So here's what I just went thru. About 4 days before my wedding I hit a chunk of steel in the road I couldnt' avoid. Went right under the air dam and hit the crossmember and shattered it. Screwed up the front spring and dented and chipped the oil filter and a bunch of metal undertray. Lucky I had my wife with me and was only going about 75 otherwise I would have been going 100 and it could have been much worse. Dragged the friggin' thing for probably 500 feet. Anyway, towed it to the dealer told them to keep it and fix it. Came back from my honeymoon 2 weeks later and it still wasn't done, took them a month. The best part is originally they said the car was ok.(Check out these pics http://photos.yahoo.com/steveof762001c5) Idiots. So long story short, for what they wanted to charge me for the crossmember and front stock spring, I bought front and rear Z06 springs, the crossmember, crossdrilled slotted rotors from sportbrakes.com and Z06 ceramic pads. And I bought it all from GM Parts direct (except the rotors) for half of what the dealer quoted me! They wouldnt even match the prices. Even after all that the first series of corners I blasted thru told me it was all worth it. I now have T-1 bars, Z06 shocks and springs, F45 turned off, Goodyear F-1 GSd3's and the ceramics with the drilled slotted rotors. At first I didnt want to do any mods, but this thing keeps getting better and better. Best handling car I have ever driven.

 

Now you have me looking forward to running over something on the road :

 

That sucks, hope it works out for ya.

 

Ouch!!!

 

 

MAN!!! That is horrible...so sorry to hear.

 

I had that happen to me but I was way luckier than you. I was doing about 80 on I-210 (by-passing Los Angeles) one morning when right there in front of me laying on the road was the rear bumper from a pickup truck. There was no way to avoid it because the road was so crowded. I just puckered up and gripped the seat and hit it. When I got pulled over and went around to check the damage (expecting the worst) I didn't see a mark any where. I layed down and looked under the car and couldn't see a thing wrong. Then I saw it. A big gash on my left front skid bar. That was the only damage. I'm a lucky boy.

 

I actually went back and got the thing I hit later. It was this steel bracket with a pulley wheel thing on it. My buddy told me it was the whole assembly thing truckers use to strap down the loads on flatbeds. Probably lucky I couldnt avoid it, if that had hit the wheel or kicked up into the windsheild I would have been toast. Thank God there was no body damage.At least the car came out way better than before.