![[The car itself]](car2.jpg)
In my travels through time, I have done many stupid, yet interesting, things. After 18 years of such things, I went off to college. There, I told many unbelievable stories; however, they were all true. Eventually, I decided to start video taping some of my adventures to prove to the skeptical that such things had been done. These tapes had been sitting around for many years when a friend of mine, Becky Hicks, mentioned making a web page about them. BTW: Because the web page idea came many years after the actual events depicted, and the equipment used for the digitization of the pictures was not of the highest quality, the pictures are not very clear, but they're the best I could do. Also--most of the graphical links on this page are to jpegs ~350K. Well anyway--here it is!
NOTE: As should be obvious by the title, some of the things shown and suggested here are stupid. Do NOT try them. This information is to be used for educational purposes only and I take no responsibility for the outcomes of anyone trying this on their own. (Of course, if you do try any wacky things, by all means--email me... :)
Anyway--on to the content:
![[The car being driven]](car1.jpg)
My family has gone through many cars. This little Escort was damaged when
a speeding driver slammed into the driver's side door as my brother, the
current driver and owner, was making a left turn. The door was destroyed
and my brother did not have the cash to get it fixed. (Due to the ineptness
of the police force, my brother was found at fault. Because of the distance
the car was from the point of impact, the officers believed that my brother
moved his car before the police arrived when in fact, it simply slid that
far.) So anyway--my brother bought another car and I got to drive this
car while I was home in Nebraska for Christmas break (which means it was
really
cold out).
![[The ticket]](ticket2.jpg)
Of course, the local law officials were not very pleased with this arrangement
(even though I did still wear my seatbelt while driving the damaged vehicle).
As I was on my way to pickup the video camera to film evidence of such
foolishness, I was stopped by an officer (whom I worked with at McDonalds)
and given a warning for reckless driving. This time, the US legal system
worked to my advantage--since I was not the owner of the car, I could not
be given a fix-it ticket, so no monetary punishments were afflicted on
me.
![[Grill Pipe]](launch1.jpg)
![[Insertion Point]](launch5.jpg)
This little experiment in pyrotechnics was performed not on a car of mine,
but of one owned by a friend. The 1970 Chevy Impala was soon to meet its
fate in the junk yard, so we decided to have some fun with it first. We
installed a PVC pipe from the floorboard of the car to the grill. Then,
bottle rockets were placed in the tube from the inside of the car and capped
with a conveniently located shoe.
![[Explosion]](launch6.jpg)
When things went well, the bottle rocket then flew out the front of the
pipe and exploded somewhere in front of the vehicle. Of course, things
did not always go well. The first time we tried these launches, the underside
of the carpet caught on fire and smoldered, spewing massive amounts of
smoke to gather. This picture shows one of the many misfires we encountered.
On ocassion, a wild bottle rocket traveled sideways and re-entered the
car through the window. We also discovered that the best distance could
be achieved while the car was travelling 40-50 mph during the launch. Unfortunately,
our fun soon came to an end because of poor engineering. The PVC ran a
bit too close to some of the hotter elements of the engine and therefore
melted after a couple of days.