A well-known "classic" case of the difficult nut was the single nut holding the rear wheel on the classic Beetle. The installation torque specification was, if I recall, something "North of 250 ft-lb" and as an additional complication the nut was precisely 1/16" larger than the biggest socket standard in a US 3/4" drive socket set. Naturally, when the wheel had been in place for a while it "got a little tighter."

The usual procedure, if you had the special oversize socket (that you "special ordered" for about the price of the rest of the set), was to use about a 6 to 8 foot cheater pipe on the wrench. Most people just got a 24" or larger Crescent wrench, jacked up the wheel, fitted the wrench onto the nut and blocked it against something solid, and then just fired up and dropped the clutch to get one off. (Sometimes it took several tries, even if you were carefull to have it in the right gear to turn the right direction.) Lots of wrenches got bent, either way, and with the "field method" lots of wrenches made some pretty spectacular flights.

John