85 Omni GLH-T2 vs 99 Suzuki SV650

My best friend owns a 99 SV650 - ridiculously fun bike, but he's been telling me we should race once i got my Omni put back together. I told him that would be cool, and we can do it whenever it was seemed convenient.

The time came a few days ago, he stopped by with his girlfriend on the back to hang out for a few minutes and take a break from riding. I mentioned maybe it would be a good time to try pitting his bike against my cheapo beater car. He agreed, but his girlfriend didn't want to hang out by herself at my house, and all three of us agreed that she should stay off the back of the bike. So she got to ride in the Omni. So, gutted Omni + 130lbs. I usually don't like dead weight in my car, but i figured if i beat him with his woman in the car i could rag on him a bit.

The boost was set to 13psi, what i've been driving around at, and we set off toward the south end of Powers Blvd near my house. There's usually not that many cars on that part of the road and it's long, straight, has a speed limit of 55mph, and for all intents and purposes it's a two lane highway that runs from the northern part of Fountain Colorado all the way up to the very north end of Colorado Springs.

We decided before to go from a roll, since the Omni is traction challenged and any race from a stop would be a waste of my tires. I told him that as soon as i was in the middle of 2nd, i'd give him the thumbs-up and then punch it. This seemed to work well, since the horn is no longer on my car.

I get the car to about 3500rpms in 2nd gear, he gets his bike pretty well wrapped up in whatever gear he was in, and then i gave him the thumb. We both seem to have gone WOT at the same time. I half expected him to just squirt away, or maybe put a few cars on me by the time i hit redline in 4th gear. Well, that didn't happen. From the middle of 2nd to 100mph, he stuck right with me, with the Omni pulling ever-so-slightly. By the end of the race, he was at my rear bumper.

So, score one for the Omni. We've decided to try it again with the boost kicked up to 18psi and no girlfriend in the car. Obviously he's going to get owned, badly. The interesting question is by how much? We'll find out the next time he comes by.

I'm also going to be visiting the drag-strip on Wednesday for some legal racing action. His bike is *supposed* to run high 11's at sea lavel. Factor in one second for the high-country and another second for my terrible launching skills, and i will be very happy with a high 13s timeslip. I'll find out then, looking forward to it.

Cliff-notes: The Omni won.

Thanks for reading, happy motoring!

-Gilles