canine was trained to alert to combustibles and explosives, I don't think they cared about individual sticks of leafy-material. At one of the in-service trainings he had the dog locate several 'packages' in the room. The dog didn't miss a one. The State of FL Fire College is located in Ocala, I've been there for classes and testing for different certifications.

The 385-series Ford replaced the FE, the FE being what was once-used in NASCAR, and the Shelby AC Cobras. The first of the 385 engines was the 429 cu.in., then Ford followed the 'go-big or go-home' mantra, and the next engine surpassed the GM 454 by six-inches. I wonder if the 460 confiscation was something with 'shine tanks installed? It being from NC and-all. Shades of what Junior Johnson served time-for, before entering NASCAR. Was it a Crown Victoria? That was one of the longest-running cars for fleet use by the PD, state police, sheriff's depts, and the federal law-enforcement agencies. Did you know that after Ford stopped making rear-wheel drive cars, they continued to manufacture the floorpans for the Crown Vic? It was used by all the NASCAR teams as the base for their builds.

 

[Woody]

"Running late, and riding my 85 ZL900 eliminator"

Fun bike.

 

[CaptainKyle]

Speaking of Eliminators I should have a tank showing up here from an out of state customer for pain on one anytime

 

[desert_max]

I had that brand new 85 that I rode off the showroom floor in Florida...And I had one that unfortunately met with an untimely demise 10 years ago..

 

[stevewgardner]

Are you speaking of a Porsche 928? I think there's a typo, they were first built in 1978. They were technologically-advanced, many air-cooled 911 drivers hated them. The ~275 cu. in. engine made 240 HP which was good for the time, the Trans-Am with either a Pontiac 400 or the Olds 403 cu. in. engines only made 180 HP. My inline-5 cyl aluminum DOHC ten year-old GMC makes more-than that Porsche, and it's 48 cu. inches smaller.

Going-off memory, the F-111 is the Aardvark? That's the plane designed to use ground-following radar to fly nuclear ordinance at low altitudes to the target?

View attachment 76669

I went to the NASA website to calculate ground speed, at 35,000 ft Mach 1=663 mph so Mach 2.34=1,551 mph, or 25.85 miles per minute. Yikes! Mach Number (nasa.gov)

I see since I began writing you added that it's the F-111 fighter. This is the bomber. And on the L-M website, I see that it does talk-about the ground-following radar. A scary statistic: in 1966(!): The F-111 set a record for the longest low-level supersonic flight (172 miles at less than 1,000 feet altitude) F-111 | Lockheed Martin Can you imagine being in the flight path of that? You'd have a couple of seconds of "what-th'..." and it would already be out of sight. I attended an air show at Homestead FL Air Force Base, the most-impressive flight was a fly-by at low altitude by a fighter, I don't recall what it was but I suspect an F-15, at about 500 mph. The announcer told us, here it comes, and they passed so-quickly, you barely heard it coming and going. When it was overhead, (it was not directly-overhead, they passed-by maybe a quarter-mile away) there was a wall of overwhelming sound, babies and little kids started crying, and the departure of the fighter was being serenaded by hundreds of automobile and truck burglar alarms activated.

YES! A '78. Bought it in England in '86, shipped it to the US as a grey market car. A typo. What a dummy I am sometimes....especially because I teach writing at a University (those who can't do, teach...you should worry about your tax dollars).
The Vietnamese called it "Whispering Death." You could go as low as you wanted and as fast as you dared. On full terrain following, you were good at 200 feet at M 1.3 on the darkest night you can imagine over the roughest terrain you can imagine. Made ya pucker sometimes. A lot of fun, a ton of work, but I will say the things I have done since I hung up my flight boots have been just as much, or more, rewarding! A helluva ride....so far.

 

[Fire-medic]

YES! A '78. Bought it in England in '86, shipped it to the US as a grey market car. A typo. What a dummy I am sometimes....especially because I teach writing at a University (those who can't do, teach...you should worry about your tax dollars).
The Vietnamese called it "Whispering Death." You could go as low as you wanted and as fast as you dared. On full terrain following, you were good at 200 feet at M 1.3 on the darkest night you can imagine over the roughest terrain you can imagine. Made ya pucker sometimes. A lot of fun, a ton of work, but I will say the things I have done since I hung up my flight boots have been just as much, or more, rewarding! A helluva ride....so far.

One of my acquaintances who ran a sheet metal and welding shop had an S4 928. Pretty-nice car, but not as-fast as my other friend's '74 911 with a turbo engine, which was built by an IMSA team member.

Riding in an F-111 with the ground-following radar would probably make me throw-up.

I not long-ago finished a biography by Rear Admiral Paul Gillcrist, who took his training in an SNJ Texan, then a Grumman F-6F Hellcat before transitioning to jets: the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, the F9F-6 Cougar, the North American T2J-1 Buckeye, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the F8B Crusader (2,000 hours and 600+ carrier landings); F4J Phantoms, A7A Corsair, and F-5F Tigers (he was commander at Fightertown USA for two years, 1979-'81), the F/A 18 Hornet, and his last carrier landing in a F-14A Tomcat. The book is Feet Wet and is not for the squeamish. He often flew from Dixie Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, I'm old-enough to recall the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which LBJ used to enter Vietnam in-force, and half a year later, Rolling Thunder, the two-year bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. This biography, covering post-WW II US Navy aviators, in their transition to jets, and the Vietnam war, makes for exciting reading. Unfortunately, Rear Adm. Gillcrist loses a lot of fellow aviators along the way.

 

[stevewgardner]

One of my acquaintances who ran a sheet metal and welding shop had an S4 928. Pretty-nice car, but not as-fast as my other friend's '74 911 with a turbo engine, which was built by an IMSA team member.

Riding in an F-111 with the ground-following radar would probably make me throw-up.

Yes, but much more comfortable. You could cruise at speed all day. Definitely the 911 is quicker though, but not as smooth, even now that they are water-cooled. Much harder to work on, too. I've been thinking about buying an S4, but I am also thinking 1948-51 Chevy pickup. Going to the NSRA Nats with my son on our bikes in August...hope to find a Chev.

Throw up? Uh, yes, that has happened.... I used to keep a barf bag tucked in my G-suit upper leg pocket, just in case. Never had to use it, but many have! A loooong time ago, now.