In the Early 90's I was working in a shop doing alignments and a guy brings in a restored 66 GTO. Beautiful car. Had a 421 Tri-Power. We installed new red line tires and I did the alignment and took it out for a test drive. I hammer down on this thing and some.... guy runs a stop sign. I nail the brakes and see my life flash before my eyes, but somehow didn't hit the guy. I did however flat spot the tires. I drove it back to the shop, pulled it back in the tire lane and said, Hey you need to re-balance these tires, its got a vibration. Never test drove a customers car like that again.
drock25too said:
In the Early 90's I was working in a shop doing alignments and a guy brings in a restored 66 GTO. Beautiful car. Had a 421 Tri-Power. We installed new red line tires and I did the alignment and took it out for a test drive. I hammer down on this thing and some.... guy runs a stop sign. I nail the brakes and see my life flash before my eyes, but somehow didn't hit the guy. I did however flat spot the tires. I drove it back to the shop, pulled it back in the tire lane and said, Hey you need to re-balance these tires, its got a vibration. Never test drove a customers car like that again.
Did you give the customer new tires? (as you should have)
In highschool I had a stepsister who had a MINT 91 MR2 turbo. This was circa 2001 or so. Well, she drove it into Columbus Oh in a snowstorm with 3 people in the car (yes, her dad was in the passenger seat with her teenage brother on his lap) and was rear ended on black ice totaling the car.
I dont miss that stepfamily in the least, but I would take that car back into my life (before the accident)
I might have crunched an XP Subaru at an autocross once upon a time (we reshelled it after, 4 door became 2). I wanted to vomit and still feel awful.
Driving my 64 Mini, I had an unfortunate encounter with a rubber bumper Midget. The Mini did not fair well.
I sold it to a young guy who works for a area classic car shop. He has been restoring it back to the original color. Last I heard, most of the bodywork was done. As typical for Minis, he found a lot of interesting history when he stripped it down to the bare shell.
While I replaced the Mini with a 2006 JCW R53, I still miss having a classic. Someday...
this was a sad day for me, it's a rare car but not an overly desirable car. Uphill on a 35 degree day in the rain with cruise on, hit an expansion joint lost traction and rotated into a concrete barrier going 75ish backwards. My fault, and I had not swapped my winter tires on and these were worn. The floor ripped from the rear pass corner all the way to the drivers seat. It was impressive. And embarrassing. I did drive it off the road and I didn't have a bruise on me. Haven't found another one.
D2W
Dork
5/1/20 11:36 a.m.
Sparkydog said:
About 1974/75 my dad brings home a used Porsche 912 he is "test driving" for the night. The owner has entrusted my dad with this car. I proceed to convince my dad to let me drive it by myself to show my best friend. He agrees! He makes me promise to not do anything else (like joy ride) with it but drive, show, return. I am 16 at the time.
About 25 minutes later me, the 912 and my buddy are in a deep ditch laying on one side of the car after I let the rear end get loose in a corner in the rain at 90ish by lifting my foot off the gas.
Not my Porsche.
Not my dad's Porsche.
Not a friend of my dad's Porsche.
The Porsche of a guy who handed my dad the keys and let him take it home for a night because that's how solid a guy my dad is/was. (Still alive and 94 now.)
So what happened in the end? Was the Porsche totaled? Did your dad's insurance pay for it?
I lived in Saudi. This is just the tip of what I saw. Mercifully, I didn't drive there. 
I have avoided damaging interesting cars by....never driving interesting cars. Seriously. The most valuable car I've been behind the wheel of is probably a rental car. Possibly my Focus ST.
D2W said:
Sparkydog said:
About 1974/75 my dad brings home a used Porsche 912 he is "test driving" for the night. The owner has entrusted my dad with this car. I proceed to convince my dad to let me drive it by myself to show my best friend. He agrees! He makes me promise to not do anything else (like joy ride) with it but drive, show, return. I am 16 at the time.
About 25 minutes later me, the 912 and my buddy are in a deep ditch laying on one side of the car after I let the rear end get loose in a corner in the rain at 90ish by lifting my foot off the gas.
Not my Porsche.
Not my dad's Porsche.
Not a friend of my dad's Porsche.
The Porsche of a guy who handed my dad the keys and let him take it home for a night because that's how solid a guy my dad is/was. (Still alive and 94 now.)
So what happened in the end? Was the Porsche totaled? Did your dad's insurance pay for it?
I wondered that also, but my first reaction was, "Like that wasn't going to happen."
In reply to dean1484 :
Yes we did . My conscience wouldn't let me do it. I fessed up about why they we flat spotted. He was cool about it and thanked me for telling him. Then he said, "That SOB's fast ain't it?"
Sort of in the theme of the thread:
Awhile back I took the Custom Cruiser wagon to Home Depot and came out to find a note, “I saw someone back into your car, [license plate #]”
I had a look and didn’t see any damage, still haven’t found where it might have been hit.
I like to think somewhere there is a cuv with a dented bumper regretting the day it tried to take on a few tons of Detroit steel.
