Bad night last night!

[shmoov69]

Not near as bad as it could have been, but I would have better to just stay home. Well, in the 15 years that I have had my car, it has never got away from me enough that I did not recover..........Well, there is a first time for everything! I ripped it hard getting onto the highway (like usual), it fishtailed to both sides (like usual) but went too far to the left and I lifted and could not recover. At this point, I am doing about 80ish and get on the brakes after it turns the nose to about 7 oclock sliding up the ramp twards the big a$$ curb (about 8"). I prolly got it down to about 45ish before it hit the front corner and intercooler hanging down. After it made contact, it just sucked the car around and jumped the curb sideways and backwards into the steep grassy embankment. I missed the gaurdrail of the highway by about 3 feet (thankfully). My wife and I were ok, just hurt pride, but the car has popped the paint off the doors and fender gaps, moved the front bumper/grille area about 3/4 of an inch, mashed up the crossmember, dented the pan/exhaust (everything), hit the lower A arms prety bad, loosened the upper ball joints, bent both front wheels, busted the belts on one front tire, trashed the intercooler/tubing, dented and tweaked the front valance/fender extension and folded my licence plate. This is all before I get to a frame machine! :candle:
But again, we are ok, and the car is fixable, not ready to throw away! So, it could definately be worse. I'll let y'all know later this week after I get it on a rack to see what else.

[MuscleRodz]

Sorry to here that. Humbling isn't it. Glad your ok.

Mike

[zbugger]

Damn... That's horrible. But, on the good side, it's a sign that you need to upgrade for better traction. That means that you can go a little overboard!!!! Cage, Harnesses, Seats...... Hope the new build is fun, at least.

[Steve Chryssos]

Oh man! Sorry to hear the bad news. You've had your share. But like you said, could have been way worse!! My wreck broke my wife's back and destroyed the car. But we rebuilt it. Glad to hear that you are both okay. There's an important lesson in there somewhere. :poke:

[dennis68]

There's an important lesson in there somewhere. :poke:
Never lift, throttle steer out next time. :bananna2:

[Steve1968LS2]

Sorry to hear :(

But GLAD YOU ARE BOTH OK :bananna2:

I assume this was in the Camaro.. I had the same thing happen to me 15 or so years ago in my 67.. too much on a freeway on ramp and I ended up in the iceplant with not much damage but a lot of hurt pride..

And dont feel too bad.. cars get away from even the best drivers.. just be happy you can be around to feel bad about it..

Since you have to fix the car you might as well install TWO superchargers :idea:

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Sorry to hear that, Jimmy. Good luck on the rebuild.

[Martin71RS]

Glad to hear you both got out okay!

looks you have some work ahead of you.....

good luck,
Martin

[yody]

"Never lift, throttle steer out next time"

way easier said than done!! also this works when going around a turn in a controlled enviroment but doing 80 on the freeway in an overpowered uncontrolled drift/out of control is another thing. I would of done the same thing by lifting, when you have so much torque/power all that keeping your foot in the gas does is make it even worse. It probably would of went into a full spin. Sounds like you did all you could. Well at leasts its winter, and you can take your time putting it back together! good luck!

[colt zantop]

sorry to hear that..glad your ok!!!!!!!!!...I had mine get away from me 4th of july last year drag racing, still had drum brakes (that was before my baer upgrade) and my brakes went out at about 90....I spun it out before i went into a field full of trees, ended up about 4 feet from my neighbors new silverado in his front yard!!
that sucked bad. looking forward to see pics of the rebuild!!

colt45

[dennis68]

"Never lift, throttle steer out next time"

way easier said than done!! also this works when going around a turn in a controlled enviroment but doing 80 on the freeway in an overpowered uncontrolled drift/out of control is another thing. I would of done the same thing by lifting, when you have so much torque/power all that keeping your foot in the gas does is make it even worse. It probably would of went into a full spin. Sounds like you did all you could. Well at leasts its winter, and you can take your time putting it back together! good luck!
Fear is sometimes a terrible thing.You would be suprised how much easier it is to drive when the fear of wreck, hurting someone, hurting yourself is removed from the scenerio. Lifting from a fishtail at 80MPH is not the way out, it causes an instant shift of weight to the front wheels removing what little traction the rear tires had, also causes rear steer at the same time resulting, in every case, in full spin (had the curb not been there).
I know it was gut reaction and most if not all of us would have done the same, just pointing out (Monday morning quarterback) what might have saved some damage and ego.

When in doubt, floor it. :3gears:

[rob07002]

Sorry To hear it Jimmy.... I'm glad you and you wife are ok. I did pretty much the same thing 2 years ago in my 2000 Z-28 Vert, This was from a stop and I was just going through the gears when I hit 3rd and the car made an abrupt left toward the guardrail... anyway I found out a few days later that a fuel oil truck had tipped over dumping its load on the road..... (I'm a poet and didn't know it...OH!).... Would have been nice to know beforehand........

Good luck with the rebuild......

[Paul69camaro]

Jimmy, best of luck man, Like every one has said, the good thing is that the both of you are ok. I lost my younger brother a year and a half ago in a similar accident and when I hear of things like this it reminds me of that horrible day and how lucky we are to be alive, it actually makes you appreciate people a lot more. As you already know we're here to help in any we we can, just let us know.

Paul Simmons

[shmoov69]

I appreciate all the kind words. :grouphug: I am sooooo glad it happened before I got to the end of the on ramp, because a busy highway was up there and it would not have been good to spin infront of oncoming traffic and possibly across the median backwards! My wife did say however (after the AAAHHHHHH!!!!! that is!), glad it is going into winter! So, she is a good sport! :angel: We decided to go ahead and turn it into the insurance and see what happens.
Dennis, as I was sitting there gathering my bearings before I got out of the car, I thought the exact same thing! If only I would have gone to that drag racing school, it would have been automatic to not just lift and cause it to bite (with the wheel ****ed the other way!). But, I didn't think of that until after I was sitting in the weeds! :hammer: Also, the turbo lag in third gear may have taken too long to get power again while spinning around and stuffed me somewhere else. The cops (that someone else called) were very cool though. They offered me $100 to take the problem off my hands! No ticket, I guess they thought that I already had my punishment! I just told them I had a very bad case of the "dumb a$$" at the time!
Steve, my wife is telling me that the lesson is to work on the '58 Nomad for her! She has been telling me that for the last year and a half since the Camaro has been kicking me in the..... Wonder if she is right?
I'm glad that I am not the only idiot that has done this here! Again, thanks for the kind and funny words and, well, in a sense, being there! Ohhh, this needs another group hug! :grouphug:
:lol:

[MarkM66]

That sucks man. Sorry to hear it.

[will69camaro]

I'm very glad you're ok. Recently in my hometown i had a friend get hurt in an accident. His friend entered an onramp a little fast (in an EVO) and spun it infront of an 18wheeler...After the impact he was thrown from the vehicle at 70mph and is lucky enough to be alive. Massive head trauma but results are showing no signs of brain,neck, spinal damage so they're just waiting for the swelling to go down so they can begin reconstruction.

Play it safe! I'm glad all the damage was done to your car and not you or your wife.

William

[SUPERMAYS]

Sorry to here that about your car! Hope you and the wife are OK. Cars can be fixed or replaced. It could have been a whole lot worse, you could have done that @ Bristol!

Chris@Comp

[shmoov69]

Hey Chris, whatshappinin! It's all good! I took it to a frame guy and he thinks that about 8 hours of frame time will get it straight again. I am not sure what exactly I am going to do though. :Alchy:
It may be a good thing that the car was not running good at Bristol. That would have sucked to stuff it in the wall there! :barf: Although, if it would have been running good, it would have made quite a few trips down the strip! :3gears: Or at least one, after running a 10.9 with no cage! :getout:
How's your Camaro coming along?
Jimmy

[PRO TC]

jimmy i know this might be throwing salt on the wound but do you have any pics? when i was 20 i wrecked my first car (69 ss396 camaro) the worst thing was i hurt my 17 year old brother. so iam glad to hear you and your wife didnt get hurt. i am sure your car will only get better on the rebuild
barry

[TonyHuntimer]

Jimmy,

Glad to hear you and your wife are okay.


Chris,
Nice to see you posting here. :)

Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

[shmoov69]

I don't have any pics of it now. But I think that I have decided to just pull the frame back straight, touch up the paint, build another intercooler and replace the tires and wheels for the time being. Enough to get it back on the road again. :drive:
I need to get the 58 Nomad going again for my wife to drive (and me something when I tear the Camaro down! :naughty: ). Then I will prolly take the 69 down all the way and start over with different rear suspension and full cage and all.
I do however have a pic of the Camaro about 8 years ago when a #$*^% woman T-boned me.