Scariest vehicle you have driven?

When I moved down to North Carolina from Detroit, my girlfriend (at the time) rented a Budget truck and flatbed trailer to haul down a Jeep on. Since I wasn't around to pick up the truck, she went herself to get it. Before she pulled out of the parking lot, she noticed the brakes didn't feel right, so she went back in to ask about it. They said that because the truck was unloaded, the brakes weren't going to feel right, but once loaded, they will work fine. The car hauler trailer had surge brakes on it, and that's what they were probably referring to.

Anyway, we loaded the truck with a bunch of stuff including the motor that was to be installed in the Jeep. The Jeep was loaded on the trailer and I began the drive. Needless to say, the brakes didn't get any better and now, it was a fully loaded vehicle with no brakes except for surge brakes on the trailer.

Going through the mountains, I would hit the brakes and the pedal would go to the floor. When the trailer would catch up to the truck, the surge brakes would engage and slow the trailer down. This went on until I was through the mountains, with me at several times eyeing the run-away truck ramps thinking I'd be destined for one. It about made me sea-sick with the surge-engage/surge-disengage. When I returned the truck in Charlotte, I let them know how crappy the brakes were. I'd about bet that the truck was rented again as it was, though.
 
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this damn thing tried to kill me so many times, 4 broken ball joints, a broken tie rod, 2 blown tires, lost brakes once, welded in the rear broke loose on its own accord, seat belt broke, steering wheel came loose. Can't say it wasn't the most fun I've ever had ever though. Thing was a blast when I wasn't scared for my life
 
tireburner1975 said:
My dad's 1929 model A, had it up to 50, never again.
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There's a guy in the local model a club with a blueprinted and balance engine. He'll run 65 down the highway all day in that rascal. It handles it ok, but i wouldnt ever want to stop it.
 
pretty much any car my wife is driving and I am riding would qualify here. First date in 1994, she was going to drive (OK great, I like an independent minded woman that wants to show me she isn't going to rely on my to drive, what the hell did I know she was a terrible driver), backing out of the end spot of a carport in her condo complex and she whacks the damn passenger front turnlight into the pole by turning the wheel before she backed anywhere. 3 total ft of riding with her - 1st wreck. I should have ran away right there. What amazes me if every time she comes home with a boo boo on the car, it was the other guys fault (this includes poles that have been mounted in cement for 50 years, fucker that put it there is at fault according to her). She used to work at UNC, hit the same damn pole in the parking lot several times. I learned quickly to just fix her up and not say anything. :driver:
 
When I bought my '69 K5 Blazer the guy I bought it from said it should be good to go but would need a little tinkering as it had been sitting for about four years. I had planned to drive it from Corpus Christi, TX back to Houston where I lived at the time. It needed a battery and a fuel pump to get it running in his back yard. Realized that only the head lights were working, no other bulbs on the truck would illuminate. Got it out on the street and realized that only the front left brake would work. When you step on the brakes it would hard-left into oncoming traffic. The fuel gauge showed empty so I took it to a gas station and tried to fill it up. It clicked off after only a gallon or two but I did not think anything of it. It promptly ran out of gas about 10 miles away, confirmed by dropping the tank on the side of the highway. A quick trip to another gas station for gas cans and I dropped that thing back off and trailered it home another day. I later found that the water neck was corroded through, the radiator was plugged, the accelerator pump on the carb was blown, all the shocks were blown, one rear wheel cylinder was blown, the other seized, the right front wheel cylinder was seized, the shifter linkage was sticking, the horn did not work, the reverse lights did not work, it had shorts in the electricals making the battery die, etc. An amazing amount of crap...and I fixed it all!
 
Hurley said:
GF's (now wife) Bronco II 'her first car' - she complained about driving it to my house one day, so I took it for a spin... Bushings gone on the TTB front end, all 4 shocks were dead and no sway bars to help. Combine that with the power steering so good you could turn the wheel with your pinky, I was shocked she made it on a 30min drive. Any twitch of the wheel at 55 made it nearly leap across the road or in the ditch.
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^^ This!!! I "inherited" a Bronco II from my brother, that we would find out many, many months later had cracked heads. It was an '84 5 spd 2.8L V6 that was honestly not a bad ride. I picked up some friends once, and pulling out of his driveway, on to a banked back road, damn near rolled it. Then one day, pulling to a stop light, on a slightly wet road, started to slow down, and the rear brakes grab, tossing it sideways. I think I sucked half the seat cover up my a$$. My wife, driving her car in front of me, later tells me she just knew I was going to roll! My response was, 'Nah, i was good!'......Yeah right.... Haha.

The small wheel base is for sure sketchy.
 
ponykilr said:
I built a 70 dart with a nasty 472 big block. It had 8" drum brakes all the way around and a 3:23 geared axle. It literally would make the needle disappear when it swept over. The car ran low 7s in the eighth on radials (not sticky radials) at 92MPH with a stock hemi converter and the 3:23s. It was an easy 140MPH car and a genuine 500 HP. It had 90-10 shocks, the pinion snubber was adjusted to rest on the floor pan and it had a manual steering box that I could not keep the bolts tight on. Every once in a while it would death wobble and I knew the bolts needed to be tightened LOL. That car was a genuine widow maker.

I once had 3 buddies from the dealership with me on a hotdog run to the Grocery Bag in Archer Lodge. We were coming back when another coworker came up behind us and attempted to pass us coming down that long hill toward the Neuse River bridge in Wilson Mills. I stepped down on that skinny pedal and when it downshifted it spun the tires a few feet at 50 or so MPH HAHAHAHA. I held it to the bridge and there was a road crew down there painting lines. I will never forget the look on that guy holding the stopsign when I went by at about a buck 30. He followed us with the stopsign as we went by in complete shock as dual 3" Flowmasters roared by in that Lemon Glo (genuine Dupont color of yellow from Jeff Gordon's car) Dart.

I had the most fun of my life in that car. I also came the closest to death in it a few times when trying to stop it from triple digits with 8" drums and loose steering box :eek:
I drove it like a fool and it is a complete wonder to me that I didn't get killed in that car.

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I see elephant ear motor mounts...

my 69 Barracuda was set up the same way from the factory.Power nothing on small drums and 3.23 gears. She was born a 340S car and I sure loved that fastback look.
 
I put a motor in a shit slammed accord "show car" a few years back. I drove it to work the next day for a good Shake down and got caught in the rain on the way home. I haven't ever in my life driven something so ill and all over the rd and that heap was. I pulled over called the owner to tell him I was leaving it at a gas station. He was still out of town so i waited till the rain quit to finally get home.
 
Golf cart. My Dad's farm has a drive through the cow pasture and it crosses the pond dam. The road is plenty wide for tractors and such. One day my dad was driving the golf cart with me as the passenger and we cross over the pond dam as we had for years. Halfway across, the steering rod pops off of the tie rod and it starts going towards the pond. Dad turns the steering wheel the opposite way about 6 rounds in shear desperation. I knew what was going to happen so I bail ship and watch the golf cart and my dad go head long into the pond. So funny watching my 40 year old dad do that. It was like watching an episode of jackass lol
 
Yeah, back then there was not the aftermarket motor mounts like there are now. The motor plates allowed much more latitude with headers too.
That car could be driven ANYWHERE as long as you had some sense and stopped for fuel regularly. Had a 800CFM mechanical Holley tuned by the legendary Billy West Peedin (deceased) and the heads were 906 castings done by Boyettes Machine in Raleigh who at the time were THE Mopar head people. Short block was built by D & P Performance in Four Oaks.

Overall tuned by me. Car had a great combination of parts that simply worked. People put too much converter and gear in cars and then wonder why it won't hook on the street. This car had a fairly mild short time but was easy to drive. I beat a lot of quicker on paper cars on the street because this car was actually driveable. It was absolutely VICIOUS in the mid range and would rev and make power to 6200 if you wanted to spin it.

I miss that car.

ord.sgt.26NC said:
I see elephant ear motor mounts...

my 69 Barracuda was set up the same way from the factory.Power nothing on small drums and 3.23 gears. She was born a 340S car and I sure loved that fastback look.
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I went out to Belly West's place one time... all I can say is wow
miss that barracuda too.It was a rust bucket basket case and I sold it plus a 73 chrysler station wagon(440-suregrip axle...you guess what was gonna happen),but with no place to work on it I decided to sell it.Really got nothing for it. Was gonna save money was what went through my head.Six months later I bought my first cj3 and with White owl parts right down the road from me...well,money just flew to that magnet every week when I got paid on friday..
 
old girl friend had a '72 Ford Maverick Grabber, Drum brakes, no left brake action, hard right pull on braking, it sucked bad driving 50mi home in an ice storm, was maybe 20yo at the time, I had a '75 Maverick 4Dr, would change lanes at will, dog house had rusted out around the steering box, this car would also try and start itself on days when it rained reasonably hard. kind of erie hearing the car start turning over @ 2am and raining like hell.

Had a Myers Manx Dunebuggy on a '61 Beetle pan ( adult sized street legal go-cart :D ) , link pin front suspension, death wobble defined, car would start to get lift any speed over 60mph, front end would drift all over ( car weighed about 1400lb without me in it, most of the weight behind the seats, very exciting to drive in the rain, had it change ends on me a few times.
 
A buddy on here had his powerstroke bulletproofed by this performance place in Randleman. The owner had a nice new model Shelby GT500 with drag radials on it, I saw some pillar gauges and stuff so I asked about it. He said he built it up and they dyno'd it at like 840 or something stupid like that. I said well since Curt here spent X amount of dollars with you, you oughta take us for a little ride in that car.
He agreed, and when we pulled out on 220 business I thought "man what am I doing? I don't know this guy, this car, how he drives, I gotta family now, what am I doing?"
He eased that thing up to 3rd gear, cruising about 4k and nailed it. My head snatched back and I was instantly scared to death!! That car was making a lot of power, and every bit of it was making traction. He turned down another road, threw it out sideways and got it straight, blew thru the gears, bam! Car in front of is stopped waiting to turn into a driveway. It stopped about as fast as it sped up, then he was in it again. I spoke up and said "I don't really care for much over 100, just like to feel the torque"
That was useless. I had seen the needle run past 80 long before he got out of 3rd each time. It was out of my sight, never knew how fast we actually went but it was too fast. Me and Curt didn't speak for a few minutes when we got back. Finally I said "man, I'm not gonna lie I was pretty scared back there, like scared for my life" he said "me too, all I could think about was my family and how stupid that was. We just put our lives in that guys hands"
We never told our wives about that day.
 
I've driven several sketchy vehicles but the top of the list is anything with high-rail... the other week we borrowed a international flatbed with a stright boom. At 35 on the rail headed into a remote signal location I about had to replace my underpants when we crossed a trestle and there was a lot of slop in the rail.... I guess you have to experience it to understand but it's no fun.
 
cgm147 said:
I've driven several sketchy vehicles but the top of the list is anything with high-rail... the other week we borrowed a international flatbed with a stright boom. At 35 on the rail headed into a remote signal location I about had to replace my underpants when we crossed a trestle and there was a lot of slop in the rail.... I guess you have to experience it to understand but it's no fun.
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Me and Robert were talking about how that would be the other day after you left. You can have it lol!
 
not much of "sketchy" story but scared for sure: back in Raleigh when I was in a Car Club and got into building some "tuner" cars..93 Eclipse 2.0 Built it, T3 big ol turbo, some other mods and after a few days driving on 6-7psi boost...my smartass wanted to see what it would do with waste gate completely off or turned all the way up...went out on the highway (mind you on STOCK SUSPENSION and Tires, only thing didn't mod yet) and hit it with everything i had and hit 138mph shifting into 4th and right at 146ish...made the Jeep Death Wobble seem like a cruise..lol. Scariest thing I ever done...so i sold it 2 days later out of fear of killing myself/losing my license/killing someone else or a tree/or all the above. Ever since then, i made myself a promise to stay away from fast cars and just Jeeps only. Then i traded xj lifted on 35s for 85 Iroc Z-28 who built that motor like i would have never, 4:11 spooled rear...topped out at 114mph exactly, ratchet shifter, 3" straight duals mandrual bent..(HOLY SH*T) 0-80 was like stupid fast..like too much for street rod. so i sold it too immediately. been 8 years since that camaro and have kept my promise to myself so far!! only Jeeps now. Thank God I never got a Bike!!
 
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