I had a little Escort EXP two-seater that I wound a little tighter than it had been from Ford; I holesawed out a lot of metal and when i was done I could lift either end of the (Engineless) car by myself. the engine was… not stock, and I had played with the jets a bit, and replaced the stock muffler with a supertrapp, replaced the 4 speed with a 5 speed and changed the final drive a bit. I also did a bunch of little tweaks to the suspension- stiffener bars across the tops of the struts, moved the camber angle a bit, put on some wide grippy tires.

it wasn’t fast, but it was fun. You just about had to use the emergency brake to get the tail to kick out, but you could do it, and when you did, man, it was a hoot. One of my favorite pastimes (Gas was still under a buck a gallon, and a twenty would fill the tank and buy me a couple packs of smokes to boot) was to take it out on the expressway, find a fairly un-busy cloverleaf, and just do the cloverleaf faster and faster until I started to mow the lawn or take out marker signs.

Once or twice the local gendermerie would accost me and attempt to ticket me. Usually I was able to talk my way out of the ticket by acting stupid, at which I excel, some claiming it is hardly an act. “What am I being charged with, officer?”

‘Speeding”
“but there are no speed limit signs on the ramps (I knew that, because I’d plowed them under myself, the previous week) and this car just can’t go that fast! (he’d look at the car, a beat looking Escort with tape holding the rearview mirror in place)
And tell me to stop driving like an idiot and go away.

I bet I did a thousand miles just in cloverleafs that summer. Memreeeez.