[Stephonovich]

Have you ever driven on I-29, or really anywhere in the midwest? We have no traffic. Go up to South Dakota; it's 75 on the interstate. Average speed starts is 85-95. It's flat, straight, and boring. There is nothing to hit. My personal opinion on speeding on interstates and the like is to keep up with traffic. To me, if you're going the speed limit when everyone else is going over, you've made yourself an obstacle that everyone has to navigate around, possibly a hazard. By keeping up, you're all moving together, no one has to pass, (yeah, right...) it's all good. But this is strictly IMO.

As for tracks, the only ones we have around here are dirt ovals. Not exactly what I call fun. If we still lived in California, there was Leguna Seca about 8 hours north of us...

(-:Stephonovich

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich Have you ever driven on I-29, or really anywhere in the midwest? We have no traffic. Go up to South Dakota; it's 75 on the interstate. Average speed starts is 85-95. It's flat, straight, and boring. There is nothing to hit. My personal opinion on speeding on interstates and the like is to keep up with traffic. To me, if you're going the speed limit when everyone else is going over, you've made yourself an obstacle that everyone has to navigate around, possibly a hazard. By keeping up, you're all moving together, no one has to pass, (yeah, right...) it's all good. But this is strictly IMO. As for tracks, the only ones we have around here are dirt ovals. Not exactly what I call fun. If we still lived in California, there was Leguna Seca about 8 hours north of us... (-:Stephonovich

I agree...keep up with teh vehicles or at least stay out of the way. Too many morons drive at the exact speed limit on the fast lane!!

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I agree...keep up with teh vehicles or at least stay out of the way. Too many morons drive at the exact speed limit on the fast lane!!

And all the while they are within 10 feet of each other's bumpers. I've seen many "harlequin limosines" before.

-Ed

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich Now, a gravel/dirt road, a highway, or an interstate? I see no reason why speeding is going to hurt you or others, within reason, of course.

Trees, deer, cows, turtles (yes, turtles), ducks, moose, porcupines, cats, dogs, rams (I had one jump into, and out of, the middle of the road at 65mph), birds, rocks, black ice, oil after a rain, bees, dropped hot coffee on a lap, newspaper readers, eaters, flat tires, spikes, nails, 2x4's, broken glass, ...

I once saw this guy flying behind me as I was approaching the entrance to a highway - scared the hell out of me. My friend got rear ended when traffic was backed up and the guy behind him plowed into him at 65 - 70 mph.

Use your flashers, folks. Signal 3 seconds before committing. get a CDL. You'll find that tickets are usually 3x what other drivers pay. But the safe driver instruction will be worth it.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn Trees, deer, cows, turtles (yes, turtles), ducks, moose, porcupines, cats, dogs, rams (I had one jump into, and out of, the middle of the road at 65mph), birds, rocks, black ice, oil after a rain, bees, dropped hot coffee on a lap, newspaper readers, eaters, flat tires, spikes, nails, 2x4's, broken glass, ... Use your flashers, folks. Signal 3 seconds before committing. get a CDL. You'll find that tickets are usually 3x what other drivers pay. But the safe driver instruction will be worth it.

Only obstacle here on gravel roads is deer, and only at night. At night, I slow down around known areas. As for birds, first, they fly away, second, I could care less if I hit a bird. We've hit pheasants before. Take 'em home and dress 'em. Tasty buggers, they are.

Yes, I use flashers. I hate people who signal right before a turn. Or leave it on for the previous mile. As for getting a CDL, may I say, What? Am I correct in thinking you just said the tickets are 3x bigger if you have a CDL? How is this a bonus? Safe driving instruction or not, bigger tickets isn't worth it If you want instruction, go to a driving school. Sure, you'll have to pay a bit, but you'll be getting trained by some of the best. I personally want to go to Skip Barber Racing School at some point in my life. Starts out with the basics of car control, skid recovery, and the like, and moves onto high speed manuevering, and finally, you get to race. 'Twould be fun.

(-:Stephonovich

 

[Fickle-Friend]

Back in the Autumn of 2001 I had a massive crash myself. Basically what I had was a modified 205 Gti Ecosse with testarossa sides and moretti quad conversion and all sorts of mods. Id spent like 10k at the time doing up my car. Anyway being a clown, a complete clown at that I had Nos put in too. Big mistake.

I took a corner at 90mph cos my car was pretty lowered and I thought it wouldnt be a problem, anyway Still quite dont know what happened, I think i clipped the curb and my car managed to flip right across both lanes (suprisingly they were both clear). I rolled over 2 times and took out a bus stop and landed in a car park upside down.the car was completely gone. It was mostly fibre glass and so crushed. Suprisingly all i had was whiplash and a small cut to my right hand. My friend who was with me passed out but that was about it. I wont go into much there as it still shocks me recalling that day. So much could have gone wrong but it didnt. I think it was then that I stopped spending so much on cars and got into Hi-Fi.

The most freaky thing is the date I had the crash. It was the birthday of a close friend of mine who died in a car crash 1 year previous.....I felt it was some kinda sign to be honest. Thesedays I drive like a granny, lesson learned!

 

[rsaavedra]

Speaking about speed and obstacles, two years ago I went to Little rock Arkansas from Pensacola FL driving. Before reaching Little Rock, I had to drive over a long lonely road, not an interstate, going north up Louisiana into Arkansas. I was driving my black beetle turbo at about 85mph, really lonely and dark road, this was by midnight, pitch darkness on those roads. I saw two tiny little eyes far ahead to the left of the road. Driving at that speed the eyes were approaching fast, but they were dead still. When it was just the right time to not miss me, the two little eyes started running like crazy HEAD ON towards my car, and I could only see it was a racoon, before my car completely crushed it and I could do absolutely nothing.

After about 10 seconds of the relative shock I got, I started feeling my steering wheel vibrating slightly, but nothing seemed serious, however this got me concerned, obviously hitting this animal had done some damage to my car, and I was in the middle of nowhere, and cars where not passing very frequently either way. When I saw some warehouse far on the right I slowed down and stopped there. Before stopping I could tell there was clear damage, the slower the car was going, there was a louder and clanking noise of metals hitting each other intermittently from the engine.

Got the spotlight and explored the lower front of the car, the radiator grill had been hit badly, and there was some gruesome remains of the poor blunt raccoon. I later on read a website on roadkill avoidance tips, raccoons are incredibly brave and tough animals. If they see danger, they face it head on whatever might be. I guess this poor racoon heard my car from afar, and saw the lights, and just charged with no hesitation exactly when it was the right time, and when I could do absolutely nothing. Maybe it was protecting its family, which might have been nearby, when I read that site I felt terrible really.

Anyway, back in that dark road in the middle of nowhere on the way to Little Rock, and minutes after hitting the raccoon, the radiator wasn't leaking, but it seems the support of the fan was broken and one of the blades of the fan was broken too, and that's why the whole fan was out of balance and vibrating like crazy at slow speeds. Luckily, above certain rpms the thing somehow stopped clanking, so I could keep driving to Little Rock, I checked there with friends the next day and we all thought I could drive back with no problem, and I did (that many miles, from Little Rock Arkansas, to Pensacola FL).

Took the car to VW service and called the insurance company to file the claim. They raised the car and I saw the damage now clearly from underneath, it was pretty bad. You have no idea what a little cat-size raccoon can do to a car at 85 mph. They had to replace the entire radiator and adjacent supporting structures, and two fans, and the fog lights, and the whole bumper, even though I later on complained about it, because the foglight section of the bumper is separated from the actual bumber, which had no damage. But anyway, to make a long story short, the damages were $2800, of which I had to pay my deductible of $500. Ouch for the poor brave raccoon, and ouch for my wallet.

Lesson: if driving at night in lonely roads, watch out for animals, and don't go too fast that you are not able to react to anything.

 

[gsferrari]

UPDATE :
---------

Porsche has confirmed that everything in the car was fully functional prior to the crash. Steering column, Brakes still work even after the accident. The gearbox is also fully functional. They cannot validate the electronics but legally electronics is out of the equation.

So my cousin was at fault according to the law. they still havent been able to determine what speed he was doing before losing control. According to the police the impact was at 50 mph. Imagine going from 50 mph to standstill in less than 4 inches and in less than 2/1000 of a second

My cousin has not yet retained conciousness but his condition is described as "stable". They have made a hole in the skull to relieve the pressure because of the oedema and trauma. He has a fractured right fibula and tibia and right #5 and #7 ribs along with severe bruising because of the seat belt (which did its job).

No...its not worth racing on public roads...

 

[Stephonovich]

I cannot help but ask at your quote, 'I saw two tiny little eyes far ahead to the left of the road.' Specifically, 'far ahead'. How far was far ahead? A light car like a New Beetle should be able to come to a complete stop (I assume it wasn't raining/snowing) from 85 in 400 feet tops. At least come down to a more manueverable speed in time, even if it was 100 feet ahead. Or am I just reading this wrong?

Forgot my story, BTW... Coming home with my little brother on our gravel road, at night, and I was demonstrating how the car ('97 Dodge Intrepid R/T) fishtailed at pretty much anything above 65 MPH even on straightaways, whereas our '92 Escort was dead steady as fast as it could go. (On this particular stretch, about 85 MPH) Then, I saw deer. Luckily I was only doing 60 or so, but even so, the only reason I didn't hit them is because they didn't run back across the road. They were all on the right, except for one, who, when I swerved to the left and hit the brakes while trying not to lock them up (my mom hit a cow that way...), decided to run in front of me. I think I cleared him by about 10 feet. I was doing about 45 at that time. Would not have been pretty if I hit him. Granted, we had full coverage for it, but still, that would have sucked bigtime. Moral? Don't speed on areas known to have animals at night.

EDIT: gsferrari, glad to hear he's stable now. As for the car, I must say, it's a tribute to Porsche's design that stuff still works... As for seatbelts, very glad indeed he was wearing one. No doubt in my mind that without it he would now be dead. I always wear one. I shake my head in disbelief when I hear people tell me "It's too much trouble". My dad was a Fireman and EMT for San Diego, and he saw tons of deaths that could have easily been prevented had the occupants been buckled. He also saw several where people walked out with only a scratch because they were wearing seatbelts. One in particular I remember; a woman rolled her van down a very steep enbankment (100 feet or so, I think), and got out with a scratch on her arm. Amazing.

(-:Stephonovich

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich I cannot help but ask at your quote, 'I saw two tiny little eyes far ahead to the left of the road.' Specifically, 'far ahead'. How far was far ahead? A light car like a New Beetle should be able to come to a complete stop (I assume it wasn't raining/snowing) from 85 in 400 feet tops. At least come down to a more manueverable speed in time, even if it was 100 feet ahead. Or am I just reading this wrong?

I estimate when I saw those eyes they were way farther than 500 feet, remember I had the high headlights on. No rain or snow, but honestly, I didn't intend to slow down at all, those were not the first little tiny eyes I had seen on that road from far away, however they were the first ones to move when I was close enough, and what a manner to move. I'm amazed at how the animal could calculate so well when it had to charge, and it was a diagonal run it had to do, it was on the other side of left lane of a 2 way-lane road, the raccoon had to run across that whole left lane to hit my car, and at the right time, and it did it in fractions of a second. It was totally unexpected, and almost unbelievably fast believe me.


Back to the thread topic, man Guru I feel very sorry for this tragedy that happened to your cousin and how all your family might feel. Those decelerations he had to endure are even hard to imagine. My prayers and best wishes to his recovery man.

 

[Stephonovich]

Aye. Around here, I've grown used to slowing WAAY down whenever you see reflections. Although one time I was forced to slow down due to the reflectors on either side of a bridge freaking my mom out... If that had turned out to be an animal, I think I would have turned the car around. 15 foot wide animal is not something to be trifled with

Oh yes, forgot another story, this time in the day, with my sister. We were on the highway (2 lane) coming home, and passed a small farm where they have llamas. Today, one of the llamas had escaped. So I slowed down, and then stopped, because I was trying to see if the owner was home, to tell him. The llama stopped, stared, and started charging from about 100 feet away. I was amazed at first, and just watched. When he got within about 20 feet it dawned on me that he wasn't going to stop, so I slammed it into first and got out of there. He kept chasing me 'till I got up to 40 or so, too. Crazed animal. The owner was out there by then, though, so he got him back in. Never knew llamas would charge a car, though...


(-:Stephonovich

 

[gsferrari]

I tried loading my messages yesterday but it wouldnt load

UPDATE :-
-----------

Chris regained conciousness. He is able to look around without moving his neck. We are assuming he can recognize people because he can squeeze with his left hand (right arm is completely in cast and so is the upper half of the left arm).

Apparently he was still concious when they extracted him from the car...but he was delirious and not making any sense. Investigators are trying to get hold of the attendants who were with him in the ambulance before he lost conciousness.

I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be him right now...to be able to see everyone but not being able to speak or move or say how much you love them and how sorry you are to put them all through so much pain...

I sent him a CD with his favorite music (The Gipsy Kings) and a "get well soon" card signed off by "The members of HeadFi" to let him know that there is a bunch of people who are praying that he recovers...

 

[Mr.PD]

I hope your cousin continues getting better.

You guys and your driving fast stories are all lucky to be alive. Me included.
A couple things I want to say after reading some of Stephonovich's comments.
Deer and other animals do move around in the daytime also. You can miss seeing one any time.
I understand about high speed lonely country roads. There are many of them around here also. I just hope you live to be my age. You sound just like I did when I was younger.

Oh, raccoons aren't the only animals that car tear up a car. I hit a jack rabbit at 110 mph one night in Nevada with a 93 Probe GT. Took out the entire front facia. I didn't know what I hit until after we stopped later on. We found a rabbits foot hanging from a cross member under the car. At that speed all I saw was a flash of fur before this explosion sound. It woke up the wife. I didn't know if I had hit a rabbit or a coyote.

One time a girl friend was driving my car and hit a pheasant. It came through the windshield.

There was a huge hole in the middle of the windshield, I was thankful it was in the middle and not on the drivers side. That was close call for her. She swears she was only going 60mph.

 

[ipodstudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I tried loading my messages yesterday but it wouldnt load UPDATE :- ----------- Chris regained conciousness. He is able to look around without moving his neck. We are assuming he can recognize people because he can squeeze with his left hand (right arm is completely in cast and so is the upper half of the left arm). Apparently he was still concious when they extracted him from the car...but he was delirious and not making any sense. Investigators are trying to get hold of the attendants who were with him in the ambulance before he lost conciousness. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be him right now...to be able to see everyone but not being able to speak or move or say how much you love them and how sorry you are to put them all through so much pain... I sent him a CD with his favorite music (The Gipsy Kings) and a "get well soon" card signed off by "The members of HeadFi" to let him know that there is a bunch of people who are praying that he recovers...

That's great news GS!!! Sounds like our prayers are being answered...

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I sent him a CD with his favorite music (The Gipsy Kings) and a "get well soon" card signed off by "The members of HeadFi" to let him know that there is a bunch of people who are praying that he recovers...

Such a nice gesture Guru. Very glad to hear he is conscious again, that is very good news! Best wishes and hopes for his steady recovery.