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Close calls...

2K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  heavymetals 
#1 ·
Holy fudge, I think I pooped my pants. I had to check twice just to make sure...

So I was leaving my condo unit and by the time I get to the exit gate I'm usually in 2 gear so I just wait for the gait to open then start in 2.

Well tonight around 11:30 I was leaving and decided to give it a lil extra gas then normal. Only problem I was in 1 gear not 2 and the car started bucking like a pissed off bull. It instantly got about 70 degrees sideways and I had to fish tail it for about 50ft while avoiding a 5ft ditch on each side. The road is very narrow with almost no shoulder and my tire marks literally went over the lines on both sides.

What's the closest other people have come to almost loosing their V
 
#2 ·
I have many close calls, but the scariest, by far, was when I came off a ramp going about 80 mph on a freezing morning, hit a patch of slick ice and got about 45* across both lanes. Turned into it and somehow brought it back, fishtailed a few times and managed to straighten it out (with a lot of help from Stabilitrak). Very scary.

Second place was probably when I was on the track, and was in the wrong gear coming out of a corner, changed down when I shouldn't have and came off the clutch too quickly, broke the rear end free and was quickly looking at armco. Once again, somehow I got it back in line, with a lot of help from the stability system.
 
#4 ·
Well I was tracking the V one day on a narrow little go kart track. It was wet from raining all night and pretty chilly. So I was going balls out as usual when I came around a corner and hit a big ass puddle. I knew it was there I just want thinking about anything but my line and when I hit it at about 35-40 I immediately started under steering then the back hit it and I started to slide all 4, then the front started to get traction and it just baaaaarely stayed on the track enough for me to hammer the loud pedal again without losing too much nerve.

Another ridiculous close call wasn't in the V... I was going through my academy and when it got time to do driving they tossed me the keys to a crown Victoria and said drive as fast as you can around this track... They laid it out for everyone, how fast you would be going, what you should do in this situation or that... And specifically said in this one corner you won't need to brake... You guys don't have the skill to drive the car fast enough on this track to need to brake... I don't want to see brake lights when you are coming into this corner... So I proceeded to attempt to prove them wrong... I did... The previous corner was a long circular left followed by a quick right and a straight leading into the corner of "you cant go fast enough"... So I came out of the previous left/right corner drifting sideways, foot hard down charging through the straight at 110% and when I got to the corner I let off and almost hit the brakes... But I didn't, it was a right hander, two 45° corners back to back, just take it like one big 90° corner... I went in to crush the first apex and as soon as I hit the rumble strip I felt it... The back end got all loose and I knew right then I was going off in a big way... So I slung the wheel left to full lock as fast as I could and held it there, my ass was clenched so tight I couldn't shit right for a week... Slow motion x a million and I'm sitting there thinking damn, this is the shortest career path I have ever done I know I'm gonna get fired. So I feel the car starting to regain grip, I start easing off the wheel and sure enough it starts to correct... My back left tire got in the dirt but that was all... I was REALLY lucky. I looked down, exit speed: 75mph on a track no wider than a two lane road. Sketchy as hell I wish I had video. Oh and by the way Crown Victoria police interceptors only have ABS... No traction control there fellas
 
#5 ·
I decided to drift a hill in the rain on the way back from getting pizza with a girl I had known maybe a month. Made it about 30 ft. Let me tell ya horrible idea. Had to get my friend to come down n winch me out of the ditch. No damage to the car but the girl I was with refers to it as a near death experience. I've since decided I have 0 interest in trying to drift.
 
#6 ·
Better off just losing the girl. I was with the lady when I almost lost it on the track as I described above, as well as two other times I've been in the grass on the track. She was unfazed.

Now, when we were driving 1 mph in 1/16 of an inch of snow and I had trouble getting going up a hill, she was totally freaked out, but 140 mph over a blind hill on the track? No problem.
 
#8 ·
The day after I got the V in February 2010, I was taking a right turn a block away from work and I gave the car gas and the back flipped out to the right and I was staring at a telephone poll. Let off the gas and the car straightened itself up. I had just traded in my all wheel drive A6. That day I learned salt and sand on the road don't mix with the V.
 
#9 ·
After a season of auto-x getting used to the handling, I got froggy. I punched it from a stop and turned on the main highway, just WOT. I started to fishtail and oversteer but kept my foot buried on the gas. I was fishtailing between 2 lanes just barely keeping it off the median/grass. It was fun and scary at the same time - no other cars, they were all at the stop light so I had a clear path. I think I gave them quite a show fishtailing leaving black marks all over the highway for a few hundred feet - oh the roads were a little damp too.

I get home after 7-8 minutes and the wife asks if I was ok...I was dripping in sweat. She would never understand why I had to urge to do something like that.
 
#14 ·
Wet off ramp, goosed it in third to drift a little, stability control kicked in and the car pitched forward cause the ass to slide around. Got sideways about 70 degrees before I was able to straighten it out. It's annoying having to hold that button to turn off stability control every time I want to play.
 
#17 ·
H-town_V said:
I can only imagine a hot pizza flying out the girls hands and all over your Vs interior. Hopefully this didn't happen.

And I agree if you need a winch or a tow truck that's more than just a close call. I'm glad your V came out undamaged tho.
No pizza or anything.

Ok fine. Got my car last day of June last year. 4th of July at about 1am had to move it so some people could leave. Feeling all patriotic and such I wanted to lay some rubber before I pet her away (MURRICA). So I got a little in front of the neighbors house. Then I decided I'd lite em up goin around the corner too (I live on the corner). Longer story shorter I came around sideways and steered out of it no shit about an inch from the mailbox. My roommate (who wasn't drinking) thought I hit it. That was my first and the least of 3 embarrassing moments I had in this car. The drifting pizza incident being #2
 
#20 ·
heavymetals said:
That interchange (405 /101) was voted worst in the state if not country.

Downtown is nuts, and tough luck if you miss your exit.
Ive heard LA has some crazy interchanges, i remember a car magazine that listed the top 10 most dangerous interchanges/bottlenecks in the country and H-town had three on the list and I think LA had Even more.

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253ctsv said:
No pizza or anything.

Ok fine. Got my car last day of June last year. 4th of July at about 1am had to move it so some people could leave. Feeling all patriotic and such I wanted to lay some rubber before I pet her away (MURRICA). So I got a little in front of the neighbors house. Then I decided I'd lite em up goin around the corner too (I live on the corner). Longer story shorter I came around sideways and steered out of it no shit about an inch from the mailbox. My roommate (who wasn't drinking) thought I hit it. That was my first and the least of 3 embarrassing moments I had in this car. The drifting pizza incident being #2
Haha... Now that's a close call.

And a lil alcohol may or may not have been involved in my lil scare... But it was 11:30 and I really needed to get to the store before midnight.

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253ctsv said:
No pizza or anything.

Ok fine. Got my car last day of June last year. 4th of July at about 1am had to move it so some people could leave. Feeling all patriotic and such I wanted to lay some rubber before I pet her away (MURRICA). So I got a little in front of the neighbors house. Then I decided I'd lite em up goin around the corner too (I live on the corner). Longer story shorter I came around sideways and steered out of it no shit about an inch from the mailbox. My roommate (who wasn't drinking) thought I hit it. That was my first and the least of 3 embarrassing moments I had in this car. The drifting pizza incident being #2
What's #1
 
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