No tC involved, sorry... still it was a fascinating experience and i thought it was worth sharing in this topic, not in "other cars" or "offtopic".
So, me and my dad (he was driving) were coming home from south bay, going from 280 up 19th to the golden gate bridge. hardly any traffic on the streets, but we got off the freeway at the same time with a bmw x5 and a bmw 330. We were on a totally stock toyota matrix xr (just 135hp, in case you don't know). So, there's no traffic, we take off from the first light, no racing (toyota vs bmw? a joke) in mind, just tryin' to get home as soon as possible... anyway, on the next light x5 demonstratively takes off in front of us, then on the other one we're behind 3rd series, just fooling around, three cars, three lanes, next light is there to catch us anyway.
somewhere along the way x5 turns away, an infinity fx comes in to play the same game... eventually we end up at the light before golden gate park - we're in the very left lane, bmw 3 in the very right. the left lane becomes a left turn only lane shortly after the light, so we take off and get up to like 75 before cutting over to the right lane in front of the fx. after that there's a fairly sharp (i think it's a 35mph suggested speed?) right turn, we enter it with tires slightly squeeking (i think the speed being 'bout 60?), and we see the bmw pass us on the right at like 5-10mph faster speed... well, as said before - 135hp toyota vs 235hp bmw is not a competition, just foolin' around -- so by the end of the turn he's like 5-7 carlengths ahead - and looses control over his car. hits the right curb, spins 90degrees, hits the divider with the front end --- car looked totalled. we stop to check him out, he gets out of the car, feels allright, just mad as hell at himself for not being able to control the car... we go home.
so,
the point of the story, the moral -
it's not what your car can do, it's what you can do. when driving, it's just you, your car, and your grip to the road, nothing else (other's speed in this case) matters, it's only your own experience you can apply to driving your car.
prolly insurance is gonna cover him a new car, and hopefully he's not gonna rely on other's speed to estimate what he can do on the road...
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