Most Ridiculous Car You Ever Owned

[billnchristy]

Originally Posted by BRGT350

Most embarassing car was a 1989 AWD Tempo that I had for a year or so before buying my 2000 ZX3. In less than a year, I had worn out a set of tires and people would always comment that they did not know a Tempo could corner that fast. I spent the winter driving it sideways around every corner. My brother and I would find gravel snow covered roads and run the crap out of the car. The AWD made for a very fun car to hoon around in. It would have been nice if the handbrake had a way to disengage the rear differential so I could rotate the car better. If my brother was codriving, I would have him turn off the rear diff, I would pull the handbrake, and upon release, he would turn the rear diff back on.

AWD Tempo? Wow, didn't know there was such things.

[BRGT350]

Originally Posted by billnchristy

AWD Tempo? Wow, didn't know there was such things.

Yep, the rear diff was a box about 6" x 6" with tiny half shafts coming out of it. There was a button above the map light the turned on the AWD, otherwise it was FWD. The rear u-joints were junk when I bought it, and it would make all sorts of racket going down the road. For a 1989 Ford, it was actually a cool feature. It would do AWD donuts if the conditions were slippery enough. On snow/ice/gravel, the car was a blast.

[justafiesta]

Originally Posted by BRGT350

Yep, the rear diff was a box about 6" x 6" with tiny half shafts coming out of it. There was a button above the map light the turned on the AWD, otherwise it was FWD. The rear u-joints were junk when I bought it, and it would make all sorts of racket going down the road. For a 1989 Ford, it was actually a cool feature. It would do AWD donuts if the conditions were slippery enough. On snow/ice/gravel, the car was a blast.

I had one of those too... in alaska when I first got there... struts were garbage and replaced them myself... couldn't understand why I didn't need the spring compressor... later learned they were FWD struts which were apparently 3 or so inches shorter on the rear end than the AWD ones...

It did drive like a tank through the elements in Anchorage... gawd aweful pastel blue color... LOL totally forgot about that car...

[MGREEN11]

Originally Posted by Pennut

Most ridiculous car? Heh. My 1977 Lincoln Town car. 460 4bbl and got about 9 mpg. Bought it off some farmer that was using it to haul bales of hay to his horses. (had a big trunk. Real big). I bought it for $350 because I was newly laid off at the time so my vehicle choices were limited. I ended up stripping the vinyl roof off, de-chroming the whole thing, and painted it all black. Ended up replacing a lot of stuff. Was one tough SOB. The locals called it the Batmobile. Scared people sometimes on the road I guess. I would come up behind them not speeding or tailgating mind you, and they would see that big azz grill, and move over. Not sure why. Maybe they saw that movie The Car? Lol.

If I saw this behind me, I'd get the hell off the road!

[macus]

Originally Posted by psi chick

nah sold it maybe two years ago. got to the point where i needed to do a serious build on the motor if i was going to keep pushing it, which i really didn't want to do. so i sold it. don't know what happened to it actually. also wanted to go back to rwd, which i haven't done yet as i don't have a project at the moment. soon i'll get something. i've had some ideas, none of which worked out though. eh it will happen.....

Yeah, at 450 you were right around the limits of reliability for a stock bottom end. Amazing little motors, those. I still have mine, but it's only lightly modded. I recognized you from SRTforums et al.

[macus]

I guess my most ridiculous car was my 63 Impala SS; 409ci, 425hp, with dual quads and factory 4-speed. Beauty of a car with factory bucket seats -- light blue with black interior. Bought it off an old lady (yep, true), and replaced the ring and pinion with a positraction 4.56 setup; Got 4 mpg after that! It (and I ) was a pretty insane streetracer back in 1967.

[psi chick]

Originally Posted by macus

Yeah, at 450 you were right around the limits of reliability for a stock bottom end. Amazing little motors, those. I still have mine, but it's only lightly modded. I recognized you from SRTforums et al.

really? i haven't been on srtforums in like 5 years lol. that place went really down hill, really fast.

[FORDSVTPARTS]

Originally Posted by BRGT350

Most embarassing car was a 1989 AWD Tempo that I had for a year or so before buying my 2000 ZX3. In less than a year, I had worn out a set of tires and people would always comment that they did not know a Tempo could corner that fast. I spent the winter driving it sideways around every corner. My brother and I would find gravel snow covered roads and run the crap out of the car. The AWD made for a very fun car to hoon around in. It would have been nice if the handbrake had a way to disengage the rear differential so I could rotate the car better. If my brother was codriving, I would have him turn off the rear diff, I would pull the handbrake, and upon release, he would turn the rear diff back on.

We used to disable the rear drive on a LOT of those cars back in the day because they were so expensive to repair when they failed so we converted them to front drive only.

[macus]

Originally Posted by psi chick

really? i haven't been on srtforums in like 5 years lol. that place went really down hill, really fast.

Yeah. The current owners have tried to restore some order and organization but, aside from a few veterans who are willing to pass on their knowledge to new owners, the overall tone is pretty juvenile.

Apologies to the rest of you for going OT.

[YellowBlaze272]

Originally Posted by MGREEN11

If I saw this behind me, I'd get the hell off the road!

Looks like it should have a few Blue Oyster Cult symbols on it.