demolition derby guys. AAAGGGHH!

i saw 4 suicide lincolns in a demo derby the other day whats wrong with these people?what other cl***ics have you seen?

 

There's an episode of Happy Days that had a bunch of cool old stuff smashing into each other. I'm pretty sure there were a bunch of 55s and stuff.

 

I've been around and raced factory stock/sportsman type cars for a long time. The figure eight guys drive me nuts using up all the 73-77 Chevelles and Monte Carlos. Most drivers could get several seasons out of these scarce cars and the figure eight/derby guys destroy them in a night or two.

My dad bought a 59 Caddy for $50 back in the early 70's. He planned on running it in a demolition derby! Luckily somebody came by and offered him a little more and he sold to a guy who fixed it up.

 

My Friend sold his 68 Nova SS body to a couple of guys that were going to make a circle track car. It was "rough" for 1990 but I know he thinks about that car a lot. It'd be a deffinate builder now a days. Especially when he was looking around for some bucket seats for his current Nova. It even had the "staple" shifter and SS emblems on it when it went.

 

I've races demos since the 70s and when I look back to all the cars weve wrecked I cringe
But if they were "saved" would they have been hoarded and sat to rot in a field? Destroyed by some kid who didn't know how to drive?

But now a days its kinda krazy to demo some of these cl***ics.
There is not a 73-76 Monte,Chevelles to be found around here or 70s Impalas, 60s Imperials, Lincolns, 61-64 Fords all gone to the demos.
One thing though is I have lots of my old demo buddies now restoring all of these type of cars. Krazy eh.

And besides all of these greedy s**** guys are squishin everything these days.....

-Shiny

 

Years ago I watched a 55 Nomad get ruined in a demo. I got a 57 Ford Fairlane 500 2-door hardtop from a guy that had demoed it, I sold the 4-barrel 312 and transmission and I am going to pull the nine inch rear from under it. last year I drove my suicide door Lincoln to the county fair and watched a guy win it running a suicide Lincoln, I guess that just makes mine one car rarer. I also have a 73 Buick Estate Wagon that I could have sold about a thousand times over to every demo guy in our area, I have turned down some pretty decent offers, maybe I am just insane. I also have a 77 Monte that has been drooled over countless times buy demo and figure 8 guys.

Oh, I did sell all my Impalas to a demo guy a couple of years ago.

 

Years ago I saw a '63 Impala SS 300 HP 327 4 speed in the local demo.

Not demo derby but back in the 80's I sold my '70 Nova SS 396/350HP 4 speed to a guy less engine and trans. It was a solid car with just a hint of rust in the rear wheel lips where a previous owner had trimmed off the inner edge to clear wide tires. I sold it cheap because I had lost my storage and had about 10 cars that had to go. He cut it up to make a Pro Gas dag car. Talk about regret!

 

In the early 70's I watched a demo on tv that some *** hat entered a model T in, wooden wheels and all! It was destroyed in no time.

 

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Thanks for posting that Pstain. I had a set like that in the 70's. I remember it looking different, but it was prolly the same thing. Wow, I totally forgot about that.
I had the Evil Kenivel that did wheelies with the same pull cord arrangement too.

 

That brings back memories, my brother had one of those demo derby sets and I used to play smash-up with him all the time. The funny thing is he hates demo guys now.

 

you can't save them all...you ever try to sell a suicide lincoln with the original motor...Good Luck! You'll make more winning the derby and s****ping the rest. Just because it's old doesn't make it valuable.

 

cool vid , derbys are still big **** around here , they mostly use the biggest car they can find , mostly 60s-70s rides if they can find them...

 

Nothing more pointless than Demo Derby in my mind, but then I'm one of those ****ers who'd like to save all the cl***ics and antiques.

 

yeah, there's something evil about wrecking beauty in a derby-- but i love to watch it. besides, there is more evil ways of wrecking it (s****ping or auto accident.)

-scott noteboom

 

Don't knock it until you've tried it... I'm not favoring using Old rare tin, but it certainly is fun. I used to be able to HEAR my dad laughing hysterically while he demoed, and I was in the grandstands..

If there comes a point were 77 Chryslers and the like are the next cool trend, I'm gettin' another hobby.

 

Offer big prize money for any motorsports event and it brings the heavy hitters. I build engines for these guys in the $$2500.00$$ range. It's not just playing around anymore it's a bit of a science. I've had guys winning $$5000.00$$ at a shot with my engines. As far as them trashing good cars,how are you going to stop em>>>>.

 

Some guys just don't care, they buy whatever's cheap. I saw a guy run a '60 Olds 88 2dr hardtop years ago, running, driving, was a pretty solid car, and someone else had a '60 Chevy 4dr with a 235 the same year - around here, one of those with a good frame and floors is pretty tough to find. Good, old tin hasn't turned up too often, but a lot of nice musclecar-era stuff gets trashed, as do all the Imperials in sight.

I drive by a place when I go to where I keep my cars and someone at this garage is building a demo car out of like a '66 Plymouth 4dr. Which isn't a huge deal as a car, but the thing was cherry when it showed up, other than missing the windshield already, with a good wax and detail job you could have put this car on a show field. They don't hold up that well in derbies, an Imperial will wipe them out... I don't get why you wouldn't just cruise the thing and enjoy it. It's not even that hard to register it without papers, so it's not like that's an excuse.

When I was cruising my '72 Pontiac I got an AM-FM radio free from a guy who ran one in a demo. 455 and all. I asked about the grille and stuff, he said he didn't have time to do it right and just took a hammer to all the stuff. The car was a wagon and not perfect, but had 59.000 original miles on it. And at that time, the factory stereo would sell for more than the whole car brought for s****.


Personally, after hacking up a rough '58 Buick, I have to think if I had one of those that was like this one but had a good frame, I might run it. Take all the stainless, grille, taillights off it first. The damn thing has two layers of steel in the trunk side panels, all the way to the ends of the quarters. The frame is a ladder type with a big X crossmember, it looks tough enough to cut the top off the car and not get any sag. The front is the only part that might be vulnerable. But if you were the only old car to show up, I'm sure you could do a lot of damage with it.

 

i'm a demo driver and i too cringe at what people are smashin, i've begged people to free the suicide lincolns, imperials, chrysler 300s, caddy's. some cars like the ford LTDs I don't see a problem with crashing, but most others I DO!

the s**** yards are taking these cars in by the dozens every day, i'm on a demolition derby forum and the s**** yards post pics to mess with everyone on there of the cars they have ready to be smashed every day.

 

For a long time now I have wished that car clubs near SoCal would get together and build two cars each that represent there clubs, then smash em up good! Maybe at one of the annual events,.... I think that would be cool.

 

I was at an auction in 2003 and a solid suicide lincoln sold for $160 and I semi-regret not buying it for derbing. But the hood latch cable was broken and we couldnt get under the hood to see if the motor was stuck, and the owner didnt want us to pry open the hood (which I understand).

If you guys are thinking about getting a derb car, try to find an 80s crown victoria cop car. Me and my friends used the same car in about 5 derbies a few years ago. They have 351 high output motors, very strong. Plus, its an 80s crown vic so you dont have to feel bad about smashing it up.

 

Demo derby is a pretty big deal around my area. All the Impalas are pretty much gone so now the new trick is 82 and up LTD's. Only they stick small block chevies in them. "Yeeeehaaaaaw Ford tough with Chevy stuff!!!!!" I heard the announcer shout that about 78 times at the last derby I went to.

 

Yours truly from the front page of the Sunday paper:

 

What board?
Any of the stuff worth saving? Would they sell it anyway?

 

I think Whittaker (sp?) has them all. He has sheds full of impallas and such he saves just for the demos. His buisness is auto salvage and s****. the s**** business takes hime to most of the outling auto salvage yards to crush. and what do you suposse happens to any big cars in GOOD shape he comes across??? yep in his shed to be demoed one day

 

How about last fall...64 Chrysler Imperial 4 dr hdtp, supposedly 60-70 k miles, loaded, absolutely loaded 413 4bbl, automatic headlight dimmer on dash, tilt column, etc........the derby guy says to me " it was so nice you should have seen the black leather power seats....and now they were painted WHITE ! the things you see when you don't have a gun !

this car looked like ( under the white paint ) it would have been a beautiful #2 car.

D

 

I just wish that "sport" was more dangerous and costly. Why do you guys even pay attention to something so stupid?

 

I think them suicide door Lincolns are the ugliest ****ing thing on the planet.. If your gonna go off on saving cars go off on something that looks good .
Dave

 

Im gonna demo my 63 lincoln unless someone here buys it

 

Heres pics from an 07 demo..... about 10 pics down is a suicide car and what is the one down @ 20 pics???? A studabaker??? I cant make it out

EDIT: link
http://www.midwestmonsters.com/2007TeamDemo/June07Demo/Round1.htm