Oh ya and THANK GOD portable inexpensive video and Youtube were not around when I was a kid. The things we did with cars.. . .
So I know you want examples OK.
You can jump / skip cars across a river. Saab's, I think it was a 99's, worked the best followed by bugs. This came out of drinking beer fishing and skipping stones. Then someone got the great idea to see if we can skip cars. Hilarity ensured, some cars floated some cars would sink. Only a select few would actually "skip" across. We had a blast. If this had been videoed Yikes.
I am betting that we all have done some interesting/dumb/crazy/totally useless/pointless stuff. It is only now that it gets saved in all its glory for others to see on video. Before these stories were things of myth and legend.