I should win an award!!!

[chipperwerks]

It's the Hondamatic instant slolom depositor!

[roadhog0]

Mine aren't so catastrophic but still interesting. When I was taking a drive with the BMW 2002 guys up here in Seattle my dad and I got onto the Viaduct in my car and started scooting along, hit about 80 and BAM my hood starts hinging open, we look at each other and think "what the heck?!?" So he reaches out the window and pushes it down while I latch the thing and we continue on our way. I never thought a forward opening hood would open up on the highway...

Second one is when we were picking up Christmas trees for Boy Scouts. We had put about 10 full size trees and roped em down in the back of our long bed 3/4 ton Chev and were making a left turn. I was in the passenger seat and saw the one tree we weren't sure of start to roll off the side, I just yell "oh shit," unbuckle, and lean out the window just to grab the tree before it falls, from there I hop out through the window and drag it across the street where we were collecting them. Learned that even if they looked tied in they may not be.

[Mike Self]

curvy road, trees right up to the shoulder. I was going about 60 mph in my 4CV Renault (yes, they go that fast, and then some) when I lost ALL electrics: lights, ignition, radio, everything. So I was silently coasting in the pitch dark, entering a curve at 60 mph and night blind from the headlights that had been on a few seconds before.

I managed to guide the car to the shoulder without hitting a tree (no other traffic, fortunately), grabbed my flashlight and found a loose battery terminal. One wiggle and everything came back on. And yes, I tightened the terminal with a wrench before proceeding...

mike

[Gordon]

While driving my former 74 tii a few years ago on the 405 freeway in LA, the back window blew out of the car while I was doing about 70-75 in the fast lane. I was just driving along and I heard a loud whoosh noise and it suddenly got real noisy in the car. I looked in the rear view mirror and I saw the window breaking into about a thousand pieces on the freeway. It even took the window gasket with it when it blew out. Needless to say, I just let up on the gas for a second and kept right on going down the freeway, never hit my brakes once. What the hell was I going to do with a window in a thousand pieces? If had stopped (no shoulder on the fast lane), I would have been road pizza. I'm lucky the driver behind me was a ways back when it blew out but I'm sure he had to change his underwear on the spot. I did notice a huge cloud of brake smoke in my rear view mirror. I turned the radio on and listened to the traffic report and no SIG alerts were issued at that location. No harm, no foul. The shop that put in my new headliner failed to secure the rear window properly after they installed the headliner.

G-Man

[BarryA]

24 years ago, my wife had a very nice 73 1/2 911 T Targa (2nd owner, Tangerine over black and tan fabric, factory a/c, Recaro's, etc).

One spring day, I get home from work (we've been married a couple of years at this point) - she meets me at the door looking kind of nervous and says "I have something to tell you - how you respond will have a major effect on our marriage" (nothing like front-loading the conversation!).

Turns out she'd loaded her kids (2nd & 3rd grade) into the Targa earlier that day and headed out someplace - about a mile from home (and doing about 45 mph on a busy 4 lane street) she realizes that she didn't latch the roof panel down before she left the house, and it's starting to lift. Rather than pull over right there and latch it down (which takes maybe 20 seconds), she decides she can hold it down until she stops a few blocks down the street to get the kids a snack.

Long story short, a box van blows past her in the left lane, the "bow wave" yanks the roof panel out of her hand and it goes airborne, landing top down in the middle of the street about 50 yards behind her. She pulls over, tells the kids to stay put, and starts running (as fast as a woman in 3" heels can run) back to get it. Just before she gets there a pickup runs over it, hits his brakes and the wheel that's in the middle of the roof panel locks, dragging it about 100 feet on the asphalt.

She took me down to the garage and opened the trunk - roof panel was tangled mess of ground up aluminum castings and shredded vinyl - total loss. Took me close to a year of hunting, close to $1K, and a 250 mile round trip to find, buy and pick up an early style folding roof to replace it.

We're still married, so I guess I passed the response test........

[jgerock]

As they say on the TV, "I'm sorry for your loss" (I notice the 911 isn't in your signature).

24 years ago, my wife had a very nice 73 1/2 911 T Targa (2nd owner, Tangerine over black and tan fabric, factory a/c, Recaro's, etc).

One spring day, I get home from work (we've been married a couple of years at this point) - she meets me at the door looking kind of nervous and says "I have something to tell you - how you respond will have a major effect on our marriage" (nothing like front-loading the conversation!).

Turns out she'd loaded her kids (2nd & 3rd grade) into the Targa earlier that day and headed out someplace - about a mile from home (and doing about 45 mph on a busy 4 lane street) she realizes that she didn't latch the roof panel down before she left the house, and it's starting to lift. Rather than pull over right there and latch it down (which takes maybe 20 seconds), she decides she can hold it down until she stops a few blocks down the street to get the kids a snack.

Long story short, a box van blows past her in the left lane, the "bow wave" yanks the roof panel out of her hand and it goes airborne, landing top down in the middle of the street about 50 yards behind her. She pulls over, tells the kids to stay put, and starts running (as fast as a woman in 3" heels can run) back to get it. Just before she gets there a pickup runs over it, hits his brakes and the wheel that's in the middle of the roof panel locks, dragging it about 100 feet on the asphalt.

She took me down to the garage and opened the trunk - roof panel was tangled mess of ground up aluminum castings and shredded vinyl - total loss. Took me close to a year of hunting, close to $1K, and a 250 mile round trip to find, buy and pick up an early style folding roof to replace it.

We're still married, so I guess I passed the response test........