Drove A Deathkart

"Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)" (bman76-4)
07/06/2020 at 09:54 • Filed to: None

This thing showed up to autocross today, and the owner asked me to take a run in it “to see what a good driver could do in it” (I have no illusions of actually being a good driver).

What I was told:

-Started life as a 1985 C4 Corvette

-Iron block truck LS

-automatic with a high stall converter

-some halfway decent Toyo tires on the front

-10 ply truck tires on the rear (zero grip)

-a general air of sketchiness (car was missing several lugnuts when it arrived, had to borrow some to pass tech)

-actually had 4 point harnesses though

I’ve never driven a vehicle before where its reaction to literally any input (throttle, braking, turn in, lift-off) was oversteer. Add to that the high stall converter turning every throttle input into a “wait then stab” and I spent all but about 5 seconds sideways.

Deathkart and my friend Jay’s Miata.

Results:

Owner’s best run - 74.000 seconds

My best run - 65.413 seconds

My best run in my Miata - 57.643 seconds

DISCUSSION (23)

CalzoneGolem > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:00

Yikes the missing lugs and crappy rears would have had me thinking I should not push it very hard.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:00

Yikes... You’re braver than me (but looks like there was a ton of runoff in all directions there).

TheRealBicycleBuck > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:06

Tires are underrated. I learned this from one of my uncles. When he married, his new wife came with a Firebird Formula One. It wasn’t a powerful car. It had trouble spinning the stock tires. All that changed when he had to buy tires for it. Being a young working-class couple, they really couldn’t afford the OEM tires, so he bought the cheapest tires he could find that were the correct size. The car turned into a burnout machine! He told me that the slightest blip of the throttle in a turn would kick the rear end out and he’d start drifting. Of course, being young, this was seen as a lot more fun. Not long after that, his wife was going down the gravel road to her parents’ house , lost control and totaled the Formula.

I think that was the last time they bought cheap tires.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > TheRealBicycleBuck
07/06/2020 at 10:09

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
07/06/2020 at 10:13

Yes and no. The farmer has recently put hay bales on the east side of the course (previously open to a field) and there’s an electric cattle fence on the west. My comment to some friends as I was getting in was “well at least there’s a cage, so when I end up in the fence I shouldn’t die”

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:14

Hooo boy...

-Started life as a 1985 C4 Corvette

Okay, that’s a pretty solid base. Not a bad platform. With hardcore weight reduction, it’d be pretty good.

-Iron block truck LS

So all the weight is in the nose. My guess is the owner bought it blown up and was bored with a hack saw and welder.

-automatic with a high stall converter

Okay, they DEFINITELY bought it blown up. With the iron block (and twin china turbos) this would be a decent drag build.

-some halfway decent Toyo tires on the front

-10 ply truck tires on the rear (zero grip)

-a general air of sketchiness (car was missing several lugnuts when it arrived, had to borrow some to pass tech)

Oh dear. Owner might be a hack.

-actually had 4 point harnesses though

Owner is a hack.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > CalzoneGolem
07/06/2020 at 10:14

Nah, it’s the kind of squirrelly that means you can’t build up too much speed before a spin.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > TheRealBicycleBuck
07/06/2020 at 10:15

If you’re running autocross on anything other than 200TW summers or slicks you’re doing it wrong.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > CalzoneGolem
07/06/2020 at 10:15

Eh. It’s autocross. Worst case, they eat a cone. With no bodywork, not much to damage. I don’t see any light posts or curbs in the pics.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/06/2020 at 10:17

The exo-cage was actually pretty well welded together. All the welds looked good, and the chassis felt stiff. But holy crap the automatic is the wrong transmission for this thing, and the tires have to go.

vondon302 > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:18

Well he gets a few style points for suicide doors on a death cart.

The missing lug nuts would of made me take a hard pass. What else they missing, lug nuts are kinda easy to spot.

CalzoneGolem > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/06/2020 at 10:18

I’m not sure that is the worst case if they didn’t bother to put all the lug nuts on before bringing it to autocross.

CalzoneGolem > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:19

So the crappy rears are a safety feature? Neat.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > vondon302
07/06/2020 at 10:20

This was resolved in tech. O ne of our other members had some extras he lent to him.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > CalzoneGolem
07/06/2020 at 10:21

Basically a grip fuse.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
07/06/2020 at 10:30

If it was a freshly built thing and the owner was just taking it autocrossing as a test and tune session, honestly none of this seems THAT bad. If they put a stock stall on it, maybe a manual valve body, it’d be a lot quicker. But a manual would be the way to go, obviously.