[Edward]

So a couple days ago a guy was kind of tailing me and blowing by me as I was driving constant speed.

Came up next to him at a light with three lanes and wide open 60 mph zone road. Had a brief exchange and I asked him if he had a tune because his car seemed rather quick. He said he has stage 2 Cobb and downpipes. I don't know if you can have aftermarket downpipes with catalytic converters, but his car didn't smell like it was catless. Anyhow, everything else looked stock down to the wheels and suspension. My car had less than a quarter tank left and I had my golf clubs and an overnight bag in the back. Car has 3600 miles on the clock with pretty new contis and bone stock except for oem cf spoiler and splitters. Nothing more. No passengers in either car.

He tells me he hasn't run it against an M3. I reluctantly oblige because I really really dislike the whole red light race thing but tell him I'll run him to the speed limit and no more for obvious reasons.

I figure this will be a sub 5 second race anyway and there are no cars anywhere near us while being in a 60 zone.

We take off and judging by his immediate launch and his non jerky shifts, his car is steptronic. I did not modulate my pedal while in S5 with power button pressed and comfort suspension on the EDC. I simply hit the gas 95% of the way and then fully floored. The time it took for the clutch to fully engage 1st and take off was enough for his car to get an immediate half car jump on me. And by the time I was hitting 60 he probably had a 4/5-1 car lead on me. I figure he would have continued to walk my car if we went on to 120 or so. Would be interesting to do a rolling start though.

I remember the tuned 335i's always would roll up and try to show them they can beat you. Happened a lot when I had a stock 335is. I'm sure it validates their tune to beat a factory "tuned" N54.

Anyway, fun short "safe" race and a cool guy.