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Never understood why these "Mario Andretti" wannabes disregard the laws and other peoples safety by driving like a F--king idiots on public roads. I can only hope that the one that caused this incident is punished severely. Thankfully nobody was killed.
Only one has to be a moron for that to happen on the dragon. If some one crosses the double yellow, the other has no where to go to avoid it. Most likely only one was the moron.
Originally Posted by nikeair042
You don't know the story. Obviously the left front of the one hit the right rear of the other. One person probably crossed over the line. If you have never been on the dragon, it's 300+ turns which are mostly blind. If you don't stay in your lane it's very easy to cause an accident. One car could have over shot the turn and ended up in the left rear of the other OR the one car crossed over the center line and the other car had no where to go but right into the left rear.
True, picture does not tell us which car was over the double yellow. It could have been either one.
Originally Posted by SoFloVette
Stupid question. What is the dragon?
The Dragon is an 11 mile section of US-129 between Robinsville NC and TN. Beginning at Deals Gap on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line is the section refereed to as Tail of the Dragon, it goes 11 miles into TN. There are 318 curves in these 11 miles. Its a very popular destination for sports cars, sport bikes and Harley's.
This is a reason I don't ride that road...
No one know what the yellow line is used for.
Maybe these two tools will learn to drive better from this experience.
As for the Harley comment... Those jackasses zoom through there at 15MPH. They are at full lean at those speeds.
The road was safer when the speed limit was 55 and no one knew it was here.
True the road was much safe before everyone in sport cars, wanna be sport cars, sport bikes and Harley found out about it.
I can tell you that a Harley touring bike is not at full lean at 15 mph on those curves. Many times I have corvettes holding me up on my Harley going through the dragon. I can run it over the posted limit on My Road Glide or my Road King, the soft tail its hard to even run the limit with out dragging parts. I live 70 miles from the Dragon. So I run my Harleys on it, on have only ever held sport bikes up, but I get to far right of the lane and wave them by. I have only ever had one Vette driver need to be waive by, and two Porsche drivers need to be waived by. I also have run my 14 Stingray and now my 18 Grand sport over the dragon a few times.
Originally Posted by Null Pointer
For some reason, many drivers seem to think it is acceptable to cross the solid/double solid lines around a curve, rather than slowing down enough to safely negotiate the curve in their lane. From small sedans to lifted Bubba trucks, it isn't just Corvettes. One of these drivers was probably just minding his/her own business in their lane while the other was being irrationally exuberant.
Unfortunately this is very true on curvy roads in NC, TN and north GA. Most people do not make any effort to stay in their lane.
Worst drivers in US per this report:
Mississippi, then my home state, Tennessee!
Maybe the Vettes crashed on the Tennessee side of the Dragon. That might explain it.
Have not been there since 2009. Want to go back, but not for the Dragon. Other area roads are great, and safer.
Seeing very little of the Dragon is actually in NC odds are very good it was in TN. About 1 mile out of 11 is in NC.
Originally Posted by MSG C5
Sad. Two wrecked Corvettes and hopefully no major injuries. Like most drivers, I love the twisties, but my biggest fear is always the guy coming at me from the other direction on a blind turn.
That's my fear on my Harley or in my Corvette. I live 70 miles from the dragon. I only drive or ride it before 11 am and only on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Well it is interesting to see all the conjecture around this unfortunate collision that possibly ended the life of 2 C7s. I am the owner/driver of the Watkins Glen grey 2017 Grand Sport and yes the chrome wheels do indicate advancing years - I am over 65. I have owned a number of Vettes starting with a 73 Coupe and this is my second C7. I have track driven Corvettes as well as other cars and have done Spring Mountain. I have done the Dragon many, many times on both motorcycles and Corvettes. A group of us spend a week driving/riding out of Maggie Valley almost every year so know the entire area very well. I agree the Dragon is not the best road in the area but it is the only one where you can get some nice photos of your ride for a reasonable cost. I almost always buy a few of the photos from several of the photographers. The other driver who also had chrome wheels was a little young for chrome wheels but probably late 40s. My wife and I (grey GS) were proceeding northwesterly between mile marker 4 and 5 at a brisque but fairly leisurely pace with the roof panel off heading for a nice drive and some photo ops along The Little River Road, one of my favourites in the area. We were climbing a hill on a fairly straight section of the road and approaching a good full vision left turn that transitioned up a bit steeper section of the hill when we saw the red 2016 C7 Stingray coming down the hill at a speed that I estimated to be too fast. I moved over to the right side as far as I could get in the split second that I had to react but the red C7 appeared to be in a serious understeer condition (the car did not appear to be turning sharply enough after the apex of the turn) and shot across the center line and hit me at an angle scraping back along my driver's side and tearing the left rear suspension completely free of the chassis and bursting the tire. The first mark of impact on the GS was the middle of the driver's door - hard to see in the pictures. The estimated point of impact on the road was roughly 4-5 feet on my side of the center line. The impact on the rear spun my car around so that the right rear was forced into the embankment so the rear quarter panel on the passenger side suffered a bit of damage as did the right rear suspension. Only the driver's side airbag on my car deployed. I think a front airbag may have deployed on the red C7. The red C7 bounced off my car and went to the opposite shoulder where there was a bit of a pull off area. In some of the pictures taken at the time you can see where his rad started to leak which was very close to the white line marking the shoulder on my side or the road. Our car was full of airbag dust and we were a bit stunned from the impact. The electric doors on our car would not open from the inside but people quickly stopped and opened the doors from the outside before we got a chance to check the operation of the manual levers that open the Corvette doors in case of electrical failure. The other driver lept out of his car and apologised profusely and admitted full fault which was pretty obvious. He said that he did not know what happened admitting that he may have frozen and just mashed on the brakes when the car started having difficulty in the turn due to his speed but he truly did not seem to know how it happened. Of course everyone was in a bit of shock so memories of such an incident are always questionable. Based on my experience with C7s on the Spring Mountain track the red C7 should have made that turn. He may have had to come a foot or two over the line but we could have managed that. Instead his left front fully impacted my car. To my way of thinking at worst his car would have slid sideways and the cars hit side to side but then again I am not an expert in accident reconstruction or the physics of understeer. His insurance company has acknowledged full liability but the insurance companies have not made a decision on the fate of my car as they wanted a specialized adjuster to look at the car which is still in a compound in rural Tennessee. The long weekend has also created delays. Personally I would very much prefer that my car was declared a total loss after a serious impact such as that. There were major castings and other broken parts and electrical cables from my car scattered across the shoulder of the road, not to mention the diminished value of the car come trade in time with a record of a serious accident on the title. Since the GS is only 22 months old I still have full replacement value coverage on the vehicle. It also took two men all they could do to force the removable top back into position which could have serious chassis implications or it could have just been the angle the car was on with the right rear pushed up the the embankment on the passenger side. A big complicating factor for the insurance is that I am from Ontario and the other car is from Quebec and yet Tennessee law applies since the accident was in Tennessee. Three separate legal jurisdictions, can you see any problems arising from that?? Fortunately the other driver was a class act and did not ever try to deny liability. Even more fortunately no one was seriously hurt although my wife has some very nasty bruises along the seatbelt impact points. We had stiff necks for 4-5 days but those have now gone. One interesting side to this incident is that section of Rt.129 is well out of cell phone coverage so no Onstar notifications. However, after the cars were towed away (took nearly an hour for police to arrive and 2.5 hours for tow trucks) and returned to cell phone coverage I quickly got 4 emails from OnStar telling me that a variety of issues had arisen with my car and I should take it to the dealer immediately. One other annoying issue was that the PDR which I use most of the time as a dash car did not produce a proper video file. Instead of the usual MP4 file it added the extension ".raw" after the MP4 extension. Several IT experts have looked at the file and tell me that the file is seriously corrupted likely caused by an inappropriate shutdown likely caused by the total electrical failure at the time of the impact. Tells me that I need an aftermarket dash cam if I want anything that records an accident.
I'll post again when I get news on the fate of the GS. If it is declared a total loss I will get a new GS same colour and same options and yes chrome wheels again despite the constant cleaning of brake dust and the M7. Since this is my second C7 and I have a number of friends with C7s I know what I like and also what I don't want or need.
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08-'09, '14-'15-'16-'17-'18
Originally Posted by DWillys
Why is it so many threads on this forum degrade into black vs chrome?
It's an old Corvette Forum tradition. You're new around here so I'll explain.
Back when the C5 was the latest and greatest, the big controversy was between BSM's or no BSM's (those hideous body side moldings protecting the sides from door dings that came with the car). Lots of guys kept them, and others, like myself, took 'em off for a cleaner, smoother look. Each side had its defenders and each side was convinced that their look was better than the other. Here's a picture of my C5 without them...
When the C6's rolled out, they no longer had those molding strips, but you could buy them from certain vendors if you really wanted to. I saw some in pictures, but never, thank goodness, saw them anywhere else out in the wild.
Why is it so many threads on this forum degrade into black vs chrome?
Because too many humans simply can't comprehend or deal with the fact that their preferences are not universally shared, and, in fact, they may be in the minority.
Well it is interesting to see all the conjecture around this unfortunate collision that possibly ended the life of 2 C7s.
One interesting side to this incident is that section of Rt.129 is well out of cell phone coverage so no Onstar notifications. However, after the cars were towed away (took nearly an hour for police to arrive and 2.5 hours for tow trucks) and returned to cell phone coverage I quickly got 4 emails from OnStar telling me that a variety of issues had arisen with my car and I should take it to the dealer immediately.
If it is declared a total loss I will get a new GS same colour and same options and yes chrome wheels again despite the constant cleaning of brake dust and the M7. Since this is my second C7 and I have a number of friends with C7s I know what I like and also what I don't want or need.
Sorry about your accident, and you story is what I figured had happened. Glad he took full responsibility.
Much of the Dragon is out of cell coverage. Unless the police are actually on the dragon an hour or more is the normal response time, Similar times for an Ambulance, which is something people do not think about. Times can be compounded by the time some one drives to cell service to make the call for police or an ambulance.
For your sake I hope your car is totaled as I know I would want mine to be. Reeder Chevrolet in Knoxville TN is the best in the area for Corvettes. I sure understand wanting the M7, both my C7's have had the M7.
Considering everything you mentioned in how the accident happened, DBWG, that's just about the best outcome anyone could hope for. A little less turn on the red car, or more loss of control and it'd been a head-on collision. I am glad all were not seriously injured. As you know though continuing pain can show up later on---so, do check with docs before you sign away your rights.
Best of luck to you both, and the other driver who probably wishes he'd gone to Spring Mountain, and may in the future!
Well it is interesting to see all the conjecture around this unfortunate collision that possibly ended the life of 2 C7s. I am the owner/driver of the Watkins Glen grey 2017 Grand Sport and yes the chrome wheels do indicate advancing years - I am over 65. I have owned a number of Vettes starting with a 73 Coupe and this is my second C7. I have track driven Corvettes as well as other cars and have done Spring Mountain. I have done the Dragon many, many times on both motorcycles and Corvettes. A group of us spend a week driving/riding out of Maggie Valley almost every year so know the entire area very well. I agree the Dragon is not the best road in the area but it is the only one where you can get some nice photos of your ride for a reasonable cost. I almost always buy a few of the photos from several of the photographers. The other driver who also had chrome wheels was a little young for chrome wheels but probably late 40s. My wife and I (grey GS) were proceeding northwesterly between mile marker 4 and 5 at a brisque but fairly leisurely pace with the roof panel off heading for a nice drive and some photo ops along The Little River Road, one of my favourites in the area. We were climbing a hill on a fairly straight section of the road and approaching a good full vision left turn that transitioned up a bit steeper section of the hill when we saw the red 2016 C7 Stingray coming down the hill at a speed that I estimated to be too fast. I moved over to the right side as far as I could get in the split second that I had to react but the red C7 appeared to be in a serious understeer condition (the car did not appear to be turning sharply enough after the apex of the turn) and shot across the center line and hit me at an angle scraping back along my driver's side and tearing the left rear suspension completely free of the chassis and bursting the tire. The first mark of impact on the GS was the middle of the driver's door - hard to see in the pictures. The estimated point of impact on the road was roughly 4-5 feet on my side of the center line. The impact on the rear spun my car around so that the right rear was forced into the embankment so the rear quarter panel on the passenger side suffered a bit of damage as did the right rear suspension. Only the driver's side airbag on my car deployed. I think a front airbag may have deployed on the red C7. The red C7 bounced off my car and went to the opposite shoulder where there was a bit of a pull off area. In some of the pictures taken at the time you can see where his rad started to leak which was very close to the white line marking the shoulder on my side or the road. Our car was full of airbag dust and we were a bit stunned from the impact. The electric doors on our car would not open from the inside but people quickly stopped and opened the doors from the outside before we got a chance to check the operation of the manual levers that open the Corvette doors in case of electrical failure. The other driver lept out of his car and apologised profusely and admitted full fault which was pretty obvious. He said that he did not know what happened admitting that he may have frozen and just mashed on the brakes when the car started having difficulty in the turn due to his speed but he truly did not seem to know how it happened. Of course everyone was in a bit of shock so memories of such an incident are always questionable. Based on my experience with C7s on the Spring Mountain track the red C7 should have made that turn. He may have had to come a foot or two over the line but we could have managed that. Instead his left front fully impacted my car. To my way of thinking at worst his car would have slid sideways and the cars hit side to side but then again I am not an expert in accident reconstruction or the physics of understeer. His insurance company has acknowledged full liability but the insurance companies have not made a decision on the fate of my car as they wanted a specialized adjuster to look at the car which is still in a compound in rural Tennessee. The long weekend has also created delays. Personally I would very much prefer that my car was declared a total loss after a serious impact such as that. There were major castings and other broken parts and electrical cables from my car scattered across the shoulder of the road, not to mention the diminished value of the car come trade in time with a record of a serious accident on the title. Since the GS is only 22 months old I still have full replacement value coverage on the vehicle. It also took two men all they could do to force the removable top back into position which could have serious chassis implications or it could have just been the angle the car was on with the right rear pushed up the the embankment on the passenger side. A big complicating factor for the insurance is that I am from Ontario and the other car is from Quebec and yet Tennessee law applies since the accident was in Tennessee. Three separate legal jurisdictions, can you see any problems arising from that?? Fortunately the other driver was a class act and did not ever try to deny liability. Even more fortunately no one was seriously hurt although my wife has some very nasty bruises along the seatbelt impact points. We had stiff necks for 4-5 days but those have now gone. One interesting side to this incident is that section of Rt.129 is well out of cell phone coverage so no Onstar notifications. However, after the cars were towed away (took nearly an hour for police to arrive and 2.5 hours for tow trucks) and returned to cell phone coverage I quickly got 4 emails from OnStar telling me that a variety of issues had arisen with my car and I should take it to the dealer immediately. One other annoying issue was that the PDR which I use most of the time as a dash car did not produce a proper video file. Instead of the usual MP4 file it added the extension ".raw" after the MP4 extension. Several IT experts have looked at the file and tell me that the file is seriously corrupted likely caused by an inappropriate shutdown likely caused by the total electrical failure at the time of the impact. Tells me that I need an aftermarket dash cam if I want anything that records an accident.
I'll post again when I get news on the fate of the GS. If it is declared a total loss I will get a new GS same colour and same options and yes chrome wheels again despite the constant cleaning of brake dust and the M7. Since this is my second C7 and I have a number of friends with C7s I know what I like and also what I don't want or need.
I appreciate your response and happy you are OK, but man try using paragraphs-almost impossible to read.
08-30-2018, 08:00 PM
I'm sorry couldn't help noticing both cars with them. <snip>
would look even worse......
but someone has to put their opinion in and usually adds some negative word into their post. I will leave examples out of my post.
