What's the Most Absurd Claim you've heard at a Car Show, Drag Race, Cruise Night, etc

It seems that my ownership of idiot magnets knows no bounds. Ok, I own some pretty rare (not valuable or all that desirable, but rare) stuff so I attract a fair amount of it.

I like these fools. I fuck with em.

Last weekend at a show in Upper Saddle River NJ with my 60 Lincoln...

Winner #1 and his girl, some young kid, starts in with how I have to worry about a rotted frame and I should put an S10 frame under it if I "knew what I was doing". So I open the door and point at the "Lincoln Uni-Frame Body" tag

Winner #2 had one just like it, also a 65 with a 289. "umm don't you mean a mustang?". No man just like this, an Edsel! We're standing in front of the car, you know, right where the chrome letters on the hood spell out L I N C O L N which is right under the hood ornament. So I just point at the letters and mention that the 289 came out years after Ford killed the Edsel in 1960.

Ahhh.. Kids these days

 

I saw a fantastic '32 roadster, with a good looking flathead in it and asked the owner who obviously didn't build it, how big the flathead was and he studdered, stammered and then says "It's 350 cubic inches".

 

The guy who showed up at cruise night claiming his 66 Mustang was a real Shelby...the rare coupe version without the fastback...

 

I did it all by myself...

 

I make pretty much everything myself, so I have a lot of one off unique stuff, there is always some idiot who bought one "just like it", usually on that auction site,

 

Back in the day when I still had my own shop, I spied I car that I had built for a customer, at a show, with a new owner. I walked over to ask him how he liked it. He began to spin the tale of how much work he had in it, and all of the modifications that were done (in great detail). He went on for quite some time. I just let him roll.

When he was done, I handed him a business card, and told him to give me a call if he ever needed any help or advice with that story. I pointed out to him that the logo on the card, if he checked, would nicely match the one welded to the crossmember.

 

At a cruise in one night, a couple of guys came up to me and told me that a guy across the parking lot thought his truck was low (1st gen. S-10 with ground effects). I proceeded to let the air out of my suspension, and made a lap around him and back. When I pulled up, everybody was laughing. I was kinda dumbfounded and said "What??" I had the radio up and couldn't hear, but I was pushing a bottle cap when I drove by him. He got in his truck and left.

 

Did someone tell you that, or is that your most absurd claim?

 

yea, ok......this might be it.

 

Haven't read the whole thread, so this has probably been covered, but I love the people who say 'they built it themselves', meaning they picked the colors, signed the invoices, and swiped their credit cards.

I also love the guys who claim 'it's probably putting out close to 450 horses', because they read in a magazine once where headers were worth 20hp, this brand of mufflers is worth 10 hp, a swap from a 2bbl intake to a 4bbl intake is worth 45 hp, a Holley carb is worth 15 hp, a distributor upgrade is worth 25 hp, an open element air cleaner is worth 20 hp, that K&N filter top is worth 10 hp, the stub stack is worth 10hp, underdrive pullies are worth 15 hp, a cooler thermostat is worth 10 hp, the electric fan is worth 15 hp, and the spark plugs are worth 5 hp. So they add all that up to the factory rated 250hp of the low compression, stock cammed engine in their car.

I also really get get a kick out of the people who incorrectly guess the year, manufacturer, and model of your car, then tell you that you're wrong when you correct them, because 'they had one just like it in high school'. That was usually the same car that never lost a race and always out ran the cops.

 

Guy bent my ear about a 66 camaro he has that he doesn't take out of his garage because it's so low mileage.


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If it was MEDAL flake then maybe it was a chopped up gold medal from when he won the Olympics, instead of the usual METAL flake that most of us use.

 

Actually the Olympic Gold Medals have never been all 24 carat. Before 1980 they were 23 carat, since they’ve been 18 carat plated with 24.

 

Guy I went to school with named Ronnie drove this clapped out late 70's chevy 2wd long bed with a 350. He kept the distributor loose at all times so he could adjust the timing to put it in "race mode". of course it was also running a custom cam out of his uncles 292 inline 6 race motor......

 

Classic.

 

Apparently, a VW bug with a Porsche 914 engine = 190 mph. You learn something new every day I guess.

 

my dad, or my brother, or somebody i know has a 68 challenger. < hear that one at least once a month.

 

A guy I used to work with tried to tell me he had a '29 factory v8 model A coupe. Needless to say I was eager to see this mythical beast.

IT was Fibreglass
It had a windsor in it
and had a tube steel chassis.

yeah just as I suspected.

 

A guy at my local gas station seems to know everything about hotrodsnetc yet he drives a Nissan with big chrome wheels on it anyway he was yearning away one day while I was filling up my old falcon and he said he was building one and that he had a 302w that he had stroked to a 383 and he was hoping to do 9s down the strip just nooded and agreed with him

 

This kind of rings a bell with a little incident this year at the Meltown event.

Just as we were loading up to leave Sunday afternoon (With my bent up Scout&#8230;sniff) a young guy sauntered over and gave the Scout a twice over. His first question was &#8220;How long have I owned it&#8221;. After answering (5 years) this guy very emphatically TELLS me that I must be been the guy who bought it from the guy who bought it from his Dad 10 years ago. (Huh... ahhh...ok)

Now I&#8217;m taken off guard a little and about to tell him the story of the &#8220;Elephant Hunter&#8221;, built in Canada, in the 70&#8217;s, by someone other than his Dad unless his dad is Jim Pratt, when this guy goes off on a tangent telling me all about how he and his Dad built the Scout, how it used to have a 4 speed with a blown hemi running nitro and match racing gassers in the 90&#8217;s.

Twice I pointed at the truck and asked &#8220;this Scout?&#8221; and twice he confirmed it to be one and the same both time lamenting that I didn&#8217;t have a hemi in it. He went on with tales of the build and his Dad&#8217;s match racing heroism. It was really entertaining but after a few minutes I continued to load. This guy actually asked to drive it up on the trailer&#8230; you know&#8230; like he used to do with dad&#8230; I&#8217;ll give him credit, he took the &#8220;no&#8221; well and then helped with the tie down straps. He actually thanked me for letting him help and for letting him see &#8220;his Dad&#8217;s&#8221; old scout again. After which he wandered off.

Somewhere, out there, is a very confused guy with fond memories that never actually happened&#8230;

 

Here's your chicken dinner.

 

straight from the wifes' mouth.... "is it over yet?"

 

I like the guys, usually my age,64, that talk about the mid 60's factory stock Impala or Bel Air with a small block that would run 140-150 MPH out on the highway "back in the day"...Right.....

 

Way back in the late seventies, I was standing with two buddies in a Chrysler parts department and the guy beside us struck up a conversation. He started talking about these guys that drag raced a couple Roadrunners and how he knew them real well and was always out to their shop.

Bill, Ted and John were their names and he was real tight buddies with them......

I asked if we could meet these guys... maybe hang out with them... He said "Maybe.. but we would have to go with him because they don't like people just dropping in"

We got the piece we needed for one of the Roadrunners.. Then we introduced ourselves.... Bill, Ted and John...

 

Rod Saboury told some dude and about 20 others while I was there that he runs a sbc with bbc heads on it. And that all the fastest street car runs he made were lifting at the 1000ft mark.

Guys that tell me they have upwards of 6 figures in their car and that's with them doing all the work themselves. Yet it's all glass repro and has a sbc in it. lol

A sbc 2nd gen camaro that looked and sounded like a 10 second car who I raced and walked with a mostly stock 1.3L rotary said if someone wouldn't have stuck an ice pick in his slicks.. he totally would've beat me.

 

Loving this thread.Brings back memories of yesteryear.And some recent ones too.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

"Dude, I painted my motor and it's way faster!" Same guy says "I didn't use bondo, I used sac crete on the wheel wells, I needed the weight. WTF

 

Olympic gold medals are actually gold plated silver.

 

Guy wearing a jacket with patches of every speed part known in the universe looks at the sbc in my 56 and asks ' Does that motor have the rare 5 bolt mains'.
HUH!!! 5 bolts mains!!!
I told him take off your jacket. I'm gonna burn it!!

 

30 something... "I was there, Man!".
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