Avoiding Road Hazards
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 59
Likes: 1
Avoiding Road Hazards
What's the worst thing you have hit/run over with your vette? (excluding ex-wives)...
Mine was last week with an encounter with a piece of truck tire retread in moderate heavy traffic. Had to scrub off some black smear marks on the front air dam area....
Mine was last week with an encounter with a piece of truck tire retread in moderate heavy traffic. Had to scrub off some black smear marks on the front air dam area....
Team Owner
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 82,175
Likes: 1,319
From: McKinney TX
St. Jude Donor '21-'22-'23-'24
Ran over and tire got punctured by a 4-5 inch long bolt while entering the interstate at about 65 MPH. Tore up a splash guard and a wheel well liner in addition to the tire. Never saw it before I ran over it.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 25,009
Likes: 2,707
From: Far NW 'burbs of Chicago
St. Jude Donor '13
C5- three big truck tire treads on different occasions, one at night and two during the day but boxed in by other traffic.
(center spoiler replaced twice, small crack in bottom of nose piece never repaired)
C6- a big landscaper's shovel in our 2006, was pulling splinters out of the bottom til the day we sold it.
(not impacts yet in our 2009 at 47k miles, not sure if I'm getting better or just luckier)
(center spoiler replaced twice, small crack in bottom of nose piece never repaired)
C6- a big landscaper's shovel in our 2006, was pulling splinters out of the bottom til the day we sold it.
(not impacts yet in our 2009 at 47k miles, not sure if I'm getting better or just luckier)
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 26,745
Likes: 694
From: PA
That sh------stuff is everyone. No joke. It is against the law for them to just leave it there but they dont care. Rotten smelly fools......I wonder if they would get mad if I took a big dump on the steps to their house and they stepped in it with no shoes.
For some reason we have had a bunch of Coons in the road as of late. Get a 25-30 pounder all bloated and watch out.
For some reason we have had a bunch of Coons in the road as of late. Get a 25-30 pounder all bloated and watch out.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
10 Reasons the C6 Z06 is Still A Performance Benchmark After 20 Years
Joe Kucinski
How Much Horsepower Every Corvette Engine "LOST" in 1972
Joe Kucinski
Top 10 DOs and DON'Ts for Protecting Your Convertible Top!
Michael S. Palmer
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 13,733
Likes: 66
From: Hurst, TX USA
Ditto, except it took out my fascia, left fender and inner fender. About $4500 later it was good as new. I was changing lanes on the freeway at night and I never saw it sitting between lanes. It was sitting up like a pyramid about a foot high, not flat like most gaters. Hit it with my left corner at about 60mph.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 917
Likes: 2
From: Nowhere HI
Just had the same thng happen last week..it was about 1 foot wide by 3 foot long...scuffed up my front pass side bumper, popped out side marker (snapped back in), popped out an inner fender plastic rivet, and although it's hard to tell, spidered the paint under the clear.
I was behind a Pontiac Grand Prix about 2 car lengths, that was about a little further behind a truck...truck blew a tire...I saw the smoke...huge piece went under the Pontiac and shot back out and smacked me good...
....was afraid it was worse...Got all of the black marks off (thank you, previous clay bar and Meguiars Ultimate Paste Wax), but it scared me when I first looked at it...thought it had really jacked up my paint/front end...
I H-A-T-E big rigs...big trucks, dump trucks throwing off rocks, fuel or liquid carrying trucks etc etc...hate them...should make them only be able to drive in the far right lane, and only between 11 pm and 6 am!!! All they do is cause wrecks, back up traffic, ride in the fast lane going slow and take 2 miles to get back over etc
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 2,142
Likes: 78
From: Rancho Santa Margarita California
Hit a couple of things over the past two years, but my two biggest memories were:
I took out a little bunny on a back road: I was enjoying some twisties on the way home one late afternoon with a guy on a crotch rocket right on my tail (he was just enjoying the ride as well). I saw the bunny dart out from behind a tree right at the road's edge....he didn't have a chance. I heard the poor little guy fluff his way around the front wheel well...but the big memory was looking in the rear view mirror and seeing him fly up through the air and just missed the biker's helmet as he flew by. The biker was really close....and I could clearly see his eye's bug out with a "WTF" look of terror as the poor mangled bunny just missed his head. I felt bad at the time....but it's kind of funny as a memory now. No damage to the car!
Hit a big rock or something (never saw it) and did this to the nose last December:
Fixed it with some double sided automotive tape. I ended up ripping it off again 2 weeks later hitting a cement curb while parking nose in in a parking lot....a little more tape and good as new (at least visually).
I took out a little bunny on a back road: I was enjoying some twisties on the way home one late afternoon with a guy on a crotch rocket right on my tail (he was just enjoying the ride as well). I saw the bunny dart out from behind a tree right at the road's edge....he didn't have a chance. I heard the poor little guy fluff his way around the front wheel well...but the big memory was looking in the rear view mirror and seeing him fly up through the air and just missed the biker's helmet as he flew by. The biker was really close....and I could clearly see his eye's bug out with a "WTF" look of terror as the poor mangled bunny just missed his head. I felt bad at the time....but it's kind of funny as a memory now. No damage to the car!
Hit a big rock or something (never saw it) and did this to the nose last December:
Fixed it with some double sided automotive tape. I ended up ripping it off again 2 weeks later hitting a cement curb while parking nose in in a parking lot....a little more tape and good as new (at least visually).
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 799
Likes: 14
From: Lakewood Ranch FL
Traveling I-95 near Phila. They had been doing construction in the evening and
"forgot" to close up a space on the road before they allowed traffic to go through in the morning rush hour. I hit it and blew out ALL the tires and bent ALL the wheels. Filed a claim with the DOT and their insurance paid the whole thing!!
"forgot" to close up a space on the road before they allowed traffic to go through in the morning rush hour. I hit it and blew out ALL the tires and bent ALL the wheels. Filed a claim with the DOT and their insurance paid the whole thing!!
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 7,288
Likes: 337
From: Decatur GA
Cruise-In I Veteran
Cruise-In II Veteran
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Yeah, I was on a two lane road in Maryland in November with corn fields on both sides. Three deer ran out together and I nailed them all.
That's not the weirdest thing I've ever hit in a car though. When I was in college and I had a beater Chrysler, I came around a curve in the dead of night on an unlit back road and ran over a possum at the instant an owl was swooping down to grab it. Got the owl and the possum at the same time. Really strange....
That's not the weirdest thing I've ever hit in a car though. When I was in college and I had a beater Chrysler, I came around a curve in the dead of night on an unlit back road and ran over a possum at the instant an owl was swooping down to grab it. Got the owl and the possum at the same time. Really strange....