These Are The Most Dangerous Cars Our Readers Have Driven

Too many automobile enthusiasts bite off greater than they will chew, while some are within the flawed place on the flawed time. We asked our readers earlier this week what were probably the most dangerous cars that they’ve ever driven. Apparently, you all have a bug problem. A disproportionate variety of responses featured a decades-old Volkswagen Beetle that needed upkeep. But don’t be concerned, now we have the whole gambit covered, from Vipers to U-Haul trucks. Without further ado, listed here are all of the cars that you simply all are surprised that you simply survived driving:

Early Dodge Viper. No tech assist of any kind, poor visibility, pedals made for babies or elves’ feet within the smallest contained space possible. First time in it, out to a live road course. Equal parts fun and terrifying. Okay, perhaps, 60/40 terrifying.

Submitted by: MisterHappy

I used to be going to speak about how I dailied a 66 F100 through highschool and college, or the Suzuki X90 I ran around VIR, but probably probably the most dangerous one I drove was an FSAE automobile. 100 mph in a barely running tube-frame automobile built by half a dozen college kids in the course of the night? Why yes, the wheels could fall off at any time (and nearly did on me once 2 nights before comp).

Send it.

Submitted by: AxelRipper

I assume most individuals would say my Viper because, you already know, it is a Viper. In my experience though, for those who drive it like a traditional automobile, it drives like a traditional automobile.

My ’71 Vette has the rear trailing arm pockets rusting out pretty bad, in order that’s all the time pretty present in my mind once I get it out now, though I do not get it out much due to that. My ’67 Dart is just about all built by me in my driveway, but to this point, it has been doing okay on each day driving duty.

You would also argue my motorcycle it unsafe, simply because it’s a bike with the inherent dangers that include that.

Submitted by: MoparMap

Within the late ’80s, as a late-teenaged driver, I had a 1965 Mustang GT. 300hp, no crumple zones, no power steering, heavy clutch for the 4-speed, primitive radials (by today’s standards). It was each quick and fast. It had zero modern safety amenities. No headrests to guard your neck, no shoulder belts, no side-impact protection.

While it was mechanically and structurally perfect, it was a Sixties pony automobile. Not the very best selection for a young driver.

Fun though.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Within the 80’s I drove a VW 1982 Diesel Rabbit as my each day. It had 52 horsepower. I can not imagine I survived driving that across the Beltway in DC. I can not imagine that I used to be even capable of enter the Beltway at that horsepower. The seat belt was attached to the door.

It was an incredible automobile otherwise. There was a choke and also you had to attend for the glow plugs to warm up.

Submitted by: sjstearns

A 1997 Dodge Neon prepped for autocross. Now, the automobile was in fantastic running order, nonetheless, it was on Falken Azenis RT-215 tires that were worn enough that the tread looked prefer it was drawn on with a marker. If it were sunny and dry, I’d be fantastic. Nevertheless, on this particular day, there was a dusting of snow. Every slight bend within the road was perilous, even a few of the heavily crowned rural roads were difficult to drive straight on.

I normally wouldn’t have driven that automobile on such a spring day, but my each day driver was down with a broken timing belt from a sketchy “friend” replacing it and subsequently doing a really poor job. And I needed to get to work within the meantime while I sourced a brand new head and stuck all of it myself.

Submitted by: Tom Hinkemeyer

’85 Chrysler Laser bought sight unseen thru a friend for $200. Needed to hitchhike to get to the automobile. Was told to take a seat down before putting my feet in so I pulled up the carpet and saw the gravel driveway. Drove it home because it was already paid for and only other option was my chevrolegs. Took a couple of month before it caught fire from some insulation that dangled over the exhaust pipes. That did not kill it. Later busted a tie rod on a vicious pothole. Tow company handed me a check for $175 for the reason that engine still ran. Hitchhiked to a dealer for my next automobile.

Submitted by: Laserinop

Unsure this counts, but a U-Haul box truck rental. Wheels only vaguely did what the steering wheel told them to do. Brakes worked on their very own schedule. Taking that thing down the Alewife Brook Parkway in Somerville, MA in rush hour was the scariest driving moment of my life.

Submitted by: Crucial Taunt

At 18, my first automobile was a 1976 Chevy Camaro RS 350ci, 4bbl, with bald tires, worn-out linkages and a shake above 55 that turned headlights within the rearview mirror to vertical lines. So after all I took it out to a back road and opened it as much as 120mph, getting a little bit of air once I hit a railroad crossing. Two days later, certainly one of the steering linkages broke off as I exited a gas station. How I survived that first automobile is beyond me.

Submitted by: GoPadge

1973 VW Beetle

Bought it in 2003 from the unique owner and in excellent shape. Still, under 40 hp and 4-wheel drum brakes in traffic with 6000-pound SUVs was a nasty idea. It never left me stranded, however the brake system was a nightmare even with garage storage. I paid a premium for a German master cylinder and as many German brake parts I could get. Inside 2 years, the master cylinder was covered in rust and wheel cylinders had chronic problems of failure where the drums were frozen. Brakes were such a PITA on that automobile, at the same time as a pure hobby. Respect to the individuals who had these as used cars and first transportation within the 80s.

Submitted by: Tex

My 1972 Volkswagen Beetle. Let’s start out with the bottom level of, it’s hard to understate how dangerous these items were in a crash fresh off the factory floor and while they were sold as rock solid and reliable, they were none of those things. Now add 15 years of poor maintenance and provides it to a highschool student as their first automobile.

The steering had roughly 1 / 4 turn of slop in either direction. The windshield would fog up on the contained in the second you closed the windows and there was no heat, because the heating channels had rotted off years before. The ground was rusted through dangerously in multiple spots so that you simply needed to position your feet rigorously while you got in lest you step through the ground, the brakes were never good to start with and were oh so bad by the point this automobile got here into my hands. The tires were nearly bald, old and glossy in that way that claims traction? what traction?

It was bad enough that, when my mom needed to take my automobile for the day because hers was within the shop, when my dad got home that evening, she read him the riot act for putting their son in a automobile that was that dangerous and insisted that or not it’s taken to a junk yard and scrapped before it killed someone. It survived that but not for for much longer because the bad tires, bad brakes and bad visibility in rain conspired to kill it a couple of month later. I survived however it was taken to the junkyard before it could do any more damage.

Submitted by: Buckfiddious

Easy decision. I restored a 1972 VW Beetle convertible. It was a full body and drive train restoration back to what approximated factory latest condition. BUT It had drum brakes throughout (until I installed a disc brake package on the front end) which were strictly press and pray. When approaching a light-controlled intersection, I needed to guess whether the green light was “fresh”. If it looked prefer it is perhaps turning red I had to come to a decision if I should start braking NOW. On one occasion, this resulted in me coming to a stalled stop in the course of the intersection. This being Canada, everyone checked out me, stayed put and waited while I got her going again and proceeded through on the red light. Oh yeah, and I also had 10 gallons of gas just on the opposite side of my dashboard right within the crush zone of the automobile’s front end. So there was that too.

Submitted by: justtoombs

I had a ’70 VW Baja Bug. Thing was light enough one person could lift the front bumper and switch the thing around. Its power curve essentially ended after third gear, so it could hold 55 uphold, but that was it. Downhill, wide open in 4th, I could get 80 out of it, flat ground, somewhere 65-70.

However it was that downhill part that was dangerous. A bug is largely shaped like an airfoil, and with that added ground clearance you would feel it lifting from the road. With fiberglass for all the pieces however the shell itself, and a partly rusted floor pan, any impact at speed would have resulted in annihilation.

Submitted by: Tom Paine