Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!

Okay, here's the thread I've been putting off writing for the last couple of hours..

Coming home from work, about 10:40p or so. I'm about 3mi from my Interstate exit, and there's a little pack of slower traffic I'm trying to get around before I get to it. I'm running about 75, and making good progress..when the last guy (newish Dodge pickup truck) I need to get around decides to speed up when I'm half-way around him. In the past, I'd just stomp the throttle and complete the pass, but with Georgia's new "Super Speeder" law, that's no longer an option. He pulls out in front of me, I back off to give him some room..but then he pulls back in. I'm really watching this guy, wondering if he's drunk.

He's got somebody slow in front of him, and pulls out in front of me (again!)..but then pulls back in (to the right) just as I'm about to back out of the throttle. I'm almost straight staring at him, trying to figure out what he's up to..

BANG!

I don't know what the debris was, but it was big enough to pop the right side wheels in the air. I back off to about 60, wiggle the steering enough to insure it's still connected, and ease the car over to the right lane (the I-state is 3 lanes wide). It's only about a mile to my exit, there's no obvious Strange Noises(tm) so I just nurse it along (thankfully, behind a semi only going about 60) until I can get it off the road.

I get the car stopped, and discover the front bumper cover underneath the car, behind the front wheels. Right side fender flare (stock plastic one) is missing. Right side headlight lens is cracked. Both front parking/turn signal sockets are hanging out of the holes in the bumper frame (strangely enough, the one on the right still has a bulb in it). I throw what's left of my bumper cover into the passenger seat, and hit the QuickTrip store on my exit. There's three other people there that have hit the same thing. One's got a bent steelie rim, one's cursing a busted headlight, and another's calling her husband because she wants to have the thing towed home.

Moral of the story? At night, at least...on the street, let the morons go. Lift big, if you can do so without having someone behind you pop your backside. You can't look far enough down the road, especially on low-beams, to avoid hazards if you're looking at the idiot beside you, and wondering what they're going to do next.

On a related note, when I had the nose of this car restored a couple of years ago, I was told that the bumper cover & flares were just about the last ones left in the Southeast. Anybody got any of the A2 Golf/Jetta "big bumper" pieces laying around that you'd like to sell? And I need a set of the factory fog lights, too. One's got a hole the size of a 50-cent piece, and the other one's broken in half.

Sigh...I was just beginning to make some progress with this car.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/779/

That's rough, sorry to hear. Did anyone find out what was in the road?

I emailed a link to this thread to a buddy who retired a GTI auto-x car due to rust that had the same front end. (his bumper was not much good though, held on with hood pins) (edit his only has 2 headlights upon looking at old auto-x pics)

It always sucks just hitting debris in the road. I hit a chunk of cinder block with the mustang years back and only have a bent K-member brace from it.

MitchellC wrote: That's rough, sorry to hear. Did anyone find out what was in the road?

No, nobody was able to tell. I was the only gearhead that hit the damn thing. Like I said, I wasn't looking far enough down the road..all I saw was something dark, about a millisecond before I hit it. The three other victims I met were `civilians', and probably weren't looking far enough ahead in the first place. The guy with the bent rim kept talking about a "tread" (I think he meant one of the burst retreaded semi tires you see laying around all the time on the I-states), but it sure seemed a lot more solid than that to me.

The guys at the QT were pretty cool, I guess because their store is on the Interstate exit, they see this kind of thing a lot. They told us that you can actually call 911, report debris large enough to damage a car, and the 911 operator can actually dispatch the DOT to look for & remove it.

What kills me at the moment is that it's going to rain here (Atlanta) tomorrow. I can't take the (stock) green Corrado to work, because the tires are bald. So, I've got to take the black one, with the coilovers screwed down to dang near full hard. And I can't really soften the thing very much, since I've got it set up for auto-x, and loosening her up would give me serious tire rub problems..

friedgreencorrado wrote: What kills me at the moment is that it's going to rain here (Atlanta) tomorrow. I can't take the (stock) green Corrado to work, because the tires are bald. So, I've got to take the black one, with the coilovers screwed down to dang near full hard. And I can't really soften the thing very much, since I've got it set up for auto-x, and loosening her up would give me serious tire rub problems..

I'm confused.. 2 Corrado's and you cant swap tires between them?

Apexcarver wrote: I emailed a link to this thread to a buddy who retired a GTI auto-x car due to rust that had the same front end. (his bumper was not much good though, held on with hood pins) (*edit* his only has 2 headlights upon looking at old auto-x pics) It always sucks just hitting debris in the road. I hit a chunk of cinder block with the mustang years back and only have a bent K-member brace from it.

Thanks, Apex. Of course, it's still dark here, but I think my grille is still good.

And that must be a Fox chassis Mustang, right? Dang, them old girls are tough..

Apexcarver wrote:

friedgreencorrado wrote: What kills me at the moment is that it's going to rain here (Atlanta) tomorrow. I can't take the (stock) green Corrado to work, because the tires are bald. So, I've got to take the black one, with the coilovers screwed down to dang near full hard. And I can't really soften the thing very much, since I've got it set up for auto-x, and loosening her up would give me serious tire rub problems..

I'm confused.. 2 Corrado's and you cant swap tires between them?

I guess I should have mentioned that the green one's also got some other problems. I've just kind of let go for a minute (my g/f is in school, and money's a little tight). I took it off the road because it's got problems with the secondary water pump, a weeping "crack pipe", and the sensor for the cooling fans (don't cut on until water temp is high, and then only run at high speed until I cut the ignition off. And then, they won't cut back on while the car is parked). Ironically, I haven't been working on it just because the Golf was running so great. I still have insurance on it, so I can warm up the fluids every week running an errand or two on my days off, but I really don't trust it for my daily (35mi one way) commute-especially in Atlanta traffic.

I hit a six foot wooden step ladder in a rental car once due to me following a semi-truck too closely. He straddled it and then I saw it and swerved over and hit the front passenger tire and rocker panel. It hit really hard too.

I try not to follow to closely now.

Last month a dude's bicycle and old style rack (still together) fell off a car and was sitting on the I80/I94 highway across Gary, Indiana and I saw it in time. I had to swerve my Dad's Lincoln (with 3 college kids in back) pretty quickly. Somebody was going to mess up there car that night......

Glad it was no worse than that.

A customer of mine had a Taurus and was driving to work one morning (morning DJ, 4:30 AM) and saw what he thought was a white paper bag so he didn't swerve. Turned out to be part of a cinder block. It broke a hole in the engine oil pan and broke the oil pump pickup off, ripped a gash in the trans pan and cracked both the valve body and the tranny case, put dents and gashes in the floor pan, then hit the underside of the fuel tank and dented it up bad enough to break off the fuel sender and pump inside. Then to add insult to injury, it slashed the rear bumper cover almost in two. Moral of the story: even if it looks soft, avoid it like it was an AX cone.

wow, sucks to hear... Where on I-75 was this at?

I ran over a giant aluminum contractor ladder on I5 on the way to my first HPDE 2 years ago in the P71. I was pissed as all get out, especially for making a stupid mistake. The ladder was totaled (I hit it dead square after coming around a blind bend) and the P71 was completely unscathed! Two weeks later, I kid you not, there's another ladder on the EXACT same corner! This time I avoided it and stopped to move it before somebody hit it (yes I moved what was left of the original one too).

Whatever you hit must of been hard and I feel for you. That really sucks!

I hit a cement chunk that had once housed a pole, about 4 feet across, on an alley one night. Someone obviously put it there for funnies,a nd I was luckily only going 10 and swerved enough to hit it with just the tire. Sucks man, comp insurance claim?

Dang that really does suck. I have a little advantage sitting up high in the Astro so I make a point to put my hazards on for a few seconds when I see debris in the road that is large enough to cause damage, in order to give a heads up to drivers behind me.

It could've been a re-tread. If they're big enough and sitting in the right way they can cause a bunch of damage. I could definitely see one grabbing your bumper cover and pulling it under the car. I hit one in my P5 about a week after I bought it. Left a bunch of nice gashes in the front bumper and completely exploded the plastic undertray.

Also ran over a 2x4 on the highway and cracked the windshield. I was really surprised I didn't have a bent wheel after that.

Down here, it's usually construction stuff, ladders etc, but I did see a wheelbarrow in the center lane of I 95 a couple of years ago. With construction now stopped, less junk on the road.

Could be worse, you coulda been on a motorcycle.

The guy in the Dodge, was he not paying attention or busting your stones?

Dan

Yeah, definitely could have been a nice big chunk of retread. With freeway speeds involved they can do a bunch of damage. My wife hit one with her Olds Ciera on the highway a few years ago and the whole passanger side headligh assembly was destroyed and the fender on that side was significantly dented (on the curved section where it would have been strongest).

And the new dawn...

Sorry about the garbage quality picture, we recently swapped out computer desks, and the cable for the real camera is missing. This one's from the phone. "Before" pix are on my Readers' Ride page. Y'know, for a more modern car, this is not a big hit..but A2 VW trim is getting hard to find.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: wow, sucks to hear... Where on I-75 was this at?

I-75 Northbound between Wade Green (Exit 273) and Hwy. 92 (Exit 277).

914Driver wrote: Could be worse, you coulda been on a motorcycle.

Oh, yeah...it's been more than 20yrs since I've been on a bike, but I still think about stuff from that point of view when things like this happen.

914Driver wrote: The guy in the Dodge, was he not paying attention or busting your stones? Dan

Either playing with me (lotza people still get weird when they see something with a VW logo trying to get around them-I still have civillians in those V6 Pontiac Grand-Ams go nuts on my Corrados at every stinking stoplight), or mildly drunk & agressive. No gentle weaving, just decisive lane changes-and no signals for them, either.

I nailed a deer with the 9C1 about 7 years ago. I was sure the front was screwed. But all I did was pop of a wheel trim ring. I DID have to pick fur out of the small patch of spider webbed paint on the bumper. Eww.

tuna55 wrote: I hit a cement chunk that had once housed a pole, about 4 feet across, on an alley one night. Someone obviously put it there for funnies,a nd I was luckily only going 10 and swerved enough to hit it with just the tire. Sucks man, comp insurance claim?

Nah. Liability only, the only way I can afford insurance on three. I thought about claiming it on the uninsured motorist part of my policy, but I've heard other folks on Progressive get dropped (evidently, they happily pay the claim, and then ambush you afterwards) unless you've got the uninsured driver at the scene of the accident.

You might want to look into a different insurer. I have Comp & Collision on all 3 of mine for reasonable and I am way younger than you and single. Having Collector Vehicle plates and insurance on the Hornet helps, but you know what I mean.

I remember back in the 80's my dad was driving home from work in his new GLH, he had it for less than a week. He was cruising along on 26 when a truck ahead of him hit something in the road large enough to dislodge a steel I beam off the trucks trailer. It hit the GLH and pealed the door skin open like a hot knife through butter. Again it could have been worse but man was my dad pissed that his new car got trashed in such a way. Thankfully it was all fixed, full new door and paint and the car was good as new.

Hope you find the parts for your VW. I can't find a decent set of bumpers for my Cutlass to save my ass. I may end up modifying a set of later Regal bumpers to fit simply because they are all I can find at the moment.

Years ago somebody in Car and Driver (I think) wrote something that still resonates with me: he's driving around a blind turn on a rural highway, comes face to face with a refrigerator box standing upright in his lane, and has "just enough time to wonder if there's still a fridge inside it." There wasn't, but there's always Next Time.