Joy ride turns nearly fatal (Stolen Viper goes airborne after only 4 blocks)

Effingham (IL) Daily News ^ | 10.8.03 | KIM WIEDMAN

[PeterPrinciple]

5,000 volt "inverse kill switch" in my car,

You reminded me that my brother when he was young hooked up a model T capacitor to the passenger seat of his 54 ford. He used to shock his girlfriends with this. My sister wanted to borrow his car to shock her friends but he moved it to the drivers side.

Needless to say, he is still a bachelor because none of the old girlfriends would go out with him and sister wouldn't introduce him to any more.

I think the old capacitors were close to 5,000 volts.

[antiRepublicrat]

Funny, if you expand this worldwide, you could put a production car with a 1.8l, 177hp normally aspirated engine just above the Corvette GS and Ferrari Daytona.

Lotus 340R

[isthisnickcool]

So, how do you like Porshes?

They are fun. But so are big Block Chevy's. Some of the little pocket rockets are cool. I just drove a Subaru WRX Sti. Amazing for the $$$. As is the Evo.

I'm waiting for the Dodge SRT-8 to hit the streets for a daily driver.

[Jason_b]

Might, if he lives. If not, well....

[1Old Pro]

We've come a long way baby.

[evets]

beep beep

[Bikers4Bush]

I couldn't agree more.

[RonHolzwarth]

re: "and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP referring to cars as SHE's!!!!!! It is SO gay. It's a car not a girl.
(I almost feel the same way about boats and ships but will refrain for now)"

Hey, get over it. German, and many other languages use masculine, feminine, and neuter adjectives.

One hangover of this is is that, even in English, a ship is properly referred to as "she", instead of "it", although in German, it is "das", which is neuter, that is, neither masculine nor feminine. So, in German, the translation of "it" when referring to a ship or automobile would be grammatically correct.

If you were in the US Navy, your ass would be grass if you did not refer to your ship as "she".

Just, a linguistic thing. All languages have quirks, and English seems to have the most, because, more than any other language on the face of the earth, it has more foreign words added to it than any other!

[38special]

For the money I'd rather have the '03 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra any day.

[truthandjustice1]

"If you were in the US Navy, your ass would be grass if you did not refer to your ship as "she""

I was in the Navy, and referred to my ride as a "boat".

[RiflemanSharpe]

What an awful cry shame it was such a good car too.

[labowski]

I guess if sh*t for brains lives he's going to have to work a long time at McDonalds to pay for that.

"the dude abideth"

[Dutchgirl]

1968 Dodge S/S Hemi Dart **

My Dad, a pilot, owned this Dart @ 1978. It was beige and ugly as sin, but it DID fly...(back when Jimmy Carter lowered the speed limit to 55...)

[RightWhale]

I owned a Barracuda once, but I guarantee it wasn't the one at the top of this list. Seems like whenever I have a dream involving cars, it is that old Barracuda.

[E Rocc]

1967 Pontiac GTO 400 V8 360 13.37 103.4 MCR

1968 Pontiac Firebird 400 V8 335 13.79 106 HR

I doubt it. The Firebird had the exact same engine as the GTO and weighed a lot less. I had a '67 and I think it was quicker than the goat.

-Eric

[IYAS9YAS]

Our company just built a C6 from the frame up. We are racing it against Vipers at Road Atlanta and Puerto Rico this month. But it is a race car not a street car.

Need a test driver??? I work cheap (feed me and get me to the track!) That would be my dream job.

[Johnny Gage]

I'm waiting for the Dodge SRT-8 to hit the streets for a daily driver.

Is that the beefed up Neon?

We were at a dodge dealer and he said that the SRT/Neon is the fastest car they sell, 2nd only to the Viper.

[laotzu]

The Viper was designed by some guy named Shelby. They say he was a race car driver. Seems he also built a car called "Cobra" (hence this cars name,"Viper"), and then helped Ford build their Ferarri killer, and then their GT350, & GT500 Mustangs.

Your probably right though, 'ole Shelby probably doesn't know a damn thing about cars.

[Steely Glint]

I used to drive the winner of that list, a 1968 426 Hemi Barracuda. People used to say "That car will fly" and they were not kidding; I once got the entire front end airborne at an angle by just driving it really, really fast down I-10.

And no, I don't mean a wheelie. The front end went up and STAYED up. Fortunately I was alone on a straight and flat interstate with maximum visibility...