Automobile Drafting Stories

[WIGGUM1]

This was an "Unrecommended" piece of advice published in Bicycling Magazine, I believe it was in June or July's issue. Anyhow, it describes using autos to draft off to improve your performance. The end of the article describes what to do if the car slams on the brakes and it was recommended to grab onto the car and hang on. I myself rarely use cars to draft, but I have had to grab onto a car that turned in front of me to avoid going down, I held onto the roof rack for dear life. I think I scared the girl driving more than she scared me though. Some guy in spandex tights up against her window hanging by the roof is a weird sight following a loud clunk.

I would like to hear from fellow riders about disasters or generally entertaining stories resulting from this practice. No crash stories (we have a post for that), just near crash stories in which you used the automobile to avoid crashing or what not....

 

[Cycler6n]

Haven't drafted a car yet, but some idiot wanted to impress his girl pulled into my lane to mess with me. one of those punks laying down driving, enormouse sunglasses, loud rap on, can't stand most of them.

 

[mongooseboy]

Haven't drafted a car yet, but some idiot wanted to impress his girl pulled into my lane to mess with me. one of those punks laying down driving, enormouse sunglasses, loud rap on, can't stand most of them.

luckily no one near me does that. or at least not yet. If they do ill memorize their plates and turn them in for reckless driving...

They all seem to tailgate while im in my car though. brake checks are nice, but i miss my blazer with the 4.3L that allowed me to out accelerate them stupid rice-burners without even pushing the engine

Oh, and i ride right of the white line. It IS illegal here in NY state to cross the white UNLESS you are avoiding accident, or exiting the roadway. Yet so many people do it...

 

[stlblues]

luckily no one near me does that. or at least not yet. If they do ill memorize their plates and turn them in for reckless driving...

They all seem to tailgate while im in my car though. brake checks are nice, but i miss my blazer with the 4.3L that allowed me to out accelerate them stupid rice-burners without even pushing the engine

Oh, and i ride right of the white line. It IS illegal here in NY state to cross the white UNLESS you are avoiding accident, or exiting the roadway. Yet so many people do it...

You wouldn't have stood a chance against my rice burner, unless you had a blower on that 4.3. I was running low 12s, high 11s. and if you want to run my Titan with its rice burning 5.6, try it, it eats hemis for lunch.

I've never tried drafting a car on a bike, it helps with the truck behind a semi, but they are rarely going fast enough for the pace I like.

 

[Cycler6n]

You wouldn't have stood a chance against my rice burner, unless you had a blower on that 4.3. I was running low 12s, high 11s. and if you want to run my Titan with its rice burning 5.6, try it, it eats hemis for lunch.

I've never tried drafting a car on a bike, it helps with the truck behind a semi, but they are rarely going fast enough for the pace I like.

I used to have an Iroc Daytona, so ya'll shut up. one word, fast.

 

[kdelong]

I used to have an Iroc Daytona, so ya'll shut up. one word, fast.

You're probably gonna laugh for about a second at this. 1993 Ford Probe GT, (but wait, there's more) with an aftermarket Blackburn turbo installed. Had to modify the firewall and fender wells for it to all fit. 163.7 MPH top speed. That's fast ! Let's see someone draft that. Finally sold it to a collector and bought my wimpy pickup. Couldn't haul more than one bike at a time with it. No one made a rack for it due to the huge windows.

 

[stlblues]

I used to have an Iroc Daytona, so ya'll shut up. one word, fast.

If you'll go for it, I've got a Honda Ill run ya with, its only got two wheels.....its one of them, uh, what ya ma call it crotch rockets.

 

[BigUgly]

Never drafted a car but did draft a farm trtactor a few weeks back it was great followed him for the last 10k of a 110k ride. He pulled me along just great at 35km/h, hardly had to touch the pedals. Was nice way to cool down problem is a wrecked havoc on my normal speed on that road I normal average 40-45k on it

 

[alienator]

Haven't drafted a car yet, but some idiot wanted to impress his girl pulled into my lane to mess with me. one of those punks laying down driving, enormouse sunglasses, loud rap on, can't stand most of them.

Wow. How Christian of you. I now understand the hypocrisy of your Christian ways.

 

[WIGGUM1]

Haven't drafted a car yet, but some idiot wanted to impress his girl pulled into my lane to mess with me. one of those punks laying down driving, enormouse sunglasses, loud rap on, can't stand most of them.

I am not sure if he was trying to impress his girl as much as she was trying to impress him....if they was layin down and such....so anyway, back to the topic at hand, who uses cars to draft?

 

[Cycler6n]

You're probably gonna laugh for about a second at this. 1993 Ford Probe GT, (but wait, there's more) with an aftermarket Blackburn turbo installed. Had to modify the firewall and fender wells for it to all fit. 163.7 MPH top speed. That's fast ! Let's see someone draft that. Finally sold it to a collector and bought my wimpy pickup. Couldn't haul more than one bike at a time with it. No one made a rack for it due to the huge windows.

People underestamate those, but you can hop em up pretty fast. Were you the one who did 163?

 

[Cycler6n]

Wow. How Christian of you. I now understand the hypocrisy of your Christian ways.

What do you mean? That guy is an idiot, what if he hit someone?

 

[kdelong]

People underestamate those, but you can hop em up pretty fast. Were you the one who did 163?

Yup. I-64 in Southern Indiana. This stretch of road is dead from 5:00 in the morning until about 8:00 and absolutey no cops from Corydon to Evansville. I was on my way to Illinois to see a freind and was running a little late. I arrived a little early . Speedometer only went up to 140 MPH so I had to use the trip Odo and a stopwatch to get the actual speed.

 

[Cycler6n]

Yup. I-64 in Southern Indiana. This stretch of road is dead from 5:00 in the morning until about 8:00 and absolutey no cops from Corydon to Evansville. I was on my way to Illinois to see a freind and was running a little late. I arrived a little early . Speedometer only went up to 140 MPH so I had to use the trip Odo and a stopwatch to get the actual speed.

lol, thats pretty cool, i had a teacher who had a friend who lived in Arizona, same thing, cept he had an Aston Martin

 

[stlblues]

Yup. I-64 in Southern Indiana. This stretch of road is dead from 5:00 in the morning until about 8:00 and absolutey no cops from Corydon to Evansville. I was on my way to Illinois to see a freind and was running a little late. I arrived a little early . Speedometer only went up to 140 MPH so I had to use the trip Odo and a stopwatch to get the actual speed.

So, who did your transmission work, it would take a custom gearset to achieve those speeds , 5th would redline deep around 145mph and require in excess of 600hp with the weight of the car and wind drag coefficient. Asking alot of that bigger turbo. The Integra I had was massaged heavily to 488hp at the wheels and it topped at 148 and it was into the red.....at 8400rpm (red is 8100). Plus the Integra has a much better wind drag number. I've hit 174mph....on a modified BMW K1200RS and 163 on a tweeked GPZ1100, but without stripping a car to the bare shell, a supercharger, and LARGE bottle of NOS, not in anything with 4 wheels....but no one was drafting me at the time on any of them.

 

[kdelong]

Freind of mine did the tranny work. I don't know what he did but it cost a bundle and was a six speed when he was finished. He worked for Childress Racing back then but is retired now. This car was pretty much a winter project for a bunch of guys and my bank account in 1995.

 

[Little Lance]

Hey Guys, dude nice topic!

Well few days ago just drafted a road train(3 carriages) then after about 2mins of drafting it, Pshhhhhhhhhhh AIR BRAKES!
Friend goes smashing into the back of the truck and I barely miss. Just to tell you guys he had no injuries just a scarred pride!


Little Lance.

 

[WIGGUM1]

Hey Guys, dude nice topic!

Well few days ago just drafted a road train(3 carriages) then after about 2mins of drafting it, Pshhhhhhhhhhh AIR BRAKES!
Friend goes smashing into the back of the truck and I barely miss. Just to tell you guys he had no injuries just a scarred pride!


Little Lance.

Yeah, I failed to remember you aussies have those crazy tractor trailer trains. That must be intense being passed by one of those on the road...or in your case, drafting from one.

 

[oldbobcat]

My drafting story is tame but a nice memory. One fall afternoon, a training buddy and I managed to get behind an old school bus full of tourists out for a view of the lovely Connecticut River valley. The road was fairly flat and untraveled and it was one of those crisp early autumn days that are a New England trademark. As the bus tooled along at 35-45 mph, the well dressed tourists were having a fine time watching us out the back, and we were having a fine time doing some easy motorpacing and flirting with them. The driver went along since he was in no hurry, we were keeping a fairly responsible distance, and his passengers were enjoying the show.

With limited forward visibility, we tended to run into each other as we tried to anticipate the radii of corners and curves we couldn't see.

Buses can be a good draft because the they have at least a dozen back-seat drivers who will complain about aggressive driving.

 

[oldbobcat]

Never drafted a car but did draft a farm trtactor a few weeks back it was great followed him for the last 10k of a 110k ride.

Farmers can be nice road companions as long as you act friendly and show some respect for the hazards of their machinery.