Car Control-How is it taught?

[fasthonda]

Brian Minkin wrote:

Hey Tod,

Any signigicant story to go with the crunched fender?

hi brian!

yep -- it goes something like this: christmas day, 2008, around 9:30 pm about 50 miles from home, a kamikazee deer decides to leap out directly in front of me (with entire family in the car). it was a small back road; there was oncoming traffic, and an embankment on the right -- no place to go! i braked as hard as i could, but in the 20 feet available, i might have gotten slowed down to 40 mph... CRUNCH! deer smashes the fender, headlight, grill, and hood. then proceeds to loop up and completely smash/cave in the windshield, and puts his hooves through a few inches (my wife freaked out at this point and wrenched her back; the only injury involving this crash!). deer then flips up and over the roof, and bounces off over the embankment. the car was smashed up pretty badly; i pulled over immediately and checked my wife and daughter out; they were shaken (wife's back was out, plus broken glass all over her). the 626 was still running; hood was buckled way up, and i didn't touch that! i knew once it was opened that there would be no closing it again (not without tools, anyway!). amazingly, the radiator was ok with no leaks, and i had enough lights to drive home. visibility out the windshield was really poor (when it smashed and caved it, it became 'crystal like' and opaque on the entire passenger side). i put my wife in the back with my daughter, and turned the heat WAY up (there were holes in the glass where the hooves came in, and it was blowing in cold air!!!). drove the rest of the way home, and the car ran fine! over the next few days, i sledge hammered out the fender and hood. glued and ziptied the grill back together, and glued/taped/zip tied the headlight back together (with fresh bulbs and repaired wires). practically as good as new! i did have to pay $200 for a new windshield (no way i could fix that! ha ha! everything else i fixed myself!) i only carry liability insurance on it; no comprehensive or collision, so it was all out of pocket. really pissed me off, cause i only paid $300 for the entire car four years ago; it really hurt to pay more than half of that now to buy a windshield.... its been a great car; i originally bought it for spare parts for the Probe, but it ran so good after i tuned it up, i decided to drive it til it broke, and then strip it. that was 70k miles ago!!! still going strong, and i'll out run all of y'all on that frozen lake!!!!

todd