Lettin' Somebody Else Drive Your Ride

[TheSilverBuick]

Scott nailed the summary of it. I've offered the driver's seat of the Skylark to a couple of people and only my friend Erik has actually driven it. I don't count teaching my sister to drive a stick shift in it, lol, though 2nd to 1st gear at ~25-30mph was pretty brutal =P

[TheSilverBuick]

I'll add to this, like peewee, I do get nervous driving other people's cars. Case in point, Jeff wants me to drive his car

[98ciHemi]

I'm perpetually driving other people's cars. My girlfriend doesn't like driving on long trips, so she prefers to pass the keys off to me. For statue work I put more miles on my friend's truck than he did in that month- and he drove the Tahoe easily as often as I did. I also let him drive it when his Tracker had gotten totalled before that. Since I was often working on other peoples cars I'd let some of them borrow the Tahoe for minor errands while theirs was up on jackstands. Some of the cars I work on I'll drive for the weekend or so that I work on it in order to figure out it's problems, chase parts, and make sure that I actually fixed the problems. I always get the owner's consent to whatever driving I'll be doing for the time I've got it, but it's pretty normal for me.

It's paid off for me, since they let me borrow their cars so I can chase parts for the bike now that I don't have the Tahoe.

[38P]

I've got no problem driving other people's cars. And if I'm convinced that somebody knows what they're doing and the weather/traffic conditions aren't challenging, I'd probably let others drive most of mine . . . they're not Duesenburgs or Tuckers or one-off Ferraris . . . .

But I will say that owning mostly standard shift vehicles cuts down on the number of people who WANT to drive 'em.

* * * *

The worst "loan" I can recall was one winter when I fell on the ice and broke my arm at work. The winter beater I was running had a manual transmission (as do all good winter vehicles, IMHO). I couldn't shift because of my arm and the doctor couldn't look at it until that afternoon. My boss volunteered to drive me home to wait for my doctor's appointment. I asked him if he could drive a standard. He said he owned a Mazda RX-7 back in the late '70s or early '80s.

He stalled the turbo four a couple of times before achieving any vehicle movement . . . then he bitched about how he thought it would have "more power" . . . and then he "ground" nearly every shift . . . I think I may have commented out of my delirium "that shifting thing works better if you push in the clutch . . . . "

* * * *

Back in high school, I let a long-haired mope drive my Hi-Jacked, GTO-powered Pontiac LeMans (I swapped in the driveline from a wrecked '68 Goat after blowing up the original 350 Poncho) For some forgotten reason, there was an extra Frigidaire A6 air conditioning compressor in the trunk.


Guest driver suddenly (without warning or asking) decided to whip a hard "bootleg" U on a state highway outside of town, sliding the big bias-belted "sixties" across the tarmac.

"WHUMP!"

The loose air compressor smacked the side of the trunk, leaving a "pimple" and a crack in the Bondo-coated rear fender (Hey when you're a 16-year-old and your dad shows up with a V8 coupe sportin' buckets, huge "US Mags," massive meats, air shocks, and barely-there Thrush mufflers and asks you if you want to buy it, you don't look at the body work too closely . . . you're just afraid he'll wake up . . .)

When Guest Pilot saw the damage, all he said was "Sorry . . . You shouldn't have left that in the trunk". . . . and like a chump, I let 'em off the hook (playing it "cool," you know . . . "Turnin' the other cheek" . . . .).

[pdub]

As it turned out, I DID drive Rob's truck today. He dropped it off at my work and got Red and he gave me the key in case he ran long on the job. "That won't happen," I thought.

It did. I'm done at work but Rob's not done with Red. 4 miles away. Oh well, off we go.

An old clattering Dodge 4WD diesel with 230K hard miles on it. I don't even have a guess as to what year it is. I was scared to roll the window down, what if it doesn't roll back up? I don't know those things about this ride.

You don't steer it, you sort of generally aim it. The speedo says 40 but it feels like 10 and there's cars backed up behind me. About halfway there I smiled - what was I worried about? If somebody T-bones me in this thing, I'll take Rob out to dinner at Red Lobster and we'll be even.

55 mph (I guess - that's what the speedo said) time to turn into Rob's shop. Okay slow down. Slow down, I said. Dang-SLOW DOWN! It must have drum brakes on it and tired ones at that. Made it. My "car" adventure for the week.

[TC]

As for driving other peoples cars, when your a mechanic that fear goes to the wayside.... I've driven everything from 1/4 million dollar Ferrari's to Yugo's and didn't think twice about driving them(well maybe being seen in the Yugo), but then when you work on other peoples cars for a living you tend not to worry about things like that, it's just another hayride with a different sticker........

[38P]

As for driving other peoples cars, when your a mechanic that fear goes to the wayside.... I've driven everything from 1/4 million dollar Ferrari's to Yugo's and didn't think twice about driving them(well maybe being seen in the Yugo), but then when you work on other peoples cars for a living you tend not to worry about things like that, it's just another hayride with a different sticker........

Back during my Western Auto manager days, I sometimes insisted on test driving customer cars for "quality control" purposes. Surprisingly, I only felt the need for such quality control tests in Jaguars, '60s muscle cars, European luxury cars, sports cars, Pontiac Fieros . . . .

I, of course, always treated such test cars with the upmost respect and decorum (as I would expect someone to treat one of my cars)

One memorable test drive inspired a bit of satirical fiction a few years ago:

HYDRA: Yeah, it's almost as dumb as that Monte Carlo SS that pulled into the shop with a picture of the Virgin Mary PASTED OVER THE TACHOMETER!

That part of the story is true . . . the rest is, of course, fiction . . . .

CAMMIE: Of course the driver probably thought "what do you need this 'funny clock' for?"

HYDRA: I guess she was depending upon a Divine rev limter . . . not that you'd need much of one with a wheezing 305 Chevy small block . . . .

CAMMIE: I could just hear the confession now . . . "BlessmefatherforIhavesinned . . . I just sent three rods through the side of the block during a street race because I HAD A PICTURE OF THE [censored to avoid violating forum rules] COVERIN' UP MY TACHOMETER! . . . and I’m going to have to take a pass on Church bingo for a few weeks while I save up for a new short-block. . ."

For the curious, the uncensored story in its original context is at http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2009/...s-special.html

[Barry Donovan]

if a monte carlo ss was slow..it was not genuine.

that was the first (and my last) of bending rear links into 120s+ mph...taching like a diesel.

a tear down will tell you genuine.. I am quite aware of the rip offs. 350s did the same thing (still do).

I supoose you would be one to call all subarus slow, or even wheezing audi 5 cylinders.

some parts counter people Suck.

[38P]

if a monte carlo ss was slow..it was not genuine.

Not doggin' on the mid-'80s MC SS, but as I recall it, they came stock with a blistering 180 h.p. 305, fed by an electronic Quadrajet . . .

That seemed like big grunt coming out of the doldrums of the '70s . . . and even a touch rebellious in light of all the "Motor Trend" egghead stories that predicted the imminent end of V8s thirty years ago . . . but that's less than sleep-inducing Camry power nowadays.

Most certainly, the Gen I MC SS was a bonafide muscle car. No argument there. But the '80s SS? More like a "cake mix" car that needed a fair amount of extra ingredients, preparation, and "baking" to complete.

[Bamfster]

Heck, I'd even let Speedzter drive my car so he'd know what real horsepower and working N2O kits felt like .....

[pdub]

Heck, I'd even let Speedzter drive my car so he'd know what real horsepower and working N2O kits felt like .....

No, he won't drive mine to find out what 3800 pounds with brakes feels like.

[Scott Liggett]

The only time I was nervous about driving a car that didn't belong to me was when I drove a Rolls Royce Phantom belonging to one of our hotel accounts. The gave it to their high rollers and VIP's; and occassionally had one of us drivers drive an important guest.

Why was I nervous? I was driving a $375,000 car that didn't belong to our company. It belonged to one of our biggest accounts. I couldn't get a straight answer to if I was actually insured to drive it from our less than intelligent dispatch staff. And, I was driving it on the streets of Los Angeles. I was thinking if I was involved in an accident that was totally the other driver's fault, it would still be my fault in the eyes of hotel management.

How do you make a 65 Impala look like a subcompact? Park a Phantom in front of it.


I brought the car home to wash it as all the carwashes were already closed when I picked it up.

[pdub]

Dayum!!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: Wait a minute, that pics a PhotoShop chop, has to be.

[Scott Liggett]

Dayum!!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: Wait a minute, that pics a PhotoShop chop, has to be.

Nope. The angle makes it look a bit bigger.

[pdub]

Nope. The angle makes it look a bit bigger.