my dad had an 84 Chevette Diesel... my little brother figured out why you weren't supposed to pull on the automatic shifter that didn't have a lockout on a steep parking lot by a major road. that car regularly ran over 250mph btw... my dog did the same thing my little brother did once... except in my wifes Mazda with a manual trans... into another parked car... the cop citied him for not wearing his seat belt... seriously! last night i also drove my buddies 2-4bbl 440 mopar powered t-rod... what a rush... 30-70 was half a blink.
Before christmas last year another hamber and I(who will remain nameless) went to the Chrismans x-mas party in our friend's nailhead A coupe. All was good until we were on the freeway to our friend's house to drop the car off! We were going with trafic when some ass hole cuts us off so we slow down a bit and no big deal right. Just then he swerves out of the way and the car in front of him is at a dead stop. So we hit the brakes and no way in hell would we stop if we had 5 times the room(no front brakes and Hurst slicks out back, no seat belts and a metal dash looking us in the face)!! He looks over his shoulder in the car pool lane and cant see out and yells "fuck it", down shifts into 3rd swerves in to the carpool lane and stabs it. My side of the car misses the stoped car by inches, I could have touched the tail light if I stuck my arm out the window!! My ass puckered tight enough to make a diamond, I look over at the driver and he is as cool as a cucumber!!! I sigh in relief after just seeing my life flash before my eyes and realize we are still going straight, when he looks over and says "what"? I think I might have peeeed just a little bit and he didn't seem the slightest bit fazed. Thanks dude for not killing me the week before christmas, my wife would have been mad. p.s. That was scarier than making passes in the same car on Southern st. with no doors, windows or driveshaft tunnel in yet!! Nice driving by the way.
let me guess... he was a farmer and after losing and finding his humility he invited you to stay overnight at his house as long as you stayed away from his three beautiful daughters...
Gang, This is a true story, honest. Sorry no pix. About 1986 I was riding my Yamaha 350 enduro on a weekend trip in Japan. I had taken this road down to the ocean but it it dead-ended on a hillside about 100 feet above a small fishing village instead of on the beach. The only way down was a sloping sidewalk / mini-street that included a fair stretch of stairs, little stores and a shit load of vending machines. So, with little real analysis of the situation, I did my best Ricky Johnson immitation (with a bike loaded with camping gear and NO motocross experience, myself) and I eased my rig down the sidewalk. At the first set of stairs is when I suddenly realized that knobbies (or any tire, really) have virtually NO grip on the near-zero contact patch of the 90 degree edge of a stair step. I went down that hill like an accidental ingestion of laxitives. Luckily I kept it upright and I used the steel knob at the end of the left side handlebar to scrape down the outside wall. I got to the bottom of the hill just micro-seconds after I realized what was going on. Thankfully, I didn't kill any innocent people, or me. I will not ride another vehicle down stairs, ever, I promise you. But I gained a newfound appreciation of movie stunt riders. Later, Gary
I checked the bottom of my boots and nothing,but I keep smelling bullshit, thought it was the lab, but not him eithier, can't figure out where it is.
I know a guy with an original Hemi Super Stock Barracuda. He's not the original owner, but did very well SS racing when these things were new. The Hemi in it is far from stock internally. He took me for a ride in his driveway. It's long for driveway, damn short for a drag strip. He hit third gear with the slick-shift 4speed, and I felt the pinion snubber hit every time. I also got a ride in an original 427 AC Cobra a couple years ago, around Road Atlanta. We hit 140 on the back straight. No helmet, no roll bar, just a lap belt for three laps, and the guy doesn't baby the car. That one wasn't scary, but it was a helluva ride. I'd swear I could have reached out and touched the ground, the car sits so low. It handles like a cat running across a frozen lake. -Brad
As soon as I got that car<<<<<<<< in my driveway (gutted interior save for an unbolted bench seat and only a front windshield for glass), I called my buddies & we pulled the race trans (th350) from my Nova (blown motor) plus the carb and swapped em on the SBC in the Bel Air. It would hit 2nd gear at about 60mph and spin the fuck out of the rear tires. I had never driven a tri-5 before this so I didn't have the foggiest clue about its handling. SO by this time we'd had a few beers and everybody is dyin to ride after seeing the trans handle the motor like that so all 6 of us pile into the car. We nose up to a stoplight next to a Nite Rider-type Camaro, and there is no other car in sight, so we hook --thanx to all the ridiculous weight-- and we're side by side --thanx to all the ridiculous weight-- and the boulevard sweeps into a curve right when we hit about 60.... 2nd gear slaps in while we're in the curve and the tires spin like hell, the car spun out across all 3 lanes (lucky there were no other cars this late at night), 2 tires blew out and sliding across the street ate one of the wheels, and natch the carb flooded... not to mention the loose seat was all over the place and somebody ended up in the trunk. Somehow nobody had a scratch and all I wrecked on the car was the wheel & tires. We caught our breath while we pushed the sonofabitch back to my house via the backstreets (only half a mile). I don't think we blinked for hours!
Jeebus... too many to tell so i'll just give it a quick summary... 1966 Mustang I pulled out of a field and got running. Would only hold air in tires for 5 minutes. Got it up to 120 and found out only the front left brake worked. Layed a thin black line over a quarter mile long tryin to stop that thing. Someone stole the door strikers out of it too... and the seats were just sitting on an unfinished floor job. Doors were held shut with 20 year old bungees. 1953 Chevy pickup I drove for a guy I used to work with. He said to let 'er rip... and so I did. He didn't go with me... I found out he welded 3/8" socket extensions for a steering shaft. Yes. With a 3/8" swivel socket for the U-joint. He's still recovering i'm sure... 1968 Triumph GT6 with a built 302 I built. Car was scary enough, but it had super skinny tires on the front... front end locked up at 125ish doing stupid stuff on a street. Telephone pole came within inches. Another scary ride... 1949 CJ2A Jeep... bone stock original with "Go Devil" 134 flathead singing along at 45mph on I-35 during heavy traffic.... no seat belts, no roll bar, and the windshield on the hood to help it keep speed. The Jeep was the scariest. I didn't know the devil was so slow... good to know I can out run him.
So many great stories, so I'll just tell one. This was in 1970/71. I had just gotten married, working and going to night school to finish my engineering degree. I had just purchased a 64 Comet Hipro/ex drag race car, and was driving it to night school........why?, I don't remember. Got out of school late and was headed across one of the bridges in Portland, OR. As I am waiting for the light to change (at the foot of the bridge (maybe the Morrison) a 65 GTO comes up beside me and says, "WOW, that has funny traction bars, it must be a go'er. Well..............when the light changed green we were both burning rubber. The Comet had a real Hipo with some very seriously re-worked 351W heads and was about 11.1 compression with a very nasty cam, Hooker race headers, hyrise and 750 Holley..............I had 4.56 gears and top loader 4spd. The bridge when straight for maybe 1/8 mile and then made a sweeping S curve. Well, I was ahead of the GTO by maybe 2 cars when we came into the S turn................I didn't let off but I think the GTO did (a little)...............when I came out of the S turn I was sliding sideways and could look out my drivers side door window and see the lights of the GTO coming straight towards me................................to this day I'm not really sure how I got out of the slide and back into my lane (I think God took the wheel) but we came to a stop at the stop light on the other side of the bridge. The guy in the GTO who had made the smart remark just said, "Wow, what kind of cam do you have in that thing"? I don't remember what I said, but I was scared out of my mind. I drove maybe a couple more blocks, pulled over at a 7Eleven, got out of the car, sat on the curb and had a cigarette. Here is a picture of the car when I drove it on the street, notice the traction bars go towards the rear instead of the front. She was a handfull!
17 years old...friends hopped up 93 Mustang 5.0...an order of NOS from JEGS...famous last words..."But the big jet on"...when the needle dropped off the speedo i started to realize that we might have made a mistake...when the motor started to smoke and then gernaded we were convinced this was a warranty issue.
Last year I drove this vintage modified. It had plenty of horsepower along with well more than enough bump steer. You can't see it but it had cowl type steering. You can't see it because it is hidden by the front tire! The steering box was mounted to the frame rail a little over a foot behind the front axle!!! I could four wheel drift the car into the corners with ease. I could drive through the corners with ease, doing most of the steering with the throttle. When you'd come off of the corner and the body would lay back over to the left the bump steer would send the car to the hard right. The bump steer problems were massive going down the straights. I would literally saw the wheel back and forth as fast as I could. I was competitive in the car, but it was a ton of work. The chrome handle on the left side of the cockpit is a hand clutch. Pulling onto the race track was also a bear. The car would not power shift, so you had to use the clutch. As all dirt cars should, the car wants to turn left on its own, so to shift you had to pull the clutch back, shift with you other hand, and then catch the car before it turns hard left into the infield! It was a still a very cool ride, I had a blast. Check out the large door hinge with a bungee strap for a return spring for a throttle pedal!
I had a cousin hit a train like 10Xs like that!He stopped at an unguarded crossing with just a red light.For some reason when the train hooked his front end it just spun the car never dragged it from where it was.The car stayed put like it was on a pin but kept getting spun and rehit!All 4 corners of that car got totaled a new 59 chevy he got for graduation a week before.He not only lost his new car but had to pay all damages to the train!
taking a ride in my buddies 48 chevy pick up down the santa cruz mountains and we start hearing and feeling a rocking thudding noise so we wait to clear the curves and get down to the bottom of the hill to flat ground checked the engine no noise so we keep driving 1/4 still the same noise so we check again and realize that the two rear wheels were half way off beacause earlier that day he had removed some leaf springs to lower the truck and his buddy who had helped him had put the wheel back when they finished and never torqued down....... i guess im still alive so it wasnt that bad but we couldve died that night too.... that friend hasnt heard the end of this one
There was one time last winter, driving my 84' Monte to school after picking up one of my friends, on the way from her house a guy in front of me passes a guy, keep in mind its nuts out, well the guy he is passing flips him off and when he gets in front he slams his brakes, we have two new cars with ABS and me eyes wide as the 10" BFGoodrich tires out back, im pumping the brakes and i know im still gonna plow them, so i crank it and hit the ditch, 2 hours later AAA tows me out. Friend was wearing a schoolgirl outfit to screw with someone at schools head so at least i had good company, haha. Then there was when the wheel cylnder blew on the monte carlo and i was about to turn, loud *TUNG* and im still rolling, jumped the curb on the other side of the lane turring on and snaked in befor a Nissan hit me. by far, the best was when i had my old 49'. i was taking it out for a ride with my friend, and at that point i wasnt very cordinated with it, and traveling 45-55 (broken spedo), the light turns yellow, rather then unhook the 454 to full tilt i lock the Esbestos brakes up and skid on older then dirt silvertowns, so also being out of adjustment the thing hooks hard and i end up hopping, literally HOPPING 45 degrees sideways in the lane untill finally it catches and slams down on the other side touching the running board on the gound with a nice "clunk", and im right at the line, buddie says, ".....you could have made that..."
since i have a picture i figured i would contribute. one of the duties my unit had in iraq was to escort eod (explosive ordnance disposal) on there call outs, since they did not roll with guns up on there trucks. its a real pain in the ass job since its a 24 hour a day gig and your platoon does it one week at a time, but we got to see some totally bitchin explosions. so one night we got called out to a suspected ied in the city, we get the information on the grid, and get the trucks rolling. we were in a pretty active area at the time so the only time we went out at night with our lights on was when we were on eod escort, and even then the only truck with its lights on was the lead .50 cal truck (the truck im a gunner on) and the eod truck. even with the lights on its hard to scan at night especially as the gunner, because there are lots of different things your always looking out for. so as my sergeant smacks me on the leg and tells me we are about 800 meters out from the ied, i start looking for the marking device the unit that found it dropped by it so i can call it out for eod. we slow down and start to creep when we get to about 600- 700 meters out from the grid, but i cant see anything. i got conformation on what side of the road i was looking for it on and the type of marking i was looking for, but still im seeing nothing. i can see the reporting unit securing the site so i flashed there lead gunner with my laser, and he starts flashing the side of the road about 400 meters in front of our truck. so i kick the driver, he tells me he sees the laser, and we start to pull up again. we get about 50 meters down the road and i see an amazingly bright light flash in front of our truck, so i try to make myself as small as possible. the next thing i remember is being dragged out of the back door of the truck by my helmet strap, and not being able to hear a damn thing. it took me a few min to shake the cobwebs out and get my bearing back but other then a concussion i was good to go, and so was the rest of my crew. eod took over the scene, checked for secondaries, and detonated the ied we went out there for in the first place. so we get a wrecker out there hooked up the truck, and rolled back to our base. we went with the wrecker to drop our truck off at the motor pool, and then picked up one of there extras so we had a truck to roll with in case we got called out again. the next day we went up to the motor pool for some photo opps with the truck, and for eod to check the truck out too. they said we rolled over an ied planted in the middle of the road that was hooked up to a pressure plate detonator, and that we were lucky that the ground absorbed a good amount of the blast. that was not the only time our truck got hit, but this was the worst hit we took over there. we played it off and made a lot of jokes about making eod's job easier that night by getting rid of an ied for them, but thats one of the four times i thought i was dead for sure. and here is our old truck...
Willz2155, you win. Ever heard of Johnson Beharry? Look for his book, 'Barefoot soldier' he copped it twice and won a VC!! Only ever got mined once in my career but we all walked away with ringing ears. Two thumbs up!! Doc.
hey doc im going to have to go to the book store tomorrow and look for that one. not to get off topic but my personal favorite military writer is tim o'brien and his books, the things they carried and if i die in a combat zone : box me up and ship me home.
Yeah good books. I have collected a huge library of military books in my time, a lot of history and first hand accounts. My fascination got me appointed as unit historian and when I got discharged asked to run the Shrine of Remembrance, Australia's second largest War Memorial and museum!! I was medically discharged (Fucking parachutes!) and couldn't take up the offer at the time. If you ever want to shoot the shit, PM me. I was an Australian Army medic, also did 6 years in SASR. I started to write my own book but too much shit is still classified and the rest was too boring! Cheers. Doc. PS dude, you better do an intro or people will get pissed off. Fuck'em, I stick up for you though. You did things most are too scared to, won my respect.
hanibleh20 thanks for the support, but i love my job and doing it for people that appreciate it. doc i know how that is im an infantryman in the 82nd, and i have been helped off the drop zone myself before. where do i do an intro? and i will drop you a line for sure.
Back on the home page right at the top it has a section for intros, I missed it too and got blasted!! I do miss it all though. Doc.
The Jalopy Journal
