Whats your scariest moment in a cal-look bug?
Rennsurfer:
Easy question to answer.
I had those feckless 135 Michelin tires on the front of my orange '66 on early EMPI fives. Anyway, I over slept and was supposed to open the Long Beach Auto Haus store at nine in the morning like I always did. Well... it was one of those El Niño winter storms we were having in '83. A lot of wind and water. The rain was coming down very hard. I was at the intersection in front of Long Beach City College. The light turned green, a brand new Vanagon on the side of me and an almost new Porsche 930 behind me. I was doing about 40-50mph. All of a sudden, I feel the front of the car slowly lift. SCARY. Then, I started spinning about 2-3 360º turns. Somehow, I was extremely blessed and ended up bringing the car to a safe stop in the middle of one of the driveways leading into Vet's Stadium, further down the street. In the pouring rain... there I was. Completely scared outta my 19 year old mind. Both hands clenched tightly to my brand new EMPI wood steering wheel, heart pounding, and eyes wide open. I hear a knock on my side windows from the two other drivers. When I regained my wits about me, I realized that they were kind enough to have pulled over to see what was going on. I rolled down the driver side glass. One of the people said, "Are you alright?" The other asked, "Are you on something, like a drug?" I told 'em both that I was fine and sober & explained that my car lifted like an airplane wing which resulted in the hydroplane effect.
Needless to say, I didn't give a rat's arse if I was late opening the shop, by driving very slow. I called the owners at home and told them what happened and apologized for being a few minutes late. They were beyond cool and were just happy that I was alive. Went next door to the '49er Tavern and they let me take a huge schooner of some import bier back to the shop to mellow out with.
Right after that incident, I removed the 135 tires on my front lawn (the beauty of two-piece wheels) and upgraded to 145s. Also never took my lowered Bugs out in the windy heavy rain again, unless I was driving very slow. Taught me a good lesson. A day of which I shall not soon forget. When it's raining and I'm driving by that spot, I can still see that freaked out teenage rookie on the side of the road with a car full of EMPI. Thought for sure that my beloved wheels were gonna be toast into the curb. Thank God... the car and I were unscathed.
Next?
Dick Mitchell:
Mine happened back in highschool, when I was young, dumb and often made really stupid decisions...Like racing a Kid I didn't much care for against his 69' Camaro Z28. Happened on the street during lunch. Came up on some traffic and went to apply the brakes and the drivers side brake cylinder burst. Car jerked hard to the left and I ended up going part way up an concrete island divider, while my passenger-side fender went into the side bumper of the car in front of me. (the car I hit happened to be a 70' bug) Luckily the girl driving didn't even care about the damage to her car and even though we exchanged info, she never contacted insurance (I was lucky twice) Talk about embarrassing though.
However less than a week later, the kid I was racing decided to show-off when he saw that I was behind him waiting at a traffic light. It goes green and he lights up the tires while making the turn onto the same street I had wrecked. He ended up driving his pristine Z28 into the back of a lifted truck and wiped out the entire front end and crushing the radiator. I didn't feel as embarrassed after that.
jhicken:
Although I wasn't in my bug, I was riding with Mark Ramirez in his black '67 following Billy McKinley and Mike Sosa in Billy's Guards Red '57 Ragtop [Billy may have been Prez of DKK at this time] and we were on our way home from the Speedway races down at the OC Fairgrounds. It was late on a Friday night and we were all well primed. Coming from Harbor Blvd down Bastenchury there was this long poorly lit left hand sweeper that Billy decided to pass a slow moving El Camino on the right. Next thing we saw was a flash of sparks from Billy's alloys and all of a sudden the '57 lifted up off the ground and then end over end down into the gully on the right. We freaked. Mark slammed on the brakes and we ran down the embankment expecting the worse. This gully was a drainage overflow and it was filled with these giant granite boulders. At the bottom we find Billy's ride, upside down, smoldering with what was left of the alloy's still spinning. We looked inside and they weren't there. We then heard their moans. About twenty feet away, in the only grassy spot within fifty yards, the two of them were laying next to each other. How they landed there I'll never know. They were beat, both went to the hospital for a few days but came out ok.
That was one hell of a scary night.
-jeffrey
Neil Davies:
Not in a Bug, but in my Ghia - howling through some country lanes, late as usual, I came over a hump back bridge far too quickly, and didn't expect to see a sharp 90 degree right hander immediately after the bridge! The 145's just about gripped enough to point the front around the corner, but the poor 165s at the back didn't stand a chance! I had the car swinging like a pendulum back and forth, but it didn't go all the way round and i didn't hit anything - drove a bit slower for the next few miles...
Dave Rosique:
The year: 1974
I'm 16 years old out late one night in my newly acquired U.S. spec, original paint, '55 Oval. I was driving up a concrete alley that had a little water down the middle... hit the water about 20 mph, yank the emergency brake and pitched it sideways until I came to a stop... wow that was cool. Smart kid that I was, I circled around for another go at it... this time I picked up the speed a bit, hit the hand brake, pitched it sideways (again) but mid slide I got out of the brake, gassed it (all 1200cc!!) and pulled out of the slide! SWEET!! At that point I should have stopped. Nope. Not me. Just ONE more time before I go home... This time I hit the water at about 40 mph, grabbed the hand brake, went violently sideways, went up a 45 degree embankment and put that nice old car on it's roof... The car slides for 100 feet or so, sparks everywhere, back seat comes out, battery dumps acid all over me, gas leaking everywhere... I thought I was a done deal.
I crawled out a window and with the help of some guy we pushed the car back to rubber side down... what an idiot I was...
Anyway, long story short... the B.S. story I told my Mom (and others) was I dodged a cat and wrecked the car...
nice.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page