What is the Scariest Car You’ve Ever Driven?

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

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.

My car that scared me the most was my 1973 2.7RS that was converted to 2.8RSR spec by Ruf. I had put a set of Avon racing tires on it for track days, and those things must have been ancient because it was like driving on ice!

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.

My 69 baja bug beetle. Comming down a long downhill straight into a 90 degree right hander, taught me all abpout lifttoff oversteer as the back went into serious positive canber. The speeds in a bettle were rleatively low and it was easy to catch but the real danger was from the car rolling which these easily did. It was my only driving a 4 weel vehicle on two wheel experience.

The next most scary was my BBI circa 1995 or so, still runiing its 13 you factory trx tires, by then rock hard. It took 4 lanes of a fortunatly non diveded parkway to catch the mother of all skids. That heavy motor felt like it was a giant had lifting and pulling the rear at tangent to the road. Catchable but thank god for all the space to do the catching.

The BBI by any modern standard is still the most scary, although with 275 ps2’s on the rear now its no longer snappy and can drift, still you dont want to drive it hard on a road you dont know, the limits are high but once breached there is little cushion.

2013 BMW 760LI, this may sound like a strange choice but I will explain. I have driven many powerful cars and been drifting etc. But I chose this one because I underestimated it and it proved me wrong.

I pulled up to a traffic light and was persuaded into a little drag race. I turned off the esp and traction and though it was damp it went fast for the first 200 meters, but then the full power of both turbo s kicked in which resulted in 750nm of torque. Drifting is fun but drifting in a drag race with a car that is 5 meters long and cost around €300.000,- makes it scary

My ’94 BMW E36 320i Coupe, with stripped out interior, sport springs, not very good tires and limited slip diff driving down the very narrow and twisty mountain road in the wet…downshifting from 4th to 3rd just before a right corner, letting the clutch a tad too quick and the rear end breaking away with incredible force, decided to try to turn it into a 360 spin, the only way not to crash terribly, managed to do it and pulled over in a few hundred meters….my legs were shaking for quite a long time. I’ve driven hundreds of times up and down that road since then and still can’t fully understand how it’s possible to do a 360 there… 😀

Honda S2000 on any wet road.

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 😀

1994 Lotus Esprit V8 Turbo… I drove one, [b]once[/b]. Not knowing anything about it’s driveablity and taking off like a bat of hell, the turbos spooled about halfway through a sweeping left hander. Being pressed into the seat and holding on for dear life, I was thoroughly impressed at it’s then almost 20 year-old power….and scared.

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.

A 1925 Trojan truck, solid tires, no diff, no doors, one drum brake on the whole car, super dim lights, and a hand operated wiper. It wasn’t so scary when it was parked, but driving it in the rain while semi trailers roar past was.