My First Chase Vehicle: Whaddya Think of It?

[John Gnuechtel]

It surprises me that no one among us is chasing in a Lancer Evo or WRX STi. Maybe there is, and comments would be welcome. Anyway, those two seem like the perfect chase vehicle/street rods. What better place to look than the World Rally Circuit for ideas on potential chase rides? They go insanely fast on every road surface and condition there is, and the manufacturers use the lessons learned in racing to improve them. As a result, you get a lot beefier parts on those cars that you won't find on typical street-only hotrods.

Edit: Looks like Sokol beat me to the draw on this point.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Originally posted by nickgrillo+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nickgrillo)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Mickey Ptak

Nick quick question here, are you going to be paying for this vehicle and the insurance to cover it?

Mick

You bet I am... Just like I did with all of my equipment, my chasing costs (and yeah, that includes everything) and all the related. I make decent money...[/b]

Well that's cool. I like the fact that you are going it alone. That is very respectable.

Now then, you are going to have, at least, a $230 per month car payment plus 200+ (and I mean +) for insurance. In all reality you are probably looking at $500 per month for those two alone. Then you have your fuel cost and regular maintenance. I don’t know how much you make per month and that is not my business but if I where you I would sit down and realistically plan this out becauseI think you will find it a little harder to swallow.

Bottom line is you do what you want to do. Take the advice given here or throw it out the window. I just hope you make the right choice and be careful after the fact.

Again I am not picking on you but rather trying to help if I can.

Mick

 

[Chris Sokol]

Originally posted by J West


However, what's so wrong with powerful RWD cars for chasing? Yuppy SUV's and FWD tin can's are about the only things people seem to think about these days. I've got two B body GM's...a 1990 Caprice 9C1 (cop car) and 1995 Impala SS. Both are \"evil\" RWD cars that handle the road and have predictable performance.

There is nothing wrong with powerful RWD cars for chasing. I think that a Crown Victoria (especially a police package edition) is a wonderful chase vehicle. Why? Unlike the Mustang, the rear-end is not a featherweight, and it is designed for more than racing or cruising. It has nothing to do with either RWD or lots of horsepower. It has to do with handling in the environmental and road conditions that exist with chasing.

Originally posted by J West

Moral is: who cares? It's not our decision. Nick, if you want to get a 'stang GT and chase with it then more power to you.

Moral actually is that people who have experience should pass that on to the younger generation. If I did not voice my concerns to Nick (possibly helping him in his decision making process), and he took that Mustang out on a dirt road, and while attempting to run from a storm that has made a turn for him, rolled it 5 or 6 times and ended up dead, I would feel pretty guilty for not passing on my experience with that type of vehicle to him.

Same goes for me Nick: I am not picking on you, but I am trying to give you some guidance in your car buying decision. You said that you have no skills or experience in working on cars. This is exactly the reason that I feel that younger drivers should buy older, less expensive cars, and learn to work on them. Learn how to do mechanical, electrical, and body work...you will save yourself a ton of money.

 

[mrobinett]

...

 

[HAltschule]

Nick,

An easy solution to this whole debacle, is to leave your mustang at home and rent a car from alamo for $150 a week. It will be WELL worth it. Keep a nice new car in nice, new condition. No need to rack up all of those miles so quickly and risk hail damage. It does happen to those who least expect it...even if you know what you're doing.

ME...I would go out and buy one of those cars that run on vegetable oil. That way when I stop at BK for McDonalds each day for lunch, I will be able to fill up my tank with the Deep Fryers finest octane.

BTW....where they do you work that pays you so much money at age 16? I wish I had that kind of job when I was your age. That must be one heck of a pet store. Come to think of it...those were some really cool pictures of the baby croc.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

If you want to get close to tornadoes don't buy the Mustang. Most cases getting closer will require a dirt road of some kind. I got stuck in 04 when I missed the minimum maintanence sign at 60mph in the rain and came to a stop 1/4 mile onto it. BUT, Randy Chamberlain came to help me out and wouldn't take his 4 wheel drive on this road. I don't think it would have mattered what I was in. I'm lucky I kept it on the road. A tow truck later(as well as one crazy farmer encounter) I got out.

Later in 2004, June 11 south of Ft. Dodge, I used gravel roads to get closer to that tornado. They looked like perfectly fine roads and I was only 2 miles off the main highway south of town. Well after parked in the rain for a bit I went to move and it didn't want to. I slowly got it up to 30mph in a mad flee to get the hell off it before it got worse(it hadn't even been raining that long). Once at 30 any little push on the pedal and the back end would spin. It feels like you are floating on snot. That little incident really scared me of gravel roads around any precip.

April 21 this year in se NE with Randy again I about get stuck when the road goes to minimum maintanence. It was barely even wet and I barely backed out of it. About an hour later and this happens:

That was a normal road till the one hill. We went over and there it was, minimum maintanence again. I should not have gotten out of that in that car. That took randy behind me in 4 wheel drive rear-ending the car over and over. We were moving less than 1mph. On the inclines he'd bump me and it would send him going backwards for a bit...then I'd start slowing back up by the time he got going forward again. It was very comical. That is another case nothing short of 4 wheel drive is getting you out. Going up the hills was bad enough, but going down them was no fun either. You don't dare build up any sort of speed for the next hill as it is damn hard keeping the car going straight.

It has made me very very paranoid about any gravel roads around any precip. It has made chasing a bit of a pain. So, it CAN be done, but it is not always enjoyable. If I had it to do over again I think I would look very very hard into getting an awd vehicle.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Originally posted by HAltschule
Nick,

An easy solution to this whole debacle, is to leave your mustang at home and rent a car from alamo for $150 a week. It will be WELL worth it. Keep a nice new car in nice, new condition. No need to rack up all of those miles so quickly and risk hail damage. It does happen to those who least expect it...even if you know what you're doing.

Um Correct me if I'm wrong but dont you have to be atleast 25 to rent a car. I know they for sure wouldn't rent a car out to any one under 18.

 

[HAltschule]

Hmmm. I didn't think about the minimum age requirement thingy. Nick...do you have any older brothers?

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

They'll rent to ya, but it they tack on an under 25 fee which is usually as much as the vehicle costs per day to rent

Aaron

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

Congratulations Mark on the new ride! I'm sure you'll get the feel for it before spring rolls around. It's a liberating feeling no matter what type of vehicle it is when it's your first.

As for the rest of the discussion, to each their own. However, there is a lot of good advice from folks that have been there, and I don't just mean in the realm of chase vehicles but vehicles as a whole. Everyone has their own experiences to share, that's for sure.

I agree with Darin, any SUV I own will be a Jeep brand. I can't say enough about my Liberty (minus gas mileage, lol). They definitely hold up through the years, and you don't see many on the used car lots for a reason. I did chase a couple of days in my mom's KIA Sorento when I rode back home with my brother this summer and didn't have my own vehicle there. It would actually make a decent chase ride for the price. Nothing like a 27 year old stealing his mom's car to go chasing 8)

Mom's got a '72 Mustang she'd probably sell someone if you've got your heart set on a fixer' upper :wink: It was her first car she ever purchased new, and she just hasn't been able to bring herself to get rid of it through all these year.

If you can safely chase on a moped, I say go for it

Tim

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Another thing to think of is that a car like a mustang has its air intake rather low. I have a 1992 toyota paseo, and its intake is pretty low. What does this mean? First off I'm not advocting crossing flood roads, however when there is say a small few foot section of standing water it can be impassible to my car because its engine will easily get flodded when trucks can easily cross without this problem. I have had to turn around even when I see several people including police in 'normal' patrol cars crossing very small section of water covered roads. I'm not saying a paseo is a bad car to drive with, I mean it's what was given to me, but you have to know the limits of your vehicle.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I have a story Identical to Mike H's April 21 one posted above, I was actually chasing the same storm and had seen his Mustang at a quick shop probably 15 minutes before I got stuck (Johnson County Nebraska County Roads are trouble). I was in my rear wheel drive cougar and came over a hill on a normal gravel road and with no warning down hill minimum maintence it was like trying to stop on black ice hitting the breaks on the way down had no affect It was actually kind of fun I had to work some majic to get it whipped around and I had to run about 5,000 RPM's for probably 10 minutes just to make it back up the hill! My Friend who was pushing caught a nice mud bath after I got going a little bit he could have laid on his back in the mud and you wouldnt be able to see him :lol:

 

[Jeff Snyder]

My frontwheel drive Bonneville helped me avoid getting stuck on October 15th of this year, in the nasty, nasty mud roads north and northeast of Woodward, OK. Granted, I have pretty new tires on as well, but, much is like the case with snow, FWD can be a pretty big advantage if you don't want to fishtail and spin out. Oddly enough, I have spun out before, but that was a hydraplaning incident. If I'm not mistaken, RWD tends to handle wet roads better, while FWD shows its advantage in snow and mud.

 

[Mike Gauldin]

Originally posted by Mickey Ptak

Well that's cool. I like the fact that you are going it alone. That is very respectable.

Now then, you are going to have, at least, a $230 per month car payment plus 200+ (and I mean +) for insurance. In all reality you are probably looking at $500 per month for those two alone. Then you have your fuel cost and regular maintenance. I don’t know how much you make per month and that is not my business but if I where you I would sit down and realistically plan this out becauseI think you will find it a little harder to swallow.

Agreed. When I bought my 350z, it was stickered at $28,000. I had to put half the price ($14,000) down to finace it (don't ask), so I ended up finacing $13,000 in the end (had trade-ins). My car payment was $300/mo (5-year note), insurance was $280/mo. My insurance was/is USAA, which you almost can't beat their rates (military insurance). So I was out almost $600 a month just for the car (if I had finaced the whole car, it would have been like $500/mo). Had I not wrecked it, I wouldn't be living anywhere but a tiny apartment or with my parents (if they took me back in after all these years), or in that car. So make sure Nick that you look into the future. Granted you can always sell the car, but sometimes that can cost you.

Just my two cents.

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by bill mudd
which brings us to the beauty of RENTING a new chase vehicle....
(ahh yes)
I stepped into a NEW BUICK RENDEVIEx in denver this summer, and the next day put her on the doorstep of the 6/9 HILL CITY blow out....
The all wheel drive SUV did great, and for about a couple hundred dollars I couldnt have been happier - dropped her back off with about 1500 miles
and never looked back!
(ps upon renting it I asked about hail damage and they said it was considered an act of God and that I shouldny really worry about it cause it was the Summer) lol

Rentals...now, I'll drive the shit outta those.