Hey guys, I haven't been on here much anymore but I thought you might be interested in this. Finally crossed this one off my bucket list, I've always wanted to compete in a derby. I was offered free use of a car destined for the crusher, so no better time than the present. Here's the album:

The car I started with, a 1997 Toyota Camry, V6 automatic. My cousin hit a tree with it, and it still ran and drove fine (minus having no power steering) but wasn't really worth fixing.



For a little better offense and defense I wanted a stronger front bumper, so I pulled the one off of this big old beauty at a scrapyard:


Car's in the process of being stripped, front bumper is on. It's both bolted and welded directly to the frame.


Protective cage built inside. They're actually old driveshafts, and held up surprisingly well. The steering wheel is out of an '86 Toyota 4Runner, the gas tank is an old metal 6 gallon boat tank bolted through the floor where the back seat used to be, and the battery ended up on the front passenger floor area.


All built, doors wired shut, almost ready. Base coat of paint, $20/gallon Tractor Supply 'steel gray' laid on with a roller.


Paint finished. The goal was to look like an old fighter plane from WWII.






Unfortunately, there are no action shots as it was dark and none of them came out. I was hoping someone would upload a video to youtube, but I haven't found one. What ended up happening is I blew both of my front tires and couldn't move. The car didn't shut off once and had more than enough power to shove other cars around in the mud. I ended up getting 6th place out of 18 cars. 1st went to a AMC Pacer, 2nd to a '88 Civic sedan (surprisingly), 3rd to a '95 Mustang, 4th to a Subaru Forester, and 5th was a Pinto wagon.

Here's the aftermath, after washing off 50 pounds of mud and changing tires:









The car is ready to go again, all it needs is some new tires. It's hibernating through the winter full of antifreeze and will be back in action next summer. Turns out, it's even more fun than it looks.

a fitting end for a fucking Camry.
The mods to your car would never pass here with the way the rules are set up. They're very picky with what you can and can't do to your car and demo cars have to (seriously) pass a tech inspection before they get rolled on to the track.

as for Pintos... my 80 Pinto ended its life in a demolition derby in 1998... it got heavy hitter and finished 1st in it's class. Brian never took his foot off the gas and just kept smashing the shifter from 1st to reverse, most of the time without the clutch. The engine went on to live in an 80's Mustang and ended its days (as I know of) in a race car at Airborne Raceway in Plattsburgh NY.

Since it was my first, I built it exactly to the rules, I didn't want to be turned away. But I am finding out that rules vary greatly between places. For instance, my car was not eligible for the next town over. I just built it for the derby I most wanted to enter.

I really want to see these pics but for some reason they won't load on my macbook. I'll try again in a few hours on a different computer.

Sweet! Probably the best thing you could have done with the car. I hope to see the butt-turrible family Avalon meet the same fate eventually.