American Muscle

April 17 th 

I actually met someone. Someone in this awful town that actually knows something interesting. His name was Ethan Revell and he seems to be the only one in a 100 mile radius that can talk about a car. It is so nice to finally have someone else. It was this perfect moment, we were walking down the street parallel to the beach when I saw this beautiful green Aston Martin DBS coming our way. I was already walking with him on the side of the road because we had a mutual friend in the group. I was watching the Aston Martin roll closer and for a few seconds we could hear all 12, 5.2 Liter cylinders exploding with power. It was an amazing sound, one you never get the chance to hear in America, I could help but let out a noise of astonishment as it went by. To my surprise, I hear another noise only a few feet away. It was him, Ethan, letting out almost the same exact noise at the exact same time. I looked at him, he looked at me. Then he jumped in the air in excitement screaming, did you just hear that? Unconsciously I humped in the air as well screaming of course I did, that thing was stunning! This was the best feeling in the world knowing that someone else shares the same passion as me. We talked for the next hour about cars that we would either see on the road next to us or ones that we just thought were interesting. This might have just been the best day ever. 

April 18 th 

This might be the worst day ever. I got to school today and as soon as I pulled in I saw Ethan. I was excited to tell him about how I was at dinner yesterday and saw a McLaren P4 parallel parking outside the window. However, I saw him walk straight to a certain car and open the door. It was exactly what you think. An American Muscle car, the Mustang . Ugh, this was just very disappointing in my eyes. I mean, how can you drive one of them. I walked up to him as he pulled his mask out from the center console that he initially forgot. I asked him “Is this yours?” 

Nodding his head he responded, “Yeah, you like?”

“No I do not, how can you drive this thing? The american are good at making one car and it's the Ford F150 and that's it. These cars are terrible! I thought you would have had more sense than that.”

“What do you mean, I love these things, what's wrong with it?”

“Oh my gosh, here we go. Okay so for starters, I bet you can't even take a highway exit bend over 40 miles per hour because the suspension has been the same since the 1980’s. Second, I'm assuming you don't have the V8 version, which means you have the 4 cylinders 5.2 Liter version, which by the way is smaller than a little Nissan Altima. I mean common, a brand new one of these costs about 35-40 thousand at the lowest. With that money you could get a much better and much more reliable 3 series BMW.”

“I would never choose a German car over an American one in my opinion. They are way overpriced for what they are. I see why you like them because they are very flashy and comfortable but if you want raw horsepower and the real looks then I would go with an American made one instead.”

“I don’t know man, I mean most of them are made directly from German and other European cars anyway. And anyway, if you want flashy, you go for an Italian Porsche for example. If you want cheap, you go for Japanese. If you want quality you go for German or English. But if you want trash you buy American. I mean there's a reason for the name Ford. It stands for Found On Road Dead.”

Then the bell rang and we had to go to our classes for the day, we agreed to keep the conversation going later. All I could think about is how could the only car guy I Know like American muscle cars, it’s just not right. 

April 10 th

I just had the craziest thing happen to me today. I walked into school today and saw Ethan first thing. He came up to me and said, “Man have I found a way to change your mind.”

“About what?”

“Look what I got us.”

He hands me two tickets to the new Dodge Challenger SRT Demon track day event.

“Are these-?”

“Yes they are! Track day event! We get to go to an airstrip not too far away from here and drive a Demon Flat out!”

“How did you get these?

“My dad works for Dodge, I just asked him for them and he gave me them this morning.”

“I’m still not gonna like it.” I said jokingly.

“We’ll see”

April 20 th

Today was the day. I got there just a few minutes after Ethan and even though I didn’t like the particular car I was still very excited. There was a group of about twelve to fifteen of us waiting along the airstrip when all of a sudden I heard one of the coolest noises I have ever heard. 

“I'll admit, It sounds a heck of a lot better than I thought it would.” 

“I told you.”

“Hey I just say sounds, I didn’t say anything about the drive.”

“Yet.”

The Demon whipped around the bend and onto the start of the airstrip. Since Ethan’s dad works for them, he was allowed to go first but he gave up his starting spot to me because he said it would give me a shock. I opened the carbon fiber door using almost no muscle, surprised at how light it was. I sat in and looked around me. The roll cage in the back, the knobs and buttons all around me. I followed the instructor's directions on how to set up the launch control, and then he said I was ready. I put my foot on the gas while holding down the clutch, matching the revolutions to 6,000 per minute. Hearing the over 800 ponies screaming from the engine, I let go of the clutch hard and I was whipped back in my seat. I barely had enough strength to pull my arm forward to change to second gear by the time I was already at 6,300 revs again. In 2.3 seconds I was already at 60 miles per hour. I have never been this amazed by any sort of power in a vehicle. I changed through every gear feeling the supercharged turbos releasing when I put the clutch down. Everything from my waist to my jaw was being pulled back into the seat with the 1.8 G’s off the start line. Getting to the end of the drag strip I pressed on the brake and immediately I was blown away yet again, The breaking power of the Demon was incredible. I rolled back to the start line where everyone was standing there clapping. I stood out of the car and Ethan asked me one simple question.

“Was I right”

“Yes you were.”