Scariest car experience

[Maxwedge]

To start it
Mine was when one night, a day after a really big rain, I was driving home in my dad's 89 Daytona on a "Chip and seal" paved country road. County road 68 in Dekalb County Indiana. In the dead of night with a road that was more or less black from the "seal" part of the pavement. Anyway Im doing 65 when I come over this small rise and I hit a HUGE puddle of water. Because it was a moonless night and the road was basically black I couldnt have seen the water. When I splash throught my front air dam must have caused a Large amount of suction because my front end dips down hard and my rear end pops up, what felt like 2-3 feet...all I can see is water, and its not the spayin kinda of water. I panic for a second and the rear end, while in the air kicks towards the passengers side. I wake up and put it in neutral and the rear end comes down. I put it in 3rd(for some reason) and I can hear the engine start to slow and gurgle because of the water in the exhaust. I put it in 1st gear and rev it to 4 grand and ease off the clutch. I managed to swim the Daytona out of the puddle..but man it was scary..
Maxwedge

[ehostler]

Well, I would say that there are several Ford Explorer owners that have had scarier experiences than mine, but here goes.

December 27th 1987 approx 2:30AM. Driving my 1970 Challenger back home, from a night of cruising in Reno. I was doing about 65 down the road, when one of my rear tires (N50 15) caught some sand, between the lanes, and caused the rearend to slip out from under me. In an instant, the rear had swung to my right and I was stareing at a rock face hillside. I fought to regain control of the car, before hitting the rocks. She finally responded and did a 180. Now I'm looking at the side of the road and about a 25 foot drop and a little distance beyond that, the freezing cold river. Again, I fight the car to try and straighten her out. She starts to come around, when the front right tire went off the shoulder. The rest of the car followed rather quick.

Before all was said and done, the car rolled over the embankement and became airborne as the car rolled on to the roof. While in the air, the car uprighted itself and did a 180. It came crashing down to the ground going backwards and on all fours.

Once everything came to a stop, the car was wedged between a tree on one side and a boulder on the other.

The car was a complete loss. The only piece of sheetmetal that did not sustain damage, was the deck lid. Lost all of the glass(except the windshield). Busted the center section out of a rear rim. Bent a steel ralley rim(in the front). Bent the front bumper up and into the grill. Engine was still running.

I survived with two minor cuts, from the glass that was flying around inside. Upon extracting the car, the next day, found a tree stump under the gas tank. The tree that belonged to it had been cut down, just that summer.




------------------
Ed - MoPower

'96 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT CC 360 4X4
'68 Charger 383-4
'69 Coronet 500 Convertible 440-4

[roodypoo]

i was driving our 76 dodge pickup this was about 6 years ago or so, i was 16, i was at the lake testing ice setups for my race sled, i had the sled in the back of the truck and was coming home with my gf at the time, the roads were perfect condition not icy at all, flying down the road doing about 65mph and i hit a icy patch on the road, the truck broke loose, kicked sideways, we were facing the ditch on the drivers side with the nose of the truck point towards it, then i corrected and the nose was exactly the other way, we went back and forth about 6 or 7 times before i got it straightend out, but the moron in the car in front of us most have been watching the mirror so he was slowing down, and as i got it straight i was almost on his bumper, i looked over at sarah and her face was white as a ghost, and i was stoked to be alive and the fact that i had saved it, if we would have hit a dry patch i know she woulda rolled.

[Blaine Peterson]

In the summer of 1970 I was on my way home from work in my '67 Coronet R/T. I was on a nice straight two-lane and decided to blow by a couple freinds in their cars. Put it up to 110 mph and when I pulled back in, my rear tires broke loose! I tried to correct but I couldn't do it. Hit a power pole with the rightside (just in front of the door), this sent the car veering off to the other side of the road where it slid rotating (not rolling) into five or six trees. When the car stopped I was in the back seat. I jumped out to look at the car. Not one undamaged piece of sheet metal left on the whole car. All the glass was broken out. The right front wheel, spindle, etc. wasn't even there. That was the devastating part of the accident. The scary part was when I hit the pole, it tossed me into the passenger bucket seat at which time I knew I was just along for the ride, and I was very sure I was going to die that day! It happened so fast but seemed to be happening almost in slow motion. At this time my perstective had changed greatly. I experienced some of the "my life flashed before my eyes' thing that we've all heard about. When the action stopped I was surprised to be alive, and thankful to be alive! Whew! Couldn't believe I survived that without wearing a seatbelt. Guess it wasn't my time. Two days later I got drafted into the military. Not a real good summer!
P.S. I realized what a stupid thing it was that I had done that day, and was very thankful that I hadn't caused injury or loss to anyone else!

[Molloy]

Mudding with a fat chick...

I was in my 95 RAM 3604x4 reg cab after a good rain. I was trying to make it up this steep bank on the far side of a creek. After the 3rd or 4th try, I got traction and made it to the top of the bank, but then the truck started to slide down the opposite side of the "levee". The bank/levee was pretty eroded so as I slid down, the drivers side of the truck got caught in a gultch and the truck violently rolled onto it's side.

So here I am in my truck, with pouring rain, flipped onto the drivers side. I can't open the door, and in the passenger seat, suspended over my by the seatbelt is this big, fat, pissed off, screaming fat chick. I'm just praying that the seatbelt holds.

My buddy was watching all this from the opposite bank. He put his wife in the truck and told me to "freak her out". Mission accomplished. Sheetmetal damage was real minor and limited to my lower door skin. 33x12.5 mudders helped protect the fenders.

I'll never forget that dangling, flailing fat chick. Sometimes it still wakes me up at night.

[Maxwedge]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
You rock man

[patrick66]

it was the Summer of 1978. A dark, moonless night in the Colorado high desert. My buddy and I are in his mom's '72 442 Cutlass on the way to a keg party. Going down a gravel county road, there was a gradually decreasing-radius turn to the left where, if you were going too fast, you'd end up off-roading it. Well, we hit the edge of the road at 55 and went sailing off the edge down a 50-foot embankment. Our friends were behind us and saw the whole thing. As we went off the embankment, it was like everything moved in slo-mo. We grabbed the dash and went along for the ride! After the Cutlass came to a halt, our friends ran down the hill expecting to see two dead bodies. The car was completely destroyed. The only things intact in the car were the radio and the console. The engine separated from the car. The sheriff estimated we rolled end-over-end 7 times! My friend dislocated his left shoulder and bruised his chest, while I had a big cut to the head and right arm. When we went off the road, it was if we were removed from the car and watched it from above, then put back in the car. Everyone expected death and destruction; fortunately only his Mom's car died and not us. This made me a firm, unswaying believer in God and seat belts!

[GUAM SS/T]

Ok, Back home there is a neighborhood street in Lufkin Texas called Lotus lane. A couple of blocks off the loop there is a railroad track that is about 2 1/2 feet above the street. What we used to do to people who would cruise with us is pretend we got lost and drive over the tracks. Once we crossed them we would pretend that we had taken the wrong road. No one remembers the tracks because they are real subtle from one side but it is a really good jump coming back. One night my cousin took me and my buddies out in her Dodge Colt. We told my buddies what we were gonna do, so we did about 40mph going over it the first time. Good jump but no big deal. We turn around and my best friend starts yelling "take it doin 60, take it doin 60!!" Well, My cousin floors it and the last time I was brave enough to look over her shoulder we had just passed 65mph. We hit the tracks and launched that car so far the General Lee would have turned green with envy. It seemed like a long time that we were in the air. My cousin didn't know how to pull off a serious jump and she let off the gas. This brought the front end down quickly and all I could see from the back seat was pavement. I thought for sure that we would land on the bumper and the car would roll up into a little ball. By some miracle the car didn't roll up!! It didn't even seem to take any damage. The only injury to us was that when my buddy lifted out of his seat, the bottle in his lap slid back under his butt and nearly buggered him on impact(serves him right) Later on that night the tranny started acting funny. It turns out that we landed so hard that the tranny pan had a whole scraped in it from the pavement. I knew almost nothing about cars at the time and told my cousin that if we put 4 quarts in it and drove home at a steady speed to avoid shifting we would probably be fine. I have no Idea if there was any truth at all to my theory but the car made it the 30 miles home.

[six pack]

Could I make a suggestion?
It's killin me to hear the deaths of these Mopar muscle cars(glad to hear people didn't die). Can we use alias's ?

[GUAM SS/T]

Isn't it sad that my cousins Dodge COLT didn't roll up and die, yet all these big muscle cars did. Where's the justice in that????

[Stoga]

Not sure what you mean by that, Guam. Both of my Roadrunners from 20 years ago saw their share. My 70 had both quarter panels pop riveted on by a former owner to conceal damage when running from the cops. Not a smart or recommended thing to do, but that Roadrunner got him home safe, I doubt a Colt could have done the same. My 68 Roadrunner, a beater work car in 1979, took more back road Dukes of Hazard style abuse then you can imagine, and was still running when I sold it to a friend. I remember Colts, they were yard ornaments within a few years of new around here. Even my current 68 Roadrunner, that I bought wrecked, fired up after being yahooed into a ditch by the former owners, Still runs fine on the original motor, just not too pretty yet at the present time. I could drive it if I had to. I can't even remember the last time I saw a Mitsubishi Colt.

[DartGT66]

Propably my scariest one was a few years ago; I was on my way home at night and there was some traffic in front of me. It was wintertime and a snowplow was opening the road ahead. I saw that the cars in front of me disappeared in to the 'snowstorm' when passing the plow truck, so I thought of doing the same. Didn't decelerate at all, had about 70 mph speed when going in to the snow. Suddenly I see a trail of rearlights ahead of me; it seem that the cars were scared of the plow truck and hadn't passed it. My speed was about double to them and ice under the tires, so braking was out of the question. I tried to aim my car between the cars in the front, and the 2 ft high snow wall on the left but got too close to the snow and it 'swallowed' the car to the area between the lanes. For a little while I saw nothing and didn't know which way I was heading because of all the snow flying around. Luckily I didn't hit any light poles or any other object, when I got the visibility back I was driving between the lanes where there was about 8 inches snow. I figured that to get back to the road I mustn't slow down, so I hit the pedal to the metal. There was a river approaching ahead and I tried to reach more speed and be able to steer the car back up to the road again. I got the front end theough the snow wall, but the rear end got stuck to the other side and the car continued sideways. Just before the fence of the bridge that went over the river the rear also came back to the road. I noticed that I had passed all the cars that were ahead of me, and the snowplow too, although the way wasn't quite as planned. The car got no injuries in that accident, but there was several possibilities for a real big accident. After that I have been pretty careful with those snowplows and have avoided driving through 'blind' spots with full steam.

[GUAM SS/T]

Stoga, That's exactly what I mean. It is annoying to me to know that my cousins colt didn't get totaled when it would never be worth anything, yet these musclecars get totaled. It just aint right.

[PRO]

Well I got this "ford" friend who drives on the extreme edge,his motto is "never lift" to complicate matters hes a wiring disaster,so he "rigs" up his new nitrous system on his own,it looked like spaghetti under his dash,so he shows up around 7PM and we go for a ride,hes driving a respectable 66 mustang,it ran 12.32 on the bottle later,so we head down this street,it has a slight downhill slant,he nails it at 15mph & were all over the road but shes flying,Im thinking ok ,its definetly fast,he hits 2nd then 3rd so were doing almost 100 pretty quick the only prob here is this street is only a little more than a 1/4 mi long and at 100 mph we aint gonna stop with much road left over,well he has 4 wheel disc so Im acting like no big deal,He finally lifts but the car keeps pulling,pulling hard!! hes all over the brakes but the car isnt stopping its just not accelerating,so he reaches over and turns off the key,but it wont shut off,now its detonating 10 times worse than I ve ever heard any diesel do,and its still trying to pull!!finally it backfires so loud I cant hear anymore which was accompanied by the biggest coolest flame Ive ever seen come out of a hood scoop!!it now dies and he stops about 10 ft short of the end of the road,of course Hes laughing while Im pissing my pants,but theres still plenty of fire under the hood so He jumps out trying to put out the fire while I cant get the seatbelt to unbuckle!!!He opens the hood to reveal a much bigger flame front heading my way soon!!Finally I get unbuckled and we throw whats left of the air cleaner in the ditch and pour half a water bottle over the melted carb and it goes out.....murder...how much time would I get?......that laughing..like it was an amusement park ride....my whole life had flashed before me....to top it all off we were right in front of the Chrysler dealership,if Id of died in a ford there would of never been any rest for my departed soul.....his n2o solenoid stuck wide open due to faulty wiring.....F.O.R.D. flipped out retarded friend.....PRO...

[Rampage Turbo]

It was about 24 years ago. Every Wednesday night the owner of the A&W had a swimming party at his house. Since I was driving Dad's '64 Dodge Van (Remember those?) everyone wanted to ride out with. I had about 7 people in there with me. We came to a split in the road & everyone encouraged me to go to the left and take the "bottom road" to the bosses house so that I could beat his son & everyone in his car to the party. Nobody knew that there was a fresh chip & seal job being done at the split about 50 feet in. The fact that the sign that said "Loose Gravel" was about 20 feet in didn't help. I hit the gravel at about 55 right when it went into a pretty sweeping lefthander. Full van, top heavy, & gravel-Not good. The back end started to come around and I knew enough to steer into it, but at 16 1/2 I oversteered. After about 3 back & forth wiggles I just stomped the brakes & cut the wheel doing my first 180. We came to a stop with a rock bluff on the right & a 10 foot ditch on the left. I felt bad but not as bad as I would when one of the girls in the back spoke up. She asked me if I could hurry but not as fast as I had been going. I asked if she was OK and she said "Yeah, but I just peed my pants." When we went back to town that night she was the only one who would ride with me. I'm sure glad God let me live through that one.

[This message has been edited by Rampage Turbo (edited November 10, 2000).]