What is your stupidest car superstition?

I'll lead by example on this one! I was sitting on the ugly Plymouth's left front fender at the Southwest Nostalgia Nationals yesterday talking to RodStRace. As we talked I ran my hand over the cars front sheet metal, and stopped on the head light. My blood ran cold - the rock hit I heard a couple of weeks ago did connect - my headlight had a hole in it! Not because it is an expensive, sometimes hard to find Bosch flat lense (it is), but because of my curse. It seems about twenty years ago, my friends and I had a unique problem or curse arrive. Myself, Elpolacko, and a friend of ours (Tom Roth) all had cars wrecked or completely destroyed just days after replacing broken left headlights. We're not talking just one or two, we're talking four cars within a year and a half window. Don't know why, it just happened! So this has been a long held "curse". I know it's silly, but I plan on running this headlight until it just burns out. That's the only time that it is okay to replace without fear of automotive retribution. So I broke the ice, I can't be the only one with this affliction - What is your stupidest automotive supers***ion??

 

Never, ever, EVER talk **** about your car. If you're driving or not, even if you are so pissed off you're seeing red, don't do it. And stick up for your car if someone says something about what a piece of **** it is. Get offended like you were standing up for your mother or wife.
All those good vibes make damn sure it accelerates away like crazy from a hairy possible collision or stops on a dime for a moose, a deer, or god forbid a pedestrian or child.
A pat on the dashboard to tell her how good a job she did when she does these things can't hurt either.
The bumper of my 65 Econoline came literally inches from an old man's head after he hit the deck in the middle of the street when he heard my tires lock up and knew he wasn't going to make it in time. He looked up at me and I looked down at him and we both knew he came "this" close to having his brains spread all over my fishbowl windshield.
I drove past that spot for months and got shivers every time I saw those 6' of skidmarks my van's tires left. Six feet. In a 65 Econoline doing close to 40. Yeah.

 

Every car I've had, even my Dodge frame, if you get pissed off at it... They get pissed off at you...

One day I got mad at my Cutl***, called her a cold blooded ***** when she wouldn't start in the morning...

Finally got the ol' girl started, went to go help a friend later and she started to warm up and blew a hole in the radiator... Fixed her up and told her I was sorry...

I was taken apart an old '36 Olds to sell for parts, everything went easy until I called her a rust piece o' ****... had to torch the rest of the bolts off..

Cars do have souls, and feeling, or at least I think they do... You be nice to them, they'll treat ya the same. My Cutl*** gets mad when shes dirty too...

 

no blue cars

 

Oh no no no, You kind have missed the point - my car is possibly the most loved hot rod of all times. It's fast, low, handles great, gets complimented all the time.But it definitely knows it's place in the world. A good portion of the pictures that have been taken of ELpoacko's truck have used it as a stepstool to get that overall shot! I refer to it as "the world's ugliest hotrod" because it is mine. You might not be so lucky!! It and I have been traveling partners for fifteen years and damn close to 250,000 miles together. It knows that is loved, and will be repaired, but not until the curse is safely past. I'm looking for your automotive curses - what is the seemingly insignificant thing that happens with your car that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up with thoughts of loosing your cherished ride. My point was that I can't possibly be the only one that has these stupid little supers***ions - what are yours? Why?

 

I don't think I missed the point. Not talking trash about a car in mortal fear of retribution is pretty supers***ious as far as I'm concerned.

 

..................................I'm telling Christine.

 

Nothing green allowed in the garage... Not a "car" supers***ion, but green = bad luck. Any accidents ever had in the garage from a motor falling off the puller and smashing the pan and oil pump, to rolling a car off the ramps, green was involved in some way, whether it was clothing, tools, something involved was green.

 

If you scratch them in the center of the dashboard just underneath the rear view mirror and close to the windshield they run better.
I think its thier ******.

 

Gigantor No insult intended, and for the record I think that having a fear based on supers***ion is damn silly!! That's why I want hear everybody's! As I've written this I reread your post - I get what you're saying! I'll step back and let it flow, thanks!

 

Hahahaha I'll rememberthat one!

 

I'm in with the green car phobia. I had a couple that were magnets for people running into me at stop lights. My wife had a green OT Olds and she got clocked while driving it by an uninsured motorist.

There are a lot of supers***ions with stock cars. I knew someone that wouldn't allow photos taken of his cars before they hit the track, he considered it bad luck.

Then there's the green and peanut thing. Green was always considered bad luck, so was eating peanuts in the pits. One day, one of the local crews went around with a kelly green sweater (in summer no less) trying to hand out peanuts to other crews. We all laughed and I saw no takers to the peanuts, one crew threw him out of their pit stall.

For car numbers, of course #13 was always considered bad luck. Combine that one with a green car. The #69 was to be avoided since it read the same upside down.

Bob

 

Yeah that is a stupid one for sure!

i have a light green with a mid green roof 57 Star Chief sedan and i reckon it's make a great wedding car for someone who wants somthing different from a poxy white Rolls royce... i mentioned this to a guy who does wedding hire with old Cadillacs and he said 'ooh no you cant do that, green is unlucky'... what a load of nonsence!!!

 

This made me laugh - every daily I've ever had has been blue!

 

I've had a few blue ones too, people always run into 'em

 

Birds like to poop on Blue cars, why I dont know but that's my supers***ion

Oh and how can I forget the dreaded silver car curse. They are magnets for for getting hit. My daily has been hit 3 times, once parked in front of my house, twice in my friends driveway!

 

OK, I'll ask the obvious question here ... what does "poxy" mean in American English?

 

Anytime I go looking at new cars, the old car gets "jealous" and does something to get back at me.....inexplicable temporary leak, the odd missfire, smelly a/c....but they always forgive me later...

 

I must bleed anytime I do any mechanical work to any vehicle, two wheeled or 4 - any time I havent, something catastrophic occured- its happened enough times to me that my last OT drag bike, I tore down and rebuilt the motor 5 times before I finally sacrificed some blood(s****ed knuckles) and finished the build

 

Hey mustangsix, poxy = ****ty , or similar

 

Proxy - 1.the authority to act for another,as in voting Probably used as a slang here to denote that "the white Rolls always gets the vote for wedding transportation". heard it used that way before. Damn, always knew I had the dictionary next to the computer for a reason! Whoops mis - read that! never mind........

 

never name a car that you are not going to keep. If you do when you sell it it'll start running like **** on you as a buyer is looking at it. Then when they leave it'll run fine again just like nothing happend thats what I've leard.....

 

Every now and then I pet the completely dismantled shell of my '51 Chevy and tell it that I'll get it back together sooner or later and it will be black and beautiful again. I believe it really matters to the car. (It's the "I believe" part that makes it a totally idiotic supers***ion, but still I do.)

Are you thinking in terms of curses? I have no supers***ions related to curses, although a lot of car guys I know have told me you can never own two of the same car, even as a parts car, because something will happen to one or both of them.

 

Yeah I just bout a newly used commuter (a civic because I am also a Honda geek) and within a few hours of me buying it the thing started to overhead like a sum*****. I pulled over and let her cool off. During that time I had a good talking to her and explained how I was going to giver a good home and I was going to wash and wax her and keep her pristine. She cooled off and has run like a champion for 2 weeks now. Guess she was nervous about the new owner. All cars have souls. I think she even has a little more pep in her step!

 

I would cl***ify mine more as a "curse", but I'll leave it to you guys to decide! Thought of another one that I say quite frequently; Every thing related to the hot rod hobby - cars, parts, accessories, etc. has a value that usually increases, right? Unless it has belonged to me within the last couple of owners! Then no matter how rare or desirable it is, it is virtually worthless if I am trying to sell it! It will increase in value for the guy that buys it from the guy I sold it to tenfold! Oh well, enough of my crazy for today......

 

I have learned never to brag about the reliability of any of my cars, because they all break something within a few days if I do.

 

Green Cars: I had a great uncle who's green Ford Fairlane was hit so many times he painted it Hunter's Safety Orange. Never was hit again.

Kar Karma: The day you decide to sell her, she will break down, forcing you to fix her before the sale. I made a deal to trade-in my old Cadillac with the deal to be sealed in two days. On the way home she blew a hose behind the block. I sent her into a shop the next morning for repair (I needed it quick). Upon picking up the car from the shop my girlfriend clipped a towtruck with the corner of the front fender. I arrived for the trade-in and parked her in the back of the dealership, took my new wheels and got outta there.

Same story 15 years later on a lease return. Made a deal for a new car and before the deal was final the old car's parking brake let go and she rolled down my driveway into a tree, busting a signal lens and wrinkling the bumper cover.

 

Screw it then, leave the hole. Chicks dig scars anyway.......

 

Run your engine at WOT whenever you can. That way it knows what's expected of it!

 

I've never been supers***ious about car ****. For a while I followed along with some of the old ones like green (black was a jinx color later in our family), 13, etc. My bracket racer was green with a gold pearl. It ran better than expected from the 1st day through. Many thought I was lying about my combination because those with similar or better were several tenths slower. It was just one of those set ups that hit the mark. It was however a bad luck car and it didn't dawn on me until I was done with racing. It was only bad luck for me though. I never hit the money round. If it took 5 rounds wins to be in the money I went out in the 5th. If it took 3 I went out in the 3rd. Always the same and I never knew which was the money round, I just ran my best. I'd bust a .009 light and run my number with a "6" and lose to a guy who'd bust a .007 and run with a "5" (for the uninitiated that means if I dialed 10.47 I'd run 10.476). I put a winning driver in my car one weekend and he was litterally GIVEN 3 rounds to red lights and break-outs because the car was consistant and he was a drivin *****. It made the final and went red by .003 for a runner up but that had nothing to do with the car.

Supers***ious? No. It's a man-made machine and it should function as designed. The rest is in your head. I still never figured out the money round thing though. Maybe green is a...