near death experience in your hotrod?

Who here has had a real near death experience in there hotrod or at least come way to close for comfort. I know I have one moment that stands out that I litterally turned white and stepped out of the car shaking. Heres my story. I had just got my 1966 morris minor gasser running and drivable and was excited to show it off to my friends and to my dads local hotrod shop customers. One of my dads customers bravely stepped foreward and wanted to take a ride up the block and back. I had driven the car a few times already, but hadn't really pushed it that hard before this ride. We headed up the street and I layed into it. I was very familiar with the street I was driving on so I kind of pushed the limits. Heres where it went wrong. When I layed into the gas, the brake pedal pushrod fell out of the master cylinder(cause im an idiot, and I didn't fabricate a pedal stop to keep it from happening) and we went flying through a 3 way stop at about 70 narrowly missing traffic and flew into a dirt field(still no brakes), and then on top of that there was a big dip in the field and we hit it and went flying( i could swear we were feet of the ground, thank god it was a gasser!). This whole time I was digging under the dashboard desperately trying to get the brake pedal pushrod back in place in hopes to save us and the car. We finally came to a stop luckily. No need to say, Fred (the customer) thinks I'm frickin crazy and hasn't asked for a ride since. I went straight back to the shop and modified the brake pedal so this would never happen again, once I regained my composure of course. That was my one free pass. Tell us about yours, I know I would like to hear about some of the crazy shit I know you guys have done.

 

I have had many close calls, one memorable stupid move was getting on it on a wet road I did a 360 around a telephone pole. I had a 62 Fairlane with a 289 HP motor 4 speed and 4.11's that I tried to raise the front of with coilovers, I got on it and the front end lost control like on ice, the guy who was with me walked home.

 

Just driving my truck down the highway maxxed out at around 60 seems like a near death experience as people whiz by at 80 and its about 110 decibels inside, but I've gotten use to it.

 

Allright, I'll play along.

I got a 9 year old daughter. Back when she was about 2, I delivered a newspaper route. It was a monster route that was 106 miles long and had over 1000 sunday customers [and it payed over $1000 a week]. At any rate, this route was a "rural route" that snaked it's way along countless miles of country road and highway.

I had killed a lot of cars delivering that route, so I decided to get something that was extremely high quality. I bought a near new BMW 325 il 4 door with ~30k on the clock. It was expensive, but I figured the quality was worth it.

So this one morning, I'v got my baby daughter along for the ride. There's this one strech of country 2 lane about 4 or 5 miles long with just a couple customers on it. Now, if you can picture delivering papers on a driving route, I had to cross over to the opposite side of the road to deliver them out of my drivers side window. Fortunately, there's something resembling an emergency lane, so I'm not actually blocking the opposing lane, just kinda "parallel parked facing the wrong way".

I get to a customers house that's at the base of a hill and as I'm stuffing the paper into the box, I notice head-lights shining over the top of the hill in front of me, which means there's a car comming. Not really a problem as there's pleanty of time for me to get back over on my side of the road before the approaching car ever even knows I'm there, but something makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Just a strange gut feeling....

I take my foot off the brake to make the quick jump across the road back over to my side, and I hear a voice say as plain as day "NO!!!". I hav eno clue where that voice came from, or who's it was, but at that exact moment, the near new BMW just died... No motor, no lights, no nothing... Absolutely dead!

I'm not sure what I heard, or what happened, but the headlights crest the hill, and it's not just a car comming at me, but a Ford pickup truck passing him!!!!!!!!

As if that first part wasn't strange enough, here's where it gets freaky!

So I'm sitting there, totally off the road, no lights or engine, car completely dead, and I watch the truck start to come back over into his lane as they both pass me. The truck comes over, and keeps going, right off the road, into the ditch. Bounces back into the roadway, skids around, and flips up on it's side..... WOW~!

So as I'm watching all this happen, my BMW comes back to life. Lights come on and the engine is running even tho it was dead a split second before, and I never turned the key to re-start it.

I make a u-turn and go back 200 or so feet to where the truck came to rest, and helped a lady climb out of it..... She was drunk as a skunk. She could barely even stand up!

Had I gotten back over into my lane, it would have been a horendous head-on, probably involving all 3 cars... I dont know, nor will I question exactly what happened that morning, but there was some higher power watching out for me and my Daughter!

 

There was that time with Officer Bitcon's daughter...

Dam he was acurate with a flashlight..had that genital radar thing...

 

pir8, thats the most awesome story ever. Really, thanks for that one.

 

well, i hate one time on my 650 yamaha land speed bike that i was taking it for a test drive down the road, roughly 140 mph ( in a 30 mph back country road) when i let off, and went to hit the back brakes. I felt the pedal, then as i was pushing on it, it disapeared. The nut came off, and the rear brake pedal fell off. Its not fun stopping at that speed with a front brake, but at least it was an oversized rotar. Had another experiance with that were the bolt that held the back of the fuel tank vibrated off, and the gas tank hit me in the chest at 100 mph.

 

Was at hamber [one way] shop with my 60 chevy doing power brake burnouts. 283 powerglide car just installed new alternator [key word].

launched the car from the smoke , got a good wholeshot when the return spring on carb broke. First reaction was to turn ign key off. forgot to rig a diode in alt wiring so car kept running, headed for some dump trucks W.O.T........punched the brakes blew the the pedal to the floor. Throwing the car in reverse slowed me down and started the car moving oposite direction. The guys at the shop started running for cover as i headed back twards them in reverse W.O.T..........shifted down to drive, headed back twards the dump trucks, bumped it into neutral, rpm's to the sky, sideswiped some buildings to slow it down, jumped out and pulled air cleaner, smothered carb with a rag.

embarassing moment in time for me

 

Nobody informed me that the Straight 8 in a Pontiac is so damn long and heavy that if the drivers engine mount is weak it will throw the engine over onto the throttle cable and stick it wide-ass-open. The first day I owned this car was a learning experience.

 

all my scary moments have usually been wen i be showing off. have i learned not to show off? proberbly not! lol

 

Break the motor mounts in a '60 Pontiac or another GM car with rods for throttle linkage and those old mounts that were rubber with a piece of steel on each side, and the motor will lift and jam the throttle wide open. Not as bad as it seemed, manual brakes and manual steering so it was kill the key, let the motor flop down, and start it again - and be real, real easy on the gas until the new motor mounts came. Probably less of a problem on a car with the side-mounts in the bellhousing. But still no fun on a busy interstate.

 

Driving My old 34 Ford pickup up over Barham leaving Bobs Big Boy one night years ago and hit a bump just past Forest Lawn drive and suddenly the damn thing started to accelerate wide open. After successfully dodging three or four cars that were immediately in front of me I killed the ignition and got to a tiny parking lot near the crest of the hill. When I looked to see what happened I found that the left side motor bracket sheared off and the engine dropped about 2-3 inches on the left side thus pulling the accelerator cable. Fun fun fun.

 

LOL..i know EXACTLY what you mean!

 

nothing near death,a lot of scary moments.once had to take the driver seat out,hose it off and fumegate the car......

 

Man, you really need to invest in some loc-tite.

 

LOL i have to drive my 52' chevy truck in 2 weeks from holland to germany in germany you have no speedlimit in most of the highway and there im driving with 60mph and cars coming with 120mph

 

On a chilly night in '67 I was at the Sheridan drive in movies with my sweetie. My friends working there would let you stay until the last minute of closing so you could make-out in the dark for a few more minutes. Well, the short exhaust under my 57 had us passed-out and had steamed up the windows. Naturally the guys though it was another kind of steam. We were Damned lucky they didn't take a few minutes more to close that night. I ALWAYS run full exhaust, out the rear, since.

 

When I was 19 a beautiful blonde made me think I had died and gone to heaven in the back of my 56 Caddy convertible. Does that count?

 

My dad had this '68 Impala wagon with the 327 and Turbo 400. It was quite the rocket and went like a scalded dog. I was pounding on it one night and the driver's side motor mount let go. It jammed the throttle wide open and yanked out the hose to the brake booster. Once I realized it wasn't going to stop I just turned off the engine and was able to stop before I collected anyone.

Bob

 

Last summer i was taking a short road test with my friend and 31 Oldsmobile after we had have a little oval track race in the field. Car was equipped with dirt track tires first time so i havent have any road experiese with those ,and end result was that passenger side rear tire fell off from wheel and i lose contor of the car just after 1/8 mile acceleration....
Cops did investigate the acceleration from my friends videotape and 0-60 had take 3,8seconds , so speed was at least a nough.

Off we go to woods and ended to fence of the bridge and fense broke down and intruded to car , and we both fly out of the roof opening... Lucky for us that i didn´t weld it shut!

Both are still live but my friend was badly injured ,is quite ok now but that was
most eye opening wake up for me that these thigs actually can happen.

Car had 454 and manual with jag-rearend and now its total wreck
But main thing is that we are both live and life goes on.

Hope that someone else is taking this thing as a warning , it´s fun to show off but it may end real bad sometimes.

Keep on rodding anyway , thats life!

AVG

 

Last spring I picked up a 27 roadster project from a friend of mine just to play around with for the summer. I got a drivetrain in it and the bugs out of it and started driving it around. My wife and I took it to a couple of shows and to the beach Memorial Day weekend it was a fun/cheap car to fill the void between finishing my other projects. Well come the following week I left work Friday afternoon to get a hair cut and about 3 miles from my shop a girl cut across the yellow line and hit me head on, spun me out and flipped me over. Some how I crawled out of the upside down mess with gas dumping out all over me to see a totally destroyed car. Long story short, she got a ticket and I got a ride in an ambulance. Thankfully the car had a single loop bar in it, I'm sure that's what saved me.

 

My son almost died, he was driving my 48 ford pickup. He had a buddy with him and they weren't pay attention or were showing off but he side swiped another truck and tore up the front and back fender on the 48..... He thought I was going to kill him when he got home.....

 

Me and the wife were running down a backroad at about 60 mph in our 51 Chevy PU. This truck has stock suspension but lowered a few inches.We were looking at scenery and when I looked back ahead a new PU truck was stopped in the road waiting for a farm tractor to cross.I slammed on brakes,the rears locked up,the truck got sideways and when I eased up the brakes to get it under contol the tires got grip and it felt like we we gonna roll over,like i almost shit myself.Lucky at that time the PU truck started moving again so hitting him wasn't an issue.
It taught me some respect for older high center of gravity vehicles and to keep my mind on the road ahead.

 

Was heading home from school in my 51 Ford F-2. Light turned yellow, I nailed gas to scoot through. Car in front of me nailed brakes (oops). Anyway, I hit brakes HARD. They barely grabbed then pedal slammed to floor. Yanked parking brake handle as I swerved to right. Went howling through corner gas station (diagonal pumps & no customers, thank God) at about 30, stopped about a hundred yards up the road.

That band around the drum on the drive shaft is a good parking brake, lousy emergency brake. Turns out P.O. had put a too-long flex hose on a front brake, and hose rubbed wheel in hard turn. Line blew when I braked so hard.

 

I never have, but sometimes when I made a left turn in my 49 Fleetline I drove in highschool, the passenger door would come open(whether it was locked or not). Funny thing is, it only happened when my girlfriend(wife now) was riding with me.

 

i don't know about near death, but it coulda turned out REALLY ugly...

Took the roadster to work on a nice, sunny Florida morning... perfect weather. At lunch the shipping guy (Mike) asks for a ride so we head into town, hit McD's and head back through town on a 4 way street doin the posted speed of 35. I'm in no hurry and I figured I would stretch the guys ride out as long as I could for him.

I'm cruisin in the left lane comin up to a fourway stoplight. I'm rollin towards the green light at the intersection and there is a copper-ish Civic 4 door sitting in the other left lane (facin me) with his signal on waitin to turn left after I go by. In the right lane of the street to the right there is a white 30' (or so) box truck inchin forward to turn right. Just before I cross the white line entering the intersection the box truck decides he's gonna go and of course he's gotta make a wide turn into the left lane to swing it.

In that amount of space there just ain't no way I'm gonna be able to stop. It's pretty amazing how fast yer brain can make yer body do stuff cuz I just didn't see us makin it out of there without a big mess. I stabbed open the other two 97's to full song and steered towards the Civic watching nothing but my left front wheel. I knew it was gonna be tight and not havin any fenders let me judge it just right (I'm sure a lot of luck helped too). I do remember lookin at the guy in the Civic and his mouth was wide open (I assume he was yellin, but the open headers on the Nailhead drown it out so I don't know for sure) and he was starin straight at me. I know that my front tire missed that Civic by about 6" inches and as soon as it did I quickly steered back to the left and eased out of the throttle a bit. Amazed that we were still rollin cuz I never felt a slam from the box truck, I looked over at Mike... His face was white and I'm sure mine was too, but my heart was racing! He said, and I will never forget this... "I just touched his bumper!" It's weird how stuff like that leaves such a vivid memory even though it took place in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds.

After talkin with him about it to get his side of the story, he was sure he was gonna get slammed by the truck. Evidently, when I swerved to the left the box truck stopped and for some reason Mike did his Diana Ross and the Supremes imitation by putting his arm out as if to stop the truck or get the drivers attention or whatever... I know I know, but think of what yer reaction would be! LOL The roadster sits pretty low with top of the doors at 36" so that bumper was comin right at the same level as his head!!! Anyway, when he stuck his arm out, he actually touched his front bumper with 3 of his fingers!! That's just way too close.

Hearin Mike tell the story after we got back to work was interesting cuz I got to hear what he saw since I was payin attention to that Civic and the small opening I had fit though. For about a week after that I was known around work as "Gap" cuz Mike kept sayin he couldn't believe how I "shot the gap".

To be totally honest, I have no idea how my rear tire didn't skim that Civic after gettin so close to it with my front tire. Luck was completely on my side that day.

 

detroit 05.....got lost , trying to find the way to the expressway....made a turn to go across a parking lot.... i hit a pot hole the size of the car i was driving.... it hard enough to knock the car out of gear , and pop the passenger side door open......fast forward.............. driving down 75 headed back to ky...we're probably 5 or 10 minutes south of dayton, when i get a slight vibration . i kick the car into nuetral , because i thought the driveshaft was goofed....about that time , the car drops on the right rear ,the car hooks a left , and goes across a couple lanes ...nothing cooler than a shower of sparks thru blue window tint....i slid it off the side of the expressway , got out and chased down the wheel and tire , that had decided to go solo.....about a 1/4 mile down the road .....luckily , this all happened around 12:30 am ....not a lot of traffic , thank god.......guardian angel was definently riding shotgun....as a bunch of times before stopping for gas , i had the car in triple digits . letting the others get out ahead , then run them down...with 3.25 gears , the car would roll down the road.. ..definently not smart.... when the deal went down , we were probably only running 65 or 70 ish.....the whole deal , did make for some interesting photos.....

a couple minutes before , getting gas.....

the aftermath.... watch those potholes...

 

I've heard many similar stories like this, and have experienced enough of my own (not necessarily car related) to have a firm belief in guardian angels (or whatever you choose to call them). It's good to know "someone" has your back.

 

Did a 360 in the medial grass strip at over 100 mph with my 65 Vette while racing a 63 Vette. Gave him a 10 car length head start and got on his rear end so fast I lost it next thing I'm spinning in the grass let go of the steering wheel an ended up back on the highway going the right way. Don't drink and race !

 

That's an awesome story.
Don't take that moment for granted. You're right about a higher power watching over you.