What is the Scariest Car You’ve Ever Driven?

My first car, a 300.000 kilometers 1989 Citroën AX K-way. I did 200.000 more with it.
Sometimes, with no reason, the brakes stopped braking a few minutes. I’ve learned anticipation and a good use of the gearbox. ^^

1973 Carrera 2.7 RS. When Porsches still required skill to drive them. From an age when “traction control”, and, “stability control” were determined by your hands, feet, and, how big a pair you had! Driving that on a track was equal parts terrifying, and, exhilarating. Get it right, and, you feel like Fangio reincarnated.

The Fiat 126p. It was so unsafe that every accident could easily be fatal (there were no seatbelts in rear seats so passengers seating there crushed the front-seaters and the seats had no head restraints).
It had short wheelbase, light front and engine hanging behind rear axle, so it liked to understeer heavily, especially at higher (for said car) speeds.
It had also next to ‘no power so it was very difficult to overtake slower cars.
It was scary to drive in a completely different sense.
Oh, and the handbrake liked to get stuck with shoes constantly sliding against drums leading to brake fuel boiling.

my Morgan Plus 8 – 225 HP V8 in a wooden Morgan frame with no weight, RWD with slip dif. Will wheelspin in the dry in 3rd gear, in the damp you literally ease it around corners shaking.

The two scarciest cars I drove (and owned) were a Maserati Mistral Spyder 3,7 (126 ex.) and Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2 (240 ex.)

East German Trabant (plastic Jaguar) from the eastern block 🙂

My brand new ND Miata when I turned off the ESP. I said to myself “come on, you’ve driven rwd’s back when they were pretty much all that was available, what can go wrong”. And I cruised up to the junction where I had to do a left turn. Out of a habit (15 years of driving FWD) just turned the wheel and pushed the pedal to the floor. And the car did a pretty 180. Luckily, the approaching bus was still a bit away.

I owned a C5 Corvette with full Lingenfelter set up. Magnuson supercharger, cold air intake, Corsa exhaust. The engine internals were stock, but the supercharger bumped it up to 480HP. While it was a great car for everyday driving, tame around town, comfortable, predictable, it could also be utterly insane. I could be cruising along at 60mph and drop it into third and stomp on it and break the back tires loose. It would light them up in first, and keep going into second. The sound was full batmobile as the supercharger whine added to the V8 burble. Every time I got into it I could hear it say “Let’s go explode ourselves into an overpass…” One had to respect the complete overwhelming power, light weight and thin plastic skin. It was wonderful, terrible and so damn much fun.

I spend some seat time at Laguna Seca in a friends bone stock 1977 911 Turbo. I figured that since I’d owned a ’77 911s and was pretty familiar with the overall handling and balance of the 911, in particular the way they like to go from a little tail-happy to swapping ends on you so quickly, that I’d be able to really push the Turbo around the track. I’m a pretty decent driver but that little car took me to school and scared the ever-loving crap out of me in the process. What a wonderful machine.

My fiat 1283p when the brake pump jumped ship when everybody was braking on a 4 lane motorway. And my Ford Taunus, bald tires and spent dampers, that decided to do a drift on a busy motorway at 70mph+ without telling me.

My 1999 SAAB 9-3 usually felt pretty safe but it became really scary when both of the top strut mounts failed due to poor quality parts. I was on an entrance ramp with a curve going the suggested speed and all of a sudden I lost all feeling in the wheel and the whole front started to shake in a freaky way.

Scariest one was my first car here in Ukraine – Lada 2104. One time I was driving down 5% hill and my brakeline coming from a brake fluid reservoir failed and leaked all the fluid. Was braking with a handbrake and grinding a curb with my wheels. 2 weeks later I sold this piece of s*** and used bicycle as my commute transport. 3 years later bought a new car.

S2000 with bad tires in the wet…

Scariest was the first time riding my brothers Old Honda 600 motorcycle at 16. Having never ridden any motorcycle he sends me off around town on this beast, every time I accelerated the front end came up, I spent half the trip on only the back wheel.

I had a 1972 beetle that had been fitted with a 1776 cc engine with dual Dellorto carbs and a very loud exhaust. To amuse and terrify my friends I would lift the throttle to get the back end moving as we approached a corner. Af best I achieved a 50% success rate of beautiful drift or terrifying spin. My Bug is reviled as a death trap to this day.

Went to test drive a MkII Ford Escort that had been built as a rally car. Approaching the first corner at speed I noticed that the roll cage was vibrating in an alarming fashion and the brakes were doing nothing to scrub off speed. After making it round the first corner I drove back to the sellers house at a very sedate speed. My Escort owning friend who had gone along for the ride with me only said 4 words as we slowly made our way back. “What a fucking shed.”

In high school in the late ’80s I was lucky enough to have two classics: a ’71 VW Super Beetle (a hoot in fresh snow), and a ’71 Camaro. The Camaro was a big, beautiful, terrifying beast. Why terrifying? At 100mph the front wheels would lift off the road. I remember the first time it happened. Houston, we have a problem! Gently, gently… lift off the accelerator… still alive.

My first car. A 1980 Buick Skylark Sorts Coup Limited. It had been damaged in an accident before I owned it & the rear suspension was not what it should have been. If I hit a bump in the middle of a corner, the back end would try to come around. Since it was front wheel drive, I would have to over slow for a corner and make sure I was on the power going around the corner to the front end in front. Local dirt road that would get little stutter bumps in the breaking zones were almost impossible. I would have to slow before the breaking zone for the corner, because if I was on the breaks as I went over the bumps I would have been facing the way I had come from in no time. Scary.

XJ220 no more words needed

Dodge Coronet 440 with a street hemi 426. Bought it new as the car was reported to be legend. “Legend” in it’s near total inability to do anything well….aside accelerate! Front disc brakes were an option! Aero of a brick. Handling of a taxi. Looks like a common car (nice that!). Ran it to perhaps 100+ mph, easily enough to do, then nearly scared myself blind when I could not stop it!

2001 Fisher Fury R1
180 HP 440 Kg with sequential gearbox and flatshifter

Built to kill

A TR8! Short wheelbase, light, solid axle, and a Ford V8. You can break the rear end loose by looking at the accelerator.

’76 Mercury Capri. A guy had this up for sale out in the country, and looked like it had been driven like it was the last time he was gonna see her. As if the strong smell of gasoline once I got inside wasn’t warning enough I soon found out that the front suspension was absolutely shot and I was all over the road just trying to survive and make it back. Pass

Hands down has to be the f40. A glorious way to almost crap your pants.

1962 Corvair Spyder convertible; 17 years old, halfway around a ninety degree corner and the supercharger kicks in spinning me down the road like a top. It stayed on the road so there I sat trying to regain composure and check my shorts when 15 seconds later my parents drove by in the opposite direction, but didn’t see what just happened. I never said a word.

My S50 M Coupé.

Not crazy scary but it’s mine 😀

1968 Chevy c30 1 ton dually. Filler neck was bent so if tank was full and you made a right gas came pouring out. Brake were press and pray. Seats were aftermarket and just seatbelts in…. No power steering with a 12″ grant gt wheel. Lug studs up front were rated for 1/2 ton truck (found that out as they started snapping off while I drove), could see through the floors and the steering gearbox had a 45 degree dead zone with no power steering so when you hit a bump the front end would shake violently.