Car Urban Legends/folklore

sjd wrote:

Travis_K wrote: The most common one i have heard is the "if you can grab the $100 bill taped to the dash before i get to 100mph you can keep it" story.

Yeah I love that one. I still hear it today usually involving some old muscle car my Mazdaspeed6 is faster than. I don't even think a Veyron owner would enable this one to be true.

I've been in a 1g Neon ACR that this actually would likely be true. Because your brain just tells you to grab onto anything for dear life as it torque steers all over the road, and nothing you WANT to do will override it. You're grabbing door handles, covering your eyes and crossing your legs to protect what's dear to you for some reason.

There's a big ol' swamp on Highway 378 outside of Sumter SC. Legend has it that a young woman was killed in a car accident on the Columbia side of the swamp as she was going to her wedding on the other side. Now the legend is that late at night a young woman will hitch a ride, when the driver stops she gets in the car crying uncontrollably, won't answer questions etc. When the driver gets to the far side of the swamp they look over and she's disappeared.

JFX001 wrote: On a country road near Miami University legend has it that a guy was riding a motorcycle, missed the curve and died. If you go to said curve, face the direction he was riding and blink your lights, you will see a solitary light coming towards you. I did, and it does.

...not work?

Believe it or not the Toyota Levin (the whole model line) has an "akuma no zetto" style legend about it by me, started with a fatal high-speed crash in the early 90s with particularly gory pics in the local paper, and now anything called a Levin is supposedly so ZOMGFAST that IT WILL KILL U TOO DEATH!! And the insurance will cost you a lot more too. Mind you putting 2400lb. cars with 4AGZEs or even the rare "4AGZTE" (yep, some came from the factory with a super-turbo setup) in the hands of any stupid jock who could afford it was an accident waiting to happen, but the reputation is undeserved, especially for the NA models. It's a big joke with the local car enthusiasts but people who don't know anything about cars take it seriously. My parents were quite worried when I told them that my car was basically a lighter Levin with popup lights and a slightly less powerful engine...after I bought it of course

Urban legends about grassroots fixes:

Worn out clutch? Poor sawdust into the area between the trans and the engine.

Urban legend:

Clowns are funny.

Urban legend:

Mrs Suddard does not have a pavement company on her speed dial.

Urban Legend

QuasiMofo can finish something that he has started.

Datsun1500 wrote: I think the most common one is: A guy buys a high dollar car for $50 because the husband ran off and said sell the car and send the $$.....

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m06/i24/s05

Close enough.

Did anyone else get the "If your car hydroplanes with the cruise control on, it will go airborne and kill you" email? Did they ever do that one on mythbusters or was it to berkeleying stupid to waste their time trying?

poopshovel wrote: Did anyone else get the "If your car hydroplanes with the cruise control on, it will go airborne and kill you" email? Did they ever do that one on mythbusters or was it to berkeleying stupid to waste their time trying?

My mother sends it to me once a month. I've never had a problem with cruise control accelerating out of control in the rain, but one time I got up to make a sandwich and my Winabego rolled over 11 times, killing me and the seven orphans I'd just adopted.

neon4891 wrote: ... still want to get a small silver porshe 'vert, (what is the closet modern equiv.? Boxter?) and name it "lil' basterd II"

Not modern, but current manufacture:

Thunder Ranch 550 Spyder

No mention of "gravity hill"? Where when you put you car in neutral it gets sucked up a hill. I think every state has at least one of these hills.

QuasiMondo wrote: Cobra 427 story: Guy walks into a dealership and tells the salesman he wants a Cobra 427. Salesman tries to talk him into getting a Cobra 289 instead but the guy is adamant that he wants the 427. Salesman convinces customer to go with him on a ride with a Cobra and proceeds to scare the bejeezus out of him. They come back, customer agrees with the dealer that maybe he's better off buying the 289 Cobra. "Son," the dealer replies, "that was the 289 Cobra."

Lots of crazy cobra stories out there. That one I actually believe is true. Dean's car is definitely up there. For me the most cursed car that I think of is any of the long tail 917, all the drivers of them had come to God moments and were honestly scared of the car.

Wally wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Did anyone else get the "If your car hydroplanes with the cruise control on, it will go airborne and kill you" email? Did they ever do that one on mythbusters or was it to berkeleying stupid to waste their time trying?

My mother sends it to me once a month. I've never had a problem with cruise control accelerating out of control in the rain, but one time I got up to make a sandwich and my Winabego rolled over 11 times, killing me and the seven orphans I'd just adopted.

I have heard something along this line years ago when cruise control was just becoming standard. A guy (i think the story was he was a rich kid from Saudi) bought a custom van with cruise control, set the cruise while driving and went to the back to take a nap and was woken up when the van missed a turn and crashed. His explaination was that that he thought cruise control was like an autopilot and would drive for him.

Wally wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Did anyone else get the "If your car hydroplanes with the cruise control on, it will go airborne and kill you" email? Did they ever do that one on mythbusters or was it to berkeleying stupid to waste their time trying?

My mother sends it to me once a month. I've never had a problem with cruise control accelerating out of control in the rain, but one time I got up to make a sandwich and my Winabego rolled over 11 times, killing me and the seven orphans I'd just adopted.

I've heard the story about some guy doing that with a motor home...turning on the cruise control, and then going in the back to make a sandwich. No orphans were hurt in the version I heard, though. :)

The only car even remotely close to being able to do the $100 bill trick is a 9-second drag car. I've ridden in quite a few and they launch so hard and violent that your guts are squished. Not to mention the whole wheelie thing.

slantvaliant wrote:

neon4891 wrote: ... still want to get a small silver porshe 'vert, (what is the closet modern equiv.? Boxter?) and name it "lil' basterd II"

Not modern, but current manufacture: Thunder Ranch 550 Spyder

A friend of mine has a Beck Spyder. His plate is "RIP JD"

GameboyRMH wrote: ...or even the rare "4AGZTE" (yep, some came from the factory with a super-turbo setup)

Really? From the factory? I was under the impression that the 'twin-charged' models came into being by way of a special kit sold by HKS.

Best legend I've heard was that only the "real" Penske Sunoco Camaro had a wrench stuck in the rear passenger's side quarter that just slightly poked out of the drain hole in the rocker.

As far as I know, the "real" car has been crashed and both cars made from the wreck, and an additional replica that's vintage raced, all have the wrench poking out of the rocker.

QuasiMondo wrote: Cobra 427 story: Guy walks into a dealership and tells the salesman he wants a Cobra 427. Salesman tries to talk him into getting a Cobra 289 instead but the guy is adamant that he wants the 427. Salesman convinces customer to go with him on a ride with a Cobra and proceeds to scare the bejeezus out of him. They come back, customer agrees with the dealer that maybe he's better off buying the 289 Cobra. "Son," the dealer replies, "that was the 289 Cobra."

I believe and resemble that one.

Due to my father being a good ($$$) customer I was offered a test drive in a 427 Cobra at the local Ford dealership. As I pulled out on the highway from the lot the sales manager riding with me said "Goose it" and being an exuberant young man I did.

After I got it back under control (Thank God for 4 years Auto-X experience), I pulled it back in at the far end of the lot. I told the sales manager "If you want the car back over there, you drive it!!".

After that drive Auto-Xing my father's 390 Mustang was a piece of cake.

foxtrapper wrote: No mention of "gravity hill"? Where when you put you car in neutral it gets sucked up a hill. I think every state has at least one of these hills.

Oh, you've been to Burkittsville?

modernbeat wrote: As far as I know, the "real" car has been crashed and both cars made from the wreck, and an additional replica that's vintage raced, all have the wrench poking out of the rocker.

A friend speaks of a particular McLaren design as, "I've seen five of the three that were built..."

(May not be the exact figures, but conveys the point.)

Luke wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: ...or even the rare "4AGZTE" (yep, some came from the factory with a super-turbo setup)

Really? From the factory? I was under the impression that the 'twin-charged' models came into being by way of a special kit sold by HKS.

That's what I've heard, including from the owner of one (maybe it's an urban legend? ) The story is they were limited edition special order models to start with, and then after obvious power control issues production was canceled after the first year.

But AFAIK the "4AGTE" models are all early JDM AE92 Levins fully loaded with the PEGASUS suspension.

ArtOfRuin wrote: In terms of legends, there's probably some about cursed cars so fast, they kill their drivers. I can't think of any urban legends, but a couple of pop-culture examples would be Vin Diesel's Charger from "The Slow and the Stupid" and the hero's 240Z in the manga "Wangan Midnight."

Didnt James Deans roadster have that problem, killed the previous owner, and several after him or something?

Appleseed wrote: James Dean's death car. Supposedly kills people involved with it. Cursed or something.

I see your James Dean Porsche 550 Spyder and raise you a Ferdinand Franz 1911 Gräf & Stift roadster. Ferdinand Franz was shot and killed in that car by Gavrilo Princip, which triggered WWI. over the course of the car's ownership, and even before Franz was shot, a bomb thrown at the car bounced off back at the crowd. after Franz was killed, all owners after it were killed very very dead. in WWII, the museum it was parked in was destroyed in a bombing run. talk about a devil car, eh?

Christine.

>ducks<

The $100 bill in various muscle cars. . .

Has anyone listened to Bill Cosby's 200mph LP? Very funny anecdote about the 427

I don't remember the Cosby routine, but when Shelby sold his Super Snake at Barrett Jackson for $5 mil, I think they said that Cosby bought the only other one that they built. And promptly returned it, because it scared him so badly. If I recall correctly it was Shelby (Bitter old Bastard) who told the story.