When I was younger I had a very nice 70 Chevelle 2 door hardtop that had a built 350 and a non posi rear. Stopped at a stop sign,give it and turn left onto the intersecting street which then had a curve to the right.Car hooked up suddenly,car then went sideways into a curb on the wrong side of the street,busted the left rear wheel off at the axle,spun around backwards ,slid backwards up the street back into my lane,up over the sidewalk narrowly missing a hydro pole. Sent an astonished kid to fetch my still rolling left wheel!!!! Thank god nobody got hurt except it was the end of the car.....rear diff,frame and body had too much damage for me to have repaired. Back then Chevelles were a dime a dozen.....
My scariest ride was over to Bisbee and back (about 50 miles round trip) in this RPU about 6 months before the accident.
Apparently anything with me behind the wheel, i sure have fun though, its always great watching the passenger with a deathgrip on anything sturdy in the cab
I stopped by to see a buddy in downtown SLC. He was there seeing another friend whom I had not met. This dude had a '69 Mustang fastback with a BUILT FE block (don't remember how many cubes) and nitrous. Can't remember the class but he was running 10.5" slicks. The guy was trying to get business sponsors to help pay for the racing season, said the car was a low 11 second car on motor, high 9's on the bottle. "Bullshit," I say. Full interior (with roll cage and fiberglass seats) and a manually shifted C6. "Hop in," says he. I do, and I notice that my passenger seat isn't bolted down and there are no belts. The car is already running, he see me rocking back and forth on the unbolted seat reaching for a belt and rolls out of the driveway. Guess he couldn't hear me yelling about the problems I had just identified, which he knew damn well before hand. He motioned to me to hold onto the cage... "there and there." We roll out southbound on West Temple (six lanes wide, long ways between lights) and he nails it hard. HOLY SHIT! He pounds second. DOUBLE HOLY SHIT! He pounds third. Okay, I just made a mess in my pants, and may have blacked out for a moment. We've just covered two large city blocks and are doing around 130, middle of the week, middle of the day, downtown Salt Lake City. He lets up and works the brakes for another two blocks to get us slowed down. We make a right turn, casually drove one block west and made another right turn. We round the corner, come to a full stop, he pulls the trans brake revs it to 6000 and engages. I can only imagine that the front tires lifted a good 18" but all I can tell you is that I saw a whole bunch of blue sky. I don't remember the one-two shift, but I remember the two-three because that's the point when my fiberglass seat turned and slid under the center bar in the cage. The pilot (this was NO driver!) noticed my predicament and kindly finished his run to 130 mph anyway. As he lifted I somehow pulled the carpet and fiberglass splinters from my rectum and was now somewhat kneeling on the floorboard, not so comfortably. We braked and turned back into the warehouse where the car was. Was I scared? No, not really. But I had the adrenaline rush of a lifetime, even more than my first skydiving jump! Would I do it again? Oh HELL yes. But I want some bolts and belts this time!!!
Dumb Luck, A buddy showed up with a 'barn find' duece 4 dr.All stock but not running. After getting the local 'flathead' experts to get it running we all jumped in an took off for the 'boonies'. As it 'cleaned out' and warmed up, it started to really run pretty good . after tearing around in the dirt, climbing hills and spinning donuts, was time to headed for home, I was driving and I headed down this street wide open, as fast as an old original 221" flatty could go I realized that the road ended at a 'T' so I thought i would scare every body by not braking till the last min. First thing I didnt realize how bad mechanical brakes were, second ws, when I hit the brakes the lites went out, now I culdnt see the road, and also the engine died, let up on the brakes to pump gggg and lites went on! which gave us a good view if how close to the intersection we were. the main thing i saw was across the intersection behind the barrier was a huge palm tree! Hit the brakes still haulin ass then had to lift to see where we were and had to make the turn, so I just turned, I swear it would tip over but it didnt, it did little dry road slide, and made it, if you ever saw a movie with old cars weaving back an forth that was us! That sure bunched my shorts! Lucky no cars were comin! [the brake pedal arm was hitting the battery cable and shorted] Davy in 58'
That reminds me of a very quick ride in a blown 427 powered 69 Camaro. I rode shotgun for a bit since the seat wasn,t bolted in....when we hit 127 MPH I was already upside down in the back.What a ride!!!!
When I was 18 my buddies and I would do an inordinate amount of drinking and driving, like a lot of young dumb assholes might do. I remember riding in the passenger seat of my buddies small block 4 speed Nova and tearing to Ocean Shores, WA at 100 while all passing around a 1/2 Gallon of Jack Daniels swerving through traffic, putting the car sideways, etc. We drank the whole thing in half an hour between 4 people. Very, very irresponsible. It blows my mind we are still alive. When we got to town the driver was so drunk that he apparently forgot to use the brakes and blew through a massive ceramic pot holding a 15 foot palm tree in front of a hotel we jammed over to the next hotel and hid the car behind some shit and had to hide from the cops. That poor Brown Nova was put through so much shit back then and we were fucking stupid
Ride with my dad one time. He runs NASA and GrandAm road race series events. He certainly can drive; No doubt about it, but he can also crash pretty well. Ride to saturday morning breakfast with him in his daily driver (07 Shelby GT500 Mustang now pushing over 600hp) just one time and youll either be hooked on speed and high performance driving or youll shit your pants. Ever taken back to back S-curves at 110 mph that should probably be taken at no more than 30mph! At 7 am its way to early for butt puckering and slamming into the door.
I was at the drag strip with my '83 Suzuki 1100E. Stock except for a pipe and some jetting. It was an 11:17 pass at 118 mph. Got off the throttle and had a high speed wobble. I'm not wearing leathers, just jeans and a windbreaker. I ease on the brakes and the wobble gets worst. Get off the brakes and the wobble continues. I'm thinking, "God, if you get me out of this in one piece, I swear to never drag race a bike again!". Now I try sitting up and let wind resistance slow me down, I'm running out of track. The bike slows and the wobble disappears. Go back to the grandstands and everyone saids they've never seen a wobble that bad that anyone walked away from. What caused it? Low front tire pressure, it was down to 10 lbs. Never drag raced a bike again.
This was in about 1993... My buddy had a '70 vette with a mildly built LS5... 12.80 @ 107 at the track, but seemed to kill a lot of faster cars on the street. Vette IRS and slicks seemed to really hook a lot better than most cars when it came to street racing. His friend had a real clean '70 GS 455 Stage 1 cloned into a Saturn Yellow GSX. Had a pretty built engine w/ high CR, big cam, ported heads, etc. Faster car than the Vette, as it was rumored to be in the 11s. We went down to 2nd ave in Pittsburgh late one night to race the Buick, as there is a nicely paved section of road that is ~1/2 mile between stop lights. I rode in the Buick. We waited for traffic to pass, and pulled out onto the street. Lined cars up quickly up and went. Vette had the jump on the GS (vette on ET drags, Buick on street tires), but when that Buick TH400 hit 2nd and got traction, that 455 started pulling like a freakin' freight train. We were reeling in the vette, and had ~2 car lengths on the Vette by the top of second. I guess Nate (Buick driver) wanted bragging rights, because he hit third and stayed in it. I look out the winshield and see we are barreling down on 35 mph traffic FAST, and dude isn't lifting. Thank god the stock disc brakes on the Buick worked well, because I was really sweating. Nothing like sitting in the passenger seat seeing cars come at you QUICK and knowing it's out of your control. One thing I'll say... the 2nd gear pull of that car made me a believer in the insane Buick torque. Never felt a semi-mild street car pull that hard before.
455 rocket I always loved those motors. anybody got a sound clip of that idle? going to make it into a loop.
Towing a non running junker on with a chain and get going as fast as possible to scare the guy shitless in the towed car.Or getting towed on a chain when the guy in front slows down to fast,the chain banging around,you get on the brakes,the chain get under a tire and it's all fucked up in a second.
i'll tell this story for my wife; a patient woman, who loves old cars as much as i do, excexpt the day the brakes went out on her '63 Valiant in the middle of Dorchester Road in rush hour traffic around 45mph... i was waiting for my new Imperial parking brake cable to arrive to fix the e-brake, so IT didn't work; the pushbutton automatic provided little or no engine braking, and she learned how to weave through parking lots, dodge oncoming traffic, blow the horn, and look for a soft spot to land this thing... which she did, without damaging the little car. Hooray for her! i did a complete changeover to dual line MC after that... AND replaced the parking brake cable. then there's the day the rear axle blew (same car)...... replaced it with a Maverick 8" rear.
A bunch of us were on our way to the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield back in 2004. I was diving my Chevy coupe on SR 99 and noticed the steering was getting loose. I figured that I would check it out the next time we stopped. We were driving through a lot of construction and it was getting difficult to keep it between the concrete barriers along both sides of the lanes. Not a couple miles after the construction and concrete barriers ended I lost my steering and started to go off the right shoulder. I hit my brakes and also hit the small curb on the shoulder sending me airborne. I came to a stop about 10 feet from a pole. There was a lot of dust in the air and everybody in our caravan thought I was dead. The steering linkage fell of the pitman arm because I left off the cotter pin. We put the linkage back on using a lug nut. I walked up to where I left the road and there was about ten feet of dirt with no tire marks. No injuries and no vehicle damage, just feel stupid for leaving off the pin.
Had some of the same things happen with the lack of brakes, ice on the roads, the driveshaft dropping at 75mph, loosing wheels, even the car trailer passing me one time. But the scariest was when I raced modifieds. Comparable to Nascar Mods but limited horsepower. Started the end of season championship race outside pole and did not get along with the guy starting pole. Race started and he got the lead and I followed for 48 laps. Second last lap he tangles with a lap car and I dumped him. No caution fell and when I came down the back stretch on the last lap he was running slow in the middle of the track. I went high to go by him and he turned up into me and I hit the turn 3 wall and cleared it. End over end a couple times and finally came to rest of the roof about 150 feet from the track. A little bruised but none worse for wear. The car was scrap, no suspension left on it and motor hanging out. The cops escorted him out and I couldn't get at him but I void I'd get him. He died of lung cancer before the next season started.
I would belive the 250 mph only if it was from a stock 429 in a 79 Ranchero. I've lost my liscence for a year on the day I got it. (Drag racing) stupid! I've been 165 at night in a 440 six pack superbird with a very drunk friend at the wheel. stupid! I raced four friends nine miles down I-70 to a concert (little over four minutes on ramp to off ramp- 500hp 429 SCJ Torino 2.80 gears.) stupid! Rolled my cherry 71 Bronco one fine day jackin around. stupid! Condor jet boat with a 8-71 supercharged 502 doing 110 on the water and missing a stump that was sticking up as it scrapped down the side of the boat. I use a tape measure every day at the shop and sometimes I think what a difference an inch can make. Passenger in a car where my best friend did not live. I should be very dead by now but the good Lord must still want me in this place.
Scariest ride was at my own hands, but at the direction of another. To tell this one I need to go back a ways. I was in my last year of high school, boarding with a family on ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ in a dump of a place called Thomastown. I had a good friend live a few doors down dropped out of school early and lead a life of leisure supported by overly generous parents. He also happened to be a mad keen rally fan. So much so he picked up a pretty beat up RX3 Mazda, with a strong 13B rotary so he could go racing. I spent many nights helping him to get the car done, we spent some time building the cage and tacked it all together. He was going to get it all stitched up by a pro welder. One afternoon it was ready for a test drive, Cool! I bailed in the navigator’s seat and we headed out for a quick run around the block. It pulled hard for what it was but was pretty stiff in the suspension. I noticed this due to the fact the roll bar that tied the front of the cage with the main hoop vibrated off and dropped on us during the test drive! Turned out he welded it up himself to save money after a few beers! I made him get it re-done properly, and I’m glad I did! We went out so he could get a CAMS license to drive it, I was going to be the navigator. It sounded like something fun to do. The problem with that started when he got behind the wheel, he couldn’t drive fast to save himself! After a bit of negotiation I ended up in the pilot seat, he in the navs. All went well for the first few races, a few mix ups with notes but nothing real serious. The car was very quick for the class and in hine sight I was always a little behind it, bit being young, 10ft tall and bulletproof I gave it all I had. In out last race we were doing pretty well, had picked up a few places in the early stages. Then we came to the longest stage, 32km. Even know we had driven it the day before I couldn’t remember shit of the track. I had to rely on the notes. A few kilometres into the stage we came to a long strait with a big dip and a crest on the other side. I nailed it hard and was doing about 130 when we hit the top. I expected the track to be a straight line over the crest. As we mounted the top we were airborne and staring at a whole lot of trees! My mate had turned a couple of pages by mistake and read the wrong notes!! I saw the road turning off to the right but with the car in the air there was nothing I could do about it. Didnt stop me from having my foot firmly on the brake and it turned hard to the right! We hit the first tree about 6-7 foot up, there were a lot of small trees that we were slicing through, the car started to turn so we were sideways in the air, passenger side first. It seemed we were up there for a week time went so slow, I remember watching first the windscreen shatter then a large branch come through hitting the dash, cracking the gauge cover. The noise was incredible, like someone beating on the side of a 44 gallon drum with a couple of 4x2s while your head was in there! Next thing I know was hanging upside from my harness, thank god he got that cage done right! I had bee knocked unconcious. The front of the car had hit a tree that was a good 20ft round, it took the entire front off the little Mazda, engine, gearbox everything. My mate came too moaning. I undid my harness promptly landing on my head further disorienting me. I turned to help my nav out of his harness, that’s when I discovered he was trapped by his legs. The tree had hit right on the join of body and front guard. At that speed it had crushed his side so bad they had to get EMS in to cut him out. He had broken both his legs, I was lucky I had a headache. My mate recoverd and we never did go back to rally! And so ended my rally driving career!
Scary rides...I have had a couple. Step dads 67 fastback. He bragged about making it home from the Norfolk Naval base in 17 minutes. Well I dropped him off one morning. (4am) Driving the fastback. Leaving the 35mph zone I topped 110 mph. Shifted into 4th in the straights. My brother watched for any cops or hazards. Well the road started to go tunnel vision when the speedo hit 140mph. When the speedo wrapped back up to 35mph the road really narrowed ALOT! The front end lifted and became very floaty. We made it home in 12 minutes. The tach read 8100 rpms. Stupid...and scary. Second of many was in my 65. I managed to get the totally wore out suspension and brakes up on two wheels. I cut a few curves on the way to work. It seems some pulp wood trucks had left a few mounds of dirt on the edge of the road when they departed from the woods. I pushed the 65 really tight into the corner and hugged the white line....then bump. Passenger tires were airborne. It seemed like forever till the tires touched down. ..a change of shorts was needed. Then years down the road. I decided to strip the said 65. No doors, interior, glass, hood, fenders, trunk...basically really light. I decided to turn the go kart around by driving it down the block. Buddy of mine thought it would be cool to pop a wheelie. One minor error prior to wheelie....no battery hold down. Well a little wheel stand flipped the battery into the fan. Next came the battery acid.....IN MY EYES! I was about 50 yards from the front yard. I basically drove by brail to the drive way. I flushed my eyes for an hour before I could open them. That was the moment that Super Man decided if he was going to keep up with this daredevil attitude HE needed to get a wife.
Here's mine...I mocked up the "Rocky 33" to see if I liked the placement of all the parts..no firewall or floor, no cotter pins in the steering components, no ring spacers behind the 35 ford wire wheels, no new brakes on the unknown 46 ford pickup rear axle with a huge pinion seal leak etc etc etc.... Got a call from Ryan to attend the 2004 Kansas City Speed and Power Meet. I duct-taped a wood-paneling firewall and floor into it and filled the rear axle in Omaha......had enough sense to flat-tow it to K.C. and drove it 109 miles in sub-freezing weather, using a plastic boat fuel tank, duct taped in place with a piece of 18 gage electrical wire for a throttle cable.[which broke in downtown KC traffic...thanks to Jangleguy and T-man for the push to the hotel] . The blow-by and open exhaust would have killed us except there was no door glass in it. Had 3, 5/16ths bolts holding the bed on and we had to refil the rear axle 4 times on the trip. Hairest moment was doing 70 MPH trying to keep up with Ryans 38 ford on the freeway, caught between to semis on each side with hair-raising curves. We actually lived through it and T-man eventually bought the little truck and sorted it out a bit.....scary ride.
I know that story I bought an old vw passat awd, it had about 180horses, and on the way home the one of my frontdiscs broke, so the breakcylinder came out and all the fluid. I was pissed, than I thought, if I drive slowly nothing is gonna happen. After driving an hour on normal streets I took the autobahn home. I liked that engine it was running real good on higher rpm, and so I was driving on the left lane. suddenly a car came out of an onramp in front of me, cutting me off, because on the right lane was a big truck, so I had to down shift, It really hurt my clutch and the engine was doing some 9000rpm It was really scary, so I took the next exit, and drove home real slow
A few weeks after I got the ShitHeap (my soon to be daily driver Mini) a mate came round to help me get my laptop in order. After we're done fooling around with it I ask him if he'd like a ride in the Mini. He says Sure. So I've not had this car long and haven't had time to do a lot to it.Just replaced the jammed front hubs and got the engine running smoothly.I'd also parted the nicely upholstered front seats out to a mate and chucked the shitty ones he gave me in there without bolting them on. Anyway so I idle out of the garage in my Mini,with it's miniscule sowing machine 1 litre engine and point it down the dirt road in front of my house,which is about 200 feet long. My mate gets in,I look at him and ask You ready? He nods so I wind the motor to the moon and dump the clutch. The tires spin for a second and grab hold and off we go. I forrgot to tell said mate that the seats arent bolted down,so backward he goes,his head ending up on the rear parcel shelf,screaming like a girl. I grab second and again matey gets slammed backwards,now cursing every known saint under the sun. The truck parked at the end of the dirt road is looming large and due to the fact that the ShitHeap has no brakes,I rip up the handbrake and crank the wheel over to the right(right hand drive car remember) Matey has forgotten that old car doors need to be slammed to close properly so he is catapulted against the door,which gives out under his weight and out he rolls into the dust. Have never ever laughed so much in my life.When he got his breath back matey started cursing me all the way to hell and back and vowed to never ever ride with me again. Everytime we get together to hoist a few beers I remind him of it and every time he renews his vow Long story I know,but I told it exactly as it happened.
Ive had 2 hemi race cars , a 11 second wheelstanding 74 charger and driven a few other cars including a 32 austn bantam altered but the most breathtaking ride i have ever had is for some reason the Senior Dragster and its hi torque slant six. I am sure the first time i wacked it i cried out . Car runs straight. steers good stops fine but it pulls so hard it frghtens me espcailly the first 50 feet. So much so that i didnt give it full throttle when i ran it on the track the first time. I was still frightened from the wack i gave it in the pits while i was checking it out to see how it drove. I had psyched myself up to give her all this weekend but it rained. Maybe i am too old for this kind of thing but at 58 I shouldnt be and I have no trouble turning my MAX WEDGE cruise car loose whenever I feel like it. Whatever the reason I have got to get over it but it scared the daylights out of me to tell the truth.
Try this link and scroll about halfway down... http://www.condercustom.com/ATF/gallery/destruction.html I like that Rally story from Doc Watson! How do you drive a car in mid air? Over trees? My scariest ride was in 1986. I was 20 years old and stationed at Fort Ord as Army Infantry. Our unit was on alert a lot, so when we got time off I'd split as fast and far as possible! I'd get on my brand new 900 Ninja and head straight for Hiway 1 and Big Sur. I did it pretty regularly and kind of had a "system" for getting there... As soon as I got out of Monterey I'd start splitting lanes, real smooth and careful (learned it from real bike racers who rode together out there). If traffic thinned I'd hit it as hard as I could until I came up on more cars, then it was back to slowly rolling past them on the center line as cars wizzed toward me in the oncoming lane. On that part of Hiway 1 there are lots sweeping turns and a few straights you can really fly on. I'd look way up the coast along the cliffs and if I didn't see any cars it was "wide world of sports." So I was blasting home and came up on at least 10 cars slowly winding along. This pack was doing around 40 I guess. So I roll out a little, look up the coast for oncoming traffic and didn't see any. I thought, "I'm gonna freak these tourists OUT!" dropped down to second and nailed it, WFO. I'm power shifting that Ninja, throttle pegged and ripping past those cars like an F-15 on this easy sweeping curve when out of nowhere a giant Winnebago is right in front of me. I was about to go around the lead car (a van) when the Winnie appeared...I swear I didn't "try" to do this, it was LUCK...Like magic the bike sucked right up against the van's driver door as the side view mirror of the motorhome swished over my head. My helmet bumped the van's mirror. I was still on the gas. To make matters worse, I was FLYING and the curve became tighter. I leaned that bike over as hard as I could, debating wether to nail the brakes and low side it (maybe over a cliff) or stay on it, possibly pile driving into on coming traffic (there wasn't anymore thank God.) I managed to get it straightened up and back in MY lane (again LUCK) and everything calms down. I'm rolling along playing the whole mess over in my head, hands shaking and queezy when the pack rolls up on me and nearly takes me out (I was practically idling at about 15 mph). So, I got my !@#$ together and pulled into this roadside art store, got off, took 2 steps and puked. The pack of cars rolled past real slow, their occupants glaring in hatred and dis-belief as I heaved and blew chunks on all fours, surrounded by beautiful nature paintings and macrame crafts. It's a miracle I'm still alive and have never been in (or caused) a serious accident. Sobering thought. A few months later I actually DID run that Ninja off a Big Sur cliff, but that's another story...
I had broken down on the Wantage parkway in my '65 Belair wagon. No fuel, looked at a few things and gave up on it. The wife took me to work and the plan was to go fetch the car that evening. Later that evening (just getting dark) we went back to get the car. All I had was a roll of 1/2" nylon rope and we decided to tow it with her '73 Cutlass. All we had to do was go up to Old Country Road, grab a few back roads down to Hepmstead Tpke and we were home. My wife is pretty slick and fully understood what we were going to do. We worked out the hand signals, I'd be doing some of the braking to slow us down. If she had a rattier car, we would have pushed it home, which beats towing in my book. All was well until we got off at OCR and someone tried VERY hard to get between us! It was some old geezer and I was blowing the horn and yelling out the window. My wife saw what was happening in the mirror and she was scared shitless. There was maybe 15' of slack between the cars and I was keeping it less that that when the old man tried to get between us. Finally the ancient fart realized what was going on and backed off. We got back home with the car and my wife was shaking and white as a sheet. She pretty much told me that I had better get a tow truck if I ever break down again.
The Jalopy Journal
