Post by Fury on Aug 18, 2007 20:13:20 GMT -5
I had a very near miss the other day … but fortunately there was only minor damage.
I was extremely lucky to get out of this ... with a car at all.
I was entering a left hand on ramp (this wont make much sense to LHD drivers – but you’ll get the idea) following another car, at night. There was no traffic on the main road that we were entering. As a double check, I glance over my shoulder to check the main road traffic again before entering – yes, all clear. I look forward… only to see the car ahead stopped – seemingly to check for traffic.
At this point I was probably doing about 45 to 50 kph ( 30 – 35 mph) and there was about 2 – 3 mts ( 6’ to 9’ ) gap to the car in front – which was looming fast!!
I pulled the wheel hard down (brakes were not going to do anything by this stage) – and mounted the inside curb – bending and badly grazing the front wheel, taking chunks out of the sidewall of the tyre as well (and seriously grazing the rear), but somehow avoiding the car in front. And apart from a dent under the car, no panel damage occurred.
For the life of me, I still don’t know how I didn’t hit that car. If I did, I would have been his back seat passenger!
I picked up another rim on Ebay (which I still have to paint the same colour) so all is good, just need a wheel alignment (steering wheel is off by nearly 80 degrees) and to check and fix anything bent (radius rods appear to be ok) and check the tyre balances.
Close call – too close, but at least the EJ conversion is safe. I don’t feel like doing all that again any time soon.
Couple of pix - only mobile phone images.. sorry :
I was extremely lucky to get out of this ... with a car at all.
I was entering a left hand on ramp (this wont make much sense to LHD drivers – but you’ll get the idea) following another car, at night. There was no traffic on the main road that we were entering. As a double check, I glance over my shoulder to check the main road traffic again before entering – yes, all clear. I look forward… only to see the car ahead stopped – seemingly to check for traffic.
At this point I was probably doing about 45 to 50 kph ( 30 – 35 mph) and there was about 2 – 3 mts ( 6’ to 9’ ) gap to the car in front – which was looming fast!!
I pulled the wheel hard down (brakes were not going to do anything by this stage) – and mounted the inside curb – bending and badly grazing the front wheel, taking chunks out of the sidewall of the tyre as well (and seriously grazing the rear), but somehow avoiding the car in front. And apart from a dent under the car, no panel damage occurred.
For the life of me, I still don’t know how I didn’t hit that car. If I did, I would have been his back seat passenger!
I picked up another rim on Ebay (which I still have to paint the same colour) so all is good, just need a wheel alignment (steering wheel is off by nearly 80 degrees) and to check and fix anything bent (radius rods appear to be ok) and check the tyre balances.
Close call – too close, but at least the EJ conversion is safe. I don’t feel like doing all that again any time soon.
Couple of pix - only mobile phone images.. sorry :
