28 replies to this topic

[2Bob]

Recent mention of Escorts and Vivas in 'wheeler dealer' topic reminded me of some childish goings on in my (very distant) past. Like renting a Morris 1100 for a gymkhana (and breaking a CV joint and phoning the rental company to complain about it with the replacement car brought to a road a mile or so away from the competition...). A Viva also rented for the same purpose (only because the rental company didn't have a Morris 1100 on the day). The Viva actually proved to be quite good for the purpose, surprising us by the performance.... The renting was done by 2 of us to decrease the cost per person - important when you are uni students who couldn't actually afford to own a car.

Must be a few interesting stories out there.

[D-Type]

There's an apocryphal story about the Cooper team when they were campaigning Mini Coopers in the European Touring Car Championship. That year points were awarded on the basis of class positions with the number of points being deopending on the number of starters. In one race their class was one car short. The team manager remembered that one of the mechanics had just obtained his competition licence so they entered him in the small Fiat the team had hired to get from hotel to circuit etc. A little oil in the float chamber and the car emitted an impressive smoke screen as it did one lap and honourably retired due to 'over tuning'. The Mini Cooper went on to win its class and collect maximum points.

[Ray Bell]

Terry Walker could probably expand on it, but Syd Anderson released a number of cars from his hire fleet to allow other drivers to compete in a Caversham 6-hour race in the mid-fifties when the race was young...

Mention of the usefulness of Vivas reminds me of the day Peter Brock took me for a drive in his mother's... it was nearly new and he flung it around the back roads of Wattle Glen with plenty of verve. Lifting inside rear wheels was commonplace.

[Robin Fairservice]

There must be many stories in North America from when Hertz was renting out Shelby Mustangs.

[Catalina Park]

In 1988 a friend of mine rented a Toyota MR2 to run in a Supersprint at Oran Park.
When he drilled some holes in the transmission tunnel to mount the fire extinguisher he struck water! He had drilled through the heater pipe!

[David Birchall]

In 1977 I applied for my competition license which involved taking a "Race Drivers School" at Westwood track. This took two days and you had to provide your own car which had to pass scrutineering. I owned a 1959 Beetle at the time which wouldn't have passed the most rudimentary inspection so I went to Tilden Rent a Car-where I got a discount because they were related to the company I worked for!
The rental car was a bright yellow Camaro with about 500 miles on it-perfect I thought, that should last a weekend! I recalled that Road & Track or somebody had done a slalom test on the Camaro and had concluded what the correct tire pressures were so I used those and off we went.

The car turned out to be almost the fastest thing there all weekend-I found out which was faster-a race prepared TR6-when I spun out of the lead and into the shrubbery on the last lap of of the obligatory race at the end of the two day school. It tidied up fairly well and I returned it to the rental company having returned the tire pressures to normal. I hoped they wouldn't notice that there were no tread left on the edges of the tires and that the throttle pedal was reduced to a stump since I had broken it off by constantly tromping on it!

On the Monday I had a phone call from the organiser of the drivers school-he was Service Manager of the big Chevrolet dealership in Vancouver. " This yellow Camaro staggered onto the lot this morning, driven by a rental car company guy" he said. "I could still make out the outline of the race numbers on the side!" "They said they couldn't understand what had happened to it-the throttle pedal was broken and the tires were very odd" -"They wanted to know-was it covered by warranty?"!!

He didn't let on that he knew the full story and I learned a lot that weekend and realised that I had found the sport I had been searching for and also that adrenaline was more powerful than most drugs...

[JacnGille]

[jm70]

The Camaro tale reminds me of the time we were running a 84 model in the SCCA Playboy series as a one off. We towed the car quite some distance and not having a lot of spares told the co-driver that he should rent the same model for the shuttle car for the weekend. He got to the rental counter and was told they would be glad to upgrade him to a nicer car.
He was quick witted and explained that he was seeing a young lady that had a fascination with that particular car.
After the 12 hour race started we moved the Camaro just behind our pit put it up on stands and made ready. About 8 hours into the race the radio from the driver indicated the brakes were failing. We removed the calipers and rotors hubs and hearings from the rental and slapped them on the racecar. The old parts were returned to the rental at our leisure. The co-driver carefully returned the rental on Monday morning. Nothing more was heard. I imagine that there were warranty claims in this case as well.

[GMACKIE]

In 1977 I applied for my competition license which involved taking a "Race Drivers School" at Westwood track. This took two days and you had to provide your own car which had to pass scrutineering. I owned a 1959 Beetle at the time which wouldn't have passed the most rudimentary inspection so I went to Tilden Rent a Car-where I got a discount because they were related to the company I worked for!
The rental car was a bright yellow Camaro with about 500 miles on it-perfect I thought, that should last a weekend! I recalled that Road & Track or somebody had done a slalom test on the Camaro and had concluded what the correct tire pressures were so I used those and off we went.

The car turned out to be almost the fastest thing there all weekend-I found out which was faster-a race prepared TR6-when I spun out of the lead and into the shrubbery on the last lap of of the obligatory race at the end of the two day school. It tidied up fairly well and I returned it to the rental company having returned the tire pressures to normal. I hoped they wouldn't notice that there were no tread left on the edges of the tires and that the throttle pedal was reduced to a stump since I had broken it off by constantly tromping on it!

On the Monday I had a phone call from the organiser of the drivers school-he was Service Manager of the big Chevrolet dealership in Vancouver. " This yellow Camaro staggered onto the lot this morning, driven by a rental car company guy" he said. "I could still make out the outline of the race numbers on the side!" "They said they couldn't understand what had happened to it-the throttle pedal was broken and the tires were very odd" -"They wanted to know-was it covered by warranty?"!!

He didn't let on that he knew the full story and I learned a lot that weekend and realised that I had found the sport I had been searching for and also that adrenaline was more powerful than most drugs...

WOW!, fantastic.......a 1959 Beetle.

[Bloggsworth]

A friend of mine hired a Morgan for a couple of days and took it up the hill at Prescott, almost crashing it on the first run. An acquaintance chewed the diff on his 1650 Anglia, so hired one, swopped the diffs, took the car back and complained about the noise from the back end, and got his money back.

On a similar note, a New Zealand FF racer would buy cars for Antipodean clients and would, reputedly, race them a couple of times, before crating them and shipping - One time, it was said, he rolled an FF at Brands, shipped it bends and all, then blamed the shipping company...

He did, one day when I was collecting my FF engine from Chris Steele's, say of Alan Jones who had just got a good F3 seat: "Alan Jones! He couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's arse."

[Ray Bell]

Using an expression like that, he must surely have known Alan well!

The Anglia diff probably had hypoid oil in it... that's a no-no...

[RS2000]

I appreciate that most of the above was not in the UK but let's not lose sight of the fact that one of the most unedifying characters to have ever been discussed on TNF did time for climbing a fence and swapping transmission parts for worn ones in a manufacturer's new (Gp B supercar in this case) car park.
Like world rally championship works team recce cars hired from Hertz etc and returned destroyed underneath, it all ultimately reflects back on others in the sport and causes them grief.
I equally don't know what passes for a "gymkhana" elsewhere but there is increasing concern that the UK MSA has been turning a blind eye to virtual special stages run as a "gymkhana" without any safety precautions/car equipment. Others will suffer when it comes home to roost...

[Lee Nicolle]

Since I am a good boy I have never done the above. The only naughty thing i have done with a renter is carry too many people in them,, and assorted race car parts. Between the track and accomodation or a repairer to get stuff machined or welded.
We did use a 'sort of' renter to tow a racecar out of the Philip Island mud all weekend to save the racecar clutch. Though that was easy. Then drove it through all the puddles on the way back to Melbourne to wash all the mud, grass and salt out from underneath.

[Dipster]

Since I am a good boy I have never done the above. The only naughty thing i have done with a renter is carry too many people in them,, and assorted race car parts. Between the track and accomodation or a repairer to get stuff machined or welded.
We did use a 'sort of' renter to tow a racecar out of the Philip Island mud all weekend to save the racecar clutch. Though that was easy. Then drove it through all the puddles on the way back to Melbourne to wash all the mud, grass and salt out from underneath.

Not quite on topic but one of the daftest things I know of is renting a 4x4 in Oz. You rent a LandCruiser or whatever and pay a good deal to do so. But the contract, and often e staff on duty when you collect the car, take great pains to tell you that you mustn't use the vehicle off paved highways..... What do they think you want the thing for?

Of course they are merely covering their backside,but this always amuses me. Of course when you return it (with dust in very crevice!) they say nothing. So it seems they do not pursue it. But perhaps the insurance would if you caused damage.

[EDWARD FITZGERALD]

Not quite on topic but one of the daftest things I know of is renting a 4x4 in Oz. You rent a LandCruiser or whatever and pay a good deal to do so. But the contract, and often e staff on duty when you collect the car, take great pains to tell you that you mustn't use the vehicle off paved highways..... What do they think you want the thing for?

Of course they are merely covering their backside,but this always amuses me. Of course when you return it (with dust in very crevice!) they say nothing. So it seems they do not pursue it. But perhaps the insurance would if you caused damage.

back in the 70s some Irish rally drivers on thier way to the top hired FIAT 128 saloons to do the INTERNATIONAL RALLIES in IRELAND , and they got results

[brucemoxon]

One year, the Mazda RX7 team I pitcrewed for rented a road-going car as a run-about and hack at Bathurst.

It was also a parts donor car - went back to its owner with a chopped-out steering idler arm, which was getting worn before the race.

Many rented cars have been half-destroyed as recce cars for rallies around the place. At least one rally driver of my ken was 'black-listed' by a number of rental companies. He took pride in this. Since then he's skipped the country.



Bruce Moxon

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Dipster
Not quite on topic but one of the daftest things I know of is renting a 4x4 in Oz. You rent a LandCruiser or whatever and pay a good deal to do so. But the contract, and often e staff on duty when you collect the car, take great pains to tell you that you mustn't use the vehicle off paved highways..... What do they think you want the thing for?

Of course they are merely covering their backside,but this always amuses me. Of course when you return it (with dust in very crevice!) they say nothing. So it seems they do not pursue it. But perhaps the insurance would if you caused damage.

Or what would happen if you crashed on a dirt road?

[Dipster]

Or what would happen if you crashed on a dirt road?

Quite right, and it happens often to both local vehicles and rentals. One time I rented a Land Cruiser in Alice. When I returned it the lady at reception told me they had lost 3 Land Cruisers in rollovers that week! I have no idea what happens in these cases. If you have broken a contractural agreement I would imagine the insurance is actually void. Does anybody know?

An interesting thing with this renter was their choice of registration numbers. Mine was simply 0. They also had 2 to 9 plus Donald, Mickey and Minnie.

[Terry Walker]

I heard another Sydney Anderson story years ago, which is alleged to have happened in the days of rugged car trials of the mid-50s. Some genius rented a car from Sydney Anderson's rentacars to run in a major car trial. Naturally Sydney Anderson was manning a control...

I heard his in the late 60s one from several old hands reminiscing about Syd--But the name of the driver was never mentioned. Neither was the outcome.

[Lee Nicolle]

Not quite on topic but one of the daftest things I know of is renting a 4x4 in Oz. You rent a LandCruiser or whatever and pay a good deal to do so. But the contract, and often e staff on duty when you collect the car, take great pains to tell you that you mustn't use the vehicle off paved highways..... What do they think you want the thing for?

Of course they are merely covering their backside,but this always amuses me. Of course when you return it (with dust in very crevice!) they say nothing. So it seems they do not pursue it. But perhaps the insurance would if you caused damage.

I had a Britz rental local, actually in my old yard. They were defenitly used on red dirt, the cars were red as was the wash bay!. Though the loss makes me wonder how they ever do it. Last crash auction I went too had 3 rolled over 75 series campers. I was told mainly foreign tourists, more so than domestic who have no idea of driving on dirt.
Unfortunatly if you ever read the very small print these days effectivly you are not allowed to drive a renter these days. And the insurance issues are even worse, often you have to lodge a 'bond' for the excess before you even get the car.
An ex employee worked in that area and personally she would not rent a car because of all the insurance hassles these days. And would not allow her mother too either!
The mention of a different time, the Shelby Hertz Mustangs. A car rebuilt and crashed often.
Another friend who worked at the airport said it was very similar with early turbo Pulsars, all thrashed and cooked and got rid of very early, like 5-10000km. What were they thinking!!

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Dipster
Quite right, and it happens often to both local vehicles and rentals. One time I rented a Land Cruiser in Alice. When I returned it the lady at reception told me they had lost 3 Land Cruisers in rollovers that week! I have no idea what happens in these cases. If you have broken a contractural agreement I would imagine the insurance is actually void. Does anybody know?

I would think the insurance covers it...

It's all a ridiculous proposition that you don't drive on a dirt road. When I rented a camper in Darwin I had this restriction and it didn't make a lot of difference to me, I wasn't going far. But if you were you'd find it literally impossible to see and do things without getting off the tar.

But the consequence of crashing on dirt roads must be a worry to them, so I'd suggest that they put that proviso in the contract so they can quickly grab your deposit (it was $1800 in our case) when you crash and they can get their insurer under way with their necessary claim for repairs. It probably gives them the opportunity to hit you for further costs to cover loss of income while it's being repaired etc.

[RobertE]

Henry Taylor and Archie Scott Brown rented a Ford Taunus in Cologne in order to 'learn the circuit'. The circuit in question was the Nurburgring and it was in May, 1957, before the 1000 kilometre race. The car was pretty much ragged, tyres melted, etc., after two laps. Naughty, but they knew that they had to get home in Archie's Ford Zephyr.

And wasn't there a mini-scandal about well-heeled punters renting Shelby Mustangs for a relaxing weekend? At Riverside?

Or is this an 'urban legend'?

[D-Type]

I've read similar tales about hired Fiats being used to 'learn the Targa Florio' circuit and returned with bald tyres, cooked engines, questionable suspension geometry etc.

And of course Tony Brooks learned the Syracuse circuit in 1955 on a hired Vespa. Given that a 1950's Vespa had two speeds - 'flat out' and ' not flat out' he probably rode it no harder than the regular hirers.

[BMH Comic]

Henry Taylor and Archie Scott Brown rented a Ford Taunus in Cologne in order to 'learn the circuit'. The circuit in question was the Nurburgring and it was in May, 1957, before the 1000 kilometre race. The car was pretty much ragged, tyres melted, etc., after two laps. Naughty, but they knew that they had to get home in Archie's Ford Zephyr.

And wasn't there a mini-scandal about well-heeled punters renting Shelby Mustangs for a relaxing weekend? At Riverside?

Or is this an 'urban legend'?

Not quite the same but, I did have the privilege of entering and running in an Motokahana and hillclimb, a Paul and Warner Mk IV Ambulance on a F100 Chassis with the Brazilian 307? CID power plant and Auto, It belonged to a certain organization that uses the Maltese Cross as there logo.

I don’t think they quite knew what it was going to be doing when it was borrowed for the day to serve as the First Aid Post.

Technically not hired, sort of hired on the never never plan. Always wondered what the accident report would have said if the casualty was in the driver’s seat.

Amazing how much body roll they get up before they lift a wheel. Suffice to say images of the competition were few and far between! I think I destroyed most of the negatives. It went rather well to it didn’t run last.

[mac miller]

In 1987, we were in Portland to run our 962 Porsche GTP car.. On Wednesday before the race weekend, we had Portland Intl. Raceway rented for testing. About 3 in the afternoon, they came around and told us we would have to quit running because they had to get the track set up for their Wednesday night street drags on the main straightaway drag strip.
We had a Toyota 1600, 16 valve, twin cam rental car so we entered it in the evening's drag events....... We made it through 2 rounds before we got bumped out and headed back to the motel. That Toyota was a purty stout little runner...

[Lee Nicolle]

In 1987, we were in Portland to run our 962 Porsche GTP car.. On Wednesday before the race weekend, we had Portland Intl. Raceway rented for testing. About 3 in the afternoon, they came around and told us we would have to quit running because they had to get the track set up for their Wednesday night street drags on the main straightaway drag strip.
We had a Toyota 1600, 16 valve, twin cam rental car so we entered it in the evening's drag events....... We made it through 2 rounds before we got bumped out and headed back to the motel. That Toyota was a purty stout little runner...

A fairly well known racer ran a renter at the street drags in the early 80s A v8 Falcon. All stock except for some better tyres he owned and removing the air filter.Fairly slow but he had fun, changed the tyres back and sent it back with rubber up the rear 1/4s which may have confused a few people as the tyres were unmarked!

[Lola5000]

Naughty ..can remember getting my license at Calder in '85 with a rented Toyota Corolla,it did a 10 lap race at the long track with ease.......good product.

[Patrick Fletcher]

Naughty ..can remember getting my license at Calder in '85 with a rented Toyota Corolla,it did a 10 lap race at the long track with ease.......good product.

Most of goobers would be renters

[RCH]

Going back to the '70's/'80's there were several people who would rent cars for road rallies. Astras were the car of choice I seem to remember although I do remember a Marina looking rather incongruous in a West Country event.