Playing the rental car game

Today I had to drive down to Austin this morning and turn in the Keithmobile also known as the Silver Bullet also known as German Money Pit to the shop to get some work done...seems like it was time for a new water pump and timing belt, get my rims rebalanced and refinished, and fix my suddenly broken power driver window, which decided to stick down in the middle of a rain storm the other day, it was terrific getting soaked while inside the car let me tell you.

Anyway, so I have a rental for a couple of days. Normally this would not be a big deal, but a situation almost arose today on the way home from work.

I will explain....here is the normal Keithmobile, complete with a badass V8:I point out the V8 because when I push the big pedal on the right, it tends to go forward rather quickly, kind of like Chris Farley going after a cupcake.

Now here is what I have for a rental: A fabulous Hyundai Elantra. Nothing against Hyundais, but when one is accustomed to a big German rocketsled, one is kind of underwhelmed by the performance characteristics of said Hyundai

Let us compare one more vital stat: Audi horsepower =318. Hyundai horsepower = somewhere in neighborhood of 130. Umm that is a 3:1 ratio.

The reason I'm getting to this is because today, I pulled out onto a road with a semi about a block or two off....I think nothing of this. Until I push the big pedal on the right. And nothing really noticeable happens. Luckily, something wakes up in the engine after I about put my foot through the firewall smashing the gas down, although I did see "MACK" in the rear view mirror a lot closer than I really wanted to.

So beware switching cars and not thinking about it, or you may end up as a new bumper ornament for a vehicle much larger and heavier than you.