[slowmover]

You’d enjoy a ride in big-HP pre-emissions Peterbilt. Windows opened and those giant breathers feeding the huge turbocharger (which has its own echoed whine) And the exhaust pipes just a step back.

Very different experience than what a bystander hears. (None of that open pipes crap either). It’s a song with the upshifts getting to speed. Once into the High side of the transmission and working the the last 4-5 gears, it’s timing. A dance.

(If it has to be R&R, the Doors, “L.A. Woman”, was always great for a twitch into the left lane leaving a big city. Momentum, grabbing gears with the right foot down to crack the whip of a long line of big trucks; a dozen or more. To leave far behind. And then settle into a day without other trucks around. Then back to real music instead of happy noise).

The move into the left lane is that you have it. And they don’t. It’s full exploitation of the quality of surprise. One has fallen back fairly far to start the WOT run in the right lane. Most of them passed you (speeding) in the last ten miles (we note who is who). Standing on the governor most of them now that we are free of the lowered metro limit. A truck pass isn’t fast as cars would regard it. But it’s tens of tons being accelerated. Expertise at shifting (exacting). A locomotive quality.

The song cited opens with that tension (Densmore actually getting it). An ominous surprise. The action started a few miles back, though it wasn’t evident except to the observant. That Pete positioning itself with terrain and traffic to have all natural advantages accrue BEFORE lane-change and a minor downshift.

Like snowboarding, the speed builds and builds. The cab rocks side to side, and one is highly aware of every sound and untoward motion. Understand that one has ruled out use of brakes They won’t much matter if something go pear-shaped. It’s that type of risk.

Finally, the children in the governed trucks no longer try to stay ahead in hopes they’re lighter on weight and can keep the Peterbilt from passing with a terrain change. One moment there’d been no one in the left lane for miles. Then out of nowhere a large car coming on like a house a’fire.

Once up past 75-mph, (and heading for 85) a mile-long truck back-up is swiftly disposed. Fuel burn is a short acceleration run versus nearly an hour of passing those same trucks as they spread out (with corresponding lowered Average MPG and Average MPH; MPG sacrificed for MPH average).

The first few might get passed with 3-5/mph of headway. But the final ones it will be 15-20 mph. It’s a long mile-plus pass of truckers too dumb to space themselves.

.