Yeah, Egon, unlike Pat, I'm afraid I was a wild driver as a teenager. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] I did a lot of things I hope my grandson never tries.
Yeah, Egon, unlike Pat, I'm afraid I was a wild driver as a teenager. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] I did a lot of things I hope my grandson never tries.
Egon, While in Minot I got plenty of hours in on ice and snow and could drift better than most. I used to go to the shopping center in winter when they closed at 5PM and use the empty parking lot covered in ice and snow as a practice track. I got proficient at 180 degree and 360 degree turns and all sort of sliding, skidding, and drifting techniques. Sometimes I used a 1959 MG-A and sometimes a VW square back sedan with totally different handling characteristics.
When I bought the 1966 Sunbeam Tiger the "sport" ratcheted up a couple notches. I made it through an entire winter with the Tiger (165 MPH capable) and never put a scratch on it or left the pavement. It was not the easiest car to drive on ice, you had to be light on the gas and smooth on the shifting. It could have used more gears than just the stock 4 that came with the Ford Mustang transmission.
The only time I ever was in a "street drag" was with my 1962 1/2 VW bug. Some clown with a HOT Chevy 6 worked on me for a long time to get me to race him. So eventually we lined up and gave it a whorl on an OKC side street. When he let out his clutch, he twisted off an axle and rolled about 10 ft. I thought it was most appropriate after all the grief he subjected me to while badgering me to drag him. I was never into drag racing. I was moire the sports car slalom and gymkhana type.
In San Diego there was a group called ASEBRING (All Speed Events But Racing) Everything was against time with only one car on a course at a time.
My older sister was the drag racer and the one who drove on the railroad tracks over a river bridge and on and on.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Pat, your mention of the 1962 1/2 VW reminds me of my cousin's 1964 VW Bug. One morning, he was showing me how easily he could do 180's on wet asphalt. It had rained but had quit. But then he ran down a little dirt road and tried the same thing. That's the only car I've ever been in that turned over. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] No seat belts so when it turned over on my side, he fell on top of me. He had a pistol in the driver's door pocket that fell in the dirt right in front of my nose. If I hadn't had the window down, it probably would have been broken. It popped the front edge of the sun roof out, bent the right rear wheel, and bent up the right side, even up onto the roof. I guess we rolled up onto the right side of the roof, but then fell back just onto the right side. He got up, stepping on me, got the driver's door open and climbed out, then was yelling at me to get out and I was laughing so hard, I almost couldn't get out. We shoved it back up on its wheels, got in, and took off again. He patched it up with bondo, sprayed a little paint on it, and a month or so later, traded it in on a new '64 Mustang. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
Now skidding around on ice is really good practice. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I never did succumb to the Red light Rev the engine syndrome but that's not to say I didn't initiate a good take off. It's just that I did not participate! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I never had a car that could compete! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] sorta! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Ohh you missed one heck of a lot of fun.
My 67 GTO was a stop light killer. A 70 1/2 firebird ram air IV was even better.
My favorite was a 2001 BMW Z3. Showroom stock it would eat all the souped up beercan muffler hondas alive.
I gotta go to the storage shed and get some pics.
Bird, As is obvious the shape of a VW bug lets it roll nicely. When mine was 9 months old I was driving it down a hill on the freeway at 85 MPH when some idiots in a competition orange Chevy El Camino passed me and chopped me off allowing their rear tire to contact my front bumper and I went sideways. I turned the wheel all the way to lock in the direction of the skidding rear end then hit the gas then the brake with no deviation. It just kept sliding with the rear slightly ahead of the front. I turned the wheel to lock the other way then hit the brake and then the gas but no joy. It then rolled over and I hit my head on the roof and blacked out (explains a lot about my personality, huh).
I regained consciousness with the car aimed the right way in my original lane as it bounced to a stop with a hubcap spinning around like a coin. The driver door was jammed shut and the passenger door was sprung open. I took off my seatbelt and went out through the open passenger door and collected my hubcap and my suitcase which was in the road a hundred feet ahead. I went back to the car and sat down.
My next brief period of consciousness was a brief remembrance of being put into an ambulance (don't recall the ride) and then I was in the emergency room waiting for the medicos to contact my mom for permission to treat me. Hours later they contacted her and got permission to take x-rays. Nothing broken. The witnesses disagreed on how many rotations I made before the car came to rest. The count ranged from 6 to 8 full revolutions.
The bug was a total and I had a limp and sore leg that took me off the college Judo circuit for a while. My leg had destroyed the steering wheel but luckily not vice versa. I got a ticket for an illegal lane change because the idiots in the El Camino lied to the CHP.
Months later I met witnesses to the accident who saw it all and know I was innocent but too late the fine was paid and that was that. All the memory I ever regained came back within a couple days and it agreed with the witnesses I met but paying the fine (my mom did it for me, I didn't go) is admission of guilt. Don't you just love it.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Egon, I had a high school buddy who had a candy apple red '56 Chevy 2 door hardtop coupe. It was an automatic 6 with fairly loud pipes. We knew where the cops used to hang out on a side street in Duncan Oklahoma to bag speeders and drunks so we would pull up to the light a block short of where they hid and rev the engine and sound off the pipes really loud a few times to incite a drag from some other guy with a hot car. The light would change and my buddy would peel out in low gear and then coast. The other car inevitably "WON" the race and roared past the cops. Oh well, what can I say, it wasn't our town and they weren't our friends. They were out football rivals.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Well I looked like I was always driving a Dad's Car and it was a lot more fun watching the antics of wannabes.
Not to say a few didn't get passed a little further down the road as the Dad's type car was a dog till about 20mph.
It was my car. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Would love to see Toyota and Subaru do a mix and match and come up with a hybrid 4 wheel drive. Cross between my Jeep Cherokee (I 6 like an old tractor engine) and Subaru Impreza (box 4) wagon. That would be sooooo sweet.
Also had a ford ranger, v6, 4wd, rear locker. Only way it got stuck was once was in a storm and was pushing 4 foot drifts with the snow breaking over the hood! Too much snow went under the truck and picked up so had no traction. Just got the snow shoes out and went on to a sheep shearing. Had to shovel out the engine compartment there was so much snow packed in it.
No fun, change the rules!!!
I love the Toyota/Subaru mix match idea. One thing the Cherokee cross might offer would be the ability to take the thing out of 4wd. And while they're at it hub disingagement would be nice too.
Snow shoes to a sheep shearing? Hope you all left em with at least some wool. I assume they were inside, otherwise them be some cold sheep. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] (these are cold cheeks)
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