What's the biggest "thing" you've ever HIT in your hot rod/custom?

As I was driving home from Pleasanton Sunday, I noticed a good-sized deer along the side of the road in full-rig status. First thought was that I wasn't the one who ended its life with my car. But then I kept picturing other vehicular atrocities that I could possibly encounter. Guess it was a premonition, cuz I made the mistake of staying on the 101 South at the 134 interchange. As I weaved my way though Hollywood, all of a sudden a couch appears in my lane--guess it fell from a truck, and had fortunately already been hit once. I only had a split second to react, so I picked the smallest piece and aimed my car toward it while I jammed the breaks. Luckily, the semi next to me was paying attention and quickly moved onto the shoulder, which gave me some elbow room. Still, I nailed that damn thing and it sounded like I'd run over a Geo Metro. As I was skidding through the mess, I looked in the rearview, only to see the car behind me coming at me quicker than his/her breaks should've brought the car to a screeching halt--but they did. I immediately punched the throttle when I saw them about to plow into me, but the carb coughed instead.

When it was over--which seemed like minutes, but in reality was probably 20 seconds--and I realized the car behind didn't hit me, I just motored on, figuring the results of the situation would be evident soon enough (flat tires, overheating, etc.). Nope, nothing, so I drove straight home. I couldn't stomach what the resulting damage was, so I didn't even take one look until the morning. I should have, though, as then I wouldn't have been lying awake all night worrying and wondering. Not a single goddam scratch. The only remaining evidence was a piece of the couch's fabric hanging from my tranny crossmember. I guess all the variables were in my favor that night, as there's no way the car should have come out so unscathed.

Karma, fate, or just pure luck?

 

Hit two deer, one in my old '66 Galaxie 500, and another on my Ducati Monster. No damage to the Galaxie after I pulled deer hair out of the headlight bezel, only cosmetic damage to the Ducati, but that crash did give me this....

just one of three post-surgery incisions on that arm. I now have two ti plates and 12 screws holding that arm together, and almost a year after the accident it still isn't right, or straight--so be careful out there kids.

 

'92 Olds Cutlass...

 

You win. But I'm a happy loser though!

 

How the f@#k do you hit a couch and not incur any damage? I ran into an empty cardboard box and lost my license plate. Just my luck I guess.

 

My thumb.

 

Not a custom/hotrod........but a MOOSE with a '68 Charger..........

 

Some years ago I was on my way to Green Bay and following an old PU truck that was loaded with furniture. All of a sudden the big leather easy chair bounced out and landed in my lane, fortunatley there was no one in the right lane. I swerved right and only ran over the back of top of the back with my left front wheel.
The only damge was a slight misalingment. Thankfully I had the quick steering.

BB

A friend of mine hit a horse with his 54 ford coupe, he was lucky to survive that one.

 

It was the day after the '96 Paso where we had the Porta-Potty tipping incident and the ensuing arrest, etc... AKA: The Beginning of the End...

I was dragging ass on the way home from work and didn't realize the car in front of me had stopped. End of my shoebox...

Yay! I win!

 

It's tough driving on the SoCal freeways. It's become an obstacle course, wither it's construction or crap on the road. Most common debris I've noticed are Tuner car front spoilers, ladders, and Semi-truck tire treads. It's funny too, in Ventura this van had garbage bags filled with clothes on top and guess what? Most of it was on the freeway now.

Ken

 

Had a headlight out and one night almost hit a cow sleeping in the slow lane on the road between Snyder and Post (middle of nowhere) one dark night. Then there was the buffalo in Yellowstone and the moose in New Mexico. All big boys, all at night, but missed em all. My wife, on the other hand has killed a buzzard, 3 deer (one a 10 point), 2 windshields, a Dodge Diplomat and seriously wounded a Windstar.

 

Wife and I were on our way to the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge and stopped at a small store for a few minutes of R&R when I spied an Avanti with the hood up at the side of the Deli-liquor-cafe-gas station.
So, I just had to wander over to take a look and it was a supercharged one that the couple had JUST BOUGHT back East and were driving it home to California when they hit a Buck.
I helped the guy for about an hour with an ice pick and baleing wire and everything they had in the store that looked like tape, stitching, wiring and tapeing the glass front end scraps back together so they could get back on the road.
It was cracked and broken in front of the hood, but not structurally and I expect it was as good as new in a short while.

A couple of years later, I missed a Buck as tall a our Astro Van by about 6" on the I-80 doing about 75 mph, I shared lanes a bit with the guy to my right and just cleared the deer tail as he bound across the interstate from the side to the meridian.

I nailed a cat with my beam axle on Woodruff, just South of Frisco's diner going home frome cruise night once.
Bagged a pidgeon in the grill once, and My Dad caught a baseball in his '52 Merc grill when we were kids too.

I just missed a German Shepherd once in Berkeley (back in '68) but he became a grill ornament on an oncoming Mercedes just after he cleared my MGA's front end.
That happened the day after I was walking across a side street toward Cal campus on Telegraph when a kid in a '64 TBird didn't look both ways before pulling out and I had no where to go but jump up in the air after which I ended up spread eagled on his hood hanging onto the wipers and my nose against the glass. I just rolled off and told him off like his Mother should.
Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug...

 

A large animal. Sasquatch? Not even sure what it was, but I certainly wasn't the first to hit it. Late night, and cars in the lanes to either side of me so I have no place to go. I hit it like a jump and most likely got all 4 tires off the ground.

Like you, I just couldn't look until the following morning. So I head out to the parking garage, and the gardener is under my car with a weed wacker (I kid you not). I ask him WTF and he tells me when he got to work there were about a dozen cats eating something off the bottom of my car. He said their were strips of meat and fur hanging down..................but he's cleaned most of it. Hahahahaha.

I still laugh when I think about it.

 

NEVER run over a hog.

 

I hit a pile of dirt on the side of a road that was being worked on. A drunk swerved into my lane so I swerved onto the side of the road and hit the only thing around. I was in a 71 Vette convertable. It flipped 6 times end over end and landed upside down on top of me.

 

I think her name was Olga.

Bryan

 

My buddy hit a concrete wall about half track doing 85. Was a bad day.

 

The most I've hit with mine is a dead cat that was too tall to make it under my A and steep driveways.
I came within 6"s of hitting a bear while on my motorcycle early one morning. We were both pretty suprized by that one.

 

Hit a skunk this summer in my roadster, my car stunk for two weeks afterwards. No other damage though.

 

i t-boned a ford tauras in my almost freshly restored 59 vw bug a couple of years ago. drunk driver ran a stop sign. my car only had 1100 miles on it. i ended up putting my head thru the front window and crushing the steering wheel with my chest but i walked away from it.

 

Hmmmm...is there a time limit on this...???

I started small, worked my way up: seven rabbits, one skunk, three turtles, two Pheasants (and I'm sure there were a few birds and squirrles in there somewhere), one pig, one flatbed truck, one steel span bridge, one railroad crossing guard, several mail boxes, one 1960 Ford, one 1977 Chrysler and one-only Deer...and that one has only been three years ago...ruined the front of my '57 Chevy...!!!

R-

 

Have a "Deer Hunter" decal on the 36. Always explain it's the car not the driver that gets credit.

 

On my first 200+ run I was standing there happly waiting for my push truck to get there. They drove up and said "What did you hit?' What could I hit at Bonneville. I looked at the front of the car and the fiberglass front end looked like I had hit a telephone pole. As I look at it it popped back out. So the biggest thing I ever hit was the air.

 

The biggest thing my car has ever hit was me, right in the wallet. And it took a mighty big chunk out of it too!!

 

I hit the wall at Little River just past the finish line after clearing the lights at 109 mph in my *cough* 68 Camaro *cough*. My dad parked my roadster in the fence at Houston Raceway Park at about the 330 ft mark and turned it into a tricycle. We wont even talk about how much stuff i tore up racing short tracks.

 

The F-100 has a coyote, and a rabbit to it's credit. The hardest hit though, was a sudden dip in the road...stuffed the front bumper into the pavement HARD.
My 67 Plymouth mowed down several cats, a dog, a Subaru, and a really mean looking snowbank.

 

I impaled a pigeon one time on the antennae of a 58 Ford I used to have. Weirdest damned thing. I heard a big KABOING!!! Looked up and saw a pigeon on the end of the antenna.

Biggest one was when I hit a Post Office vehicle broadside at 65 mph in a 35 mph zone. That was the day I quit drinking.

 

Not that big but hey...

I managed to run over the neighbours poodle with my Rocket 27 T coupe...

it experienced a close encounter with a Firestone 890-15 wide white, and didn't ask for more

 

One time i was driving downtown Spokane, WA and the brakes went out in my 63 Galaxie 500xl. I was cruising at about 35 or so and just ended up blowing a few red lights as it was about midnight and not a lot of traffic.

I figured that it was too big of a chance to keep on doing this so i pulled into an empty parking lot and drove into a wall at about 10mph or so. It sucked but i figured I wouldn't risk any one else's car or life for mine.

The car actually ended up not being that bad. Little straightening of the bumper and and brackets and i was good to go. The brick wall held up pretty well too.

 

in the early 70's i tried to beat a car carrier by turning left in front of it, in my 60 belair, totaled out a new elcamino in middle of the trailer during the process, my timing was little off