History So Stupid Car tricks how many did them?

My disclaimer: Don't do this at home kids. But the question remains how many did stupid things in cars when they were young. traditional car stories only please.

I'll start. It must have been around '69 or '70. We had 3/10s mile marked out on a straight stretch of country road out behind the high school. Commonly Friday night was race night. Commonly the local constabulary would roust us.

One Friday night some of the fellas got their ******* in a wad and at Scotties Drive-In we hatched a plan. At the local cop shop you could find the dog watch cop sleeping in front of the big plate gl*** window on any given night. The cop car parked out front. So true to form this Friday night was no exception. A couple of the fellas snuck up and removed the hub caps and all the lug nuts, then replaced the hub caps. The police station was on a hill and we pulled my '55 to the top of the hill, headers uncorked. Lit it off and rolled it down in front of the station where I proceeded to rev it to the max until the cop woke up then let fly.

The cop ran out and jumped in his car and I think he was going to run me down. I stopped at the bottom of the hill long enough to make sure he was coming and took a right. he didn't stop just hung a right and managed to loose his wheels. I ran up a block and turned right again to meet mrs ****** flapping the chain out, I killed the motor hooked up and she hollered "Follow me" which meant I was in for a white knuckle ride. We stuffed the old car in a friends barn and waited to see if we were in trouble.

OK forgive my rambling, but where you there? Did you do stupid chit when you were young?

 

I'll throw mine in here. When I was young, about 13 or so, the kid next door had a 55 chevy 2 door sedan. It had a 283, 4bbl and a 4 speed and was all black primer. Nice car. Well he decides to build the motor up. I think he bored it out to 301 and did a bunch of stuff to it. The compression ratio was so high he couldn't get it to turn over on a battery. When it came time to fire it up the only way to get it to turn was by pushing the car and popping the clutch with it in gear. Of course there is no hood on the car, no throttle linkage hooked up, and open headers. Well one friend of his sat up on the fender in front and worked the carbs while he steered and drove and 2 of us younger guys got the privilege of pushing. We pushed and pushed and pushed and finally the damn thing fired off. Well the guy on the hood is working the throttle and the car starts to take off so us two guys in back jump on the trunk lid for the short ride back to the house. Doesn't the dipstick on the fender decide to wind that damn thing out all the way with us clinging on to the trunk lid for dear life! I swear the only thing that kept us from falling off was our ability to get our fingernails wedged into the trunk lid seam! It seemed like he had that thing going 80 miles an hour.! I don't know why but nobody ever got hurt when this kind of thing went on and it sure makes for memories that bring a smile to my face now!

 

There was the time when a friend and I took his dad's '39 Chevy hot rod for a ride....we were 13 and the old ppl were outta town. When We got back, his grandmother was waiting in the driveway. Man, I swear my feet never touched the ground as I got out of the car and hoofed it home!

 

In 1974 my friend Earl had a '65 Impala Coupe with a 283/Glide, jacked-up in back with a posi rear & L-60's. On any snowy night, at age 18 he could out-drift the entire current sport of drift with just one foot. A mile-long wheelbase, weak and steady power with a forward traction bias, it was a recipe for sideways.

 

We used to party at this man made lake some when I was in High School. I had a rather large friend who drove a '56 Chevy. On the west side of the lake there was a kind of a makeshift boat ramp and one night there was a bunch of us all in different states of inebriation. I saw ol' Tom headed down the boat ramp and get him stopped and asked him what the devil he was doing. He said, "I'm going to Hawaii." So I said , "Well you big dummy Hawaii is that way." and pointed over my shoulder. So he backed out and drove across the damn to the other side of the lake and bailed off in it. One of the fellas asked me what he was doing and I said, "He's driving to Hawaii." he said, "Well he's headed in the right direction."

Fortunately he didn't get far enough into the lake to make much difference and the following morning we got him pulled out of it.

 

When I was a junior in high school, my dad saddled my with my 10 year old brother. I had a beater 4 door Nova that we had built an L-79 for, quiet exhaust etc. So we did a lap down main street and this dude starts chirping at me, about baby sitting etc. I stopped at the store to get some sodas and head back home, pulled a plug wire in the safeway parking lot. He drove up and was still yapping at me I told him I could run him and his Camaro anytime. So I start the car, he starts laughing gets in his car to drive to designated racing spot. I got back out connected the plug wire and took my brother out racing his first time. I smoked him, which really pissed the guy of. Being beaten by a beater 4 door Nova with a 10 year old in it. So he starts following me around. We were on a one way street, my buddy in the left lane and I in the right. So the light turns green, My buddy and I power brake our cars filling the intersection with smoke. I turn my way he turns his when light turns yellow. The Camaro guy burns out thru intersection and everyone sees him blow the light red. Cops were called as well as the fire department since the tire smoke hung in the intersection. Cops are asking everyone, if they seen what happened. Get in car after about 10 minutes goin back around to go home and several cops have Camaro guy pulled over. My little brother still talks about how I baited the guy by taking my plug wire off.

 

I can add in on the dumb*** list of stupid kid stuff. (1968 At 20, should have known better,this event ended my street racing career upon a Judge's recommendation) Did a fair amount street racing, in process of attempting to out Run Sheriff's, in an area not familiar with, went off road at a 90 deg corner, had it slowed to around 60/70/80/?, flew across ditch, through Barb wire fence and took down a 100 yards+ of corn and came to a stop, 64 Impala SS, hood, trunk and doors popped open from the ride. My heart racing and glad to be OK, I Will never forget ! Sheriff drives up and said over bull horn " Lock her up Buddy, You are going straight to jail ) At 16 traded my 57 Chevy for a 56 BelAir ragtop mild Kustom from California, guy brought it back when he mustered out of service in Cal. Beautiful car, way nicer than mine, but the 57 was a pretty good 1/8 mile Street racer and he had to have it. So..... In my infinite wisdom of my youth, we skipped school, beer party, we went out cruising, 6 kids in car and I started showing off car control skills in the light snow, donuts, broadsiding, spinning 360's AND guess what, lost it, hit a power pole so hard that I broke it off, tore right front suspension off, bent frame, knocked engine off motor mounts, all in all junked a very nice car, no insurance, no license, NO F'N Brains ! No one was hurt other than a few bruises, Lucky again, everyone split, called a friend that worked at a flatbed service, he came and got me and car, no police report, did not have to pay for pole repair. I have too many of these memories, another one, 67/68, out cruising, see friend on his new Triumph cycle, turn right facing east, he's sitting at stop sign facing west, we're BSn and he says, watch this, this thing does Kool burners, OK, he winds it up, launches, at center of street, hits a steel manhole cover, bike spins out and throws him off, I jump out, thought he hurt himself, not thinking my car was in nuetral as I tired of holding in clutch, as I approach him, he looks back and yells, John, your car, it's rolling down small incline and jumps curb, hit a a tree. Instantly, 2 Milwaukee cop cars are on scene. Come to find out we were very near Mayor Meiers house ( cops saw the complete event) and these were his security guards. Buddy goes to jail, No licence and cop never asked me about mine (was suspended), he said he felt bad for me as my car was pretty damaged from such a low speed hit, all he had me do was check with home owner about tree damage, minimal bark scuff, home owner was OK, cop let me go and said be careful, be smart. I have stated on here many times, I'm a very Lucky Man, have always had an gaurdian Angel watching over me, many times, many things could have turned out differently in my life and I am grateful for my good fortune. After last street race, I went open wheel Midget/Sprint car racing for 20+ years, another set of stories on my Good Luck and an Angel watching over me.

 

About 10 yrs old...in the neighbor's Buick GS (same guy with the '39). Guy in a new Camaro running his mouth about how Buick ain't ****. Bud turns around and tells me and his son to make sure we're buckled up. A wheelstand later and the Camaro turned into an empty parking lot.

 

Here is another... One night I was driving through the center of town and got into an argument with my girlfriend which pissed me off royally so what did I do to relieve my frustration, start driving like an idiot! I was probably going about 90 in a 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint I had. It had a 302 and a 4 speed that had been put in by the previous owner. Car was pretty fast. Well I am screaming along through the center of town and here comes a cop the other way! I slow down take a hard right and pull to a stop. Get out with my license and registration in hand and sit on the front fender and wait for the cop to show up. I know he saw me and knew where I was headed. He comes screaming around the corner expecting to be chasing me down the road and sees me sitting there and almost runs me over! He walks up and says what the hell was that all about? I say you going to write me up or listen? He says I'll decide later. So I tell him I just had a big argument with my girl who was sitting in the car and she pissed me off. He says nothing and walks back to the cruiser with my paper. He then comes back about 10 minutes later, which seemed like forever, hands me my paperwork and says slow down! And the next time you get in an argument with your girlfriend wait until you get home in the driveway and then punch her in the mouth! I couldn't believe what he said! I didn't get a ticket either!!

 

I don't think I'm old enough to chime in on this thread

 

Coming home from my girl friends house late, running about 75 on a 55 MPH State hwy, p*** a Trooper sitting with his lights out looking for somebody stupid like me. I see him light up the blues, I floor it. We lived just over a small hill, when I topped it he was about 3/4 or a mile behind me. After I topped the hill, I cut my lights off, stabbed the brakes hard, slammed it down in low {automatic trans}, and cut into the folks driveway {right turn} about 30 mph, went around the back of the house, and sat there. I saw him come over the top of the hill, but he couldn't see me because the house sits in a small hollow. After he got by, I backed into my normal parking spot by the out building and went in the house.

A buddy of mine came down the road a few minutes after I did, he had just gotten off work, said he met the Trooper going back the other way about 5 miles below my house. I guess he figured I'd turned off, but didn't know where as there are several side roads in the 5 mile stretch. I was lucky he never got close enough to get my tag number, but I bet he looked for that 67 Stang for a while.

I never tried that **** again!

 

Back in the days when photo radar had just come on the scene, the one local to me kept falling off of the overp*** that it was chained to.

If I remember correctly, it was six or seven times, until they gave up.

 

I had saw where some racers were running wooden carb spacers in the late 90's. I decided to make one myself for my 68 Impala 4 door with a 307/2bbl/glide. Talk about a big horsepower upgrade. I was about 3/4 of the way finished with it by matching it to a carb gasket using my dads wood working tools before he caught on to what I was doing, and darn near beat me with it. You live and you learn I guess. Quite dumb now that I look back...


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Similar to what's already been posted. Back in '69 my buddy and I are just leaving the A&W in Marshfield in my 409 and his Mustang both cars with the dumps wide open. (We'd previously been thrown off Duxbury Beach for making a racket reving the engines and annoying everyone there.) We turn right and come up to the light side by side, a GTO pulls up next to us in the turning lane. The light changes and all three of us boot it, right through the center past the cops and shoppers and general population, it sounds like Hell's Hammers echoing off of all of the buildings. We bang a right past the Dairy Queen, the GTO goes straight on to the beaches. We bang another fast right, up the hill, into my cousin's driveway and around the back of his house.

He doesn't believe us and takes us right back to the center where I swear we could still smell the tire smoke. We hung around at his place for a long, long time before heading back North.

Same old thing, loud fast cars, Summer time and complete idiots. Being young beats everything ! !

 

In 1963 we used to race from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz. HW 17 had a "suicide" land where it went through Scotts Valley. Often we would be so low on gas and so far out of funds that we couldn't make it back to San Jose without raiding a couple of laundromats for coke bottles that we could cash in for enough gas to get home. Amazing that I wasn't caught and put in jail.

 

I remember sticking a big old potato on the end of those old long 2 way whip antennas and when the cop would stop it would bang off the roof and they would look for someone throwing stuff at them.

 

Just for the record... I did my teenage years in the 80s.

There were three of us that perpetually stayed in the ****. We were always together and always pushing each other to do stupid stuff in our cars. One of us often drove his mom's car, a mid-70s Monte Carlo that was white with a red interior and the swivel buckets. It was a very nice car.

Here in SOMO we get some snow days, and ice days, and occasionally black ice. One day school was cancelled for the latter, so in our wisdom we three pile in that Monte and head into the city for some car part shopping and such. He is careful as can be all the way into town (about 30 miles of semi-icy roads) and we land at our first stop. It is a small CB shop at the end of a large, empty, grocery store parking lot, which happens to be a perfect skating rink. Naturally he stabs the Monte and puts it into a perfect sideways slide down the parking lot, because "awesome!" Well, there was a 40' cube trailer with "ALDI'S" or something painted on it parked against the street... poor man's billboard. About mid-execution of the ice show, the ol' Monte starts to wander towards this trailer, and my friend realizes he is completely *not* in control of the action. So now you have three boys in wide-eyed wonder, drifting perfectly sideways, inches from the long edge of a box trailer, on a sheet of ice. It seemed to take an eternity to walk that car down the length of that trailer. As we neared the end, it appeared that we were going to miss the trailer by millimeters, and our driver elected to shout a jovial "We're gonna make it!". Upon his announcement, the very center of the nose of the Monte was neatly split by the step bar at the end of that trailer... like a knife through ****er. It didn't even slow down our perfect drift.

We exited that car post-drift to inspect a 2" wide gash in the plastic/fibergl*** nose piece directly in front of the hood and to silently giggle as all of the blood ran from my friend. Then we rotated to walk into the CB store, where through the plate window we could see the owner laughing uncontrollably, with tears running down his face. He could not even speak when we walked inside.

We didn't see our friend for a while after that one, except at school of course.

 

OK I'll bite ..... I read it as just how stupid were you when you were a kid, how far did you go to prove it?
I had a 51 ford f-1 with a 317 lincoln flathead v8 3 speed floor shift. I was 15 at the time.
yeah it was pretty stupid and thats as far as am going with the story

 

"Back in the day" we did it all. Lots of street racing, cruising, drag racing, siphoning gas and probably every dumb thing kids and cars could do. Remember the whistling smoke bomb device you wired up to someones spark plugs? That was always good for a laugh. Mooning and throwing a "Pressed Ham" at folks and patrons at a drive in restaurant was not just a thing you saw on American Graffiti. It was something kids did regularly. We were probably what you would call JD's. I also feel sorry for those who missed the sixties which is what I call the hay day of hot rodding. I was there. Attached is a picture of our 36 Ford drag car we built in my Grandpa's garage and raced at NY's Westhampton Drag Strip. The picture appeared in our local newspaper. It was originally flathead powered and received a 327 later on. I'm the skinny JD in the middle.

Gary

 

I always had at least one spare car since I was a real jack*** and blew through cars like they were Kleenex. I had this '67 Impala SS I bought and was working on and I need to get gas for it. So I took the front plate off my (also blue) '66 Caprice and put it on that. I figured the cars were close enough in color and year so I drove the '67 around with the switched plate for about a month. I got busted with the non-registered car, but only got a ticket for having one plate on it. The non-matching registration and insurance card somehow got past the cop.

 

Never did any, but I liked to watch Darwinism at work. Some friends and I were about 13 years old and hanging with the older "cool kids". One of them decides he can jump onto the hood of a car, as a buddy drives by. So, his friend comes by going at 20 mph and he goes for it. Well, he made it, but 6" of car antenna got stabbed in his arm. He's screaming and yelling. Soon, the adults come out, call an ambulance and he's taken away.

We thought it was funny because he was an ***hole and no one really liked him. Fun times.

 

1969 cruising around in the family 1962 Ford Country squire with a bunch of guys.
P***ed the hat for gas money...$2.80...@ $.39 per gallon. The guys in the third row seat (faces to the rear) were bored so we stopped and got a bucket of snow. They proceeded to throw snow balls at cars. Got a lot of horns blown at us but never got pulled over. Then there was the time I saw the newspaper guy leave his wagon in the middle of the street. Kicked it down and got it sideways and smacked the wagon. Used the church parking lot and learned to drift in snow the whole length, about 200 yards.

 

My best friend in high school lived about 1/2 block from the local police station, in those days it was just an old 2 story house that had been converted to the police station.
well one warm summer night we were swimming in his pool about 2 am, both too drunk to have any
sense when we though why not take a couple of m80's and throw them onto the roof of the police station. Of course we ran back to the pool as soon as we threw them, they ran down the roof and half way down the downspouts before they went off. Never realized that at that hour of night there was
only a sargent in the building, and two cars on patrol. They were not happy.

 

In high school I worked part time at a local grocery store stocking shelves. Another young dude from work suggested we take a road trip upstate and spend a day fishing. So for our next day off, plans are made and he barrows his dad's Ford Edsel. We get out of town on a county road with farm fields on both sides of the road, early morning, no traffic. He decides to demonstrate the power under that Edsel hood. I'm game; why not? I recall him punchin' trans ****ons there in the center of the steering wheel where the horn usually is. I recall about 90+ MPH. I also recall the flashing red light and the County Mounties reeling us in. Two deputies are checking us out and everything is going rather cordial but then a third deputy, Officer Square Nuts, pulls up in a second black'n'white and ramps it all up, saying the car could sort'a look like one with an APB, etc-etc, and whips out a 44 mag, pat down, handcuffs, back to the station for finger prints. We're in a cell for all of three minutes then out for the prints, not really scared and are actually joking with"The Man" but in a nice way. Ya got to show respect. We know and they know things are slow that morning and they're just trying to send us a message because they can and because they're bored. They did search the Edsel and found the four cans of warn beer I talked my dad into giving me. But after about an hour, they kicked us loose, with the beer, and not even a warning to get our ****s back home "because they were planning to call and check".

We made it to the lake, rented a rowboat and drank our warm beer. My bud' caught a five pound b*** and I caught a couple of lame *** catfish.

 

Probably the stupidest thing I did was sneak my stepfather's pickup out and go to town with it when I was 15 and he and mom had gone out of town for the weekend. Disconnected the speedometer and noted exactly were the gas gauge read and off to town I went after dark. Spun donuts in the gravel part of the school parking lot and then decided to go out and see a buddy. About a half mile from his house I remembered his mom was one of my mom's best friends and would nark me out ten minutes after mom got home. Went to turn around and backed off the road and got stuck and fought it about an hour until a guy in a pickup came by and pulled me out. stopped at the gas station, put enough gas in to get it back up to the mark and took it home, parked it in the same spot it had been in and hooked the speedometer cable back up.

Around 1971 we street raced outside of McGregor Texas on Saturday nights on a too regular basis. It got to the point that the locals showed up to watch and would even ask if we were racing that night when they saw us in town. One night I'm on what served as the starting line in my 69 Cutl*** S beside Ronnie in his 55 and up behind us comes Orville Phillips the local Constable in his patrol car yelling at us to get the hell out of there because the Texas DPS were coming. That was the last time we raced out there. The thing that saved us was that Orville who was about a step above Barney Fife as far as his law enforcement ability knew that we had his back anytime he needed it and appreciated that.
I didn't pull any real stunts with a car when I was a kid, got a lot of speeding tickets and got a letter from my mom when I was in Vietnam that had a letter from the state in it saying I was going to loose my license if I got another ticket in the next six months. That was when I had been in Vietnam for two months of a twelve month tour. I don't think she liked it when I wrote back not to worry about it. I did speed once in Nam when I was driving a deuce and a half loaded with filled sandbags, the guys who had gone to fill them with me and several locals who had been working at the spot we filled the bags with when we figured out that we only had a few minutes to get to the Quang Tri bridge before they closed it. We flew down the road towards the bridge hell bent for election with the horn honking and they closed the gate on the bridge behind us.

 

I must have halfsheimers and can't remember half the **** I did half of the time! I can't remember ever doing any of those crazy things when I was young!

 

The thing I am most thankful for is that with all the stupid **** we done is there were no cell phone cameras to record it.

 

neither.
to me when i was a kid a traditional car meant it had four wheels not 3 or 6+. old was 70s and i guess 50s-60s was vintage. Anything older was ****y-chity bang-bang.
Sure got into alot of mischief and mayhem in 80's jappers and 70s fords and holdens but i guess that aint what is cl***ed as traditional. I cringe to think of the stupid deeds done.

 

We had a friend that parked his Ford Falcon religously in a private parking space in my parents house backyard. He would lock it , walk around it basically **** about that car....one night we used floor jacks to turn it around 180 degrees....next day was hilarious ....he about thought he lost his mind....ha ha ha...never knew it was us...ha ha ha,,

 

When I was young was the '60s. Had a '55 Olds 98 4 door hard top. Fast enough to get in trouble. Hauling **** one night with a friend when about a half block back the red lights come on and I hooked a turn onto a side street where there was a Rail Road crossing. The old kind, just lights and no crossing guard. Lights were on and I went for it. In the middle of the tracks the secondaries came open on the 4 barrel and it had a split second hesitation and when I looked out the right side I couldn't see the light on the train. My buddy said he was looking up at it. Beat the train and lost the cop, but if there had been a layer of paint on the rear bumper I think it would have taken it off. First and last time I ever raced a train. Still gives me the creeps thinking of it and that was in 1965.