tell your most scared moment in a CAR. STREET OR STRIP

Old 08-18-2007, 07:11 PM
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bjuice
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Default tell your most scared moment in a CAR. STREET OR STRIP

all of us remember that one time when we thought is was all over...BUT YOU MADE IT...

Mine on the strip was a 130+ mph pass and the hood latch came loose and pin the hood back on my winshield..the car was hard enough to drive by itself..drifting,weaving...and BAM..i could not see anything..didn't know if i was on the other lane or about to hit a gard rail..it was one of those late night passes at a local track ..not so good lighting...this is what you get for having too many people invloved with trying to help you..someone didn't re-latch the hood.


Street experience- i was 21/22 yrs old and owned a 71 corvette sting ray..baby blue with a 454ci....i had a set of BF GOODRICH TIRES on it..

one night (1:00 am or later) me and a buddy was out on the town and had a long stretch of road in front of us..i looked over at him and grinned and gassed it.i saw the MPH hand pass the 135/140mph mark...just before i let off the gas cause a long swooping right hand turn was coming..i heard a BOOM...AND SAW FIBERGLASS FLYING EVERYWHERE..the front left tire was over rated and literally lost the tread in 1 ft long piece's..knocking the front left fender off and half of the driver door..the rim came apart and i was entering a turn at over 90/100 mph at this time..we slide sideways and went airborne clearing several cross-ties and concrete parking barriers before coming to a stop in the side parking lot of the church...after we noticed we were alive we called for a buddy with a roll back to come get us.. we got the vette hauled off just before the deputy sheriff arrived..they got a call of a 'AIRPLANE CRASH'...some local farmer thought we were low flying crashing aircraft as we went past his house...it was reported that the deputy was following the trail of blue fiberglass body parts.for nearly 1/4 mile......

whewwwwwww...ok your turn..there should be some good ones..don't let your 16 yr old kids read this...lol.

Brian
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Old 08-18-2007, 07:30 PM
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mytmouz
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Blowout of front tire in a bb 71 Camoaro as a passenger, pogoing another camaro due to no driveshaft loop passenger again, best is one I pm'ed spib about once though. Wintertime had closed the racing for the year, boredom had set in. No dragstrips around at the time so my buddy was dirt dragging. He had a Willys army jeep with a straight axle front, 406 sbc, turbo 350, 12 bolt rear paddle tires, etc. Late one night we were sitting in the shop, I brought up the question, wonder what it'd do with some slicks. So, on they went and away we went. No passenger seat, so I sat on the floor, No headlights, so I held the Maglight flashlight. When we got in high gear, the wind blowing in the front of this evil handling brick blew the plastic oil line ( Due to space we were tapping in above the oil filter ) onto the header. The resulting oil leak on the slicks caused us to do 3 complete 360's at about a buck 20 or so. When we got stopped, we were more concerned at the time with getting it fixed before the cops got there, so a quick roadside repair and we were outta there. Did I mention the open headers? :lol:
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Old 08-18-2007, 07:52 PM
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Mountain road, river on one side and steep mntn on the other.

Myself, the driver and another friend were stuffed into a 66 elcamino.
We had been to logger day in a town called horseshoe bend.
We were heading to crouch, a town about 20 miles away, now mind you it is 1:40 am and the bars close at 2 am here.

This 20 miles is twisty windy 2 lane road.
We were averaging 90 + mph when we failed to make a turn, up the embankment we went, just before we flipped we hit a road sign, the kind with a 4X4" post. Well we snapped it but it slammed down on the roof and stopped us from anout 40 mph.
I saw the sign and was sure my buddy in the middle was about to lose his head. We had to climb out the driver door.
Had we gone off on the other side of the road we would have been in the river after a 60-75' drop to white water and rocks...this stretch is nationally renound kayak water.

After a few hours and a few drinks I decided not to kill the driver....we had tried to get him to stop several times.
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Old 08-18-2007, 09:25 PM
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I don't know why you brought this up BJ, but i've had 4 incidence that i should have been SKERT (redneck for scared) and and 3 of those were in the same race car and that was my first fast car (at that time) 1956 t'bird blown s/blk chevy.
The first time was at Oswego drag strip in 1966. I was 27yrs. old at that time.
I had just saw a 1953 stupidbaker, break a driveshaft in the front yoke and it picked the car up and swung him left and into 4 rollovers. My car always ran between 136/148mph. I had already ran [email protected]. We had a rain break and the track dry'ed up. there was a dip at about 900ft.i hit the dip and the car went totally right, i mean almost 90*, i saw everything i had ever done wrong in my life and just knew i would not live to be 30 yrs. old, i lifted and the car came back, i even mentioned that to my wife who never attended the races. The next was in 1967 at MeadowGrove a new track in Il., nite race i had never been down the track, in fact it was the first race the track had run. It was a road race course and they added a dragstrip. Very poor lighting at the end. My very first pass i ran 138 and pulled the shoot,and looked up there was a light and a turnoff to the left, maybe 400/500 ft. from the traps, 2 wheel drum brakes at the rear, i tried it, 2 donuts later i ran over the parashoot and was facing the starting line, i just touched the guard rail with the right front splast pan little crack no damage. i wasn't skert, it happened too fast. Next time in BJ country, at Starlite Dragway in 1968, i went 138, pulled the shoot, and my helper had forgot to flip the hood pin rings over and the hood came up, and wrapped over the roof and knocked me silly. All down hill, swamp on the left and i can only look out the blower hole in the hood and the plexiglass door window that didn't roll down, again i wasn't skert. The last time was in Phx. at Phx Raceway park, next to the last run of the nite. There was 3 cars left, me a an altered and Larry Nance, Nance drew the by. The altered red lit and i was behing him by about 50' in the left lane in my nova. The left heim joint broke when i lifted at the end and the rearend pushed back the left rear tire went under the trunk and i went 600ft. sideways and backward and at one point saw the starting line straight ahead of me. I broke the drive shaft, trans. tailhousing and flat spotted (junked) all 4 tires, i wasn't skert.
I have already purjured, made myself into a hyprocrete in the poll for the s/blk vs b/blk by saying i liked to run cars that were overpowered for the track and wouldn't run straight. When most know that i'm in the process of building my last ride of my life, the 1948 Anglia with somewhere between 1200 and 1600HP. I doubt if it will run a 100ft. straight even though i've streched the WB to 92". BUT you know WHAT? at 68yrs. old i need to be SKERT again just one more time before i push daisys. :lol: :lol:

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Old 08-18-2007, 11:47 PM
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Well I have one time that I was scared and it was in the hotrod that I own now and still in the process of finishing. My wife an I do every thing together so I had ask mama 4 or 5 time if she wanted to drive my new hotrod that I had just put a new trans in with a brake and 4000 stall converter. So one more time I asked and she said that if I drive it will you not ask me anymore so I said yes that would be it. I thought it would get her interested in driving it at the track instead of just watching all the time. Anyway I got her in the drivers sit and showed her with the car not running how to work the trans brake an how to get it up to stall and let it go. Well she is a very smart woman so she said I've got it lets go do it. So I got in the drivers seat and head to a place where no one can pull out on you and no on coming traffic two lanes one way. While we are getting to the spot I tell her 3 or 4 times its going to feel real good but don't shift to second we will run out of road in a hurry and we will be going to fast. She tells me got it so we get there and change so she is in the drivers seat and makes sure no one is coming from behind and I tell her don't let up in first gear when you see the shift light come on let off the gas. So she gets ready an takes it up to 4 grand and let's her go. It going straight as a string and she is thinking this is great shift light comes on and she hits second thats when the world started to rotate faster than normal we did a 360 and a half and ended up going backwards the right way down the road. So now she says to me do you want me to drive and I just say no commit. On one side we had overpass the other trees and 7' ditch. Lesson well learned if you ask some one to drive an they say no don't ask again.
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Old 08-19-2007, 06:50 AM
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I've got two. First one happened in my Bickel Grand Prix. I just crossed the finish line or at 1310 feet the motor let go and filled the inside of the car with smoke. I couldn't see anything at all. Here I am going about 150 mph and can't see the track at all. Now you guys can belive this or not but it's the honest to God truth. I looked out the passenger window and saw a 8 inch hole of clear view. I could see where I was and the guard rail.
It only lasted for a few seconds but I was able to keep the car down the middle of the track. I tried hitting the brakes but I felt the car starting to go sideways. I held my breath until I got the car stopped. We always towed the car back so my son Todd was already at top end. He opened the door with the track guys and they started spraying me with fire extinguishure stuff. I didn't know it was on fire. I just wanted out. I pulled on the wheel to remove it and it wouldn't come off. Then I really pulled on the wheel.

This time it came off and hit me across my nose and broke it. Blood everywhere at this point. Todd pulled me out of the car. I was fine but the car was not. Burned down both sides of the doors, parachute was burned off, taillights were melted. It took me months to clean the car from fire extinguisher stuff and oil from the motor. What a mess. I clened it up and sold the car. Funny thing I had an on board fire system but I didn't think it was on fire so I didn't hit the button. I guess if you see smoke there's fire, so I should off hit anyway.

Second one was at 128 mph the steel hood came unlatched on the Camaro and the hood layed over the windshield. At this point I said to myself you have experience with not seeing the track so I got the car stopped. Didn't have a removable steering wheel so I was OK. The roof thumped me on the head pretty good but with the helmet I didn't get hurt. You wonder what you would do if you have problems going down the track. In short don't do anything very quick. Don't over correct. If your car gets out of control, hold on and let the safety equipment do it's job.
In the end, if you feel it's not right with the seat of your pants.
LIFT TO RUN ANOTHER DAY.
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Old 08-19-2007, 02:51 PM
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bjuice
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some good stories here guys...

and ZIP the 'STARLIGHT' dragstrip is Nnow 'WARESHOALS' and its no longer 1/4 mile only 1/8....and you still staryt a slight decent down hill after going thru the traps......

zip is right the 1/4 ran down hill..and i mean you got to really MPH ING...



these stories are great
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Old 08-20-2007, 11:55 AM
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RonOwensRacing
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well this one was a long time ago also it was back about 1979 or 1980 everybody was just switching from sticks to auto's well i kept getting beat by all these guy's with glides and said well it's time to join in so a friend of mine did trans work and said i will build one for you so he did it was a 727 chrysler trans for a amc engine well the first weekend didnt make it out of the water box blew the convertor so another new one the next weekend did the burn out everything seemed ok launched and about 400 to 500 hundred feet it started jerking like you was towing some one and they got slack in the chain
Well dummy me i stayed in it for a little longer and it got worse so when i lifted it locked up and spun around bounced up on 2 wheels and i closed my eyes felt all this rocking going on and opened my eyes and was sliding backwards i couldn't see a thing for all the smoke when it stopped i was looking back down the track the right way you talk about noodle legs i had them in a bad way but needless to say i didn't run auto's again for another couple of years . oh ya the car ran in the hi tens back then with a doug nash 5 speed in it .
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Old 08-20-2007, 07:58 PM
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Mine was about a month ago. My car was broke so I drove a good friend of mines spare dragster that I've raced before. I've been sitting on the sideline for a month so first pass back right before 1-2 shift the t-brake comes back on came to a quick stop at 100+ mph.

Ended up being the steering wheel bracket came loose letting the button hit the side of the wheel. Was a bit of a scary ride.
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Old 08-20-2007, 11:46 PM
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zipper06
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Originally Posted by hammertime
Mine was about a month ago. My car was broke so I drove a good friend of mines spare dragster that I've raced before. I've been sitting on the sideline for a month so first pass back right before 1-2 shift the t-brake comes back on came to a quick stop at 100+ mph.

Ended up being the steering wheel bracket came loose letting the button hit the side of the wheel. Was a bit of a scary ride.
Hey Hammertime, that is exactly why i put the trans brake button by the shifter, and run an electric shift valve body.
My friend Jeff Russell, let a young lady drive his dragster (she had never been in one) during the burnout, she accidently hit the trans-brake button, her head bounced forward a bunch and she fractured 2 vertibra in her neck which required surgery. That was in 2005, and she still has pain. I have it on a dvd if i can ever figure out how to seperate the different segments.

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