71 Demo Derby

[Smartin]

This is where all my 71 LeSabre parts disappear to!!!!!!

No wonder I have so much trouble finding parts. They're all feeding people like this.

http://cocline71.tripod.com/badattitudedemolitionderby/id2.html

This looked like a good car, too...dammit.

Adam

[Romy]

Yeah, demo derby people suck ass. They use some nice cars sometimes.

[Guest Shaffer]

I would hate to see this RARE wagon derbied. Listed as "derby car".

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1873678903&category=6162

[Smartin]

Although I would also hate to see this car go to the derby, I doubt that any derby rat would buy a car like this for $2000 (the current bid). This car is too nice to become a derby donor. Maybe the seller was just trying to get a bigger audience when he put "demolition derby" in the title.

Kinda weird...

Adam

[Dave@Moon]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I doubt that any derby rat would buy a car like this for $2000 (the current bid). </div></div>

I've seen a lot better cars than this driven into the ring in the last few years, and I've seen sums of at least this much spent as well.

The worst I ever saw is still the near-mint (literally) 1966 Olds 98 two-door hardtop that I posted on a thread like this 2 years ago (demo-ed to an unnecessary death in 1999). Demo derby guys are just plain scary-stupid!

[Guest]

I should never doubt the actions of a derby rat

I met a couple this year at the county fair...they're definitely a different breed.

Adam

[Guest]

What I don't understand is why somebody would pay $1500 for a car, spend more money to modify it for the derby, and enter it. Are the

prizes that big if you win the derby???????????? Just trying to make sense of it all - thanks.

[Smartin]

I guess it's all about the thrill of driving in one of these. I know I'm really curious about doing it. I just don't want to spend the time and money for a car and then go and wreck the hell out of it. I want to put that time into something constructive like restoring a 71 442

Adam

[Guest]

This is exactly why cars that are to be entered into one of these overly inane events should only have a salvage title.

[Guest Shaffer]

Davemoon is right. On the stationwagon club I am a member of, a member there deals in car parts of the 60s and 70s cars. He said he used to be in derbies and seen much better crashed. I like to watch the derbies, but do NOT like to see the old classic cars in good shape crashed. I seen a special on TV the other night about demo-derbies. It said they can spend $1000s of $'s on the cars to prepare them to crash them. It is crazy. On that particular derby, first prize was $5000, second prize was $2000 and third prize was $1000. I cannot see where it is worth it. The narrator asked- "what happens when all of the 70s cars are gone?" The person replied, there will always be derbies, whether it be a van or bus. It actually showed a derby with school buses, as well as harvesters. I would say that would run into some expensive machinery.

[Dave@Moon]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Are the

prizes that big if you win the derby???????????? </div></div>

The Olds 98 I mentioned was sacrificed in derby where the top prize for the night was $200 and a cheap looking trophy the size of a jockey. The Olds didn't even get close. No car that old ever wins these things, their drivetrains are too brittle.

As that car sat, gutted and preped for the derby, I'd estimate it was a 275-300 point car. Even some of the hardcore demo fans in the stands were angry (including my then 8 year old son, the only reason I go to these things).

[Dave@Moon]

The Washington County Fair in PA has a school bus demo derby every August. Each school district in the county supplies a driver and an old, retired bus, and the winning school district's library fund gets the prize money.

Best, most entertaining demo derby there is! <span style="font-style: italic">(especially for an 8 year old!) </span>

[Guest Shaffer]

A real shame about the Olds. Some people do not make sense. I agree, the bus derbies looked interesting.

[Smartin]

I've never seen derby prizes for more than a couple hundred bucks. You've got to have a large bankroll or half a brain to do this stuff

Adam

[R W Burgess]

Ok Dave, I give up! Where did you get those kool smiley face guys? Wayne

[Dave@Moon]

[color:\\"blue\\"] I have my secrets!

Actually, in a still vain search for the old "rolleyes" graemlin (boy I miss him! ) I did a search on Yahoo for graemlins. It turs out there are several libraries of these things you can access and post the same way you post photos.

Of course there's a danger of getting too obnoxious with them.

But then again, this is supposed to just be fun!

[Dave@Moon]

Hey, look who I just found!

[rtabish]

enough of the cartoons. lets get back to ranting and raving! one of the things i have noticed about demo-derby guys is they usually have 1: an over-blown 4x4. 2: a camaro. 3: an UGLY woman [hence the frustration taken out on the car] 4: a BFH as his favorite tool. 5: somewhere on one of his belongings [truck, camaro, or woman] a bumper sticker proclaming his i.q. [honk if you are horny, my kid beat up your honor student, die yuppy scum,ect.] 6: a genuine dose of mullet vision, butt-crack, and dunlops disease. hey, this could turn into a KILL DEMO DERBY DUDES post! got a top ten? oh, yeah, i forgot, 7: his favorite tank top says harley-davidson on it even though he hasn't seen that part of his chest in years!

[R W Burgess]

Yea, and more than likely, he'd have a cartoon decal stuck on the fender somewhere nowadays. Thanks, Dave! Wayne

[Smartin]

Why do we stereotype? Because they're TRUE! There would be no stereotypes if they weren't valid!!!

I hope we aren't offending anyone. Yet I doubt any computer geeks such as ourselves that appreciate cars so much could ever be sucked into the 10th level of derby hell.

Adam

[pweston]

I have 2 4x4's 97 ext cab pickup and a 99 Tahoe, and yes come to think of it I have a Camaro, a yellow 87 IROC(we'll leave my wife out of it) haven't driven in a demo derby for over 15 years. I did enjoy it at the time. The cars I used were pretty much junk when I started. All the goodies I removed and sold to folks that could use them. If every car that was made was still on the road, what would yours be worth? no doubt a lot less than what is is today because of attrition. A local derby this year had a 64 Wildcat 2 door hardtop in it (I cringed) It won it's heat and finished third in the feature. The year before that a 1959 Edsel wagon entered, it did'nt do well at all. There is good and bad in everything. If you feel you want a taste of the derby's, find a car at the local salvage yard, strip off the good parts and have fun.

[Dave@Moon]

I guess you don't need a mullet to be thoughtless.

As parts cars the rotting hulks of either the Wildcat or the Edsel are worth more than virtually any demo derby first prize (financially and otherwise), and that makes the generous presumption that they would <span style="font-style: italic"> <span style="font-weight: bold">win!</span> </span> If this [color:\\"red\\"] fact doesn't enter into the thought process, maybe there's a point to this thread (beyond the stated class bigotry) that you're not getting.

[Dave@Moon]

Lest anyone think pweston's observations are some kind of rarity, here's a post of mine from July 2001 on a thread entitled "Old Buicks in Danger":

[color:\\"blue\\"] "My 9 year old son is a huge demo-derby fan. Consequently I'm dragged to these things on a relatively frequent basis. Here's just a few of the cars I'vew seen go by the way side in just the last 2 years!

--rough 1958 Thunderbird, probably a good parts car but might've been restored.

--perfect/solid 1961 Galaxie 2 door sedan.

--perfect/solid 1966 Olds 98 2-door hardtop (this one was truly unbelievable, even the chrome was mint!).

--restorable/parts car 1956 Ford sedan.

--perfect/solid 1967 & 1968 Dodge Monaco 4-door hardtops.

--easily restorable 1964 Mercury Marauder.

--easily restorable 1966 Caprice coupe.

--rough but restorable 1960 LeSabre sedan.

--AND even a rough restorable/parts car 1967 Skylark GS hardtop no less!"

Yup, I love demo derbies!

[Guest]

I think the next craze will be SUV derbies. Everyone like the big heavy vehicles in the derbies and SUV's are ugly so it won't be a big loss.

[Dave@Moon]

Finally, here are a few pictures from www.demoderbycars.com of some of next year's victims (most of whom were either misidentified or misspelled):

The site was being very obstinant (slow), and I didn't get as many loaded as I wanted. I'll try to add more later. Obviously some of these images will be removed as the cars are sold. Follow up with a visit to the site, but be warned--it is VERY slow to load.

[Dave@Moon]

MORE:

And would you believe:

You get the idea.

There are many more good cars for sale on this site, and this (I think) was probably a bad week. The last time I was there I saw a lot more sixties cars and hardtops.

[Smartin]

that derby site IS slow....I'm still waiting for it to load!

This thread has turned out to be pretty controversial...I'm glad I started it

Adam

[Centurion]

Dave, those photos broke my heart! I notice that the '72 Electra 225 coupe has the lamp monitor and cornering lamp options -- nice items that some of us would love to add to our cars.

[Guest Shaffer]

I have recently been visiting that site too. I noticed the past two days it was very slow, or would not even load. There are cars there in excellent shape posted. There is also a 1972 Chevrolet Impala 4dr sedan with 16K ACTUAL MILES posted there for $995. If it were not in New York, I would buy it. I think I posted a link here before of the brown 72 Electra. That car is almost identical to my old 72 Electra. A real shame. I did post my 69 Pontiac wagon there, hoping to be able to trade it for a restorable 71-76 Buick, Pontiac or Chevrolet wagon. I priced it so high though, that a derbier was not likely to buy it. My car is on E-bay, with the reserve met @ $600, so I guess it will sell tomorrow evening for at least that.

Also, there is an attachment of my 69 Safari on the link out from the username

[Guest Shaffer]

Dave- I miss the old "graemlins" too. The Pontiac forums I visit, very similar to this group, still have the old ones like we had here. Still have the "rolleyes". Also, how do you directly post photos here? A lot of people on the Pontiac group post them all of the time, but I cannot figure it out. Someone said I had to have a webpage, which I have I think, with my car photos, but still do not know how to post them, so someone there usually posts them for us that cannot do it. I think someone here had posted my 72 Electra here you see by my user name. Any info appreciated.

[Dave@Moon]

Shaffer,

In the reply page there are a list of instant UBB codes. If you click the link for "image" a window pops up, in which you type in the page address for the photo. The ones above I cited directly, so they'll probably dissappear in a few weeks. The that address is inserted into the post using HTML.

If you happen to cite something that already has the HTML code ("IMAGE" or "IMG" surrounded by brackets), like some of the graemlins I used, they can be inserted by direct cut and paste.

By the way, all of the cars I posted were (as I remember) priced less than $500, including the '63 Coupe de Ville. They'd proabaly all make good parts cars at the prices asked. The really expensive cars ($1000-2000) were mainly wagons! [color:\\"orange\\"] <span style="font-weight: bold"> All things are warped in the demo world! </span>

[rtabish]

adam. this string touches us as car nuts the way seeing a dog getting beat affects most people. except animal abuse is illegal and you can do somethng about that! i am not saying all cars should be saved, one man's treasure is another man's junk. but if we had to give up our new cars with all the fine attributes [and safty features] and had to drive old cars we could fix up the way we want to, easilly, and not have to scrounge around for hard to find or expensive parts, that wouldn't be so bad! natural attrition like car wrecks, wear and tear, and just plain old RUST does enough to cut down on the older stuff with out the "Bubbas" of the world [pweston, no offence] gettng their "Ye-Haas" on the backs of our interest. demo derby is considered a sport. figure that one out.

[Smartin]

I know demo is a sport. I love watching them, too! I'm not sure I know what you're trying to say here, though. I just think some of the cars they use too nice/useable for the demo...

When I saw that 71 LeSabre in the pictures on my pirst post, I almost had a heart attack...sepecifically because it's such a rareity to me for that car to be in such fine condition. I'd rather not see allthread run through the hood and trunk.

Don't get me wrong, I think demo derby can be lots of fun, I actually wanted to so it sometime...but I didn't have the money or my $100 car to poke holes in!!

This particular link to the LeSabre just struck a nerve in me and I had to start this thread to see what others thought of it.

Thanks for the post---

Adam

[Guest Shaffer]

I like to watch the derbies too, but hate to see a classic, restorable 60s or 70s car crashed.

[rtabish]

sorry adam. i am just venting. the original link you posted at the beginning of this string refers to a county fair in ft. benton, mt. i have lived in montana most of my life and i have run into more demo derby/monster truck/tractor pull types than any other automotive related enthusiasts. i personally think derbys are dumb, in fact pointless,except for pure shows of aggression. in drag racing, stock cars, or other car performance displays nothing is supposed to get distroyed except tires. i know my logic can be used against me on this but i think demo derby kinda sucks. like i said before, one man's treasure is another man's junk.