driving stunts/tricks?

just saw a guy pull a 180 degree turn at the local burger king today in a civic si...looked pretty cool to me. just out of curiosity, has anyone tried to do these manuevers with their benzes? i would think the benzes are well equipped to perform such tasks, esp. with the rear wheel drive configuration...if so, do you guys know how? i wouldn't mind doing a burnout the next time my friends make fun of my 89 300E as being a sleeper and a "granddaddy car' haha...thanks...

[420SEL]

Go to your local video store and pick up a copy of Ronin. They do a pretty cool 180 turn like you mention in a 6.9.

(professional driver on a closed set, do not atempt at home )

[Q]

I used to work at a garden center when I was a young pup. After closing time, all of us idiots would take turns doing "batman turn-arounds" as the redneck who started it called them. Start off at the top of the parking lot and accelerate in first, then pull up or press the emergency brake lever. My friend knocked the rear tire's bead off of his wheel on his old Cutlass. Man were we stupid.

I think you mean the "J" turn. Floor it in reverse and when your are at like 30 cut the wheel hard and put the car in nuetral. Then correct the steering wheel for strait as you come around 180 degrees and put the car in 1st and floor it.

It looks real cool, and was even part of the car test on the old shows on speedvision. It has to be hell on the car though and worse for the tires. If you must try it, do it on sand or light snow first in an open lot. good luck.

[Ashman]

ok well the easiest way to at least get some wheel spin, though I'm not sure how good it is for the car, Is to do a brake stand.

if the car is an auto, you plant your let foot on the brake and hold it down as hard as you can. Put your right foot on the gas, and startt o give it gas, slowly, until you hear the wheels start to break loose, once you hear the squeal, you can give it some more gas. when you are ready, release your foot off the brakes, and stomp your right foot down, and you should have a pretty quick take off.

I don't condone doing this, but that would one way to generate some wheelspin in front of your friends.

I have done it before in an 85 190e 2.3 and an 87 560sel.

The 190 was the best because you wouldn't hear squeal from the tire, the rear would just get loose are start swaying form side to side.

I've done it once in my 300CE, made a nice loud squel, some smoke, and I rocketed off quite nicely too. o course I only do this once a while as I feel its not good for the car.

But your friends will be quite amazed when they hear that high pitched squeal.

Alon

[yal]

I believe the 180 degree maneuver is considered a good safety technique to learn, especially for people with expensive luxury cars. Its taught in some exclusive safety driving courses as a way to get out of a potential car jacking and the like. Pretty cool when its done right. Must be killer on the tranny though if you screw up!

One vital question: can i do all of this on a stock suspension? I feel that with the soft OEM springs the car might roll over when i try these crazy turns. I do have 17x7.5 rims on 215/45 Dunlop rubber. Also, Eibach springs are going in in the spring, so should i wait until the car is lower on the center of gravity and stiffer.

Does anyone know how to do power slides and "rally turns" with a 1989 300E, automatic? haha...thanks

[SHYNE]

Before I decided on my 190E 2.6, I test drove a number of other 190's and some 300E's.

Obviously I had to take advantage of this.

Brake stands are nothing big, just stomp the gas and left foot brake at the same time. The tranny will downshift to 1st and spin rapidly. Let off the brakes when the tranny shifts into 2nd and it will break out nicely. Hard on the diff and tranny but, if it is a test drive and you've already spotted some flaws, what the hell?

Power slides need to be practiced in open snow covered parking lots at first. Very hard to balance the car when sliding so I would never recommend it on the street. If your overconfident and stupid, do it in the rain, 300E's lack the power to do any real power slides on tarmac.

Edict: it sounds like you need to goto an autocross and learn to slide your car in a safe envirnment. Before you start spending big money on your car you should know how it handles first. All of these slides you want to do would be MUCH easier on the factory rubber. Your just making it hard on your self now.

I'd recommend you have your dealer put in the 5mm pads and 1 degree of negative camber all around, get some autocross rubber for your stock rims and go have some fun. After a few events you'll be able to drive the way you want to.

[CaptAlex300e]

What's a power slide ? I know what a J turn is, the Secret Service uses the technique to protect the pres.

[Jim Anderson]

I knew a guy in high school that could do a brake stand with a standard transmission.

I've seen on TV the secret service doing J turns with limos. The back wheel comes off the ground, pretty neet. I've done them a lot in the snow, back when I lived there, along with other fun stuff. It's one of the few things I miss since moving to Southern California. I'm ALMOST jealous of all you east coasters.

I accept no liability but my take:

Get on the slippery stuff to try this maneuver! There is a *DEFINITE* rollover risk to this (meaning that there is a speed where given your grip, you WILL roll). It has to do with physics. On an e-brake slide (moving forward), you can still roll, but you can perform it at much faster speeds because the light end of the car is pivoting around the heavy end. Remember that the part of the vehicle furthest out of the spin is moving faster than the pivot and also has greatly increased torque (read: rollover) tendencies. So if you try a reverse J-turn you're actually sliding the heaviest end of the car and using the light end as your pivot. Dangerous. Especially hard on the tranny if you don't get it right, as there's an instantaneous transition from backward roll to forward roll and I recall hearing it's much harder to do if you put the tranny in neutral before you cut the wheel (something about using horsepower to initiate the slide versus momentum alone). I'd like to try perfecting it on snow but alas, it's been 70 degrees and sunny out here in Calif all winter.

I did this once out of necessity on a sand-and-cobblestone street in Cabo when realized that I had made a tequila turn down the wrong way of a busy 3-lane street and had three pickup trucks round the corner in front of me. About killed the tranny and tires in the rental and only made it about three-quarters of the way around. Plus it threw my buddy over and onto my lap (not recommended - at all - but esp with passengers). I'm sure the sand helped but I was freaking on the trucks so I couldn't really analyze the move - it was more a panic situation.

As for driving on two wheels, maybe some info at http://www.dukesofhazzard.com?!

[G-Man]

I have done the brake stand in a 455 4 speed Trans Am. It is a bit tricky but the concept is the same. Pop the clutch to break the tires loose then hit the brake and gas hard simultainously. I wouldn't worry too much about rolling. My buddies and I used to whip big tire smoking donuts in our parents full size conversion vans. As a matter of fact we did some amazing things in those beasts. No wonder my Gwagen doesn't feel at all tippy. Manuvers like these were always best perfected on a frozen lake away from the fishermen.

The best thing to do would be to go skip barber or one of those other driving schools to learn everthing you wanted to know and have the knoweledge of how to control the car so you can do it safely, so you know what you're doing.

[CaptAlex300e]

Or you can at least go to a open parking lot to practice.

I never knew you can flip over doing doughnuts. I've never done it, (it burns tooo much rubber)