knochgoon24
DSM Wiseman
- 6,135
- 97
- Jan 29, 2008
-
Troy,
Michigan
March 8th, 2008. 207k miles on the car.
I'm on my way home from school in Erie, PA for spring break. I'm not planning anything exciting for the week. Just sitting around. As I get ready to leave, a big snow storm (the largest that year) starts to move through the area. Erie get 24" of snow. I leave after the first 4" are on the ground. It took me an hour and a half to get the first 45 miles home. Then things cleared up. I had just put new snow tires on my car in January, and thought the AWD was near invincible in the snow.
About 20 miles from my house, I'm going down a dark highway. Cars are doing 35 mph in the plowed lane. I was passing them in the lane with 3" of slush. I know, not smart, but you live, you learn. So, I get behind 2 cars that are putting along at 25, right before a bend I slow down, and start to pass. Then the front car loses control and slides off the road into the median. The car in front of me jams on the brakes.
They stop almost immediately. I'm halfways into the slushy lane. When I hit the brakes, the car started to spin. I passed the car in front of me going sideways, my front 6" from their car; my back, a foot from the jersey barrier.
After fishtailing 3 times, I recover and proceed to keep driving like normal. It didn't hit me until about 10 min later just how close I came to completely wrecking my car.
So, another 15 miles down the road, and 5 miles from my house, I'm going down a back road. The road is clear, and it wasn't even snowing, so I was doing the speed limit, 35mph. I crested a hill with a slight bend, I turned, my car didn't...
I fishedtailed twice, first seeing trees, then seeing a 3' hill. I tried to correct it, but ended up up on the hill.
No airbags... whew. Car's still running...ok. Turned it off. I'm looking up at the sky. There's actually stars out. So I get out of the car. To see what damage has been done. My headlights are intact, the front wheels are off the ground, but it's too dark to see anything else, so I climb back in, start the car, and slowly back off the hill (hell yeah AWD!).
I start driving down the road and hear this scraping sound, so I pull off. A large chunk of my front bumper is broken off, and my fog lights are missing. The broken bumper was dragging under the car, so I broke it off.
I pulled off at a church a mile down the road. I saw that no fluids were leaking and the car was running fine, so I just drove it home.
I snapped some photos when I got home.
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I bent the stock SMIC, smashed both fog lights, and bent the A/C condenser back a bit. Other than that, the front bumper was the only casualty.
I spent spring break making repairs.
I drove the car for another month, but couldn't figure out why it was running so rich. Turns out, I cracked the plastic stock UICP. Fixed it with some worm clamps, a rubber coupler from HDR (Home Depot Racing), and sport tape.
I'm on my way home from school in Erie, PA for spring break. I'm not planning anything exciting for the week. Just sitting around. As I get ready to leave, a big snow storm (the largest that year) starts to move through the area. Erie get 24" of snow. I leave after the first 4" are on the ground. It took me an hour and a half to get the first 45 miles home. Then things cleared up. I had just put new snow tires on my car in January, and thought the AWD was near invincible in the snow.
About 20 miles from my house, I'm going down a dark highway. Cars are doing 35 mph in the plowed lane. I was passing them in the lane with 3" of slush. I know, not smart, but you live, you learn. So, I get behind 2 cars that are putting along at 25, right before a bend I slow down, and start to pass. Then the front car loses control and slides off the road into the median. The car in front of me jams on the brakes.
They stop almost immediately. I'm halfways into the slushy lane. When I hit the brakes, the car started to spin. I passed the car in front of me going sideways, my front 6" from their car; my back, a foot from the jersey barrier.
After fishtailing 3 times, I recover and proceed to keep driving like normal. It didn't hit me until about 10 min later just how close I came to completely wrecking my car.
So, another 15 miles down the road, and 5 miles from my house, I'm going down a back road. The road is clear, and it wasn't even snowing, so I was doing the speed limit, 35mph. I crested a hill with a slight bend, I turned, my car didn't...
I fishedtailed twice, first seeing trees, then seeing a 3' hill. I tried to correct it, but ended up up on the hill.
No airbags... whew. Car's still running...ok. Turned it off. I'm looking up at the sky. There's actually stars out. So I get out of the car. To see what damage has been done. My headlights are intact, the front wheels are off the ground, but it's too dark to see anything else, so I climb back in, start the car, and slowly back off the hill (hell yeah AWD!).
I start driving down the road and hear this scraping sound, so I pull off. A large chunk of my front bumper is broken off, and my fog lights are missing. The broken bumper was dragging under the car, so I broke it off.
I pulled off at a church a mile down the road. I saw that no fluids were leaking and the car was running fine, so I just drove it home.
I snapped some photos when I got home.
View attachment 405
View attachment 406
View attachment 407
View attachment 408
View attachment 409
I bent the stock SMIC, smashed both fog lights, and bent the A/C condenser back a bit. Other than that, the front bumper was the only casualty.
I spent spring break making repairs.
I drove the car for another month, but couldn't figure out why it was running so rich. Turns out, I cracked the plastic stock UICP. Fixed it with some worm clamps, a rubber coupler from HDR (Home Depot Racing), and sport tape.
