Was this legal?

[Malcolm]

I could have called this thread, "How to make a boring Audi sound great!"....

My 40 battery was flat as a pancake. Lost my Red Top charger in the house move (its in there somewhere!) and needed to move the car from A to B, about 5 miles apart.

Managed to get the car going after a day flaffing around (what a waste of time) and then ran it for a bit to charge said flat battery. However if I put car on trailer (the 40 is not road legal at present) would I be able to restart the car at other end to put in the longer term storage garage? Considering the storage location I didn't fancy having problems in public so.....

Put 40 on trailer with engine running and off we went down the road with Audi pulling 40 on trailer with engine of 40 running at tick over (fans switched to override!). Got some really funny looks at tarffic lights etc but did the job without any hiccoughs.

Was that legal? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Gary Gibbs]

Was it fun????

Then it probably was not legal!

[Malcolm]

Actually it wasn't much fun as the old brain kinda works overtime in thinking about what could go wrong!

[JP]

Malc,

You're completely nuts!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

J.P

[Jools]

You can understand why his wife is allowing him to build his fantasy garage; think of the potential for trouble if he has time on his hands around the house!!No Malc it's probably not legal, but then neither is getting the 40 "airborn" over some of the local bridges..but it never seems to stop you!!

[Chris Melia]

Hi Guys
quite a few years ago I had a drag car, a 56 Chevy with blown Hemi engine, I use to flat tow the Chevy behind a 3 litre Ford V6 on an A bar.

Late one Sunday night after a weekends racing at Santa Pod we were heading home up the M6 Motorway when the good old timing gear on the Ford striped and left us stopped on the hard shoulder. We were 6 miles from the service area and dead in the water.
After pondering the situation for about 30 minutes I decided to make a move. I instructed my friend to sit behind the wheel of the Ford and told him to steer, I climbed in the Chevy with straight through 4" collectors running two Holley's on top of the 671 blower and fired her up. I pushed the Ford through the A bar all the way to the service area, I still remember the guys face as the thunderous 600 BHP blown Chevy pushed the Ford into the service station.
The Chevy because it was only designed to run the 1/4mile by this time had quite a head of steam coming out of every available orifice.

Thankfully there were no police units around,

Chris.

[Pete.]

You guys are all crazy. Chris I would have loved to have
seen the look on Mr Plods face if he did turn up

[Hershal Byrd]

The lot of ya' belong in America !! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Malcolm]

Chris,

You have made me feel really normal! Thanks. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Malcolm

[dave harris]

Hey Chris - your story of the blown 56 "push car" sounds like something I did (equally unwise) years ago. Like you I also found myself alongside of interstate 5 in california (out of petrol) with no way to the next gas station except the car in the trailer on back. This one happened to be an older "formula A" race car - (open wheel precursor to the formual 5000 cars back in the late 60"s early 70's). Since it is a single seater, I got my buddy to sit on the side pod, holding the gas can, while I went merrily down the freeway (at wayyyy to fast for his safety) to the gas station. All went well, but that certainly was an opportunity for serious problems! As luck would have it, the local Highway Patrol officer pulled up to the disabled truck after we had returned and were filling up the truck. He wondered why we had unloaded the race car, but luckilly did not follow through on his questions or why the engine was so hot !!!

cheers

[Chris Melia]

Hi Guys

I think this thread could turn into a confessional were members can confess their sins and stupid capers.
So come on guys own up to the stupid things you once did and got away with in your youth, and give us all a smile.

Regards
Chris.

[Chris E]

No interesting cars involved in my story I'm afraid, but a few years ago, I remember braking down in my mothers car in the Lake District. My dad was nearby with his car and rather than arranging a recovery truck, he insisted on towing me home.

Whats odd about that I hear you ask!!
Well, 'home' is in Southampton, 256 miles away!!

I still have nightmares recalling the speeds of well over 70 mph, on the end of the tow rope without decent brakes because, of course, the servo doesn't work without the engine running, and oh yes, it was raining too, and the wipers soon ran the battery dry and virtually stopped working, so being able to react to my dad braking got more and more difficult looking through the wet screen. I'm sure he forgot he had me tied on on more than one occasion, and just drove as he would normally.

Why did I agree to such a stupid stunt? Well, it was my stag night that same evening so I HAD to get back, and yes I did get rather drunk that night!

[brianstewart]

Your story reminds me of an incident some years back Chris. I had hired a Ford Transit minibus from a bus company to take some students skiing. The motor on the Transit expired just before arriving at the ski field. We managed our day skiing while the bus company tried to fix the Transit. The motor was beyond repair however, so the bus company decided the minibus needed towing back to its base, some 140km away. The only suitable tow vehicle they had was a full sized coach. I ended up on the end of a 20ft nylon strop being towed along at 80-100 kph with zero visibility (all I could see was the back of the bus). By carefully watching the bus brakelights and occasionally veering over to one side or the other when I guessed there was no oncoming traffic we eventually made it - but it is not an experience I would want to repeat. A good stiff drink was required that night. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[pvan340]

200km/h in my old rustbucket panelvan on the ipswitch motorway all the way from willowbank raceway to the city. Very stupid as I had a full load of people, (there are only 2 seats in the front of pano's, but heaps of room in the back!!) The crazy thing was my mate in his torana was playing with me, waiting till I got alongside and then blasting off into the distance! I beat my mates turbo sigma but!!!

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Hi all -
One of many and one I won't forget in a hurry either!

Whilst round at a friends house, I was offerred a lift home by another on the back of his much modifed Honda 550 Four-K (an oldie!) - As it was flipping cold outside I took him up on the offer.

Now I did not have my crash helmet with me but as it was only 500yards or so I did'nt think it would matter and with me being slightly merry - hic! - I thought it might be a laugh to face backwards. The person on the front of the bike (who fortunately had not been drinking) laughed himself silly when on pulling onto the road, pulled a huge wheelie for what must have been 400+ yards and included a right hand turn at a junction!!!

Needless to say, I sobered up pretty quick! seing the tarmac at close quarter has that effect.

I dunno, the things you do when youre just 17, that and being a passenger in a certain Gulf GT40 - it's amazing I have survived the past 22 yrs! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[ChrisL]

Many many years ago, at the ripe old age of 18, I had just completed the build of my very first car, a 1955 FJ Holden. Did I say completed?... well it was able to move under its own power and that was enough for me. Actually, I had just assembled the rear end when I'd noticed that the handbrake cable was too short... oh well, who needs a handbrake anyway... it only slows you down. Next I noticed that the retaining clip for the copper brake line had gone missing... heck, the metal pipe can bend up and down with the suspension for a week or so till I find a replacement... cant it?

Later that day, driving along the open highway at the neck-braking speed of 60mph I approached a set of red traffic lights and Yup you guessed it, no brakes... oh well, there's always the hand brake... ummmm, oh yeah!!!... well there's always engine compression in first gear!!! Two very long black rear-wheel skid-marks and a screeming engine later, I managed to pull the car up just as it drove over the intersection line.

You think the story ends there? Nup. Here I was 50 miles from home and I had spent all my student allowance getting the silly thing on the road. I didn't have two dollars to rub together so a tow truck was outa the question. Hmmmm, oh well I managed to stop the car once without brakes, I can do it for another 50 miles I s'pose... after all, at the age of 18 we were all invincible weren't we? Here's proof. I drove that FJ Holden all the way home with NO brakes and without a single incident [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

You live and learn.

[Chris E]

Pauls story about the motorbike ride reminds me of the time I was at a party and a friend '!' offered me a lift home on the back of his bike, so I didn't bother running for the last bus.
What he hadn't told me was that he had offered someone else a lift aswell, so the 3 of us clambered about his Norton Commando and travelled the 10 miles home!!

[Chris Melia]

Hi all

to add to my teenage years story's, when I was nineteen I had a Daimler Jag 2.5 V8 I was out on the town one night with my friends about 10 miles from home when all forward motion stopped. It appeared that the forward clutches in the auto had given up the ghost, the strange thing was that we still had revers, so rather than walk home at 2am I decided to revers home. It took about two hours to get home but then again it was better than walking, we also had a good laugh as we passed people looking at their exceptions.
From this I learned that if you can revers well, then going forward is easy: so when I was teaching my wife to drive I insisted that every time we went out that she did a couple of laps on the local industrial estate backwards. Well, she is one of the few women that I know that can revers park.

Chris.

[Mike Dozier]

But can she parallel park?
That's a skill most city folk have to master...but watching
suburbanites (especially female SUV pilots) attempt
it is as funny as it gets!

MikeD