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.