# What vehicles have you or others wrecked?



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Thought I'd do a thread adding to @PPBART's post.

It happens.

Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, you hit someone or someone hits you.

I once wrecked a 1965 Pontiac Le Mans, hit the side of a Chevy Nova, my fault. No one hurt, thank GOD. Insurance paid. That was back in 1979 in Texas, the Texans appeared glad to see me go, and I can't blame them.

Years later (2008?) my grey Nissan Maxima ("Mad Max") got hit, not my fault, totaled. 

A bit after that in 2010, the Green Monster, a 1992 4-door Lincoln Continental Ballistic Missile (Kelly green!) got rear-ended by a dude driving one of those one-ton vans, while I sat waiting for a red light. No attempt to stop, take evasive action; just BOOM, thankfully the car took the pain not me. Lost about 3 feet in length! Hit me so hard, plowed me into the lady in front of me. 

In 2015 or 2016, my dark green 1992 LS 400 (Green Bean West) got hit in a demolition derby on the 60 Freeway, in East LA. Totalled, insurance paid, bought my present car.

So, how about you?


----------



## CodeMatters (Aug 16, 2017)

My ex-ex-ex-ex (from the ex files) took out a hydro pole about 10' off the 
ground when she went airborne off an embankment. Fell asleep driving 
home from a bar in my AMC Hornet. I found out Sunday night when I got 
back from a weekend away...... I broke up with her the next month....when 
she moved away with a neighbours tenant -)

EDIT: Oh yeah, car totalled, drunk ex unhurt.


----------



## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

Never fully wrecked one..... but as a kid I do own a telephone pole in upstate NY.


----------



## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

I've never wrecked a car. I was driving in two accidents, neither my fault. 

My ex-husband and I hit our moose back in 90-91. It was so dumb, like it shoulda been avoidable or something... Was glare ice, we were doing like 35mph and went into a slide. Moose was dodging, ex was dodging, but they were on the same wave length or something... BLAMO! dead center. The radiator was wrapped around the engine, engine dented the firewall, and the moose and us were in opposite ditches buried in 8-10' deep snow. We weren't hurt or anything, but the doors wouldn't open and the back window didn't open so we had to climb out the windows into the snow. We walked like ... 3 hours I think before we ran into a paper delivery guy who gave us a ride back into town. Would you believe that Chevy started? With a little tug she drove outta the ditch. We reset the engine on it's mount points or whatever, popped in a new radiator and fans (oh and replace the hood, repainted it etc.) and had that truck another decade until my ex wanted a bigger engine (Cummins, personally I preferred the chevy)

My current husband's [THIRD] moose turned my legacy into a convertible... He didn't escape that one so well, but at least he survived it.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Mystriss said:


> I've never wrecked a car. I was driving in two accidents, neither my fault.
> 
> My ex-husband and I hit our moose back in 90-91. It was so dumb, like it shoulda been avoidable or something... Was glare ice, we were doing like 35mph and went into a slide. Moose was dodging, ex was dodging, but they were on the same wave length or something... BLAMO! dead center. The radiator was wrapped around the engine, engine dented the firewall, and the moose and us were in opposite ditches buried in 8-10' deep snow. We weren't hurt or anything, but the doors wouldn't open and the back window didn't open so we had to climb out the windows into the snow. We walked like ... 3 hours I think before we ran into a paper delivery guy who gave us a ride back into town. Would you believe that Chevy started? With a little tug she drove outta the ditch. We reset the engine on it's mount points or whatever, popped in a new radiator and fans (oh and replace the hood, repainted it etc.) and had that truck another decade until my ex wanted a bigger engine (Cummins, personally I preferred the chevy)
> 
> My current husband's [THIRD] moose turned my legacy into a convertible... He didn't escape that one so well, but at least he survived it.


Yowza, moose that you own? How about other animals? Any bears?

I own, oh, maybe a squirrel or two.


----------



## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

Oh... well no it's a thing for Alaskan's I suppose... EVERYONE hits a moose up here. Kind of a right of passage heh


----------



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

1964 Pontiac but can't remember when; I think I was about 18. We were coming back from a buddy's parents cottage on a blacktop (stone and tar) backroad with narrow sandy shoulders. I pulled out to pass a truck or something and the left wheels dropped into the opposite shoulder and pulled me right into the ditch. The rocks they used to build up the road grade ripped the snot out of anything that was exposed underneath. The tow truck driver said he would buy it for the price of the tow. Ownership signed.
Not counting later on-duty collisions.


----------



## Brainbucket (Mar 30, 2015)

Late 70's totaled a 69 Camaro with a aluminum 427 crate engine hot rod hit a tree dead center after running off road and going air born. We were very lucky, no one hurt. Totaled. 80 Driving a 71 442 hit a 93 foot long puddle in the feeder road off I-45 in Houston, TX by Hobby air port doing 85mph. Car turned backwards and hit a guy wire on front left door and ripped hood and fender off. Somewhere along the way, we picked up a family of fire ants and we were stripping off clothes and wiping off the ants in the middle of the road. Totaled. 88 driving a 72 Buick Apollo with a 455 stuffed in it, ran off the road doing over 100mph in a curve, hit a pot hole and sent me into the right side ditch. Went down it a while then it grabbed traction and jumped the road and side swiped a building. Flattened the whole left side. Totaled. 90 Can't remember what year of car, 86? Mazda 626 was racing a 72 Torino and missed a curve and hit a tree bout a 1/2 foot wide. Wasn't going that fast but made the bumper look like a giant V. Cops took the car at a later date for DWI. 2016 2000 Buick Regal was going east on I-12 in Baton Rouge and this guy was weaving in and out of traffic. I was in the fast lane and I passed him 3 times as he was weaving in and out. All the suddenly he hit my right side with his left side. Totaled. Now I'm building a Twin turbo 800hp 6.2 out of a Camaro SS to slap in my 83 GMC. Hope I live through this one.:vs_laugh:


----------



## sestivers (Aug 10, 2007)

Just last night hit a deer for the first time in my life. Deer did not damage the car much but the unwarranted deployment of the airbags sure did. It is a 1994 Celica with over 200,000 miles so it is doubtful I will be able to restore all functions. The replacement of the windshield likely surpasses the car's value :-/


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Aside from the deer impact last September ($3500), I have only "wrecked" one other car in my long span of driving. 1982 (?) Mazda 626 LX. Nice car. Pick up stopped suddenly in front of me and I tried to stop. Pressing the brake pedal (1) transfers all the weight to the front tires (2) when the tires lock, so does your manual transmission (3) transmission locks and engine dies (4) engine dies so does your power steering. You aren't in control any more.


----------



## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

I wrecked a '53 Ford when I has fixing to blow the door off a slower vehicle and it suddenly turned left and blocked me. I hit the binders but the old Ford decided to go into a flip flop left to right cycle that I couldn't get caught up with. Seat belts would have helped since I was sliding away from the wheel lots of the time, just taking a free ride. It flipped when the rear wheels got off the concrete and tripped it up. I escaped unscathed.

Then I wrecked my '57 Ford Custom 300 (factory blown) on a bet that I could take certain famous local curve at 75 mph. I got half way through it before it slid off the concrete and dig into the side berm. That flipped it over and it landed on it's wheels, still running. Bad news was, the top was pretty awry and the windshield was gone. To add insult to injury, it was mired hub deep to a Ferris wheel in the muddy ditch it landed in.

Aaah, the good old days... barely survived some of them! :biggrin2:


----------



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

Brainbucket said:


> Late 70's totaled a 69 Camaro with a aluminum 427 crate engine hot rod hit a tree dead center after running off road and going air born. We were very lucky, no one hurt. Totaled. 80 Driving a 71 442 hit a 93 foot long puddle in the feeder road off I-45 in Houston, TX by Hobby air port doing 85mph. Car turned backwards and hit a guy wire on front left door and ripped hood and fender off. Somewhere along the way, we picked up a family of fire ants and we were stripping off clothes and wiping off the ants in the middle of the road. Totaled. 88 driving a 72 Buick Apollo with a 455 stuffed in it, ran off the road doing over 100mph in a curve, hit a pot hole and sent me into the right side ditch. Went down it a while then it grabbed traction and jumped the road and side swiped a building. Flattened the whole left side. Totaled. 90 Can't remember what year of car, 86? Mazda 626 was racing a 72 Torino and missed a curve and hit a tree bout a 1/2 foot wide. Wasn't going that fast but made the bumper look like a giant V. Cops took the car at a later date for DWI. 2016 2000 Buick Regal was going east on I-12 in Baton Rouge and this guy was weaving in and out of traffic. I was in the fast lane and I passed him 3 times as he was weaving in and out. All the suddenly he hit my right side with his left side. Totaled. Now I'm building a Twin turbo 800hp 6.2 out of a Camaro SS to slap in my 83 GMC. Hope I live through this one.:vs_laugh:



Yikes. As they say, youth is something to be survived.




sestivers said:


> Just last night hit a deer for the first time in my life. Deer did not damage the car much but the unwarranted deployment of the airbags sure did. It is a 1994 Celica with over 200,000 miles so it is doubtful I will be able to restore all functions. The replacement of the windshield likely surpasses the car's value :-/



If not the windshield then the cost of the airbags.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Vehicles I SHOULD have wrecked??? 1973 TR6 2400 cc twin stromberg carbs, 4 speed with electric overdrive. Running down I-75 South of Atlanta when a Fiero pulls up and wants to race. I finally relented and hit 3rd gear, then 4th. Approaching red line, I energized the overdrive. RPM's dropped and it rocketed out. When the dashed white lines become solid, you are going too fast !! Cleaned the clock at 140 before my brain kicked in. He was running a 4:11 final drive and mine was 2.73:1. Left him red lined when I hit 4th gear.


----------



## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

Ya'll boys need to slow down!!

~advice from grandma driver with no accidents OR tickets :vs_laugh:




sestivers said:


> Just last night hit a deer for the first time in my life. Deer did not damage the car much but the unwarranted deployment of the airbags sure did. It is a 1994 Celica with over 200,000 miles so it is doubtful I will be able to restore all functions. The replacement of the windshield likely surpasses the car's value :-/


Oh no, hope you're alright.


----------



## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

None, but I have only been driving since 1968.


----------



## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Had only two that was mainly my fault. I came over a hill and into a curve immediately, in my VW Bug on a gravel road where I always did some drifting. Only this time my neighbor was dead in the way in his perfect 442 Olds, man I hated that. Another time I had built out a 327 Chevy and put it in a 59 El Camino 4 speed Muncie, Hurst Competition shifter, the thing back then, (60s) lol. 

It was just drizzling rain and borderline freezing. I made the curve headed home and the street was solid ice. I spun around three times and hit a pickup loaded with fire wood, backwards and phone pole at the same time, knocked the truck out into the road and most of his firewood landed in the back of my El Camino. Just ruined that car, not a dent on the man's pickup.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Have you noted throughout these threads (considering most of our ages) the types of cars we drove back when? Building out cars, customizing them inside and out, putting things together for performance? Ahhh, those were the days.

Nowadays, kids put stinger tail pipes on mom's Lexus and they are "cool". No idea what really cool is.


----------



## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

I'm typically more of the "shouldn't be able to hear it or feel it" type "cool," but I'll admit that I do like a truck without a muffler  (The red truck refuses to keep a muffler, we keep putting one on it and it's like NOPE! HEAR ME RUMBLE!)


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Hmm . . . 

In the ALMOST WRECKED category, a friend of mine and I were going back to Euclid from the infamous Big Apple disco in 1977 and I was driving my 1975 Mercurial Marquis. It had a 460 and it was powerful, notwithstanding all the stuff for emission control on it.

Raced a 1976 Cadillac Sedan de Ville down I-271. White line got solid, and-the-telephone-poles-looked-like-a-picket-fence. 

Yike. Survived that one.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

chandler48 said:


> Have you noted throughout these threads (considering most of our ages) the types of cars we drove back when? Building out cars, customizing them inside and out, putting things together for performance? Ahhh, those were the days.
> 
> Nowadays, kids put stinger tail pipes on mom's Lexus and they are "cool". No idea what really cool is.


Oh, yeah?

You hain't seen the maniacs who build out their Hondas, Beemers, Mercedes, etc. out here. Then go racing down the freeways which are NOT wide-open spaces. :vs_whistle: 

High-speed dodgem, I want my mommy . . . . . :vs_mad:


----------



## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Back in the 60s, I looked for an old abandoned cars out in the field or behind someones house. I usually bought these cars for $15-$20, pulled them home and got to work on them. Most were 55-57 Chevys, I even got a 56 Nomad one time. I loved working on cars and spent most of my free time under the hood or under the car. One of my favorite cars later was a 62 Chevy II convertible. 

I was working at Memphis Engine Rebuilders at the time and Joe Lunati who ground and sold racing cams worked there grinding cams for us. Joe sold a lot of cams to me back then. I found a 64 283 that had clearance for the counter weights of a 327 engine. Bored it out .0125 from 3 and 7/8 inch to 4in. I put popup pistons 13:1 compression ratio and a heavy bump stick in it. EDIT** They didn't come out with a V8 in the Chevy IIs until 65, had fun with that one lol.

I was so disappointed with that engine I did everything I could think of to blow it. I red lined it so bad a regular engine would have come apart but for some reason, this one didn't. I have had some mean cars in my time especially one of the old 426 Hemis, bad son of a gun.

I was working at a garage one time and they sent me downtown to put a factory stick in a 66 SS Malibu at a car lot. I got the stick in and I was about to test drive it when the guy who bought the car showed up and wanted to go with me. We took off and there was a 4 lane where very little traffic hardly ever was. He told me to get down on it, I slapped it back into second and floored it, that car was all over the road, it got sideways and started skipping or bouncing (what ever you call it) so I started letting off. I told that guy that was the meanest 396 I ever saw. He said it is a 427, loooooved that car. lol

I could write a book, looks like I did, lol


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

BigJim said:


> Back in the 60s, I looked for an old abandoned cars out in the field or behind someones house. I usually bought these cars for $15-$20, pulled them home and got to work on them. Most were 55-57 Chevys, I even got a 56 Nomad one time. I loved working on cars and spent most of my free time under the hood or under the car. One of my favorite cars later was a 62 Chevy II convertible.
> 
> I was working at Memphis Engine Rebuilders at the time and Joe Lunati who ground and sold racing cams worked there grinding cams for us. Joe sold a lot of cams to me back then. I found a 64 283 that had clearance for the counter weights of a 327 engine. Bored it out .0125 from 3 and 7/8 inch to 4in. I put popup pistons 13:1 compression ratio and a heavy bump stick in it. EDIT** They didn't come out with a V8 in the Chevy IIs until 65, had fun with that one lol.
> 
> ...


whoooeee!

If you're retired . . . . 

thank

GOD

:vs_cool::devil3:


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

In the Thank God I Didn't Buy (And you should be glad 2) category, 

Answered an ad for a Turbo Saab in West Hollywood, or West LA, or somewhere like that, and that car was fast. @BigJim, wish you'd a been with me to compare notes about the car!

So we get to the on-ramp, with those lights that blink and let you on, "one car per green" and we get the green and I ask "mind if I floor it?"

And he says, "Hoping you would!"

And I did.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Oh

my god :devil3:


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

The G-forces mighta throwed us into the trunk, the CHIPs didn't seem to care, but 

wow


----------



## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

I kinda want a SAAB. My mom had a zippy 4dr red one for a long time, most of my elementary school as I recall it. 

Also, uhm Capri? I don't know what to say on that. Like my mom had one before the SAAB and for some reason I love(d) it, like I don't really want one, but I still love the look? IDK My uncle ran it under the ass-end of a semi and destroyed it and mom said I never forgave him for wrecking my car.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I had a high school friend who built his '56 Chevy with a 427 with 3 deuces and an Oldsmobile turbo hydro 4 speed transmission. He would tape a $10 bill to the passenger dash. Challenge was, when he dumped it, if you could reach the $10 bill, it was yours. No one ever did. Boy, did we ever have "cool" cars back then.


----------



## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Heck, my old 52 flat head 6 Plymouth would bark the tires in all three gears. lol
Reminded me about one time in the old Plymouth. Going down Belview in Memphis which is now Elvis Pressley Blvd. There was two railroad tracks, one was lower then the other one by about 2 or 3 feet. I hit those tracks doing about 65 or so one night. The front bumper drug on the pavement it was so steep. 

There were three other guys in the car, when we went airborn, the back wheels caught the ramp and threw the two fellows in the back seat into the top of the car. lol When we landed, the clutch rod fell out somewhere. Never did find that thing, had to drive home with no clutch. lol Man we were some kinda crazy back then. Some of the crazy things I did back then makes me wonder how I ever lived through it.


----------



## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

1991 Olds Silhouette, totalled while parked in my driveway. Hit by a Volvo S70. 2000 Lincoln Navigator, totalled on I-64W in downtown Louisville at 7:30 in the morning while taking my daughter to school. Rearended by an F-350 dually towing a 40 foot trailer.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Ooh, @Bigplanz reminded me of my S70. I forgot, I was sitting at a traffic light when I was rear ended by an Equinox. Scratched my bumper and slightly dented my trunk lid. Totaled the Equinox. Volvo's have what is called a "whips" system, so when you are rear ended, the front seat mechanisms release and you sit still while the car moves under you. The seat stays on track, but takes the brunt of the impact. I barely felt it. Good quality cars, IMO.


----------



## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

chandler48 said:


> Ooh, @Bigplanz reminded me of my S70. I forgot, I was sitting at a traffic light when I was rear ended by an Equinox. Scratched my bumper and slightly dented my trunk lid. Totaled the Equinox. Volvo's have what is called a "whips" system, so when you are rear ended, the front seat mechanisms release and you sit still while the car moves under you. The seat stays on track, but takes the brunt of the impact. I barely felt it. Good quality cars, IMO.



His S70 was totalled too. Midnight, somebody with no headlights on pulled out in front of him, he swerved, smashed my parked car and hit a telephone pole head on. He was sober, no injuries, no charges filed. Insurance settled it up.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

In the almost wrecked category . . . 

My 72 Olds Delta 88 Royale, four door 350 engine.

Didn't put one of the rear tires on right, and the lug nuts came undone and the right rear wheel came off and the back end drug on the road, out there by Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Jacked her up, put the wheel back on, NICE AND TIGHT, drove off, end of story right?

RIght?

Of course NOT right.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Drving through N'Orleans on my way to California in March of 1985 along the famed Esplenade, and suddenly the car went KERFLUMP and wouldn't move anymore.

WTF??

Traffic was building up behind me, with no place to go on the divided roadway. I'd stopped right in front of this funky mansion full of drag queen types, mostly on the young side, including a couple of football player types. (Imagine Mean Joe Green as a drag queen? Nope? Didn't have to.)

Anyway, they offered to help, and a-one, and a-two and a-three PUUUUSSSSSHHHHH and the car didn't want to roll! That back wheel was up against the rear wheel well.

Finally a tow truck gets there, lifts her up and I almost effluviate my jeans . . . .


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

The strut thingie that held the rear axle to the rest of the car had broken, so the right rear wheel and that part of the axle wouldn't turn any more because it was up against the wheel well.

Ladies, Gentlemen and the Undecided, I was freaked out a bit. Those freeways heading into N'orleans aren't much more than giant hawg chutes for traffic over the swamp and if that thing had broken then, with that giant cement mixer driven by this crazed-looking dude dead behind me and it would not have been one bit good, nuh-uh.

There'd have been no place for him to go except right into and over me. 

:surprise::surprise:

Still get the willies now and then and it'll be 35 years this March.


----------



## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

This what totalled my Navigator, and what he was towing.


----------



## mitchleeanderso (Jul 23, 2018)

I drove my 77 pinto into a low water bridge under high water conditions. It was VERY late at night, I was half asleep and had music cranked. I saw the water crossing the road and stood on the brakes. Too late. Off the road I go into the creek.

I had the door open instantly. The roof of the car was just inches above the surface. I sat on the roof a while thinking I could just wait until someone drove by and saw me. Then I worried the stream would start pushing the car sideways. 

Irrationally I tried wading out of the creek (there are rocks that swim better than I do). Bad mistake. I Got washed downstream a ways until I got out of the hole the car had plunged into. Then I just stood up and walked out.

I walked back across the bridge and found the water was only a few inches deep. I've always wondered if I hadn't hit the brakes so hard or at all if I could have just driven on through. I'll never know.

I paid 1200 bucks for the car used. Insurance totaled it for 1900. The only time I've ever made money from those bastards.


----------

