The coolest car you've ever destroyed?

With the arrival of Jesse James and his Monster Garage policy of destroying failed efforts (including the cool cars like that bubble top), I was thinking about stuff I've destroyed and betting there are some great stories out there. I like destruction and want to hear them.

My first car, a Monte Carlo caught on fire on the interstate and burned nicely. In college I totally Dukes of Hazard'd my Mercury XR3 by getting huge air jumping a construction site on the way to I.U. That was unquestionably worth every penny it cost me too, despite being my only car at the time. Everyone should do that at least once and regularly if funds allow it.

Then my 54 Ford Gasser fell off the trailer at 60 MPH in the fast lane of I-70 without killing anyone or damaging the car. I do know who "strapped it down" and learned an important lesson about checking the work of other "professionals". I also learned the importance of keeping your sphincter in shape so you don't drop a duece like I did when you see that happen in your rear view mirrow. Then my 59 Lincoln limo got totalled in the transport accident on the way to me that taught me an important lesson in insuring cars correctly.

This could be a painful thread. I'll be disappointed if it isn't...

 

I ruined my 88 Ford ranger jumping railroad tracks......twice. I agree, totally worth it. Both Times!

I ruined my 1977 LTD II jumping a hill in a pasture that turned out to be a large ditch. Who Knew?

 

I had a 80 Ford Fairmont 4 door that I totaled 3 times... ah the good old days. Each time the damage was under $1000... but the damn thing was never worth that much. Its swansong was Chris 50 and I using different widths of black and white tape to stripe it up like Eddie Van Halen's guitar. It actually looked pretty good. I drove it to the concert and people were taking pictures of it as we drove...

(um, just reread the title... I guess a Fairmont isn't too cool)

 

I got mad one day and decided to beat my 78 Impala 2dr (the kind with the really cool aero-style back window) to death with a 3lb sledge hammer. DUMBEST THING I EVER DID! I miss that car.

 

Totalled my buddies mom's '80 Buick Riviera Type S (turbo car before the GN).

She still thinks he was driving

Rich

 

I bought a 36 Ford 1 ton truck years ago, I didn't want the heavy frame and all and didn't have any way to tow the whole deal home, so I took my torches out in the field to cut the body mounting bolts.

Of course I didn't have the good sense to brace the cab first, so when I cut it off the frame the body folded up like an accordion - SPROING!!! It was junk after that, and I was sick.

I ended up getting my dough back though, mainly because it had a decent grille and a good title.

I had a high school buddy that totalled a brand new, 2 week old turbo Trans Am he got as a graduation present trying a 'dukes' move.

 

I know Savage his taken at least one car on a test flight too. I never get enough of that.

um, just reread the title... I guess a Fairmont isn't too cool

Any car you can total and walk away from is a cool car. It's tragic if it's something really nice. You can feel good about totalling some cars. My XR3 is probably the replacement floor pans in somebody's hot rod now.

 

my brother almost A-teamed his Lincoln. There was this jerk that got dirt and rock deliveries every month to his house, only he dumped them right in the middle of the street, bringing it to one lane. So, we'd swipe it every day after school, well, I told him we weren't getting enough of it, so I said "Aim six inches further than you think you're going to hit." He did, and BAM we hit that dirt pile dead on, flew about 4 feet in the air at a 45 degree angle, but luckily the car was so heavy it didn't fully roll. We came crashing down, dirt flying everywhere, cars behind us swerving, and we totally jacked the whole front suspension, frame, etc. But damn, it was so hilarious it was worth it.

edit- I forgot, we really did destroy it though this winter when we scrapped it after ripping the 460/C6/9" inch out of it. Such a smooth, perfectly running, beautiful luxo-barge, but resale of a dinosaur of that limited gas mileage these days was nil- I hate oil companies! :-(

And I rolled my flashy painted pickup on a city street cause of anger issues

both those cars had a lot of hard work put into them, and a lot of money too so they were pretty cool to us!

 

66 Chevelle SS....playing dirt track.....

 

I killed this car 2 times,bouth were collisions,neither my fault.The good news is I bought a nice 62 impala with the money....lol

 

66 Chevelle with Gabriel Hijackers pumped to the max....took a set of railroad tracks at 100 MPH and drove both shocks up through the trunk ,frame horns,coil spring upper mounts and all! 70 Chevelle sideways into a curb about 60 MPH and ripped the rear end out from underneath. Slid backwards up the street and just missed a telephone pole.Burnouts are a bad bad thing.......

 

I have one of those windows up in my garage attic. We demo' derbied (sp?) a 45k mile '78 coupe. No regrets.

 

Hey scooby, how about a near miss that made me sick until I realized the damage wasn't as bad as I thought? I was lifting my coupe body off the chassis with a hoist thru the door windows after chopping it and the hoist/strap tweeked the body inward and started to squeeze the top sides inward. I got it down off the hoist pretty qiuck, but the damage was done. After I calmed down, I realized that while it was bad, it was repairable.

Talk about learning a lesson.

Vance

 

Had a '69 Impala a while back with 255 BFGs in the rear. Not good snow tires! I was fooling around sliding the car around in some fresh snow, hit an ice patch and lost control at about 50 mph and went backwards into a telephone pole. The car survived with a ruined bumper, valance, and trunk lid. Hurt my pride more than anything.

Also had a rear leaf snap on a '73 Mustang Mach 1. No real carnage there except for the damaged suspension, but it sounded cool!!

My buddy had a '92 Toyota Tercel that we were racing around some back roads. He took a tight curve WAY too fast - he turned the wheel, but the skinny ass tires didn't grab anything and we went off the road, rolled over twice and landed upside down in a ditch full of water. Luckily we both walked away from it, and even though there wasn't a single straight panel left on the car after that, he still drove the car for another year or so!! Important lesson on that one...don't drink and drive - or get in the car with your drunk buddy.

 

In Febuary 1975 I bought a 1967 GT 390 4sp Mustang Fastback from a friend of mine, it was sitting in front of his appartment building and the snow plow caught the left quarter pannel ripping a 10" long gash in it, other than that the car was cherry ( including the 15" Magnum 500's) I payed $250.00. I drove it over to my Brother-in-laws and he told me I could keep it there till spring. I had trouble finding a quarter pannel and the gas shortage started,..... So when my best friend Mark wanted a drivetrain for his 40 Ford coupe we looked at the Stang and tore into her,..... he used the 390 4V, toploader 4 spd, driveshaft, Traction-loc 9", the black seats, yes and even the disc brakes, sending what was left to Bishops auto salvage ( these cars were a dime a dozen back then ) ...... the 40 Coupe was a cool car, BUT when we look back now at what we destroyed, it just makes me (and Mark) sick.

 

31 Model A panel truck. A cherry by todays standards but too much of a challenge for my talents at that time and age. It needed lots of wood in the cargo area so I took the body off and parted out the rest. I only paid 75 bucks for it so that was a factor. A super nice Model a might have brought 2500.00 back then.

 

1275GT Mini, full on 1380 engine, matched ports, flowed head and carbs ( yes you can flow a carb), jan speed exhaust, uprated suspension and would out run Golf (rabbit) GTI's between 80 and 120mph as well as out handle them....hit a Van side on (his fault)...the passenger wheel was on the seat and the screen came down to the middle of the hood. once I got out the car the door was 2 inches bigger than the door appature!!

Had a mate who broke a real Shelby GT350 for the back axle and had the local scrap guy come over and take the rest away for free (he crushed it) but it was 1980 and you couldn't give american cars away in the Uk at the time...

 

NOT my story, but my cousin Mike's. He'd borrow his dads 65(?) T-Bird for the weekend sometimes. He'd jump the RR tracks, crash land, and crack the oil pan almost every time. He'd then take it to his girlfriends dad's shop, "bondo" the pan, and give it back to his dad (my uncle). Well, after a few days the bondo would lose grip and fall off, the pan would leak like hell for NO reason at all, and left my uncle wondering, "what the fuck"? A few days/couple weeks later, the whole process starts all over again. Mike trashes car, and DAYS later my poor uncle's scratching his head. Must've done this a half a dozen times, or at least it sure seemed like it.

 

Ever seen a 1958 Chrysler Imperial Hardtop? gorgeous car. looks kinda like a large 58 Corvette. Took a torch and cut it into scrap sized pieces. Did the same to a 68 Ford Gt convertible

 

My kid brother's friend had a pretty respectable '71 Olds 442 he used to thrash. It was gold with Cragar SS'. They took it to a construction site to do donuts with it. A wheel hooked in some dirt and the car barrel rolled a half dozen times, completely wiped it all out. My brother was in the passenger seat and got a bunch of sand and grit and glass shards embedded in his face that he got to pick out for the next six weeks.

Idiots.

This was only about 3yrs ago by the way...

 

This looks like a Vette?

LOL!

 

Look at it from the back

 

I took a clean 65 galaxie to the derby one year but it was a 4 dr, the FE lived on in a 2 dr after that. I've trashed about 3 escorts in the desert after driving them for awhile, thats FUN! and cut up a few cars for parts like a 69 ranchero, 72 f-100, 70 f250 4x4.

 

DEFINITELY not the coolest car, but a good story nonetheless. My wife was in basic training in South Carolina, and I decided to go see her for visitors day. I drove from Des Moines to KC in her 84 citation 2.5. About 10 miles outside of Des moines, the engine light came on. I pulled over to see if I could tell what was going on. I didn't notice anything, so I kept driving. As the trip progressed, the car got slower and slower, and by the time I got to KC for my flight, it was spewing antifreeze everywhere. When I got back from SC a few days later, I wasn't looking forward to the trip home, but I took it slow (45mph on the interstate!). That car was smoking SO bad by the time I got back to Des Moines. I junked it two days later.

 

Jumping - we did a 1976 Mustang II, man that thing can fly. We overshot our landing on the other side of the tracks and ended up in someones back yard. Luckily we have a full size blazer and yanked it out of there pronto. Then we took it in the shop and slapped a stick on the gas pedal. That little 4 banger ran for quite a while until she threw a rod throuh the oil pan. Sounds that would make you fill your BVD's. Hell of a time though......No, no there was no beer involved.......yaeh right!

 

Not a cool car story, but my Truck story. I had a 77 chevy short wide we had put together to do some street/strip action. It wasn't balls to the wall, 10 second pass fast, but a nice 350 good heads .500 lift cam and a thirsty Holley. It ran good for us.

My buddy had a set of large tube Hooker Header waiting to put on his '52 truck. He let me borrow them but if I put one ding in them I had to buy them. So in true Dukes fashion we went out on a dirt road near a lake and TESTED them out. Anyway we rolled the truck three time and went end over end because of a ditch. After we quit freakin I told him I guess I bought your headers. The sheriffs weren't laughin either when they showed up the next day. He asked "what the hell were you doin out here? Drinkin" My answer "No we were testing out new headers." Cop, "How did it run?" My dumbass, "Obviously Well!!" They mailed me 6 tickets, from evading police to littering.

 

i havent done much,but my dad cut 100s of 40- 50s cars .cut into 3' pieces..have pics of me when i was 5 years old in front of a pile of 40s cars-trucks

 

I think there was a thread awhile back on this subject but I'll retell my sins,still have nightmares. We junked cars for extra money when I was a kid and the following is true: Late 40's woody wagon maybe chevy, junkyard wouldn't accept it till we cut all the wood off,which we did. 55 or so caddy convertable,leather and dual quads,57 chrysler convertable,someone painted with a paintbrush,yeah it had a hemi. Falcons,corvairs, plenty of 50's 4 doors. Friend of mine bragged about junkin a 67 chevelle hardtop L79 with every fact option avail. (wanted to kick him over that one) that was about 1975, the others in the 60's. The Horror!!!!!

 

I shortened my dad's 32 5w coupe with about 40 inches in a collision with an ugly "Saab" couple of years ago, (the car is back on the road now..) gotta find some pictures..

 

Not really a cool car but more of an ironic story. 3 friends and myself were out drinking for the night except one guy was not drinking so I tossed him the keys to my 1997 Nissan Altima; well on our way home going through Whittier we decided to go through Turnbull Canyon Rd. obviously a canyon road. It was pretty foggy and wet outside and he was taking the turns a little fast until this one turn the tires decided not to follow the road, we ended up down the canyon about a car length and a half being stopped by a tree. Funny I was drunk off my ass and by buddy was totally sober. My 2 friends in the back seat and driver had the shit scared out of them and all I could do was laugh. Nobody got hurt.