Close Call

[Matt Knight]

After having a close call in my NSX yesterday I realize that there must be some incredible stories among us primates.


This happened yesterday:

It was a beautiful spring day and I was on my way to pick up my wife (in the freshly washed X) from work for date night. As I approached a stop sign to make a left onto a highway a young lady in a Nissan SUV was cutting the corner making her left turn onto the street I happened to be on. Had I been pulled up to the stop line she would have hit on the passenger door. Fortunately the road to the highway has a steep incline and I let off the brake and started rolling backward (thank goodness there wasn't anyone behind me).

I'm not one for meditation and was surprised to find myself chanting loudly; it went something like this:

"NONONONONONONONO!!!".

I was also surprised by two almost simultaneous observations; the first was, this is going to cause frame damage and total the car. The second was how great the front visibility is on this car. I could see the few inches she missed me by.

I'm grateful this was a close call; I would be interested in hearing about some other close calls.

 

[dquarasr2]

1. On our way just tooling around running errands, on the Florida Turnpike on a lazy Sunday afternoon. In the right lane at around 70 MPH. Mazda6 slowly passing us in the middle lane.

Crotch-rocket motorcycle screams by in the far left lane at about buck-twenty, scares the sh*t out of of the Mazda6 driver in the lane next to us. He/she reacts, starts turning the wheel right, realizes I'm right there, pulls the steering wheel hard left, then starts oversteering. Sawing at the wheel, eventually gains control. Luckily didn't come over and hit us. In the meantime I had changed down to third and gunned it to get away from alongside the nearly-spinning Mazda.

2. On an exotic car Poker Run, traveling to a few cool automotive restoration shops, and a high-end boat retailer. Traveling through the prescribed route in a somewhat-questionable neighborhood in Miami, on a six-lane divided road. Right two lanes coned off due to construction, so only the left lane is open. Traffic backed up a little bit; white van goes between the cones to advance ahead to the next intersection about 1/8 mile ahead. Decades-old Corolla decides that's a good idea, goes between the cones. Left lane starts to move. Corolla driver, woman about 60 years old, notices that she's stuck; she can make a right at the intersection, but she wants to go straight and cones block her way on the other side of the intersection. So she gets back into the left lane - directly adjacent to our car. I'm on the horn, which at this point is like right in her left ear since her driver's side window is right at my front bumper. And while I'm on the horn I'm moving left as far as I can go and braking at the same time. I think there were less than six inches to the curb and less than six inches between my RF fender and her LR fender when it was all said and done. I don't know how I managed to get out of her way.

I don't know if she ever noticed we were RIGHT FRIGGING THERE or if she just didn't give a damn.

That's just adventures in the NSX. I have DOZENS of stories driving in South Florida for the last 43 years in a variety of DD and show cars . . . . .

 

[MotorMouth93]

Pretty much every time I drive mine to work some jackass in a huge pickup comes plowing around the corner of the parking garage, I slam on my brakes, and they miss me by about 6 inches. I like to think my coworkers aren't morons (they all have engineering or CS degrees), but based on what goes on in the garage I have my doubts.

Since working here I've gone from having a neutral opinion on pickups to downright hating them. So many brodozer douchebags in west Austin and they all think their trucks with huge tires and stock final drives are fast.

 

[Chris51080]

You lucked out there. After one too many close calls, I decided it was time for a dashcam. It may not prevent the accidents, but it will certainly help when it comes time to deal with insurance.

With our cars as low as they are, most people are simply too inattentive and don't notice us until its too late.

 

[robbiedawg]

So many brodozer douchebags

That's funny and very descriptive MotorMouth93, I hadn't seen that phrase before.
My close call was self-induced, pulling out in front of someone I didn't see. He hit the brakes, honked, and steered away from me. I managed to steer away from him with the brakes locked up, because I had just upgraded my ABS to the newer 2002+ system instead of just disconnecting it like I had thought about. One reason I did it was Kaz's statement on his blog that the upgrade would be cheaper than the cost of a repair. In my case, that turned out to be very true.