Whats the hairist ride you very had in or on a vehicle?

Hydroplaned in my boss's car on the way home from a show last friday. Was a complete downpour. Wipers were barely working and I went for a good slide. Didn't hit anything/anyone though... luckilly I was first in stopping for the light (that's when it happened). Wasn't necessarily scary but it definitely got my heart goin.

 

A few years back I bought a Buell S2 and after riding it a while I took it in for a "free" first service. I picked it up in the afternoon and put it in the shed.(the place was about a mile from my house) The next morning I hop on to ride it to work. I was running about 80 on the HOV with no traffic in a long lefthand sweeper when the rear got a little loose. I looked in my mirror and all I could see was smoke. About that time the rear started comming way around, so I planted my left foot and went with it. I dont know how I kept the bike up and off the retaining walls, but when I stopped I was covered in oil and the filter was just on by a few threads. I ruined my favorite pair of jungle boots, well just the left one!

 

Cruising along near 60 mph on my 69 Triumph Bonneville. No helmet or glasses. Just enjoying the freedom of being totally unprotected and stupid. You guessed it, a bug the size of a walnut (seemed like it) hit me right on the bridge of my nose and splattered both my eyes full of guts. I guessed my way through the turn I was going into a hoping no one was coming. Lucked out and ended up stopped on the right shoulder of the road. Stones don't have guts or I'd have guessed that's what hit me. 2 black eyes, but glad to still have them both. Eye protection from then on for sure........

 

Took a wild ride on the highway years ago. License plate says it all.

 

I was there when my father kicked the rods out of the motor in his former Pro Stock Daytona and went through the finish line at 170mph on the roof. That was in '88 or '89 at MIR in Budds Creek, Maryland

 

about 11 or 12 yrs. old, went screaming sideways around a corner in my go-kart (is there any other way?) and Blam! wedged it sideways underneath a guys bumper stopped at the stop sign..I'm yelling at him not to move, he gets out and helps pry me out from under there..Later in my 20s in N. Cal. the only way we can figure out how to get my 57 PowerWagon down to Lost Lake for the trout run is to lower it down the cliff backwards with the winch..and, for the hell of it, set the trunk on fire in a 55 Buick and drove up and down the Port Aransas beach till we thought it was time to drive it out in the ocean to put the fire out. We hitched home of course...

 

I was about 10-12 and got a ride in one of Dick Harrell's ex-race cars, (prostock?). Scared the crap of out of me. This was on the street and we went about 160 mph. Wonder if that was legal ?????????

 

I rolled my Ol' Chevy truck three times, and did an endo (end over end). We were testing out a new set of Hooker large tube headers that we had put on my small block Chevy (which I thought was a John Force Rat motor). We were on a dirt road running flat out letting the engine really breathe, when we hit a small dip that launched us into a roll. Everytime I rolled, my head was laying on the door glass and I could see the dirt, rocks, and weeds. I kept thinking if this window breaks I am dead. Thankfully the window never broke and we all walked away with various injuries. Everything from broken ribs to bruised shoulders. We left the truck because it was night time. The next day we showed up to get the truck, where a cop was waiting for me. He threatened to arrest me for "evading the police." I told him, "I didn't realize they were after me?" Later he asked what we were doing out there. I told him' "testing my new large tube headers." Sarcastically he asked' " how'd they run?" Looking at the mangled truck I said, "obviously well!"

 

About 1965, my buddy and I were working on his chopped '32 Ford tudor. We got a little thirsty, and decided a few beers would help us out. Unfortunatly, the only thing that was running at the time was his Zundapp motorcycle (a 250, I believe). We rode double down to the local muni, and bought a case of "White Label" beer. When we came to leave, there was no way I could carry the case of beer riding frontwards on the back of the bike. We could have been smart an exchanged the case for a 12 pack, but we were too dumb for that. We ended up with me sitting backwards on the bike and holding the case of beer in my lap. It was a real exciting ride home; every time he shifted the Bike, the front wheel would come off the ground, and I would almost slide off the seat, landing in the road. Luckily, we only had about a half mile to his house, so we made it without any disasters. Every time I think about this, I shake my head and think "What were we thinking?".

 

Coming home from school my senior year. I was going way too fast trying to impress my friends. I dropped the right rear wheel off the road into the gravel and started spinning. After making at least 3 full 360's I hit the rock wall on the other side of the road. It hit so hard it rolled the front end up all the way to the wind shield. This was in a '73 Riviera GS with a built 455 Stage 1 in it. The whole front end looked like a stomped on soda can. Ya gotta remember, from the front bumper of that car to the windshield is enough metal to build two or three Toyotas. Wow, I've not thought about that in years!

 

It was 1976 and I was driving in my little Datsun 2dr I had just pulled away from a stop sign and it was a snow covered road I had gone through all the gears when a tractor trailor pulled out of a drive way to my left I tried gearing down and when I got to second gear the car went into 3 or 4 donuts and I eneded up on my side in the ditch on my left pointing in the other direction, a cop came along and ask if I was ok, I told him ya I'm kool..lol.. he ask if I had money for a tow truck I said no, he then said well lets rock it back on its wheels which we did. No broken glass just a lot of dents...In all hind sight if I had got a tow truck chances are I wouldnt have had so many dents, but money was tight..hell its always tight in my world..lol..

 

Mid 70's I'm driving a '66 Chevelle.Wasnt a SS and was just a 283 powered rig but I'm 17
and life is good.Picked up a set of aluminum slots and installed them.Car looked great.Drove around for a few days then decided to head to the big city and meet some friends but as I am driving along the freeway at 70mph there is a shudder and the car shakes.Feels like a flat or a rear tire low on air so I stop and do a walk around looking at the tires but they all look good.Hop back in,fire it up and ease back on the freeway but damn...there is that vibration and now it's a hard shake.Slow back down and get on the shoulder.Take a closer look and Holy Shit Elroy there isnt a lug nut left on either of the two rear wheels.The shake was from the rims being spun by the studs and half of those were missing.I had forgotten to re-torque the lug nuts.Havent owned a set of mag wheels since.

 

Took a ride to the airport with my dad, when he was in his 80's. scared the livin' shit outta me! Just hope I ain't that bad when I'm 80... bowtie40

 

I would like to share a story that isnt about me but my oldest boy, When he was 4, I had a 54 Ford 2 dr post for a all year round car, the flatty was dependable for driving in the snow but the 6 volt didnt like real cold weather had to be dragged in drive to warm it up at times..lol... Back to the story, I had put 2 of my sons in the car and started it and left the choke on a few notches, they were seating in the back with seat belts on, I went into the house cause the Ex was asking me something and all I heard was gears grinding , my oldest had jump the front seat and pulled the shifter down into low as he climbed over , he couldnt use the brakes , so he through it into park ..Stopped about 6 inches short of my neibour houses, he went only about 30 feet and was scared and he never tried it again. He is in his late 20's now but remembers it all to this day..lol..lesson learned for both of us, I never left any vehicle running with kids in it again...

 

100 + mph ride in a BBC powered V drive flat bottom on the sacramento river w nothing to hold on to.

 

1974 coming back from my girlfriend grandma's house in my first new car. 1972 dodge dart swinger. Going thru a blinking light in a small town broad sided by a farmed coming back from a chicken show. He is thrown out and run over by his own truck. Compound fracture of one of his legs. My girlfriend was sitting by me as they used to. She was knocked out. Everything was in slow motion for me. The car was spun 180 and the trans was in reverse and throttle wide open. 100 yards down the road a couple saw what happened stopped on the side of the road to help. I ran into them at full speed. We were OK but the farmer had a very bad broken leg. Totaled the car and trucks involved. My girlfriend now my wife has a dent in her leg where she hit the dash with it.

 

When I was a teenager the old man took us hunting with them out in the forest. He was drunk doing 90mph on black ice to impress his buddy. I was sure we would die.

I had my first car in the school shop for brakes and the grade 10-ers finished it up. As I drove down the road with my buddies my RF wheel came off and rolled away While the car ground to a stop on my new brakes. The damn wheel rolled for a block and turned into a parking lot and dropped into a spot.

With my Mustang one spring I came around a cloverleaf going fast. Unfortunately there was sand on the road. The car went wild, first turning 90 degrees to starboard, then flipping around 90 to port, then right around backwards. So there I am going down the highway backwards really fast. Soon I hit the curb and knocked out about 4 feet of concrete with the front crossmember.
The whole front end had shifted to one side. But it started up and I drove it home no problem. It steered just like before. I friend pulled it in his shop and everything came back into alignment. Still have the car.

 

Me and my best friend Bill were in his brand new 74 Corvette showing off and slid through a curve on a freeway feeder road at about 80 mph. He lost it and hit a guardrail and then we spun out and then we hit the guardrail on the opposite side of the road, over it and then we rolled down a 30-40 ft. concrete embankment and landed on the access road below. No seatbelts, being young and stupid we had disconnected them a couple of days earlier to get rid of that annoying buzzer and light, remember we were 19 and bulletproof. That turned out to be a bad move. The car rolled a few times, I don't really know how many. The T-tops flew off, I flew out and landed on the concrete roadway. Bill was crushed inside the car and died instantly. I wasn't in much better shape. I ended up with internal injuries requiring surgery later after I almost bought the farm, crushed lumbar vertebra, fractured clavicle, and so many abrasions and lacerations it looked like someone had taken a grinder to me. My life changed that day. And I always wear my seat belts.

 

Buddy of mine had a '61 Falcon 4dr that he shoehorned a blown 351CJ, C6 and a 9" in. On the safe side it did have a roll cage. Sort of a waste for a more-door, I thought. The first time we took it out he nailed it. It pulled a Toyota stunt with the throttle sticking wide open and just boiling the tires. By the time we had got it under control we had hit the century mark and headed for a bar ditch. He grab hold of the steering wheel and got it back in the center of the road. Then the hood flipped back smacking the top of the blower and taking the air cleaners with it, then bending and slammed into the windshield. He finnally got it stopped and pulled over into a rest stop. Just about the time for a TX Highway Patrol car pulled up behind us. They could barely contain themselves from laughing their asses off! Lucky for us we both new them. We must have passed them parked on the road during all this. Thank god for good friends on the right side of the badge. We parked the car for good week or so before we could muster up the balls to drive it again. Good thing he got rid of it after a year. Because that was one over powered hard to control wild ass ride.....

 

Hmmm;me thinks I know of that car. Was it yellow back in the early/mid 1980's?

Mine(and there's a few,but this was the scariest):

2001. Early May,and I'm on my '99 Softail heading home from work in Saginaw down I-75 towards Flint. 'Bout midnight,and I'm rolling with traffic about 75-80 per. I prefer to NOT have other vehicles around me,but couldn't shake the three or four that paced themselves with me. I'm in the middle lane,and we're heading slightly uphill,when I spot a "delta" shaped stain in the road ahead,emanating from the middle of my lane. Quicker than you-know-what,I'm in this stuff,and can hear a slight "hiss" of displaced liquid. Effin' BLOOD;a deer just bought it. "Now where the hell is the carcass?" I'm thinking. Just as we all(remember the other cars around me)crest the rise,I see the dead deer-IN MY LANE! Thank God I've had some dirt bike experience;my only hope was to hit and jump over this carcass. There was no way to safely brake at that speed. I rolled the throttle on,told my daughter that I loved her,and pulled the bars as hard as I could at the moment of impact. Fortunately the deer had its back facing me;had my skinny 21" front tire hit the belly,I would have gone down. I got up in the air,felt the rear tire strike and roll over the deer,and waited for the landing. Came down HARD,smashing my tailbone into the seat back,and the bike wobbled until I hit the gas and kept moving. The damn cars around me never changed their position;had I hit the pavement,at least two would have hit me. After a mile or so(I just kept going-home was less than 10 miles away), I glanced over at a woman on my right who had kept pace with me through this whole adventure. Her eyes were huge with what looked like a combo of fear and amazement at what she had just seen. She gave me a hearty thumbs up and peeled off at the next exit. I headed home to a phatty and a strong V.O. and Seven;my heartbeat didn't come down for at least two hours.

The next day;I visited a former M/C club brother at his auto repair shop,and told him what had occurred. Another member,who was our chapter's first Prez,walked over to my bike,reached down and under the bike and pulled out a VERY large clump of hair. He came over to where I was standing,placed it in my hand and said "I would've have called 'Bullshit!',until I saw this. You're one lucky mofo..." Further inspection revealed more hair and blood all over the underside of the bike. I think it was then that I truly realized what had happened the night before. It was a hot day,and I felt an arctic-quality shiver pass from head to toe. Somewhere around here,I have that hair to remind me;of what,I'm not quite sure.

 

Back in the mid 80s riding my Triumph to work on the freeway (fast lane) at about 5am at about 80 mph. On the other side of the freeway ahead of me I see a huge fireball in the air and am knocked off the bike (electric transformer blew up). I hit and roll into the emergency parking in the center of the road. I got up, couldn't see anything wrong with me but no bike in sight. It was about 150 feet further down the freeway also in the emergency parking lane, it had lain over on it's side and slid. I got to it, no real damage, had to kick it once to get it started and rode it back home (no work that day). I ended up with a raspberry about the size of a silver dollar on my leg and the bike got a few scrapes but nothing broken.
Yeah, I said a quick prayer after that.

 

Four of us in a friend's '65 Mustang. I'm riding shotgun. A '64 Golden Commando with a 383 pulls up alongside at the light on the four-lane city street. We launch at the green and get about 2 blocks before we see that the curb lane is blocked - By KC Police Patrol with a radar gun! The Plymouth has to shut down and pull over because the cops are in his lane, my buddy tries to slow down but cooks his brakes, so he stands on it while the cop tries to step out into the middle lane and wave him down with a flashlight. My buddy's not stopping, and the cop throws the flashlight through the windshield and into my lap, along with most of the windshield on my side of the car. My buddy takes off, turning onto side streets and flooring it through neighborhoods for about 12 blocks, then dumps off the rest of us.

I can still see that flashlight coming straight at my head as we accelerate inches away from the cop. Needless to say, I never rode with my buddy again under any circumstances.

 

Story 1: Driving a 66 rambler wagon down a steep hill in Georgia when I came up to an intersection. I stabbed at the brakes...nothing...I just kept picking up speed toward the stopped line of traffic. I cranked the wheel to the right, drove straight into the ditch, came flying thru the intersection between a hearse and the flower car of a funeral procession and kept on going until the vehicle slowed down enough to stop. The hitchhiker shat his self.
Story 2: Riding with some hell raising friends in the back seat of a bright yellow 73 Camaro, we got chased by the cops. During this pursuit, we sped across a foot bridge the car should never have fit on. A few blocks down we ducked into an alley and scattered. Two days later, the foot bridge had some new posts strategically placed at both ends.
Story 3: I was hitching through Indiana when the car I was in turned left across a four lane when a car hit us broad side right at my side. I walked away from that one a little sore.
Story 4: My gramps was getting on in years and we were trying to get the keys away from him as he should not be driving. Someone had to ride with him to make sure he made it home (senile). He went down an off ramp the wrong way onto I 94 in Milwaukee. I reached for the wheel and lifted my foot over the trans hump and hit the brakes.

 

Was on the TAT (Trans American Trail) on a Dual-Sport bike. I got hit head on by some f**ktard doing 70MPH + on a dirt road about 10 foot wide. He came out of a blind turn, I had little time to react, pitched the bike and tried to get onto the hood.............and failed.............went under the truck. Got run over by tires, hook on hitch and dragged.

He got out, walked up to me, ran back to truck and left me there to die. Weather was too bad for life-flight, took over an hour for EMS to get there. Wife was told to begin planning for my funeral by hospital.

----crushed pelvis, 1 collapsed lung, 1 torn lung, broken ribs, broken hips, broken shoulder, broken back, broken ankles, dislocated shoulder, broken knee, and massive internal bleeding. Never passed out.

2 weeks on life support, 4 weeks in ICU, close to 1 million in medical bills........

http://www.southreporter.com/2009/wk24/one_arrested.html

here is me about an hour before the incident, aftermath shots are too graphic for this site...





Almost 1 year to the date of my wreck, Had my Road Race car explode on a track in Alabama. It tossed two rods, dumped 12 quarts of oil onto the headers and caught fire. Went off into the grass, windshield was on fire, had no brakes, got it stopped from 100 or so with parking break.

 

I have two that come to mind, one a racing incident (Rally) so a little O/T but a good read and the other was the first time I stepped onto a low slung 'cruzin' bike, Harley. I had spent many years on Ducat's and have had some insanely fast Duc's but never REALLY scared myself.
But, I was living on the Southern Peninsula in Portsea, Victoria when I bought my 'slow' bike. I tried for about three days to ride it like one of my 996's, yeah.....bad move.
There are PLENTY of narrow winding roads dont there and I was out one evening with my soon to be ex-girlfriend eating up a few miles and generally having me some fun. This is when the point was still military (I was Army) land, I took off through the unguarded gates and out to the old gun emplacements to watch the sun go down.
After a while we decided to go home, well what better than a full tilt scream through the narrow windy hilly point road?
I was enjoying it untill one corner, right on the crest of a steep hill with a hard right at the top. I layed it in there like Rossi and foind out that the frame rails touch the ground like that!! It litteraly stood the bike up and launched us about 2 ft off the ground! I landed with the bike in the saltbush and came to a halt about 50m in the scrub, the girl? About 40ft to my right, man she flew like a bird to get to where she was.
Im not sure why but she waited for another ride home, never saw her again (Bitch still has my helmet!).
The second was some years ago when I was in school..........

Scariest ride was at my own hands, but at the direction of another. To tell this one I need to go back a ways.
I was in my last year of high school, boarding with a family on ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ in a dump of a place called Thomastown. I had a good friend live a few doors down dropped out of school early and lead a life of leisure supported by overly generous parents. He also happened to be a mad keen rally fan. So much so he picked up a pretty beat up RX3 Mazda, with a strong 13B rotary so he could go racing.
I spent many nights helping him to get the car done, we spent some time building the cage and tacked it all together. He was going to get it all stitched up by a pro welder. One afternoon it was ready for a test drive, Cool! I bailed in the navigator’s seat and we headed out for a quick run around the block. It pulled hard for what it was but was pretty stiff in the suspension. I noticed this due to the fact the roll bar that tied the front of the cage with the main hoop vibrated off and dropped on us during the test drive! Turned out he welded it up himself to save money after a few beers! I made him get it re-done properly, and I’m glad I did!
We went out so he could get a CAMS license to drive it, I was going to be the navigator. It sounded like something fun to do. The problem with that started when he got behind the wheel, he couldn’t drive fast to save himself! After a bit of negotiation I ended up in the pilot seat, he in the navs.
All went well for the first few races, a few mix ups with notes but nothing real serious. The car was very quick for the class and in hine sight I was always a little behind it, bit being young, 10ft tall and bulletproof I gave it all I had.
In out last race we were doing pretty well, had picked up a few places in the early stages. Then we came to the longest stage, 32km. Even know we had driven it the day before I couldn’t remember shit of the track. I had to rely on the notes.
A few kilometres into the stage we came to a long strait with a big dip and a crest on the other side. I nailed it hard and was doing about 130 when we hit the top. I expected the track to be a straight line over the crest. As we mounted the top we were airborne and staring at a whole lot of trees! My mate had turned a couple of pages by mistake and read the wrong notes!! I saw the road turning off to the right but with the car in the air there was nothing I could do about it. Didn’t stop me from having my foot firmly on the brake and it turned hard to the right!
We hit the first tree about 6-7 foot up, there were a lot of small trees that we were slicing through, the car started to turn so we were sideways in the air, passenger side first. It seemed we were up there for a week time went so slow, I remember watching first the windscreen shatter then a large branch come through hitting the dash, cracking the gauge cover. The noise was incredible, like someone beating on the side of a 44 gallon drum with a couple of 4x2s while your head was in there!
Next thing I know was hanging upside from my harness, thank god he got that cage done right! I had been knocked unconscious. The front of the car had hit a tree that was a good 20ft round, it took the entire front off the little Mazda, engine, gearbox everything. My mate came too moaning.
I undid my harness promptly landing on my head further disorienting me. I turned to help my nav out of his harness, that’s when I discovered he was trapped by his legs. The tree had hit right on the join of body and front guard. At that speed it had crushed his side so bad they had to get EMS in to cut him out. He had broken both his legs, I was lucky I had a headache. My mate recovered and we never did go back to rally!
And so ended my rally driving career!

Doc.

 

back then i was obviously younger and much drunker.. leaving the bar we worked at we jumped into my 57 GMC Step side to head to an after hours joint in Newark..
to get to point a to point b we cut through a desolite industrial part of the city..it was wet and bumpy (coblestone road)..i wasn't all that sure where i was or maybe i was too blasted..i asked my buddy for direction and yelled make a right...so i did a hard one doing about 40..just as i heard him say not that far right i noticed a sign in the middle of the street,,i figured that i'd fuck with my buddy and mow the sign down.. i stomped on the gas and took the sign out..well what i didn't see from a distance was the 1/2 steel cable that was stretched across the road "holding " the sign up..from this point on it was slow motion..watching the cable stretch out and over the hood and smash the windshield into a million pieces....the truck stalled out and the cable was right in front of my face..like an inch away from my nose..my knuckles were a bloody mess..my heart beating like a racehorse!
my buddy was speechless, and on the floor-
i jumped out of the truck to take a look... found my vise grips on the ground (they were holding the lower fender on) stuffed them in my pocket..jumped back in the truck started here up and took off..luckily i had a pair of sno boarding goggles under the seat.. i was now as sober as a judge- the windshield slide off the truck at some point.. we found the after hours joint and finished the night off... i drove that damned truck around all winter with no winshield...the cable tweaked the cab about a 1/4 inch forward and to the left-
glad i stopped drinkin!

 

My first wild ride was when i was 17 i was sitting on the hood of my sedan at a local park when a non-licensed mate spotted some chicks and decided to show off in my car, i spent about 10 minutes hanging onto the a'pillars as the fool weaved in and out of trees trying to dislodge me off the hood into em, untill he bogged the car in mud, while trying to wind the side windows up...i was not overally amused.

 

Heading to Indy, 1978, for the U.S. Nationals drags. I'd been driving for about 360 miles after working all day when I asked my co-pilot if he'd mind driving for a while. He gets behind the wheel of my mom's 1973 Dodge Dart 4-door, misses the turn from I-80 to I-74, and is going into a T intersection at 60 mph, when he realizes he's got to turn at the last second or we're going to launch the Dart into the roof of a house. He whips a hard left, the Dart goes up on 2-wheels for a second, touches down for a mili- second, goes back up on 2 wheels briefly, then sets down, and he pulls into a parking lot. He looks at me and says " good thing I'm a good driver or that could have been bad". I'm speechless at this point. The moral of this story is make sure your co- drivers can drive.

 

The ride wasn't so bad... Parking it hurt like hell. Thats me reclining in the street. Article says we rear ended a truck.. It hit us head-on.. We spun it around.. 66 Ford 3/4 ton truck full of stuff.. I'm still not right... And i lost my damn tennis shoe!

 

Whats the most frightening ride I've had in a vehicle? Thats easy to answer.

A Taxi ride while in Beijing!