What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

[hittman]

I've never owned what I would consider a fast car. I had an old cutlass supreme when I was a kid at home. Since then I've had a Nissan pickup, a Ford explorer, and a couple of Jeeps. My wife has a Mazda CX-9 that has plenty of HP for a grocery getter but now what I would consider a fast car.

 

[hittman]

Since we are talking about cars, I thought I'd share this article from yahoo.

https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motor...at-this-vw-thing-just-sold-for-145031709.html

 

[rothenbj]

I'm with you Rebel. My dad got me a '64 TR4 while I was in college and my sister started driving. The most unreliable car I ever owned bit it started my love for the foreign sports cars. The pictures car was as reliable as can be until I stopped driving her. I'm hoping now that it's running again it will continue to be that way.

My '90 Miata was the most fun and I'm sure it would still be in my drive today if it hadn't gotten accordianed in'02. That's when I bought the S2000 which is nimble and fast but not as fun as the miata/MX5.

As long as my body allows me to get in and out of them, I'll have one.

 

[Waho]

Never had a foreign sports car as I grew up in an "all GM, all the time" family and now currently work for GM (can't be caught in the parking lot with a foreign car), but the closest thing to one I've messed with was an 87 Pontiac Fiero GT a friend of mine had. He bought it and we played with that 2.8L V6 for a while before he nabbed a supercharged 3.8L V6 from a late model Monte Carlo and dropped it in there. Lots of fun in that little doughnut machine.

Mint
Coffee

 

[The Rebel]

I'm with you Rebel.

My '90 Miata was the most fun and I'm sure it would still be in my drive today if it hadn't gotten accordianed in'02.

As long as my body allows me to get in and out of them, I'll have one.

Speaking of accordioning a car, that's exactly what happened to my first 280ZX. Hit a patch of black ice and played pinball with some trees. Paramedics told me if I had my seat belt on, I'd would have died. Impact drove the steering straight down into the seat. I ended up laying in the passenger seat, feet facing the driver side window when I came to. I found one of my shoes wedged between the headrests. Hit back end first, then spun around and nearly tore off the front end. Walked away with nothing more than a sore shoulder. Had a guardian angel looking out for me that night for sure.

 

[Waho]

Wow Rebel, you really did have someone looking out for you there.

 

[rothenbj]

Yeah, they don't look so good when they become junk-



Of course that looks much better than the rolled over Elantra-





Ugh...

 

[hittman]

You folks are too rough on cars. I've had a couple accidents over the years but nothing like that.

 

[rothenbj]

I was standing still in construction traffic when the Miata got taken out and I saw it coming. An SUV was bearing down on me full blast, probably on his phone. I had a second to look to see if I could move anywhere but was surrounded by concrete and cars. My second look up was the same speed and 10 yards off my car, then I was sucking airbag dust.

The Elantra was my gf. She doesn't know what happened. She was with her 2 or 3 year old nephew and her dog. She was getting off the exit ramp to get something to eat. My guess is she turned her head to let him know she was stopping, hit the guard rail knocking herself out on the window. Her only memory of the accident was someone helping her out of the car telling her she rolled it. She had veered to the other side of the road, hit a boulder which rolled the car. Luckily other than a few scrapes, they were all fine after a few days. That dog must have had one heck of a tumble.

 

[rothenbj]

Well, first day of spring certainly didn't act like it and I had a new experience. We got about 4/5" of fresh wet snow. The gf just had to go out this morning. I planned just to stay home and keep the drive cleared every couple inches because I knew it was going to be tough if it got to deep. Then I got the phone call, she managed to get a flat. This was the second in two weeks. The first one wasn't her fault, there was a hole on the inside sidewall. Not sure how it happened but I really couldn't fault her.

This one I was fairly sure she created and asked her where she ran over a pothole which she quickly denied. Of course once I got there she confessed. So I changed it and sent her off to drop of the tire to get the new one on and stopped by a friends house to get some coffee and waste some time. I decided since I was out, I'd take my shovel and at least clear a few inches off my uncle's drive so he wasn't out the shoveling. While I was stopped, I found they were short on wood pellets and I was going past a store that had some so I volunteered to pick up 10 bags. Took care of all the tasks and headed home. Here's where I had my new experience.

I was about a mile from home and I suppose I was thinking more about getting there and getting my drive done than driving. It was only a gentle curve but the AWD Escape lost traction and I was heading for a drop off on the other side of the road into a couple feet of water. Not a good place to end up. I managed to get going the opposite direction a foot or so from the drop off, but unfortunately I went 480 to the other side of the road into the gutter about 3/4 feet off the road. That's the first time I ever lost total control of a vehicle.

Fortunately it looks like I have no body damage. If there is any, it wasn't noticeable. I'm sure there's going to be some scratches in the paint because I did catch bush before I came to a stop, but whatever there might be, it's not bad enough to worry about. Now alignment might be another issue but if felt okay on the short ride home. It could have been much worse. Don't know how deep that water was, but at minimum, I would have been soaked.

 

[hittman]

I'm glad it turned out ok Roth. That is some scary stuff. The only time I remember losing total control was when I was 22 and left work in a snowstorm. I got about ten miles out from work on the interstate and lost control in my Nissan pickup on ice. I went backwards into a ditch and had to have it towed. Back then I drove about 50 miles to work each way. Never again. For the past 17 years it's been about 12 miles each way.

 

[rothenbj]

Yeah, the closest I ever came before was in my old Ford Ranger going to work. I got off an exit and it was all ice but I got that under control quickly and stayed on the highway. I've had the rear end give numerous times in rear wheel drive vehicles but always caught it right away. I almost felt like the rear end lost grip while the front end was still pulling heading from that little pond. I think the spin was over reaction to not wanting to take a bath.

 

[hittman]

I don't blame you. It's hard to keep your head straight in a situation like that. My old 02 Jeep Liberty was like a tank in the snow. It seemed like I could go through anything. The new one isn't quite as good in the snow. Probably has something to do with the 20" wheels.

 

[rothenbj]

I had a rear wheel drive Datsun (now Nissan) wagon back in the 70s. The winter before Nixon resigned we went on a ski trip to Vermont. I don't even know who arranged it, probably Drew Lewis, a fellow who made a fortune being CEO's of bankrupt companies and revitalizing them by axing until they were less bankrupt. This might have been a party meeting for his run for PA Governor. I know a lot of political types were there including the Senator from PA who I bought a toothbrush for when he realized he forgot his. Yes, it was a political planning week for his '74 gubernatorial campaign because it's the year that Nixon resigned and Senator Schweiker told us that Nixon would resign something like six months before it happened.

Anyway, we got to Sugarbush Mountain and the resort was different than most ski areas. Instead of the lodge being at the base of the mountain, it was at the top with all these homes built around it. Unfortunately, instead of snow they were getting freezing rain and it didn't change much until we left. I think we had 5 or 6 cars that traveled in a caravan together. You know Mercedes and Lincolns and big flashy Jeeps and my Datsun. You could see up the road the carnage. All types of cars had slid off the road and into guard rails and such. We stopped and tried to figure out if we could make it.

I had driven that Datsun in a lot of ugly stuff and it could always handle whatever I asked it to. I told them I was sure I could make it so I took off first with address in hand. I got up with nary a slip. I guess it took about half an hour but I was in the chalet for another hour and a half before any of them got up the hill and I have a feeling that they needed to wait until a salt truck assisted them. I loved that little car. I bought it soon after I got out of the Army new for like $2,500. Ran great for about 8 years until it started rusting out.

 

[hittman]

I didn't think about it much back then but my Nissan was an accident waiting to happen. It had a drop kit on it with 50 series low profile tires. They weren't stretched over the rims like some I saw but they were low profile and if I had better tires for the climate then I might have avoided that accident.

 

[rothenbj]

Never had low profiles and really never liked the look of them for some reason.

 

[hittman]

I got it when I was in the army and thought it was cool then. I ended up trading it in on an explorer a few years after I got out. There was no snow where I was stationed.

 

[rothenbj]

I got a chance today to look at what I got very lucky to avoid yesterday. It wasn't a pool of water as I had envisioned. it was a stream that ran under the road and formed a pool and the drop off would have been about three feet. My tracks were about a foot from going over and I hit rocks that were 5-6 inches in diameter. I also traveled a lot further down the road than I thought. My 480 degree spin traveled a good 30 yards below where I almost went it.

I was real lucky.

 

[hittman]

All the better that you avoided it.

 

[rothenbj]

Went on a seven can shopping spree for mint today. I think I have a few more $1 off coupons if I can find the right cans before April 1st and the stock stay in the stores.