Unusual vehicles that you have driven.

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Have driven one of these...a couple of times.

Had to replace the seals in the wheels as they didn't do so good at 30C as they did in Antarctica..got a couple of test runs out of it. Back when I was in transmission.

antarctic.jpg


And one very similar to this

130037_R1_05_5_006-586-800-600-80.jpg


When I started in generation.

Actually, it was amazing the latter that they'd let a 26 year old engineer drive a single contingency vehicle that was intended to take 100% of the ash from the power station.

(That whole idea ended up being ridiculous, and they ended up with smaller capacity articulated off the shelf mine vehicles, with a reduced density higher volume tray (ash is lighter than dirt). Three of them, 2.2 required 24/7 which allowed diversions and downtime.
 
Not quite a unusual vehicle (some may call a El Camino unusual), but my 1973 El Camino had swivel bucket seats. It was a great and unusual feature,

 
^^^Had a Monte Carlo with the same feature. Very nice in real world usage.

My unusual vehicle would be a Sunbeam Tiger I tried to buy when I was very young. The reason it was weird was the extremely long legged gearing it had. Over 100 mph in second gear!
 
I briefly drove an almost-new Yugo back in 1986 or so. Anything you heard about them is completely true. What a dangerous little [censored] box that thing was.
 
There was a time when I didn't have to think about driving something I'd never driven before...these days I have to think a bit harder, and that's the problem, you aren't supposed to think about these things, just do.

2 wheels is where I am happiest, and a sidecar...oh dear I just lose all control of myself, they are so much fun. But one defeated me, which was pretty embarassing. It was a farm hack made in NZ (I have one in the shed) and some had sliding top links so you could ride them on a slope...you were supposed to lock the links when doing that. So the owner of this one rode on the road with the links loose, he rode it like a motorcycle, leaning through the corners. Now on a motorcycle, you turn the bars to the left to turn right, called countersteering, it's intuative and most people don't know that's what they do. But on a sidecar the motorcycle turns right to go right, like a car.

So he tells me to take it for a ride, sweet, I've had 3 sidecars, I know what I'm doing....yeah right. I try to turn, and the bike just falls over...pick it up, and I fall over the otherway. There is no way to balance the thing, there is no way to counteract the weight of the chair...and I'm lost, I just can't figure it out...and getting hurt everytime I dump myself on the road or into the chair. Obviously there is some sweet spot between countersteering and balance with a motorcycle, and the direct turning effort to force a combination around corners. Embarassing, tail between my legs I give it back, and off he goes. I reckon i'd get it sussed, given time, and no spectators.
 
An Audi 5000 Quattro that had been engine-swapped with a GM LT1 V8. I was at a track event at High Plains Raceway in Colorado getting ready for the day's activities, and in comes a blue Audi 5000 that had a V8 burble. I turned around and looked, and this thing has part of the grille cut away because the V8 was too long to fit in the engine compartment, and the water pump is sticking outside. I had to find out about it, and found the car in the paddock later on and struck up a conversation with the owner. He was an Australian expatriate living in Denver, and had bought the car from a shop in Chicago that had done the engine swap. He was just starting out in high-performance driving, and wanted to see what the car would do with a more experienced driver. So he asked me to take it on the track if he could ride along.

I was skeptical about driving such a contraption on a race track, expecting the controls to be wonky, the handling unpredictable, and the brakes inadequate. But I was pleasantly surprised. I started out carefully for the first few laps feeling out the controls, and found that they acted linearly. Power application was smooth, the 5-speed manual shifted well, and the gas and brake pedals were properly spaced for rev-match downshifts. Since things felt good, I started working up the speed to find how the car handled at the limit. It understeered. With AWD, the engine didn't have enough power to break any of the tires loose upon throttle application at the apex. If I entered a corner too fast, it would understeer. If I built up too much speed exiting a turn, it would understeer. I drove the whole 25 minute session, and never had a problem with brake fade. I was suitably impressed with the hot-rod Audi. After I got used to it, my #1 conclusion was that it needed more power.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
An Audi 5000 Quattro that had been engine-swapped with a GM LT1 V8. I was at a track event at High Plains Raceway in Colorado getting ready for the day's activities, and in comes a blue Audi 5000 that had a V8 burble. I turned around and looked, and this thing has part of the grille cut away because the V8 was too long to fit in the engine compartment, and the water pump is sticking outside. I had to find out about it, and found the car in the paddock later on and struck up a conversation with the owner. He was an Australian expatriate living in Denver, and had bought the car from a shop in Chicago that had done the engine swap. He was just starting out in high-performance driving, and wanted to see what the car would do with a more experienced driver. So he asked me to take it on the track if he could ride along.

I was skeptical about driving such a contraption on a race track, expecting the controls to be wonky, the handling unpredictable, and the brakes inadequate. But I was pleasantly surprised. I started out carefully for the first few laps feeling out the controls, and found that they acted linearly. Power application was smooth, the 5-speed manual shifted well, and the gas and brake pedals were properly spaced for rev-match downshifts. Since things felt good, I started working up the speed to find how the car handled at the limit. It understeered. With AWD, the engine didn't have enough power to break any of the tires loose upon throttle application at the apex. If I entered a corner too fast, it would understeer. If I built up too much speed exiting a turn, it would understeer. I drove the whole 25 minute session, and never had a problem with brake fade. I was suitably impressed with the hot-rod Audi. After I got used to it, my #1 conclusion was that it needed more power.


That's pretty cool. I guess understeer is all that can happen with that V8 hanging entirely in front of the axle. I had a 1990 Audi V8 Quattro, and it would understeer pretty well. It was the most fun in the snow.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
^^^Had a Monte Carlo with the same feature. Very nice in real world usage.

My unusual vehicle would be a Sunbeam Tiger I tried to buy when I was very young. The reason it was weird was the extremely long legged gearing it had. Over 100 mph in second gear!


My neighbor had one of these and I drove it when I was a teenager and remember going 60 MPH in 2nd driving in town and still had a long way to go before shifting. Vehicle had a V-8, always heard you had to pull the motor to get to the back 2 spark plugs. I have no idea if that was true.
 
1967 Opel Kadette that I got from my uncle. The engine had been swapped for a 450 hp GM 350. The car was the ultimate sleeper and fun.
 
1977 to 1980 drove a International T-800, towed 747's with it while I was stationed at Offutt AFB. It had twin 500 cu.in. engines, crab capability and I could drive it from either end.

Most fun vehicle I ever drove!

 
When I worked at the service station, back in the late '70s, I got to drive a variety of vehicles. Mostly cars, different types but not unusual. It could get interesting using the wrecker (tow truck).

The only drive that sticks out in my mind was the time I had to drive a mail truck back to the post office. They build them with right-hand drive in our left-hand drive world. It was a little unnerving, zipping along, driving from what to me was the passenger's side. I guess you'd get use to it, but as my first time, I had poor feel for the side of the vehicle where high speed passing of oncoming traffic was occurring.

Our mail trucks look something like this:

Mail-Truck-by-nyenyec-630x472.jpg
 
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