Barely Street Legal League [SURVEY ON PAGE 70]

[07CobaltGirl]

LAX was a pain in the ass right from the start. Customs dogs smelled the reefer from Japan. She should have known better, but the touge had beaten her and in a moment of weakness she gave in. More care would be needed moving forward. She didn't need the law nipping her tail at every turn. At least they only found the smell. 3 hours after arriving, she was on the road again, motor humming loudly.

Some fool on the 105 thought it would be cute to rev the motor at her. He didn't think it was cute when she popped the accelerator and left him like he was standing still. He tried to keep up, but he wasn't even visible by the time she merged onto the 605 interchange. "Guys from Inglewood must have no balls," she thought to herself. "Anything modern should be able to chase down an old 80's M3." She smirked at her own humor and kept going on to the 210, and finally I-15 towards Las Vegas. It was a clear, but chilly night, and a long drive ahead.

The night waned on as she drove off the exit ramp of I-15 onto US 93. The GPS said 350 miles to the destination and it would take 5 hours. She knew she could do better than this. She had needed to run the wipers most of the way since leaving Las Vegas. As she passed a billboard, the cliched state trooper bellowed out onto the road with lights flashing. He didn't chase long, however, as she was already doing close to 165 mph when he saw her. By the time he made it onto the road she was up to 185, and his car just couldn't do it. Perhaps he would dispatch a chopper to find her, but hopefully she'd be long gone by then. As long as her path wasn't too predictable, she should be fine.

[accent]

An Italian Mystery Driver, Finnish-Hungarian engineer Kalervo Rubik and a Gibraltarian Barbary macaque named Mister Greasepaws (the third, but no-one ever remembered to mention that) were the multinational and multi-species crew of team Raggari, who now were looking around in Los Angeles. They had all seen LA in so many movies and TV shows, but the real thing lacked in the magic of urban americana they were expecting to see. The cars here were... cool. Many cars that were thought of as cheap old bangers here could be considered "unique and exotic" back in Rubik's home town where everybody owned either a German or Japanese car, some even still rode around in boxy Ladas. Here 1980's Corvettes, Trans-Ams, Mustangs and such were not rare or particularly expensive. Rubik briefly considered bringing one of those home from here, but saw that they tended to be "well used", to put it politely. Still, he loved the Pontiac Trans-Am, though he probably wouldn't if he hadn't watched Knight Rider in his youth.

Their car wouldn't have turned so many heads if it weren't for its racing livery. There was a lively import tuner culture here, so the BSLL competitors were not the only source of turbo whining and tire squealing around. Some of the League cars even blended in with the locals. On the long drive to the next race location they were passed by something with bright neon lights and monstrous body kit that made a noise like someone blowing a tuba in a beer can. It seemed to be a Toyota Supra, or it used to be one. Mystery Driver shook a fist at it and shoved his right foot down like he was trying to push the gas pedal through the floor. This temperament of his could mean trouble, thought Rubik. Mister Greasepaws was already taking all the paperwork out in case the police would stop them. They passed the Supra, which in turn passed them way faster. Rubik touched the Mystery Drivers arm and shook his head "no". A disappointed sigh came from under the helmet. The rear lights and blue neon glow of the Supra soon faded out of sight in the darkening evening.

After about ten miles they saw the Supra again. The police had stopped it and another tuner car, an Eclipse with a hideous flame painjob. Surprisingly, no League drivers had been caught. Mystery Driver laughed so hard he almost lost control of the car. One of the cops stared at them as they drove by. His face seemed to say "I know. I know and I'll get you, too". But Rubik had told the Mystery Driver to keep the racing on the race courses where it belonged. The driver's posture now was a sad slump which made Rubik fear that the helmet headed freak might be falling asleep.

[strop]

I don't have time to write in the story just yet, but just so you know, here's a correspondence everybody should receive about now...

URGENT BULLETIN: please check Utah weather conditions. Currently snowing, followed by 2 days of rain. Temperatures between 5-40F. Salt flats will be unsafe to race now, as are the roads. We will meet at midnight, Nov 18 local time instead, once rains have stopped.

Until then you're free to do as you please. Note that staying overnight on the Salt Flats themselves is prohibited, so we suggest finding suitable accommodation until then.

(Side note: the GG crew find themselves with an extra two days to spend in Vegas LOL).

[DuratecDriver]

Matt was arrived in the U.S. just from half a day, he parked the car on a multi-story parking near the Hotel the team booked near the salt flats.

- About 10PM, Salt Lake City -

The 2 Engineers were drinking beers and discussing loudly on how to set the car after Bonneville, a couple of days were given to all the partecipants in order to service the car, and both Matt and the team saw that as an opportunity to tune slightly some aspects of the SD-01R, based on the experiences he had on the past stages.
Matt instead was lying on the couch, zapping on the TV, news, a boring comedy, antoher news, he was thinking that among hundredth of sat channels there was nothing barely decent to watch. A whatsapp message made his mobile hum. "Watch the forecasts".
Quickly he zapped back until the weather forecast 24 channel, they were talking of Salt Lake City and the surroundings, a strong perturbation coming from north is entering Utah tonight, the temperature will drop and for the next 3 days snow and heavy rain is forecasted.
"Holy crap, do we have to stay here in this hotel doing nothing for three fucking days?" One of the engineers said that, having both ended the beers and the discussion about the set-up mods.

Matt gets up from the couch and opens the windows, they're at the 5th floor, a freezing air came in confirming that bad news were true. The first snow flakes were starting to fall.
"Hey, I've seen a casinò a couple of kms down the road, we can get there to kill some time" the other engineer idea was good.
M: "You two can go now, I'll meet you there, but before I have to extend our booking here for 3 additional nights. Cya later guys."

Minutes later Matt has left his room, and is waiting at the reception table for the girl to give him the documents to sign in order to extend the booking. Meanwhile he's thinking - Who knows, maybe some other teams, have booked here for the night. -.


RP mode: disengaged--- If anyone has booked at the "same hotel", can RP w/out problems with me in his/her story.

[accent]

Rubik sent a status update to the League's facebook page: "We took a wrong turn and found ourselves in Phoenix because SOMEONE read the map wrong. We need to get a new GPS as soon as possible because that same SOMEONE decided to throw the device out of the window."

"Aww I can't stay mad at you Mister Greasepaws" said Rubik to the furry little thing that was making puppy dog eyes at him. It had seemed confident in its ability to navigate, so much so that it had taken offense when the driver would rather use the GPS. The monkey was rarely wrong about anything, so Rubik had decided to sleep. Now they had arrived in Phoenix instead of Las Vegas and Rubik wondered if the Mystery Driver could read. Surely there has got to have been signs along the road saying where they were heading. Well, at least they had plenty of time and they could go see the Grand Canyon.

[3rayman3]

Upon landing at LAX Rayyan was waved through security due to sheer amount of times he's been to the USA which helps as he would be caught with several pounds of weed in his luggage. When Rayyan enters the HFF he is informed by Noah that we have three extra days to do what we want whilst in America.
Upon receiving this news Rayyan was instantly on his phone to the head of testing at Sabre Automotives. After the very short conversation with the head of testing Rayyan unlike everyone else goes along the coast to Laguna Seca where Sabre Automotives are testing the Sabre MotorWorks Mantis concept. He stays there for two of the extra days to help in with the testing of the concept car before heading upto Salt Lake city where he meets up with Matt and his engineers before heading out to the Bonneville salt flats.

[07CobaltGirl]

11:46pm: URGENT BULLETIN: please check Utah weather conditions. Currently snowing, followed by 2 days of rain. Temperatures between 5-40F. Salt flats will be unsafe to race now, as are the roads. We will meet at midnight, Nov 18 local time instead, once rains have stopped.

Until then you're free to do as you please. Note that staying overnight on the Salt Flats themselves is prohibited, so we suggest finding suitable accommodation until then.

Annoyed at the news from BSLL on her phone, Kristina detoured to West Wendover, NV at the Red Garter Hotel & Casino for some leisure. Perhaps she could win the cost of her trip on the Hold 'Em tables, and she could most certainly use a drink. She arrived at just after 1AM local time and went to check in at the front desk. "It is just a little snow and ice. What's the harm in racing?", she said to herself.

The Desk Clerk looked up from his computer. "Ma'am?" "Oh, nothing. How much will it be for 3 nights?", she replied. "It's $79.00 per night for a King Suite, and $59.00 for a Standard Room with 2 twin beds," he droned out. He seemed both bored and annoyed she was standing here asking questions. "I'll take the King, then."

Unfortunately, the Red Garter's idea of a casino was mostly just a big slots room with a roulette table in the center. "How disappointing!" she exclaimed, much to the horror of the casino staff. She wandered over to the Rainbow Casino next door for some entertainment.

The coat-check girl was rather cute, so she chatted her up for a bit and got a number for later. She had a thing for petite red heads, and this one had big green eyes and freckles to boot! She had stopped just short of handing the girl, Anastasia, the 2nd key to her room. As she walked away, she turned and smiled once more, putting an extra sashay into her step for dramatic effect.

After watching the tables for about 20 minutes, she got a drink order from a waiter wandering the floor with nothing better to do and sat down at Table 5. She spent the next 8 hours on the roller coaster of Texas Hold 'Em with a $5k BB. The highlight of the night was an All-In on a pair of K's before the draw. All 4 players followed suit, and then it happened. On the Flop sat a pair of Aces and a King! She kept her poker face on, and waited for the rest, feigning disappointment. The turn was a dud 7 of clubs, and the River card was, another King! The pot was $162k, and she was on top of the world. She drunk-dialed Anastasia at 7am to tell her all about it. Surprisingly, she was actually interested and they made plans for later in the afternoon. Only a few hands more, and Kristina decided she had won enough at $186k.

As the night turned into day she decided to head to her room for a nap. She was a little tipsy, and really could use the sleep after the long drive and long night of gambling. The room was actually quite nice for the price. There was a spectacular view of the Salt Flats on the other side of the small municipal airport. It had a large California King bed, a sitting area, and a full-sized garden tub in the bathroom. She would definitely be putting that to good use later. She brushed her teeth and turned out the lights.

She was nearly asleep when she heard a tapping on her door and got up to answer...

[Manche]

so the rain is giving achnace to tune up the vehicled without losing a race?

LAX wass as nasty as it can be "I dont have to endure this shit at home" he mumbled "I wonder if its allowed to just simply go to a rim shop get some 11 by 20 set and fit some 265 tires for it" after the trip is over and he reunites with his monster he says "shit" as he discovers his lug pattern is FMU only "I could get mod it to accept an standard aftermarket wheel or order a set of 2 custom wheels in any case this job will take longer than than just one short visit to a shop"

Sat inside the car, he tries tu think how should he proceed....

[strop]

Unfortunately not, the rain issue was unforseen, so no tuning of the cars was authorised for stage 3. However, as I told you in advance, you do have the option of retuning your car once for stage 4-8, and the plot development that allows this to happen will be made clear after stage 3.

Also, woah Kristina, this thread is heating up LOL. I guess with all the drug use and illegal activities, it was never going to be the nice family friendly PG rated jaunt I always envisage when I cook up these plots...

Totally happened to the last forum story thing I cooked up too.

[3rayman3]

err im now slightly confused

[Manche]

Unfortunately not, the rain issue was unforseen, so no tuning of the cars was authorised for stage 3. However, as I told you in advance, you do have the option of retuning your car once for stage 4-8, and the plot development that allows this to happen will be made clear after stage 3.

Also, woah Kristina, this thread is heating up LOL. I guess with all the drug use and illegal activities, it was never going to be the nice family friendly PG rated jaunt I always envisage when I cook up these plots...

Totally happened to the last forum story thing I cooked up too.

And here I am worring about some lug patterns.. if i have to mis one race it would be Surrey (Say hello to May. and give a middle finger to Clarkson from my part accompained by a punt to the balls)

Strop, some "Automation chronicles" compilating all the happenings would be nice

[strop]

@rayman: to sum up:

• I'm delaying the 3rd round due to weather (as I do reference the weather reports and it was pointed out to me that it is kind of snowing in Utah right now).
• This wasn't my intention, so no retuning of the car happens yet.
• However in my earlier post, I said there will also be a delay between Round 3 and Round 4 (you'll find out why in a couple of days), so there is an opportunity to retune there, and that tune will apply to the remainder of the races (rounds 4-8).

@manche: Yeah, I may very well have to archive this separately. It's getting pretty complicated!

[Manche]

@rayman: to sum up:

• I'm delaying the 3rd round due to weather (as I do reference the weather reports and it was pointed out to me that it is kind of snowing in Utah right now).
• This wasn't my intention, so no retuning of the car happens yet.
• However in my earlier post, I said there will also be a delay between Round 3 and Round 4 (you'll find out why in a couple of days), so there is an opportunity to retune there, and that tune will apply to the remainder of the races (rounds 4-8).

@manche: Yeah, I may very well have to archive this separately. It's getting pretty complicated!

great My character will be able to get even and more at Clarkson after all he made some extremely hateful comments about my cars and their place of origin...

[07CobaltGirl]

Unfortunately not, the rain issue was unforseen, so no tuning of the cars was authorised for stage 3. However, as I told you in advance, you do have the option of retuning your car once for stage 4-8, and the plot development that allows this to happen will be made clear after stage 3.

Also, woah Kristina, this thread is heating up LOL. I guess with all the drug use and illegal activities, it was never going to be the nice family friendly PG rated jaunt I always envisage when I cook up these plots...

Totally happened to the last forum story thing I cooked up too.

...

This is me keeping it PG!!

And...I had my wipers on from LV to Utah before you delayed the race. Cuz, you know, I like to keep it real!

[strop]

@manche: oh yes, bless the TG crew and their innate talent for offending just about every single South American nation whether by accident or on purpose...

@kristina: I guess I should be thankful Just wait til you find out what actually happens in Round 3!

Also, whether one sees the rain coming depends on how you travel, I suppose, given it's a little patchy: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/nevada/weather-radar