Was a beautiful day yesterday and was out for a drive in the F-Type when a little blue Dodge Neon starts acting like he wants to race. He was behind me so I decided to play a bit and floored the car. I was quite surprised that the Neon after falling behind initially started to quickly catch up! Because of road conditions we slowed down and got onto another stretch and we did it again. Same result. We come to a stop and talked and it turns out he did a modified SRT 4 engine swap - the car was a sleeper. At the end of our conversation we were about to go our separate ways and he said to me that he had fun and wished he had a grandfather as cool as me (I am old enough to be his grandfather).

Should I have been insulted or flattered?

Cool kids turn into cool grandpas!

those str 4s are quick. But not cool like a jag. Thats why I opted for the hellcat. And a jag

Cool is Cool whether young or old, I would take it as a complement and then add some mods to the Jag so the next time it would be him that was surprised.

I always encourage automotive enthusiasm (even if it IS a bit misguided).

Tell that kid to see how his car performs at a track (HPDE). That will show him the error of his ways. Takes more than an engine to create a genuinely fast car!

These Neons were cheap power when new AND the end of malaise era. Not that I would drive one, but someone on a very tight budget kept up with you. This has to be celebrated.

Already have a crank pulley and tune. Did some quick research on the SRT 4 engine and it can easily be modded up to 350 to 450Hp at reasonable expense. I would say he was pushing some pretty high boost and the cars weigh at least 1000 -1500 lb. less than an F-type so it was probably a pretty fast straight line ride.

Well then...….only one solution to this situation - A NEW SRV
Can't remember the name of the movie but some young girls steal a parking spot and tell the older woman that they are "younger and faster", the older lady rams her car into theirs and tells the " I am older and have better insurance" or something to that affect. Priceless.

Fried green Tomatoes - Kathy Bates (though I can never forget her role in Misery, it would have been better if she had taken a sledgehammer to the girls' car)

Yup that was it 👍
The few upsides to getting older are cheaper insurance, better credit and a bigger bank account.
Props to the kid for building a pretty fast sleeper 🤟

Reminds me of the old days when I had an 87 Monte Carlo with a stroked small block with Nitrous making 625 WHP. Drove it to the track, and surprised everyone when the front tires came off the ground at launch ( line lock hidden in cruise control button on column ). Fun times