Fun in a rental car.

I'm typing this on my iPhone so please excuse the unavoidable spelling issues.
I'm driving from Sacramento to Bend, OR today and the scenery is incredible, while incredibly dry. I see a lake that is very low and decide to get a few pictures. I turn off the highway and find a little road that I'm sure will take me down there. I point the little rental car down the road. The road turns rougher, and goes from rough pavement to rougher dirt. Onward and upward! As I press on, I start to hear the occasional bump and bang on the undercarriage. I think about turning around but I say to myself, out loud: you can't turn back now! The Wright Brothers would have never mapped out the west if they'd have turned back! Nd they'd have never met that Indian lady. The road is now a trail and I'm having to use all the tricks I've learned 'wheeling Jeeps with open diffs. I'm using the brakes to simulate a limited slip in the trans, stacking rocks, using momentum and the skid plates I'm hoping Hyundai installs on every Accent it sells to National Car Rental.
I finally make it to the end and get some pictures. The drive back was a bit easier. As I'm turning off the trail onto the main road there's a Dodge Ram 4X4 turning onto the trail. Both our windows are open. As I give him a wave he's looking at the dusty Accent and the conversation goes like this:
Him: "did you go all the way to the end?" Me: " yeah, I think so. I turned around at the train tracks".
Him: " how the heck (not his actual word) did you get that down there and back?" Me: "it's a rental!"
He laughed really hard and gave me a thumbs-up.
Good times.

Where's the picture?

The Wright Brothers?

Mezzanine wrote: The Wright Brothers?

I went to Detroit schools. Be glad I didn't spell it Right Brothers.

Here's a few shots of the lake/reservoir that I was after.

And Mount Shasta

That's awesome! I used to love flogging rental cars on Beaver Island, MI.

Re HappyAndy:
Haha. Love it!

$2013 Challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG1bB-x3Y1w

^^Sweet!!

my dad took us on the "4 wheel drive pickup or suv recommended" loop trail at carlsbad national park in a rental taurus when i was 16. it got us all the way back to ohio afterward.

Anyone have pics of that jackass in the rental car at the challenge last year? Absolutely liquefied those poor tires... Rumor has it that he is planning to do it again next week

I rent dozens of cars every year and once I get my hands on them they are never the same again...

Bend, OR? Nice place. Going any further north? If so, a GRM-esque beer could be in your handif so desired.

and yes, rental cars are fun. Drove the piss out of one on the "Road to Hana" in Hawaii. by the time we got back to the condo, my shoulders were screaming. Stupid heavy, dead feeling Pontiac steering.

Ever watch the video of the nutter in a Crown Vic at MOAB?

"Mister Lewis, Mister Clark, look! What is that in the sky?"

"Why Sacagawea, it's the Wright Brothers coming to help us map the west with their flying machine!"

"Fantastic, now we can ditch the rental car!"

Call me disappointed. I was expecting something a little closer to this.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KFwPXEeJ3aI

Hell's Revenge has some steep climbs and descents, but it's on slickrock that's really high traction. If anything, the long wheelbase and low CG of the Crown Vic would make it a better choice for that trail than some Jeeps. Keep it moving, keep both rear wheels on the ground and it should do well. A local in that Ford vs some random tourist in a rental Jeep? No contest.

The guy I met coming down Engineer's Pass in a Buick, however, probably went down the last section in pieces. He was half off the trail when I came along, and he hadn't got to the hardest part yet. Still, he'd done impressively well.

Personally, I've been in a rental car when it peeled its tire off the rim on a race track, and I've had to wash mud off the roof after rallycrossing one. Don't ever buy an ex-rental.

Keith Tanner wrote: Personally, I've been in a rental car when it peeled its tire off the rim on a race track, and I've had to wash mud off the roof after rallycrossing one. Don't ever buy an ex-rental.

See, I'd counter your viewpoint Keith - if it's survived THAT kind of abuse already it'll likely survive whatever I'm bound to subject it to.

I played Jingle Bells on the emergency brake in my rental car at 70 when I was younger. Then we took it out and had competitions to see who could get it the fastest.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Bend, OR? Nice place. Going any further north? If so, a GRM-esque beer could be in your handif so desired.

I didn't go any further north. But I did go over McCarthy pass. Wow!! That's the Tail of the dragon of the west. What a drive!!

nderwater wrote: "Mister Lewis, Mister Clark, look! What is that in the sky?" "Why Sacagawea, it's the Wright Brothers coming to help us map the west with their flying machine!" "Fantastic, now we can ditch the rental car!"

Now THAT is funny.