As we all know, mankind has the inborn desire and ability to create beautiful things. We also get a kick out of destroying things too. Some 38 years ago I had a rather surreal experience discovering this paradox of human nature. Have you ever tried to destroy a car on purpose?
Nearly four decades ago, I watched a fraternity do such a thing, using a 1970 Pontiac LeMans much like this one as the centerpiece of a college rite of passage. The plan seemed simple: smash it, abuse it, and eventually kill it. The surprising part was how stubbornly the old six-cylinder Pontiac refused to cooperate.
To tell this story we have to go back to the late 1980s and my bright college days at NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology).
NJIT was considered a good school, but it was located in the middle of the riot-torn, hard-core Newark ghetto. Parking was a big problem. Students spent a lot of time plodding along the crumbling neighborhood streets in their cars, looking for a parking space. And when your classes were over and you came back to your car–would it still be there? Auto theft and vandalism were quite common.
These are the lucky kids who found a space in one of the few on-campus lots. These lots filled up fast. Typically, you had to be on campus at 6:30 to 7:00 AM to snag one of these spots. You can see what kinds of cars students were typically driving back then.
While most NJIT folks wanted to avoid venturing into the surrounding neighborhood, I had a little hobby of exploring the old city streets and taking photographs. I wanted to preserve on film examples of the city’s 19th and early 20th century architecture which, even at that time, was rapidly disappearing. I inadvertently captured images of a lot of “Curbside Classics” in the process–cars rarely seen today:
You had to be kind of tough to go to NJIT–the area was gritty, industrial, more than a little dangerous. The school was 90% male–a lot of “Jersey Boys” who were street smart, intelligent, and looked out for each other. They worked hard and played hard and partied hard too. Some of the fraternities had an “Animal House” reputation. A few of them were on “Double-Secret Probation”. One of the frats sponsored a “car smash”.
The event took place in a college parking lot next to this house (which was pink and about to be demolished).
Enter “the victim”. The car to be destroyed was a 1970 Pontiac LeMans 4-door with the 250 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine and automatic transmission. I don’t know if it was a hardtop or a sedan. I tried hard to find appropriate “stand-in” photos from the internet. This patina’ed example is the closest I can find to the car I saw.
When I first saw this LeMans, I thought, “This is actually a nice car with excellent Pontiac styling. It runs and drives; why do we have to destroy it? Future generations will curse us for doing this.” Of course, at this point any talk of preservation was out of the question.
First the car body was covered with spray paint graffiti, with crudely painted flames and sayings like “GHETTO CRUISER”, “DISCO SUCKS”, “KILL BARNEY” (the last being a reference to PBS’s Barney the Dinosaur who was universally scorned by my peers for being so sugary sweet and annoying). Then the windows were smashed out. Participants were given a large hammer to pound on the body. When you become part of a mob, you get caught up in the moment and you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. I gave the hood and fenders a few whacks, and I was amazed how little I was able to dent the sheet metal. A big difference from the flimsy Pontiacs of the ’80s I was familiar with.
It was time for the next stage of automotive torture. The oil was drained, the engine was started, and people made bets on how long it would take for the engine to seize. Ten minutes was considered average. Time went on, and the engine continued to idle. After about twenty minutes, the engine still kept running! Maybe someone put Slick 50 or Duralube in the crankcase? The mob got impatient. Most of the bettors are losing money. The future engineers had a solution. Someone slipped into the driver’s seat, drove the car up against a concrete retaining wall, poured the drained oil under the rear tires, put the transmission into DRIVE, and gunned the accelerator.
The rear tires spun violently, and soon acrid-smelling white smoke was billowing everywhere. The mob quickly stepped back in a reflexive act of self-preservation. There was so much smoke, I thought the Newark Fire Department would show up, but I’m sure they were attending to other disasters. The tires spun faster now, and the steel cords inside the tires began scraping the pavement–thus producing glowing sparks and red flames while spewing deadly projectiles (which I called “rubber raisins”) all over the place. The noise was deafening. The few girls in the crowd started to scream. I got the chilling sense that the situation was getting out of control. I was horrified, but at the same time a little voice inside me said, “Yeah–YEAH! This is cool!!!”
Then suddenly–BANG! The engine seized, and a new cloud of smoke emerged from the hood area. It was over. The poor car just couldn’t take any more. Soon, the ruined carcass was dragged with chains onto on flatbed. Luckily there was a scrapyard conveniently located nearby.
I started to think about who bought this LeMans originally. Someone may have walked into a Pontiac dealer wanting a practical mid-size car, good on gas. Didn’t want to spend a lot of money. A 4-door model, with automatic transmission and the 250 six cylinder engine. The then-fashionable metallic gold color was chosen, which gave the car a burnished, sunny glow. Full wheelcovers and double-stripe whitewall tires. A basic car with a little bit of extra class. Something to be proud of. I’m sure it provided many years of excellent service. As Pontiac advertisements proclaimed, “This Is The Way It’s Going To Be.”
From everything I have read, this Turbo Thrift engine with its seven main bearings (purchased from the Chevrolet Division) was one of the smoothest, most durable, and torquey six cylinder engines ever made. I’m sure it gave smooth, satisfying, and reliable performance in the cars and trucks it was installed in. Our Pontiac buyer chose well. As I personally witnessed, you almost can’t kill it. The fact that our subject car lasted 18 years before being deliberately destroyed is a testament to how solid and well-engineered these cars were.
But these 6 cylinder 4-doors are mostly gone and forgotten now–nearly all of them have disappeared. When doing my image searches for this post, I found plenty of hopped-up LeMans and GTO coupes and convertibles with 400 and 455 V-8 engines, but it was very hard to find any pictures of original 6 cylinder models, 2-door or 4-door. The hobbyists and collectors generally aren’t interested in a pleasant-driving, easy to maintain vintage car that evokes nostalgic memories. They want to do burnouts and hear thundering exhausts. I guess, as the Pontiac ads said, “This Is The Way It’s Going To Be.”
College car smashes are still going on–here’s a recent one from Oklahoma University. The rallying cry here is “Beat Texas!” (SAXET is TEXAS spelled backwards). Maybe someone can tell us what kind of car this is. Man the creator; man the destroyer. Human nature never changes.
Further CC Reading:
Cohort Outtake: 1970 Pontiac LeMans Sport–The Insurance Special by Paul Niedermeyer
Engine History: The Quickest And Slowest Chevy Turbo-Thrift Sixes by Paul Niedermeyer
That poor car looks like a Nissan Altima
I think it’s a 2004ish Mitsubishi Galant
Yes, I remember a time when these kinds of stunts were not uncommon. And they picked a tough one to take down.
I love the period photos! That on campus parking lot seems to have a Renault LeCar/5.
I recall a car smash at the local college some number of years ago. They used a 90s Pontiac Sunfire four door sedan. I remember feeling bad for the thing but thinking at least they picked a car no one cares about. That fraternity probably thought the same thing about that LeMans.
That Chevy Six was a tough, tough engine. Millions of miles in taxicab service. Also factory-installed in a lot of Checker cabs after they stopped using the Continental Six. Plus being the base engines in millions of Chevy pickups, many of which were abused and overloaded.
As always, I love the old urban photos of landscapes that have gone the way of most of the cars.
I remember being at a county fair when I was maybe 12 years old. Someone was doing a fundraiser and selling 5 hits with a big handheld sledge on an old car – a mid 50’s Buick! I begged my father for a ticket and he bought me one. I was really amazed at how little damage I could do on that car. Part of it was me, I am sure. But part of it was that tough old Buick.
JP: Glad you liked the urban photos. Here’s one I forgot to include: St. Michael’s Hospital (opposite Fraternity Row), 1987.
Thank you for not describing the person that bought the Pontiac new as “cheapskates” or “cheaping out”. Too many time an otherwise decent article on a car is ruined by a juvenile and snotty comment. People bought what they could AFFORD back then and some people just wanted a good basic car. What people bought is not of anyones business since it was THEIR money.
The Chevy 250/292 and Ford 200/250 all had 7 main bearings and were incredibly tough. Also the Ford 240/300s were and still are legends.
To be fair, all the I-6 engines of the era were pretty darn tough, so I’d add the \6 Chrysler and the I-6 from AMC.
The Mopar Slant 6 was a good engine as well but a pain to work on. The AMC, Ford and GM ones were much easier to work on.
I always hated these sort of car smashing escapades, but on the other hand Pontiac themselves really beat the Lemans with ugly stick for 1970, coming off the 68-69s
I enjoyed the article,reminds me of the hijinks of my youth”light em’up!” ” Smoke show” and of course the Horribles. Always loved those GM A body 4 door hard tops- they looked so much better than a sedan! One neighbor had a dark blue’70 Skylark another a ’67 light blue Lemans with the OHC-6 . BTW – The comments are not appearing on my android tablet. No problems with my Motorola Edge phone or computer
Of course you have to remember when Top Gear tried to destroy a Toyota Hilux pick up truck.
In college, the frats were more into the David Letterman style roof test… throwing various objects off a roof. Nowadays we can just watch the pneumatic press channel on You Tube.
For some unknown reason, this completely destroyed Plymouth Acclaim or Dodge Spirit was displayed in 2009 in one of the parking lots at Mary Baldwin College (now University) in Staunton, Virginia (on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains from our home in Charlottesville). I’m up on the car performing a roof crush test (back when I could still climb and jump).
The one I remember was a 1979-80ish (pre ’82 since it had FORD spelled out in block letters, no blue ovals) Country Squire in the mid ’90s.
Smashing up abandoned or ‘junker’ cars is nothing new. One I remember in 1987 or 1988, was on campus at Texas State Technical Institute (now College) in Waco, Texas. The Automotive Technology program took in its fair share of donated cars &trucks from both dealers and automakers…so many that the school had to scrap many of them after a few years. I remember an ’84 Olds 98 Regency that was the victim of a charity smash on campus back then. Of course, I also remember that many local fire departments also send many vehicles to the afterlife during fire and rescue training. I remember my hometown FD (Killeen, TX) using both a lime green ’70 Plymouth GTX and a dark metallic green ’69 Dodge Charger in 1982 for practice using the Jaws of Life…after which it used both cars to practice extinguishing car fires..
Don’t even get me started on monster truck shows…I remember a mid-’70s Pontiac Grand Am 4-door being crushed under the wheels of the King Kong monster 4×4 F-250 in the early ’80s…
NJIT Class of 86 here . Rough is being kind. With Central High sandwiched between Eberhardt and Colton/Campbell, it could be downright dangerous. I witnessed many incidents where “students” terrorized folks from NJIT, roaming our buildings and parking lots. Classes that extended into the night were fun. Your explorations were brave.
Sigma Phi held a car smash in the fall of 85. Victim was 74 or 75 Duster. Like Bugs Bunny and the gremlin in the Loney Tunes cartoon, I took a few whacks at it with an aluminum baseball bat (safer and more durable than a wood -we were engineering students). One way to vent some frustration over the C on my Fluids exam. I can still feel the vibrations!
Best parking was in the “Lunar Lot” or the “Slanted Lot” off High St (Dr. Martin Luther Blvd)
I also recall being told that the Mechanical Engineering building was a former Cadillac dealer
Cang, Great to hear from another NJIT person who was there about the same time I was. I’m sure we both experienced a lot of the same things. I remember the name “Lunar Lot”–it was called that because the pavement (or lack thereof) was so full of potholes and craters that it was like trying to drive on the surface of the moon!
Nowadays, there’s a new parking deck which solved a lot of the parking problems. Many of the old buildings I photographed are now gone. NJIT has built a lot of new buildings which, it seems, were designed to be especially Brutalist and ugly and out of character with their surroundings, like Fenster Hall which clashes with the old castle. What does that say about NJIT as an architecture school? LOL!
I always felt that the lack of saving beautiful older buildings was a shame .
I’ve been involved in thrashing a few cars to death, one, a mid 1960’s Dodge V8 refused to die even after I drained all the oil out of it .
-Nate
I love these slice ‘o life photos.