Driving my 54 chevy back in high school out to a place in the county called Highland springs. Pretty curvy back roads with some straight aways. Was doing about 60 miles an hour when my lights went out!! HOLY CRAP!!! I slammed on the breaks and tried to stay in the road, on one side of the road was a mountain, the other side a ditch about 20 feet down from the road!! skidded for what seemed like forever and finally stopped about 2 feet from a big oak tree at the right side of the roadway. I have never been that scared in my life driving a machine. AND to this day when I drive back out there when its dark, I drive pretty damn slow!!!
Back in the early 70s me and my freinds like to run down old country gravel roads and sprint car slide around the corners. Well one day doing this in my 66 Chevelle as I was getting set up to slide thru a corner my custom steering wheel came off {some dumbass forgot to tighten bolts} and I went thru a ditch,barbed wire fence and took out about 9000 acres of 6" high corn LMAO!!!
coming back from hog hunting at about 2:00 am going around a big sweeping curve the lights in the truck went off. the truck went off the road to the left but my buddy who was driving at the time thought it went off to the right so he pulls it to the left and we end up jumping a huge ditch running thru two barbwire fences and finally come to a stop. after we get stopped the lights come back on and about two feet in front of the truck is a telephone poll.
I once borrowed a friend's pickup to tow home a hearse that I'd bought. The truck was a short bed Ford stepside and the hearse was a '67 Caddy, 22 feet long and HEAVY!! You might already see where this is going. At some point on the highway, doing about 55, the hearse decided it wanted to come up front and see if I needed any help up there. The tail started wagging the dog, I took up religion in a big hurry and my underwear got sucked up my ass all the way to my neck. It took about two miles to get that thing back under control, shooting from the slow lane, all the way across to the fast lane (three lanes each way). I finally got pulled off at an exit, stopped the truck and got out. I lit a cigarette that wouldn't hold still and just stood there shaking for about five minutes. I made the rest of the trip at about 35 mph down the shoulder with the hazards on and a constant eye on the mirror. My butt starts puckering up every time I think of that ride.
The Rides back in the Huey were the good part. The crashes in the oh6 and later in an oh13 were the bad parts but I walked away from both. Vehicle wise, probably close to KreaturesCCaustin's experience with the hearse but it was towing a loaded to the top 16 ft UHaul behind the 48 coming out of Texas and having the UHaul decide that it wanted to tell the 48 what to do. I thought I was in the ditch and done for and I was only 5 miles into a 2000 mile road trip. The spin out in the rain by the old cement plant outside of Hewit Tx on hwy 84 with a guy following me giving a spin by spin announcement about it over the cb was interesting too. "He's going left, he's spinning right, He's in the bar ditch backwards, You ok?" I did drive out of the ditch but needed a laundry change after that one. The 48 has been in the ditch three times because of extra wide tires on the back and flash rain storms, one reason I'm not hot on extra wide tires on street driven rigs. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
For me it was driving a 42 Ford Coupe at speed and the hood came unlatched, whacking the windshield, didn't break it, but screwed up the hood and scared the crap outa me!
long story into shorter story...my last great street race Its 1:00am,I'm drive'n the coupe with open headers,wife ride'n shotgun, Chevelle drag race bracket car pulls along side & wants to "dance". Wife saz don't! Stop lite then onto a narrow two lane bridge... lite turns green,I give'um the look & we're off! Wife could have reached out and touched bridge, I could have reached out and touched his front fender! Both cars slip'n and slide'n, wife scream'n bloody murder! I'm squeez'n wheel with one hand shifter with the other hope'n not to crash... All ended OK. Pulled into motel where we were stay'n and I sat outside for a good hour get'n the blood flow'n again.. Chap in the Chevelle pulls in.. saz we were do'n in the 125 range at end of bridge... Oh ya one other interesting tidbit... seems the guy was an off duty cop.... Pontiac Slim
For some dumb reason, I thought I would floor the accelerator in my 72 Vette on the four lane going home.Well, I get up to about 130-35,going over a hill gently curving to the right.On the other side of the hill unseen is a car waiting to cross the road.He obviously cannot know how fast I am coming up on him and he pulls out.I hold on tight and hit the brakes trying not to lock up.I sail past his rear quarter by about an inch still doing maybe 70 MPH.I shook the rest of the day.Miller time!Never,never went that fast again.In fact,the Vette it still stored in the garage,haven't driven it in years.Too old for that stuff now.
Doing 65 miles an hour in my '29 as I came into Austin from Houston, and the drag link drops out of the pitman arm... no steering!! Hard braking pulls the car to the right, across two other east-bound lanes, into the median... just past the end of the armco guard rail. Grab a flashlight, and see that the nut is still sitting on the pitman arm, so I tighten everything back up and wrap wire around it (extra safe!) and make it into town for a proper fix. Scary shit.
Well there was this one time... About 37 years ago... Outside of Rochester, NY in January in the slushy stuff just after a snow storm. I was in a long line of slow cars. Only one lane was cleared on the westbound side of the divided highway between Rochester and I-90 (the Thruway). A guy pulling a U-Haul trailer had apparently read the warning on the fender and was going about 45 mph. Sometimes 45, sometimes 50, sometimes 40. The trailer wasn't following very well and he was sawing away at the wheel. If he tried to go over 50 mph the trailer really started to sway. By and by our little caravan came to a stretch of pavement almost clear enough for another car to squeeze by, so I tried. Well, the '66 Rambler American I was driving couldn't quite make the clean pass I was hoping for. I ended up in the lumpy slushy stuff and the back end broke loose and the front end broke loose. Now I'm sideways headed for the left shoulder and the drop off to the gully between eastbound and westbound lanes. You think the guy with the U-Haul was working the steering wheel, man I was hanging on to that wheel sawing away with all my might. Somehow I managed not to mash the gas or the brakes but kept working the steering wheel. The NYS DOT puts these skinny steel post in the middle of the gully between the lanes. I got to see a bunch of them really quickly just inches from my left window sideways at what seemed like 65-70 mph. Backed off the throttle just enough to get sort of straightened out, up the divider and onto the pavement ahead of the U-Haul all the other cars! Kept her on all four wheels, passed that slow-poke and finally started breathing normally when I reached Buffalo about a hour or so later. True story...no really..it is! My only regret was I didn't get to see the snowy, slushy, muddy rooster tail!
A friend with a fast drag car was riding with me one night and I decided to show off. I was driving a non-HAMB type car powered by a tri-power Poncho 389. Long story short version the throttle linkage stuck wide open. Nothing happened when I let off the accelerator and I stomped and kicked at the thing about ten times and the peddle just dropped off. Right after my last kick the linkage just came unstuck by itself. We coasted until I could pull off the road and stop. My passenger hadn't figured out that anything was wrong, he said he thought that I was just excited. We didn't hang out together again for some reason.
1969, driving a 55 chevy pavement oval tracker, really hopped up 409. I was a pretty wild ass kid then and bad about street racing. A friend took me to see his brother in laws racer. The man said how would you like to try this one instead of the street? Hell yes! says I. After about 20 laps of practice it was time for my first heat race of ten laps. My buddy straps me in to the mustang bucket seat. These seats had no side bolsters to hold you in and most guys back then did not add them. When myself and nine other Saturday night maniacs took to the track for our two warm up laps every thing was cool. The green flag waved and when we hit the first turn at about 85mph the centrifugal force caused my not quite properly hooked surplus safety harness to pop loose! The full force of a 200lb body and Newtons law of relativity tried to eject me out the passenger side window! My first thought was to pull in and refasten the belts, but I thought people would think I ran out of balls and that's why I pulled in. Two guys blew by me while got myself settled back in the seat. I ran the next nine laps with no belts. This was crazy but there was no way I was going to quit. When the heat was over and I came of the track the car owner asked me why was I sweating so much and out of breath? "Look at the belts" I tell him. he just laughed and said "you need to check those next time, dumb ass" Yea he wasn't Richard Childress but we had a lot of fun together.
At the beginning of 1985 I was at my first race of what I had decided to be the last year of motorcycle drag racing. I had not been down in my 22 years of racing. I was racing a twin engine T/F Harley which had two fresh 96 ci engines on 90%. The wind was blowing hard across Piedmont Dragway, an 1/8 mile dragstrip in Greensboro North Carolina, and I should have known better. I was just going to make an easy pass but when I launched it pulled harder than ever so I stayed on power. It had a 14 inch wide slick which gave me very little body english control. As I went through the clocks at 145 mph the crosswind pushed me off the edge of the track and onto dirt. It pitched me off and it was lights out. When I started waking up and opened my eyes my wife and two sons were standing over me. At that point I was hurting so bad I didn't know if I was dying or not. I stayed in the hospital a few days with broken bones and a separated shoulder. I retired from racing at my first race of that season instead of the planned last.
Racing a Rob North Trident! 1st lap leading the pack. 145mph down the straight which leads into 1st gear climbing hairpin. Front brake line gets cut at 145 and no brakes into hairpin with a hungry pack of 750's right behind. I let the bike go at the hair pin and last thing I remember was the bike spinning on it's side right above me and then it landed. On me!
A friend of mine had a 32 chevy highboy coupe, chopped top and a for real 565 inch pump gas pro stock type chev at just under 1000 hp. When he finished the car he stop by my shop and asked if I would like a ride. I said "Sure" We pull over onto 3rd street in Pomona behind my shop and he starts connecting two wires behind the steering wheel. I ask him what he is doing, he said "Connecting the trans break" I thought to myself "OH CRAP". Well we started right of center of the road and Kelly looked liked like he was driving a fuel hydro turning sharply to the rignt. At about 100 I thought "OH CRAP" third street dead ends at East End Ave. Well good thing he put great brakes on this thing and got us stopped in time. I went back a looked at the tire marks. We went curb hunting but as long as you miss thats all that counts
Mine was on a bike cruising into a small Kansas town near the Missouri border. It was 1984 and a buddy and I were on our way back to Illinois from visiting friends in Texas. We were going through a series of gentle S curves coming into this town, had my feet on the highway pegs cruising about 35-40 when suddenly halfway through a curve it turned into a 90 with a gas station on the inside of the curve and a grocery store on the outside and dust, gravel and oil all over the pavement from cars pulling in and out. The back end started coming around and the bike started going down to the left. Without even thinking I dropped back to the main pegs, I'm not sure what I did next it happened so fast but I "think" I tapped the back brake, probably by accident. That evidently snapped the bike upright, I pulled in the clutch and in that micro second realized I was now headed off the road, across a shallow shoulder/ditch straight for the grocery store parking lot. Directly ahead of me with no time to turn or brake was a concrete parking curb with a telephone pole about a foot from the end I was headed for. I kept the clutch in, sucked in my right arm, puckered my ass and leaned the bike over to the left but keeping it headed straight ahead. I aimed the front wheel for that foot wide gap, closed one eye, puckered my ass and got ready for the impact. That whole 1/4 of a second felt like a year and the only thing I remember thinking was "Oh FUCK! This is going to hurt REAL bad!!!" The next thing I know I'm past the curb and pole in the fortunately near empty parking lot and still upright and unscathed. I looked over toward the road to see people racing out of the gas station and my buddy stopped in the highway his eyes about as big as the wheels on his Sportster. Without stopping or putting a foot down I looked over at my buddy and the people at the gas station, shrugged at them as to say "Oops", downshifted into 1st, turned back toward the road and very slowly rolled back onto the highway. We headed on out of town and didn't stop until we were about 15 miles down the road. We pulled over under some trees and stopped. I shut the bike off, put the side stand down and just sat there for what seemed an eternity. I was shaking so badly and was so weak from fear I couldn't get off the bike. I finally got it together enough to get off and plop down on the ground with my back against a tree for about a half hour. My knuckles weren't the only thing that turned white that day.
Not nessesarily white knuckle buuut this all happened last night... Start of workshift, get into pursuit of a drunk driver, PIT said driver on narrow grass shouldered road, Welp, both of us got PIT and I ended up with my car inna ditch in about 2 feet of water (luckly at an angle). The hook pulled the car out and the rim was bent, no big deal, slap a spare on, take drunk and 80 Grams of powder cocaine to the hosegow and call it good. Leavin the jail, a cat decided to commit suicide by cop and I nail it. 45 min later I nail a wicked bad pothole and bend another rim....call for backup and put another spare on (now 2 bent rims/tires in the back of my car.) Hour later another cat commits suicide against my new spare tire....it musta liked the shiny newness. couple hours later I get rearended by another patrol car, no real damage, the plastic bumper popped out... I in my infinite hardheadedness took the hint and headed back to the office for the last few hours of my shift...on the way back to the office, possom wanted to keep the two cats company.... bad night for my car....real bad night for 2 cats and a possom... I aint tempting fate.....I took tonight off and locked myself in the garage...
Model a roadster, stock front end. Just turned a country corner and came up on a row of houses when I lost all steering ( only going about ten MPH cause I drive like an old man most of the time)! My buddy Mike looked at me as I looked back and spun the wheel and it twirled round and round and round. We both said "OHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHHHEEEEET" as the car skidded up to a mailbox and stopped. Funny as hell because we barely bumped the box and in very slow motion it toppled over. Old carpenter came by and gave me a 16d nail to replace the cotter pin that came loose. Left a message to the property owner what happened and offered to pay for the repair but never heard from him. Thanks for asking for the memory. I lost my buddy Mike two years ago.
During our big Ice storm in February, My truck got covered in snow and Ice. Eventually the roads started getting clear so I decide to go for a ride. I pull out of the drive with ice still on the hood (bad move). Well I'm getting on it and I watch in slo-mo the world's biggest sheet of ice lift up and smack the crap out of my windshield. My first instinct is to duck just in case the windshield shatters well it didn't shatter and I look up and I'm hauling ass right into a corner. I slam on my brakes and slide onto the shoulder where it stopped. I always say you'll see signs before you have a hellacious accident. I took that as my sign and went right back home.
Wow! Great stories here. We're all lucky to be alive! Mine's pretty tame, compared to some: Racing my street car at Nebraska Motorplex -Scribner, Nebraska on a cold fall night. Was working on something (can't remember what) and figured I had time for one last pass before they closed at midnight. Made a pretty hard charge (it was running low 11's then, at 122MPH) and was coming through the lights when all hell broke loose! I thought it broke a U-joint, as I could hear/feel it hammering away beside my right leg (under the aluminum floor). I lifted and eased into the brakes, paranoid about sliding around in my own trans fluid on slicks. Took a long time, but got it slowed and pulled off to the shoulder on the big end. Waited a few minutes, then finally some headlights approach - at over 100 MPH!!! I'm sitting there dead, in a flat black car with the left rear fender hangin' out onto the track! After that pair went by, I hopped out and started pushing, but here comes another pair, then another and another, etc. I finally ran across the track, through the cornfield and to the tower, to tell 'em what happened. A kid on a Cushman finally shows up with a chain. I get in my car and he proceeds to drive away, dragging my grille, which he'd hooked the chain to! Anyway, next morning, I jack up the car to find the driveshaft still in place. WTF?! I unbolt the trans ('glide) and it comes out in three big chunks, without a drop of fluid left in it - I left it all on the finish line! The only other casualty was my hasty tail light wiring job, which explained why they couldn't see me out there...
We were young kids(weren't we all). Towing back from Westhampton drag strip (60 mile tow) after a Friday night session. Tow car was a 56 Ford. I was in the race car. It was a 50 Olds with a late Olds V8 in it. We were using a chain(did I say young and stupid?). When it started raining cats and dogs, no wipers on the race car and off the road I went. I didnt see much of the catastrophy until after it was over and I saw the tracks. Missed some big trees by inchs. Jesus was looking out for me.
Man mine sticks out like a bad dream.... I was coming back from Billetproof (Antioch) 2 years ago and I was coming across the Benicia bridge with a cool one between my legs and the wind was blowing across the bridge like a sandstorm, I did everything I could to keep the car in my lane...but it wasn't happening, I was being pushed across the other lane like a bad habit... Good thing I made it out and never spilled a drop!!!! See ya, JOKER JASON.
The Jalopy Journal
