The Most Dangerous Car You've Ever Owned

[iamsuperdan]

19 hours ago, Shambles said:

 

What's that interesting looking green thing off to the right?

 

Lambo Gallardo. There's a company in Vancouver called Scenic Rush. you get to spend the day driving supercars. Vancouver to Whistler, fancy lunch, then drive back. Audi R8, Ferrari 458, Lambo Gallardo, Porsche Cayman GT4, Corvette Z06. SInce we did it, they have added a new Acura NSX, repalced the fErrari, and replaced the Lambo, as the green one was written off  the day after we did our drive. Pretty awesome experience. www.scenicrush.com

[dimaxion]

1960 Corvair .. Thanx 

[Shambles]

I've seen some of those hot ride company's ads. I don't know of any close to me here in central FL, but it sho' sounds like fun. You said the Lambo was "written off" the next day... did someone crash it?

Edited January 19, 2020 by Shambles

[Shambles]

On 1/5/2020 at 11:50 PM, High octane said:

After all these years of driving, I guess when I had my Coupe de Ville, I bought a "beater" car for work. It was a '69 Chevelle wagon and the front suspension was so worn, that when I drove it, the front end shook so bad that it would take the steering wheel out of my hands. After awhile I wouldn't even let my girlfriend drive it as it was "bad news." I don't remember if I had sold it or what as it has been over 40 years ago. That was the most dangerous car/truck that I had ever owned.

That wagon would be collectible today. So would Mom's 63 Dodge wagon that I inherited for my high school years.

[High octane]

42 minutes ago, Shambles said:

That wagon would be collectible today. So would Mom's 63 Dodge wagon that I inherited for my high school years.

Ha! A lot of cars we had back-in-the-day would be collectibles. Who knew???

[Bucky]

The most dangerous car I owned was a 1979 Pontiac Trans AM, similar to this one:

Mine had no decals, and the wheels were trimmed in gold paint accents. It had the 403 OLDS engine. I bought it used, and shudda left it on the lot! The engine had been mildly hot rodded, and it was truly wicked, but it didn't like wet pavement, at all.

The first thing that happened after I bought it, was the headliner fell down into my face on a nice little 70MPH drive down the highway one day. Pretty freaky. I ripped it all out and placed it in the nearest garbage receptacle. The heater fan quit, which didn't help defrosting chores any, the passenger door took about fifteen minutes to get it latched, which made me always leery that it might pop open on the highway. The water pump exploded one day on the way to work, and covered the windshield with brown water! Another pretty freaky!

The most dangerous thing that happened was in big city driving, at about 45MPH, the master cylinder gave it up. I was coming to a traffic light that was red, and tried to stop, to no avail! I was about twenty feet from the newer Mercedes in front of me when the light turned green. The driver of that car must have seen me coming, because I've never seen a Mercedes burn rubber like that one did! I coasted to a stop, and called the tow truck! The last thing that happened before I traded it off, was the motor mount broke, the engine torque-jumped, pulling the gas line loose, spilling gas onto the exhaust! Pretty freaky! Another tow truck was involved in that! I traded the car off on a Friday....the dealer sold it the next morning....and that Sunday I saw it on a tow truck. The following Monday, I stopped in and inquired about it, and the dealer told me the new owner threw a rod through the block! Pretty freaky, again!! After six months of this adventure, I traded it for a Chevette, and I'm glad I did!!

 

Remind me to tell you all about the other dangerous Pontiac I owned, someday!!

[iamsuperdan]

4 hours ago, Shambles said:

I've seen some of those hot ride company's ads. I don't know of any close to me here in central FL, but it sho' sounds like fun. You said the Lambo was "written off" the next day... did someone crash it?

Yup. Some bozo ignored the safety meeting, and then passed the pilot car. Then promptly stuffed it into a concrete barrier. Made the news and everything. 

I took my son when we did it. He didn't get to drive because he was only 14, but he got to ride along.

This is less than 24 hours before  the above pic.

 

[Scott8950]

2 hours ago, Bucky said:

The most dangerous car I owned was a 1979 Pontiac Trans AM, similar to this one:

the passenger door took about fifteen minutes to get it latched,

The water pump exploded one day on the way to work, and covered the windshield with brown water! Another pretty freaky!

 

The doors are very heavy on those cars, they wear out hinges which causes them to not latch..

The 403 olds was notorious for overheating. That engine was one of the biggest boat anchors to come out of detroit. 

[David G.]

On 1/19/2020 at 8:49 PM, Scott8950 said:

The doors are very heavy on those cars, they wear out hinges which causes them to not latch..

The 403 olds was notorious for overheating. That engine was one of the biggest boat anchors to come out of detroit. 

But Dang, they did look good!

David G.

[Mike C.]

I can't recall a car or truck, but somebody brought this horrible trike that was really low and had a fork that was raked way out. It had a 2-cylinder snowmobile engine on it, centrifugal clutch and the tow brakes were supposed to aid in steering (they were both worthless). It was like one of those contraptions you could order from the back of popular mechanics back in the 60s. One day somebody got it running and my cousin talked me into a test run. The throttle stuck wide open, and the thing almost killed me. I had to bail off and I had a knobby tire track across my back. Then we all watched it ghost ride up the long driveway, hit a pile of old telephone poles, and flip upside down in mid-air and land upside down. After that everybody started calling it the trike of death. A few years later, that same cousin convinced me that he worked out all the bugs and it was safe now and again talked me into another test run. You would think I would have learned my lesson. Thing almost killed me a 2nd time. Luckily, we can all laugh about it today. Don't know what ever became of that God awful thing.

[Mike C.]

I went on google and found a picture of a similar one.

 

[cobraman]

Rupp ?

[Mike C.]

24 minutes ago, cobraman said:

Rupp ?

I did have a Rupp at one time. Don't think they made anything like this. If this contraption was around today, it would NEVER pass any safety standards. If the company that made this went under because of too many lawsuits, I wouldn't be surprised one bit.

[TransAmMike]

For me, 71 454-4-speed convertable 'Vette that the previous owner had put in a hotter cam and headers. Had original size tires. Man that was one exciting ride when you punched it!!

[cobraman]

These are both Rupp I believe .  I think a company called All Sport made something along these lines .

[Mike C.]

That thing should have been called the widow maker! ?

[StevenGuthmiller]

I bought a 1967 Chrysler 300 from a junk yard for $200.00  back in the late 70s while still in high school.

It had a very tired 440 in it when I bought it, but I found a 383 that I decided to overhaul in auto mechanics class and swap out the 440. 
In the meantime, I had a good friend who’s father ran a small family auto body shop, who fixed the minor rear quarter panel rust and repainted the entire car for $200.00.

Just to add a little to the cool factor, I found an inline dual quad intake with a pair of carbs at a swap meet for $50.00 and dropped it on the 383.

A set of Cragar S/S wheels, and I was on my way to having a pretty nice car for very little money.

The problems started when I removed and repainted the valve covers, and like a sack of stupid, pinched a wire under the valve cover during reinstallation. 
It was all down hill from there.

It must have gone a long way towards frying the entire wiring harness.

For a year or two after that, every few weeks, something else would stop working.

First the dome light, then the dash lights.

Later the tail lights, parking lights, turn signals, etc.

It finally got to the point where it was so much of a hassle, that I just got rid of it.

I sold it to a friend, who initially wanted to put it in a demo derby, but I told him that I would only sell it to him if he promised me he wouldn’t do that.

He kept his word, and resold it a couple of years later.

The good news is that although I lost track of what ever became of it for a number of years, I somehow stumbled across it a decade or so later.

The gentleman who bought it from my friend apparently saw it’s potential and had fixed it all up, and it was back on the road.  
Haven’t seen it or heard anything about it for many years, but hopefully it’s still in somebody’s garage, and not in a junk yard somewhere.

I like to think that’s the case.

 

 

 

Steve

[Ace-Garageguy]

Just a thought...a beach ball can be certain death in the hands of the right chimp.

[GRiN]

1964 Ford Galaxy 500 convertible. 427 with4 speed. Goo in drawers at  135mph

[oldscool]

13 minutes ago, GRiN said:

1964 Ford Galaxy 500 convertible. 427 with4 speed. Goo in drawers at  135mph

Jeez that thing had to be doing some serious floating at that speed.

[The Junkman]

I didn't own it but one of my car pool partners had an ancient pea soup green Toyota p/u (had to be early to mid '70s model as we were commuting in 1982).  Somehow he managed to rust out the passenger's floor pan and covered the resulting hole with an ill-fitting piece of plywood.  This was in California, not a land known for rust.  "I'll let you know when I need to stop so you can deploy the Flintstone brakes" he said once.  Ended up taking my car and made him chip in for gas.

[espo]

14 hours ago, The Junkman said:

I didn't own it but one of my car pool partners had an ancient pea soup green Toyota p/u (had to be early to mid '70s model as we were commuting in 1982).  Somehow he managed to rust out the passenger's floor pan and covered the resulting hole with an ill-fitting piece of plywood.  This was in California, not a land known for rust.  "I'll let you know when I need to stop so you can deploy the Flintstone brakes" he said once.  Ended up taking my car and made him chip in for gas.

The truck must have been from the coastal area. That era of Toyotas didn't do anything to prevent rust in their vehicles. 

[GRiN]

21 hours ago, oldscool said:

Jeez that thing had to be doing some serious floating at that speed.

Very light on steering and not much else. what a ride.

[Raoul Ross]

A few 'Vairs in this list, I'll share my story of a '63 4 door automatic that I named Alex (I always named my cars and this one seemed more Male than Female). I didn't realize how rusty and 'Unsafe at any Speed' it was until I happened to notice the seat moving up and down when it went over bumps/railroad tracks/etc. Not much, maybe a few inches...!

If you know anything about 'Vairs you know there's a tunnel down the middle that all the wiring and controls went, including the throttle linkage. Mine was missing the cover. One night me and the guitar player (I played Bass) were coming home from a gig about 3AM and, well, I lost control on a curve and ended up going through a plowed field. (as an aside, the factory recommended a minimum of 11 PSI difference between front and rear, more in the rears of course, which I didn't adhere to, 30 PSI all 'round!).

After we stopped I noticed I didn't have any throttle, the ride through the field had ripped off the throttle linkage at the rear bellcrank. No problem, I told my bandmate to get behind the wheel and I'd open the engine lid, sit on the spare tire (located in the engine compartment) and operate the throttle from there. I told him to roll down the window and yell when he wanted me to speed-up or slow down.

So off we went, him giving me instructions and me complying. We only had a few miles to go and we were going SLOWLY, prob'ly 30 MPH. At one point an 18 wheeler came up from behind. He went to pass and then slowed down to observe this hilarity! He prob'ly still tells that story. I just waved and smiled.

However around this point I started to get a little woozy. The engine lid being up created a vacuum that sucked all the exhaust up and that was basically all I was breathing! I stuck my head up into the wind to get some fresh air but it almost wasn't enough. By the time we got to his place I fell off onto the ground gasping for breath. Another mile or so and I wouldn't have made it! I was in pretty bad shape. In a few minutes though I recovered and the next morning used some electrical wire to tie the throttle linkage back on and Alex made it another 6 months before the fan belt threw itself off and the generator kept going, burning up the wiring harness.... Poor Alex! HA!

Edited August 30, 2022 by Raoul Ross

[deuces wild]

The one I have now....