Your best beater that you beat the snot out of but it kept treating you well?

[#41]

I would probably say it was a 76 Volare Wagon factory 318 4-speed car. It had a swapped in 340 cam, eddy intake + 4bbl, cop wheels, 255/60/15's all around, and cop sway bar. I drove it everyday with gusto and put 50,000 miles on it for the grand total investment of ......$500. It never let me down except for the starter going out.

 

[Nutso]

1987 Mazda B2000. Poor little thing was tired, 260k, and it wouldn’t die. Sold it to a teenage bracket racer.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

1978 Pontiac Grand Prix I bought around ‘94 for $500. Had a lot of probs but I fixed it up enough to race every weekend. Did that for about a year, it wasn’t quick but I lost track of how many passes, most hot lapping. At one point I put a cam in it, just lined up dots with the sloppy chain and sent it. It only finally had a major issue with a cracked piston when I threw a belt during a burnout and still made the pass. I still drove it for like a month like that.

 

[kiwigtx]

Definitely not a 'beater' ... but I did drive my '70 Road Runner pretty hard in the day. I was never one for smashing gears ....I always used that clutch pedal, but I did slide the car around a lot of roads, drive fast and did some towing at various speeds over the years I had it.

I volunteered to tow the Club BBQ trailer for a few years ...until I was 'banned' after a minor incident - the drawbar snapped after a great weekend. Wasn't really my fault - the trailer had no springs as such and aluminium constructed - all welded by volunteers after work. The rigidity came to be a problem after a high-speed run up north one weekend when a group of went drag racing away from home in Whangarei.

I said I would go up front because the other two guys were notorious for speeding..... well, by the time we got to the top of the first hill we were doing around 80mph on what can best be described as a decent country road......or as it was better known back then - State Highway 1.

Apparently, the guys behind were entertained by the trailer as it barely touched the road, and on corners it was frequently only grounding the one side. By the time we got to the Waipu straights, I had decided to put the hammer down..... I left the other two behind, and the gap was increasing all the time. Managed to get up to about 140mph - with a rear-view mirror that showed small images of a Cobra Jet 428 Mustang and a 427 SS Impala getting smaller by the second.

This story was relayed some years later at the 25th anniversary of the Club dinner..... 'unofficially' the fastest trailer in the country. Anyone not present thought it was a story.... but it really happened. My wife (then gf) was in the car with me also. I noticed there was a problem with the trailer on the way home as it got dark on the Sunday evening....I could all of a sudden see the grille plate in my mirror - unusual. We stopped to check it over and found the aluminium drawbar has fractured and was about 30 degrees each side compared to the road..... like a flat tent shape. Drove slowly the rest of the way home so we could get the trailer off the road.

The trailer was fixed soon after and saw service at many events. The Road Runner was a beast - I did one run down to Hamilton for ice cream one Saturday night - five of us..... doing around 120-130 mph at times.... all great times. Exceeded 150 mph on the Desert Road one Sunday afternoon.....so fast that the condenser let go and I lost spark. Coasted for about two miles before eventually pulling over to wait for help. Didn't have any parts on board...and no idea what the problem was.

This is the same car that did a 1/4-mile burnout - the first, the last and only time...... It was an awesome car.

 

[Cojohnso1]

My Sr High school car. A 1966 GTO. 4-speed I bought for $200. Paint was faded and rough, and there was a bit of a crunch to right rear 1/4. But I terrorized the rich kids newer mid 70s Camaros and Trans Ams. I blew up one clutch. I snapped both motor mounted so the engine hit the hood and landed cock eyed in engine bay. Yet limped it home in 2nd gear. Snapped rear-end until axel pulled out of spider gear due to rear-end tube separation. Fixed all that. Put a 12 bolt posi 4.10:1 out of a Chevelle. Borrowed a pair of 9" slicks from a friend's Lemans. And ran a 13.4 1/4 from a $200 beater. That I BEAT THE HELL OUT OF" Finally hurt that 389. Parted the car out and made $800 on investment.

I thought I was the kid ****. Had I only knew what a '66 GTO would actually be worth?

 

[Don Frelier]

My first car was a 77 Plymouth Fury 4D. (mom's car)
360 with a 500 cfm holley and a heavy duty trailer towing option.
727 with trans cooler, power steering cooler, 727 and 9-1/4" rear with dog dish caps.
I obtained it by hitting a tree head on at around 30 mph and pushing the hood up 18".
My dad helped me find parts and fix the front end.

It had 100K on it so I figured I'd put a timing chain on it while the front end was basically gone.
When I tore it down it had a double roller steel gear chain on it (which I did replace).
I pulled the intake and lifters and cleaned everything up (the intakes got plugged up with carbon on these in our area).
When I put it back together it had no front end and no exhuast so I tore it around the neighborhood.
It was awesome, I'd drift it around corners at pretty high speeds.

I'd already dropped the rear gear from a 3.21 to a 2.71.
I would hold it in 1st to about 62 mph. (got a ticket for racing a pizza delivery guy that way once)
The used radiator failed years later only it lost containment between the trans oil cooler and the core.
The trans fluid looked like strawberry milkshake.
I flushed and flushed it til it turned red. (luckily fluid was cheaper then)
It broke a pushrod once at about 170K.
Lost a ballast resistor once.

But it never failed me going down the road it was a great driving vehicle you could cruise at 100mph all day long.
And it would tow a boat nicely.

 

[67charger383]

My ‘87 F-350

6.9L diesel/4speed 2wd

I beat the snot out of it and drive it daily