scary rides?

[Dartcustom]

Have any of you guys ever built a car/truck that was just plain scary to drive? I recently found some pictures of my fathers project back in 1974. It was a '34 plymouth coupe. He bought a '71 426 Hemi that had a spun bearing out of a Roadrunner, and put it in the Plymouth. The pics show it with both the manifolds and some custom headers he made from BBC headers. He told me it was the first car he had built that truly scared him. Just thought i would share that. Too bad he got rid of it before i was old enough to drive it.

[Dartcustom]

looky lous'

[dusterbd]

well, ive driven cars that were scary, but for reasons that had nothing to o with thne amount of power in em.
the first was a 54 or flatbed pickup. on the first drive, the brakes went ocmpletely out, sending us backwards down a steep grad and bouncing us off a tree stump. after we redid the braks, we noticed that the steering box had a half turn woth of slop. drove it daily, using it to haul construction materials oll aerthe mountains. the orst was a gravel road called tater hill that was a steep grad, with two tuns of rock on theback.
the other two were my subarus. bad brakes, bald tires, even worse suspensions.

mike

[Dartcustom]

Was it a BRAT, those are cool little car/trucks.

[J-440]

My mom's 64 year old neighbor had a heart transplant from a 25 year old. Well something must have happened to the old fart because he sold his 56 Vette convertable and bought a 66 Shelby Cobra kit car with the 351. Hell yeah I went for a ride with him and we blew the doors off a Z06 Vette at a light. Needless to say the dork shelled out 55G's for a Vette that couldn't do squat. 2200 lbs., tube chassis, fiber body and perfect weight distribution make for one scary-ass ride. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Oh yeah, with slicks and uncorked headers this old bastard runs high 10's all day long. That's my hairy ride story.


J-440

[dusterbd]

no, unfortunately. i wish i had a vrat.
one was a justy with a frame that looked like a prezel and swiss cheese got together for twister. boughjt it for a 100 bucks from tenessee. it was so rustyu that it didnt even have rocker panels. and not one straight piece on the sheetmetal. tven the headlight trip rings were messed up.
the other was a hatchback with about 300,000 miles. its just scary. still got it, owned it for over a year, and still havent checked the oil.

mike

[gsmopar]

1) '78 MGB with a Nitroused 350 Chevy and Dana 44 rear end. I rode shotgun. When my friend punched it I swear that I had to look up to see him sitting next to me (car twisted).

2) A friend a work, during his mid life crisis, bought one of those twin turbo RX-7's. The car was pretty fast, but he wouldn't let off when he gave me a ride. 140mph on a public road... scared the crap out of me. Oh, he's a shitty driver too.

3) '67 Pontiac Firebird. 455, tri-power, cage, etc... drag car with street tires. This friend was also not the best driver. Bounced the back tires off of 2 curbs trying to launch it on the street.

4) Honorable mention: '88 Mustang LX. 5.0 on the bottle that runs mid 11's. Those are very fun cars if you ever get a chance to drive/ride in a fast one. Short wheelbase, light, etc...

Later,

Greg

[wallyghs]

'81 lebaron with an under 90 psi cranking pressure slant. I guesstimate it's power to be around 40-45 horsepower at the rear wheels (w/ 2.2:1 gears!). Try merging during rush hour when everyone else is doing 70. Scary stuff.

But what really scares me is my go kart. Clocked it at 65mph with 8 inch tall dirt tires. Solid suspension and about 2 inches off the ground make for freaky ride on a gravel road. The truck was struggling to keep up, too!

[biggerhammer]

how about a '60 peugot hearse, with a ford hi-po 289, 6 speed allison auto, straight axle front end, rear brakes only, and a blow out at 130 mph!
or a 74 cj-5 with a supercharged 350 chevie,and BENT wheelie bars from the take offs?
a 84 toyota california step-side with the supercharged chevie motor tubo 400 and about 1/4 mile of watery mud and street tires?(no roll bar or scuba gear iether)

[ausval 440]

stock datsun 120y automatic!

[sanborn]

The term "scary ride" can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. To me it means riding(or driving) one mean SOB on the street-the track don't count-they are supposed to be scary.

I've ridden or driven a lot of mean/scary machines on the street but the neatest was about 25 years ago-Cotton Werkman's 26T roadster. It had a tube frame, rear engined, 454 blown hemi(early), ran over 200 in street trim (with mufflers) on the salt flats. He took me for a ride on a cold November night on the freeway north of Chicago-ran up to about 140 almost instantly. It was a good thing the freeway was lit because we sure ran out of headlight range real quick.

Don't know what happened to Cotton, he sort of disappeared off the streetrod scene in the 80s.

[pishta]

'72 VW bus...not the scariest but we lost a CV joint in the middle of the desert going to Vegas with 2 whining bitches in the back seat..are we there yet, this car sucks, im thirsty....fixed the cv with 3 of the six bolts from the other side and limped it into Vegas. Lost 3rd gear on the way home and had a front blow out going down the Conejo grade (6 degree hill for about 20 miles) at about 70. wrestled it over to the curb and the jack broke when a semi literally blew us off the jack. Got it fixed, lost 4th now so we had to go the next 50 miles in second gear, and the whole time the chicks were running their pie holes.....are we there yet, this car sucks, im thirsty....F that!

'23 T bucket, SBC, chopped. @ 110 the single spring front suspension would bounce the tires off the road..and this was some high school kids car???

Oh yeah, my Diamante I just traded in. It would just up and die for no apperant reason not to start for hours..then it would start right up like nothing happened. in the morning going to work, at 11 at night coming home fram a bar (designated driver) whenever. Some crazy ignition problem I never found. Fixed it long enough to get it to the used car dealership, and dumped it on their lot. Traded it it for a 98 Suburban, until Dodge makes a full size SUV, not that Dakota thing...

[ajmopar]

I went for a wild ride in my brother's '79 ramcharger 4x4 once. We were hauling our brand new car trailer with a '69 nova on it (got it for free) and were on a VERY crowned road, two lanes, 4 foot ditches, you get the picture. We were crusing along at about 80 km/h (50 mph), my brother driving, my dad shotgun and me in the back seat. We hit a bumnp in the road, just after a slight curve and I felt a strange sensation, and then Ihear my brother say Oh F*^&!I look over and he's turning the steering wheelin both directions, hitting the brakes, hitting the gas trying anything to get the truck to respond. Now I notice that we are starting to go sideways and the tires are making this sickening howling sound. I also see this big Oldsmobile wagon coming the other way. I grabbed the seat and listened to the blood pound in my head. As we went sideways, the truck's tires finally bit and we were headed for the ditch. He got on the brakes as hard as he could. Next thing I knew we were headed in the other direction, and i was looking at the trailer, out the side window. Shaking, I got out after Dad jumped out and ran around to see the trailer jacknifed, with the front rail of the trailer sitting on top of the rear tire of the truck. The guy with the olds wagon got it stopped, and came over to help us. Turns out he was a truck driver and had had some dealings with the cops and the ministry of transport in his day. He suggested we get the hell out of there, as my brother would probably be charged and fined big time. My bro put the transfer case in low lock and pulled the truck pulled itself away from the trailer and we headed down the road (still in low, 360 screaming) and pulled into a big parking lot, in behind a bunch of transport trailers, just in time to see a cop go by with the lights on.In surveying the damage, we found that a couple of the wheels on the trailer had never been torqued, and one only had one loose nut holding it on. The bastards we bought the trailer from hadn't tightened the lug nuts. We took some nuts off the other wheels, tightened them all up, and headed on our way with a bent quarteron the ramcharger, a bent tongue on the trailer, and a new respect for the laws of physics.

[Tarrbabe]

Before my Mopar days:
66 Nova: 327 built, I could jerk the wheels at a rolling start, with street tires, M/T's. Anything over 90 on the street, you couldn't keep it straight. After I got rid of it, I was told the front drag link had to be replaced with one from an Olds to make it right. Scared the s**t out of me. Long straight strech in the country, held it down to see what it would do. At 110 there was no input to the steering. I was proud I had re-done the brakes just before. And still just got by the skin of my teeth.

[sanborn]

Then to I remember another scary ride in my Model A Coupe back in about 1961-at a race track.

Back then, you raced a car at the strip-capped the exhaust pipes-and drove it home-because it was your only means of transportation.

The little coupe had a flathead, "hot lick" cam, milled heads, three Stromberg 97s, dual exhaust. Ran it locally at the 3/16 mile track(Union Hill and Cumberland) in G Gas class. Won several races.

I was all of 17 back then, the coupe was "brush" painted primer, dropped front axle, 4.11 gears, etc. I really didn't know much about suspension, etc.

Thought I would be a "Big Dog" and drive up to Beech Bend Dragway about 60 miles north of Nashville and race on the 1/4 mile track.

Made my first pass down the track, everything fine until the last 400 feet, and the front end got real light and wandered all over the track. The air was catching up under the front fenders and picking up the front end. And since I didn't understand what the terms "caster/camber/toe in" meant either, that didn't help anything. Well, to make a long story shorter, I raced that night(got beat by a flathead 40 willys coupe) but could bring myself to push it at the far end of the track. After all, I had to drive home 60 miles in it.

My first (of many) experiences at a 1/4 mile track.

So much for ancient history.

[cuda66273]

My first Road Runner....49 Plymouth, straight 6....awesome car....LOL

Had a bicycle inner tube around the clutch peddle and looped over the steering wheel to pull the clutch off the floor....one head light, no interior lights and 1/2 turn of play in the steering.....LOL

Black primer and a single Thrush muffler.......what a machine...but real scary after about 30 MPH....LOL

[70Barracuda]

1972 Kawasaki 750 H-2, two stroke triple! Damm that thing was fast in a straight line.

[kamstra]

My 440 Cuda is a bit scary to drive. Its OK till you start getting the speed up there. I think I need to work on the suspension.

[SPIN]

Talk about a scary ride, coming home from work late at night, about 2 AM, I'm a night worker. Driving down the highway, towards home, at one of the few cross streets, with a traffic light and a no turn, from main road sign, a two box tractor trailer combo, made a left turn right in front of me, maybe a couple hundred feet. I slammed on the brakes and cut a hard left, just missing the divider and going towards the side street, but across oncoming traffic lanes. I was lucky there was no oncoming traffic, but the second box was there right in front of me, as the tractor had swung wide, in order to make the turn. Quickly, I cut the wheel back to the right, narrowly missing the second box, going behind it, and back onto the proper side of the highway, also narrowly missing the other divider, and all this happened in a matter of, possibly 45 seconds or so. The a**hole driving the truck went on his way, completely ignorant of what just went on. Automatic reaction, a friend of mine called it, the next day, when I showed him the tire marks, on the road All this happened with very low brakes,was seriously in need of a brake job, at the time, and at about 70 MPH, 15 MPH over the posted speed limit. It took me about ten to fifteen minutes to calm down enough, to drive the remaining five miles home.

SPIN

[sanborn]

Then there was the time My friend and I discovered his 55 Plymouth Savoy had the perfect tread width to fit on the outside of the Tennessee Central railroad tracks(reducing the air pressure on the 6.70X15 tube type tires helped). The wheel rim would ride on the tracks, the tires kept the wheels on the tracks. Every thing was cool until we saw a train coming in the distance- he put the car in reverse to back up to the nearest crossing(a few hundred yards away) and one of the tires blew out. He had the headlights on, flashing up/down to get the attention of the train. We made it to the crossing(without cleaning out our pants-but almost), tire was in shreads-spare was flat. What the heck, he carried spare (worn out) tires in the trunk. Changed the tire on rim(with tire tools-this guy was experienced with won out tires), pumped it up with the engine, drank some more cold ones back to town.

I was lucky to make it to age 20, much less 30!

[deadhorse66]

Sanborn--I know you weren't close to the depot downtown were you? It is a wonder you are not under the Metro jail right now! I lived in Nashville for a while, but I never got to go to the hill or to Beach Bend. I have heard of Shelbyville, but never have been there--where is it in relation to Nastyville? I lived in Donelson and didn't get out much!

My scariest ride was an '85 F-250 farm beater. The first time I drove it I was about 14, and it was too much for my inexperienced hands. I got sideways going about 35 on a country highway all alone. We kept it until my senior year in high school, and I had learned to handle it about as well as could be expected by then. I liked to play with it because it had a 351W, a four speed and deep gears out back. Some of my friends and I decided we were going to see some abandoned grain elevator on the Mississippi river that was supposedly haunted. We left together, and when we started to come into the flood plains close to the river, my buddies (in another car) decided they would try to re-enact the Bonneville salt flats. I couldn't lose them, because I didn't know where we were going, so I just laid the accel down. I was going 100 mph, and using up every bit of both lanes. The air compressor and diesel tanks in the back were sliding around and the plywood tailgate was flapping in the wind. I was sure I was going to end up in some really cold black headwater, but we made it, saw Frankenstein's castle and left the first set of black marks on a brand new bridge. My friend's dad bought it from us later to restore, and when I saw the front end with all of the bushings squeezed out, ball joints and tie rod ends about to fall out and kingpins nearly cut in half I almost shyte on myself. Those were the days......

[sanborn]

deadhorse66, you need to understand that I'm an Old Geezer. A lot of my scary experiences happened a long time ago-before there was a Metro Nashville.

I grew up in East Nashville, caroused all over including Donelson-in the 50s and early 60s. Bought some of my flathead Ford stuff from Preacher Hamilton, Bobby's grandfather in Donelson. Used to have three weekly dragstrips in Nashville(Union Hill, Riverside and Cumberland) plus several within 60 miles. Had several stock car tracks as well.

Shelbyville is 60 miles south of Nashville, been here about 25 years. Close enough to Nashville and far enough away as well. The only claim to fame Shelbyville has in the home of the Tennessee Walking Horse. Don't have any walking horses-they are beautiful-but too expensive for me. We are about 17 miles from Lynchburg.

I'm 58 years old, sometimes I feel like I'm 20, sometimes I feel like I'm 80. But my mind stays at about 25. I've worked in 44 states and 14 foreign countries. Some of the things I've done,seen,etc. makes me realize I'm lucky to be here. But we don't need to get into that.

I've come to realize there are very few really important things in life, but the really important things are fast cars, beautiful women, little kids, old dogs(especially Bassetts) and good food/spirits.

[biggerhammer]

I agree Sanborn, hard to make these whippersnappers understand that things were different when we were growing up, where we used to race and play and hunt for real-live indian arrowheads and graves, is now a MALL, no more horny toads, or lizards or lightning bugs!, But, got to grow up with the real Hemi, cars that weren't afraid to burn gas and tires, uncrowded roads, cops that knew you by name,(dang it)or halloween with real candy and neighbors that cared.

[71SATELITE]

I think my scariest ride was when I was out showing my a$$ one night with my buddy in the car. We were seeing how fast my 74 Duster would go in reverse. Well I got up to about 60 and the freaking front end went way squirly and started snapping the front end of the car back and forth across the road from guard rail to guard rail. Needless to say I pulled out, changed my drawrs and drive home. What a ride.

[bbeckwith]

hey biggerhammer,

I think I once heard Darrell Waltrip say the old age and treachery line you have in your sig.

Too cool

[John Smolski]

When I was about 13 I took a ride in a 23 T- Bucket kit car with nitrous 350. 15 inch wide slicks. Car was so powerful it brought the front end off the ground and swept the side view mirors backward closer to the doors. %$#@ my pants.

[deadhorse66]

Originally posted by biggerhammer
I agree Sanborn, hard to make these whippersnappers understand that things were different when we were growing up, where we used to race and play and hunt for real-live indian arrowheads and graves, is now a MALL, no more horny toads, or lizards or lightning bugs!, But, got to grow up with the real Hemi, cars that weren't afraid to burn gas and tires, uncrowded roads, cops that knew you by name,(dang it)or halloween with real candy and neighbors that cared.

LOL! I agree too. Things seem different than they were when you guys were my age, but I have all of that stuff right here in the country! The cars are 30-40 years older, but they are still around. I hunted all sorts of wild critters when I was younger, and found some arrowheads too. I just wish I could get away with some of that cool stuff like Sanborn did!