So I just got to Panera Bread over at Sierra Vista Mall.
Leaving my house, I head north on Fowler towards HWY168. The speed limit here is 45 MPH and I rarely go over 50 due to a lot of traffic, children at play, joggers, etc. A car pulls in front of me after Butler and we slow to about 40 MPH. Out of now where some car comes right up on my butt and just starts ass-grabbing me. So I slowly merge over to the side of the lane so he can see there is a car in front of me, and he pulls back. I notice he is a truck, the headlights look like a newer Toyota 4Runner but I'm not sure yet.
We make our way to Fowler and Belmont where it turns into a 2 lane road. Everyone always has a hard-on to get into the #1 lane in preparation for the upcoming HWY168-West on-ramp. I always play it calm knowing that I will smoke any car on the 2-lane 270-degree uphill on ramp. As soon as the 2nd lane opens up, this guy behind me jumps in and slows for the red light at Belmont. Sure enough it's a black 4Runner, like a 2005+ model. He has some aftermarket black wheels with low profile tires.
The light at Belmont turns green but there is still 1 more light before the on-ramp and it is red. I'd say the 4Runner goes 75% throttle to defend the #1 lane. No big deal for me, and I slowly merge over behind him as if I am not in any hurry. This last red light turns green right before we get to the intersection and the 4Runner maintains his speed entering the on-ramp corner. I am thinking "Hey cool, finally someone who knows how to merge onto a freeway faster than 20 MPH"
So we get going on the 2-lane 270-degree up-hill right-turn on ramp, the 4Runner in the inside lane and me in the outside lane. Entering the on ramp he is a good 4 to 5 car lengths on me. I always anticipate people braking more than me so I always keep my distance so I can maintain a higher cornering speed. I enter the corner in 3rd gear which means it will be a quick and fun entry onto the freeway. Once I make the corner there is a short 100-yard straight before the remaining 180-degree corner onto the freeway. I quickly close the gap and enter the main corner bumper to bumper.
This CRAZY 4Runner guy is totally determined to enter the freeway ahead of me and he totally pushes the 4WD truck to its limits. I as well have to give it everything I've got to overtake him in the outside lane. So here we are going all out on the on-ramp, both vehicles tires squealing like crazy, lower pitch for his and a higher pitch for mine. At the end of the corner I am already at least 2 car lengths ahead of him and as soon as traction permits I take my tach all the way to 8,300 RPM in 3rd gear and power shift into 4th.
It wasn't much of a contest, even from the beginning, but I believe this is the first time anyone has seriously challenged me on that on-ramp like that. Usually people enter the corner with waay too much speed for their car and have to brake heavy and ugly. But this guy actually gave it a good effort, he was just not in a MR2.