LocostUSA.com

i dont like to needlessly beat on my cars. i try not to hit potholes, slow way way down for speed bumbs, and worst of all try not to do clutch drops and burn outs. but like all other man-child out there i want to. so has any one taken off their nice big sticky rubbers and put on a couple a tiny donuts or skinny snow tires and take a ride to an empty parking lot and let loose.
i figure this way wont be really mean to the car with less load or traction to fit against. i'd really like to do this to my Locost when running. for fun and 'durabiliy' testing if one will call it that.
also i'm sure this might provoke some old hooligan memories, so ets hear some repondses. about donut or other vehicle beatings of sorts

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90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

Hooligan memory No1.

So this was way back when I was a 'boy racer' round Staines (yeah, like Ali-G, except I was one and he wasn't lol). It was only an 850 Mini so not what you would call a powerful beast. As such, burnouts were not particularly easy to accomplish on it. Sure you could spin up the wheels, but it couldn't really sustain a good burnout (from what I remember). So one day we planned on using some oil to do some nice burnouts. I took an old set of tyres with me (this is the on-topic part) as I was planning on, well, seeing how far they would go. Also, not being *completely* disrespectful, we did it on a drain cover to prevent damage to the car park.

So off I go, wheel is spinning up, every now and then I may do a launch and do sparky(it was at night so all my mates could see the sparks easily) handbrake turns further down the car park. Finally, I decided it was time to see if I could pop them or something. I get it spinning up on the drain cover, get a goood cloud of smoke coming, sparks flying. My whole car is engulfed in smoke, slowly drifting to the rear. All I could see behind me was smoke. My friends were all around, mostly to the side of front.

So who pulls up next to me in the smoke? Only the rozzers innit. Oooops. I was only like 19 so I was so upset and pleaded with them. Explained I had my road legal tyres with me over there. They told me to pop the good wheels on & skidaddle. That was a scary moment though lol.

Oh and a more serious answer is, although I would love to go let loose in a car park, and sometimes do in snowy weather (and if i'm feeling brave enough that there are no cops), isn't this what autocross is effectively for?

I plan to do some autocross I think. I need(yes, need, I miss my racing too much) to rag it and i'm not at the stage in life where I can risk ragging it how i'd like to, but illegally.

Join a car club and find what stress relieving activities they can supply you with.

You mean like porsche owners club or j dawgs low boyz kind of thing? I've not the most outgoing so i:ve kind of strayed away from either. As for the first I never had a nice enough car that had a mature club and for the second I've been smart enough to know groups of boys with cars turns stupid and dangerous too easily. I've heard of some entertaining stories of good fun from both types though so not a bad idea to check into.

This is one reason I like everyone here on locost. Although I've never met in person but anyone willing to spend their time on this much work isn't likely to be overly dangerous with stupidity and anyone this cheap isn't usually too snotty or uppity like some higher end types who buy their way into such cars can be.

I'm a born and bred ohioian so I know the fun of a snowing parking lot. About the only part of winter I still enjoy. Here's one hooligan thing I haven't tried though good in summer or winter. It requires a front wheel drive and haven't owned one since told of it. Acquire(how idont want to know) some plastic fast food dine in trays. Place one under each rear wheel and lock ebrake. Then proceed to drive in empty parking lot. Apprearntly it leaves the rear end slippy like on ice so turns any FWD into a drift machine.

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90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

Not at all, there is a car club for everyone and I was mostly meaning motor racing based clubs at club level.

Not sure of all of the USA levels but NASA may be a starting point for you.

http://www.nasaproracing.com/

But look for local clubs at local level such as Egoman runs (I think?), you will be surprised.

Look at Grassroots website ..

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/

You know there is lots of people who race street cars with minor mods, theres no ego thing and you will find acceptance, respect and lots of help/guidance for just starting out as everybody did s at sometime.

Oh and if vehicle is of a concern, I once used my work Hi Ace ute on a Sunday rallycross event and theres plenty of other people out there just having fun with what you may consider embarrassing vehicles - no one cares as long as you're doing it.

That's good advice from cheapracer. I can't speak for Ohio, but here in New England it's pretty easy to find clubs that offer real racing with folks that are low on attitude. Maybe we can get folks from Ohio to pipe up with some pointers.



Sure. Once you get on a track though, your pretty much expected to use what you have. Revving to the redline and finding the traction limits of your tires etc.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
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Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to check more into the NASA/SCCA type small clubs. I live near(30 mins) Nelson Ledges road course and about a few hours from mid ohio but so I imagine there has to b some clubs nearby that are on my level. I know bmw and porsche and mini all run track days at NL but never owned one and didn't want to play tag along if I was going to get an attitude.

As for racing is 'beating on' or not, I wouldn't feel as bad. Racing on track is more akin to get the most use out of it. Like towing the max or little more ofa trucks' rated capacity. I daily drive an rx7 so I think hi rev and hard corner would suit the car just fine. Never have been though so maybe I'm underestimating the beating a track can dish out, which I would think is relative to the driver's habits on track too.

As for unnessecary things like burnouts in parking lots or in automatics dropping from R to D at speed. I could never do much of that. Just seemed wrong to beat on something I worked hard to get. I've had some friends who didn't seem to mind though

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90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

used to have a nice dirt parking lot near when i grew up. .. after a good rainstorm, 1100 cc's of twin throat kadette sport furiously going bwhaaaah bwahbwaaaah
better than the time wayne hotwired his grandmothers vibrator

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

When I lived in Bluefield, West -By God!- Virginia, there were often groups of guys that would gather in the (closed on Sundays) Kmart lot on snowy days and slide around in the snow. In that part of the world, it's not unusual to have a "work car" or a "salt car", meaning an old beater you can drive to work in the mines (where roads are sometimes really, really bad) or drive in the winter on salted roads. Well, you'd take your "salt car" and go play at Kmart.

One Sunday, a group of us (me and my 65 Jeep wagon) were mis-behaving in the snow. There was a guy there in an ancient Plymouth. He was running THROUGH the big piles of snow in between snowplowed areas. Just build up a head of steam and turn into the bank of snow -PLOOF!- and then pop out the other side. He went flying off into a snow bank and there was a huge "BONG" that echoed off the building... The car didn't come out the other side, and then we noticed that one of the big metal light poles was swaying back and forth...

He wasn't hurt, when we dug him out of the snowbank. As I recall, he left the Plymouth there.

JD "Product of a Mis-Spent Youth" Kemp

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

my laptop has now officially been christened with a mixture of tea and snot. ..

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

i understand they have car mounted casters for training on low traction conditions (skip barber commercial a few years back).
automotive ballet anyone? hmm...

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

Good stuff guys. Hidden objects in snow banks can be problematic. Maybe one reason I never beat on cars is I never got a chance to buy a $100 beater to destroy and scrap and not lose my ass or ride to work.

And Mid Ohio race track teen defensive driver course uses the outrigger casters things. My buddy took it when he was 15 before I knew him. Said it was good fun and very learning. He had lots of time sliding around a 2 stroke for wheeler and gokarts before that but most other kids don't. I think these courses should b drivers ed not the lame sit and watch videos and piddle around town for xxx amount of hours that most states have.

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90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0

amen to that!!! nothing scarier to er personnel than the first heavy storm of the year and all the yout's that have new licenses. playing in that old opel taught me tons about how a car behaves (without hitting anything) in low traction conditions. came in handy more than a few times over the years too, only lost it bigtime once so far. odd place to put a ditch anyway next to a road, whats that about? don't they know some durn fool (ME) is gonna come thru too fast and hit that patch of ice under that tree causing them to do a graceful slowspeed slide into that ditch (under feet of snow) then an amazingly slow wheels up 720? if i hadn't snapped a tie rod i could have driven off afterwards. .. car didn't want to go straight anymore.

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

Ditches right next to roads was not a well thought out design. I've met a couple and been lucky enough to drive away. Straight at that too I did usually need pulled out of ditch first though

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90 talon as old dd turned into donor for the locost
06 suzuki sv1ks for the kneedragging fix

mitsu 4g63 powered 442e - viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7317&start=0