.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Question Of The Day: What Is The Most Scared You’ve Been Inside A Car?


Question Of The Day: What Is The Most Scared You’ve Been Inside A Car?

Halloween is all about the fright once you’re an adult. No matter which end of it you’re on, the goal is to turn a normal, sane human being into a completely irrational being that will do any and every thing possible to get away from the scene. As someone who occasionally plays in haunted houses, it’s a riot to watch the reactions…from men shrieking like women, to one friend shoving another through the props as a sacrifice, to the little kid who’s first reaction is to punch the scary man right in the junk…yeah, it happened. But getting scared absolutely shitless inside of a car is a much more terrifying prospect, mainly because the danger isn’t staged. If you are to the point where you’re sense of “fight or flight” has kicked into overdrive, chances are good that whatever happens next could really, really hurt. For most of the general population, driving on a snowy road is the ultimate thrill. For all of us automotive addicts, it tends to be a much more horrifying situation.

DSC01002

Long-time readers of BangShift might remember “the PedoVan”, a 1990 Aerostar theft recovery that I was given in early 2010. The thing was all sorts of wrong from any and every possible angle, but just when I was ready to sell it for scrap, a neighbor that lived across the street from me on Fort Lewis fell onto hard times and sold his baby, a 1993 Ford Ranger that he had been building for a few years, to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment. So, ever the nice guy, I decided that the least I could do was to clean up the van and give it to him. I had managed to get the rolling abomination running and driving, for the most part, and was close to the final hurdle, getting it to pass emissions, when the pile of shit was stolen for a second time. As frightening as it was, however, one story really sticks out in my mind that still sends a shiver up my spine.

I was out driving the Aerostar around. The idea was that I’d drive it until it got dark enough, then I’d pull into the parking lot, where a friend was waiting to immediately check to see if the catalytic converter was glowing. Scientific? Oh, yeah, very much so, but it’s also a quick way to  test a theory, and the van could use some drive time anyways. We were testing this along Pacific Avenue in Spanaway, Washington, which is always loaded with traffic unless it’s three in the morning. This is at about six at night, so it’s just dark enough for headlights, and I’m making one last lap before I pull into the parking lot. I’m preparing to make a right turn onto Pacific, and the second the van enters the lane the damn thing stalls out completely. Ok, straight to neutral, hit the key, and the 3.0L V6 was not coming back to life. I looked out towards traffic and…there’s a Kenworth truck, loaded with logs, making serious tracks towards the driver’s door of the van. Oh, shit…I keyed the van, pumping the pedal in a desperate effort to have the car fire up. The truck hit the brakes and locked up the rears, not really slowing down. I keyed one last time, thinking that I was seconds away from being struck by a semi truck, genuinely preparing to get killed when the van sputtered to life. Foot to the floor, I threw it into reverse and backed out of traffic with about six seconds to spare before the truck went through.

Once I knew for sure that I wasn’t having a heart attack and that I hadn’t been hit, I got out of the still-idling van and started throwing haymaker punches on any body panel I could hit until a car pulled up and started honking. I took backroads to the parking lot and ditched the van for the safety of my Mirada. Luckily it only took a week for some tweaker to haul the pile off to whatever inglorious end it deserved. Hopefully fire was involved, because no vehicle should live when it is responsible for the moment that leaves you preparing your speech to Saint Peter about why you should be allowed past the gates.

So fess up: What is the most scared you’ve been inside a vehicle?

0012


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

10 thoughts on “Question Of The Day: What Is The Most Scared You’ve Been Inside A Car?

  1. loren

    I have a bad dream of that sort of thing happening and am very cautious about turning in front of traffic…but so far in daytime reality I’ve proven too dumb to be scared in a car. I may have “anxious moments” as a passenger, starting ‘way back after two good crashes w/ the same guy driving, but that’s just common-sense-driven and different.

  2. Anon

    So you beat up a van because you couldn’t get a simple EEC-IV system to work right. Clearly it’s the van’s fault.

    The most scared I have been in a vehicle is riding with a person who was so angry they said they wanted to wreck it and die, complete with driving like they meant it. I got real calm somehow while talking them down.

  3. Turbo Regal

    I had a moment years ago right out of “Duel”. I was on I20 heading to Alabama one afternoon when I passed a trucker a couple of times who was too slow in the middle lane of a 3 lane interstate. Apparently it pissed him off enough he tailgated me for 10 miles, weaving in and out of the lanes at high speed so he could stay on my back bumper. I was able to ditch him by taking an exit from 2 lanes over.

  4. Matt Cramer

    Driving from Cleveland to Atlanta on the Interstate while slightly tired and dozed off for about two seconds. Woke up in the middle of a V-shaped median, with the van ready to climb back up into the oncoming lane.

    Managed to avoid both running into oncoming traffic and a rollover, but I was quite shaken.

  5. john

    Sober in the back seat of a 1967 Mustang convertible driving the wrong way between Mansfield and Ashland, Ohio. Both the driver and front seat passenger were as “drunk as skunks”. I still can see those WRONG WAY signs flashing by some nights.

  6. floating doc

    Just as my front tires were rolling onto a railroad crossing, a train horn sounded RIGHT next to me. This was in NY city, where they have elevated trains. There was a train on an upper track that I couldn’t see, and since I grew up in Florida, I didn’t realize the bridge over the tracks was for trains too.

    I had one moment to think, “this is how it ends”, and the next moment I was over the tracks. My friend and I looked at each other in shock that we were still alive.

  7. Mike

    Let’s set the stage…. The Year…July 1968, riding in the back seat with my girl friend, The Car…1963 Black Ford Galaxie convertible big block, full of teenagers with the top down (the car not the girls), The Place…two lane blacktop, upper Wisconsin !! The Story… The driver decided to show us just how fast his 500 would go. As we neared 110 MPH, approaching a narrow two lane bridge, he lost control !!!!!! The car did two complete 360’s, never hit the bridge, never hit traffic coming in the other direction, ended up facing the proper direction on the shoulder of the road after crossing the bridge with the motor dead. We all looked at each other in unbelief and then started to beat the driver…. (not really) but we did have some select wording that was directed at his person !! And some people will tell you there is no God !!

  8. Powerstroke

    The scene, winter 1989. Pulling my 1988 Turbo Thunderbird down I-29 on a trailer with my dad’s brand new F-150. Went over an overpass and the car shifted on the trailer (because I listened to a friend about strapping it down a little less than tight so the suspension could work to provide a better ride). The truck went over the hump (going on to the overpass) just fine BUT the trailer shifted the car back a little bit and unloaded the tongue. What happened next was a blur that I will never forget. Que slow motion running of a hot chick. The back end of the pickup became unloaded and thought it would be wise to pass the frontend ( I had other thoughts ). I spun the wheel like a fuel altered doing a burnout gone WRONG. I used the entire bridge as if it was my ex on a typical night of sleep. When I got to the downside of the bridge (back on to dry pavement) the truck snapped straight and the trailer did so also at the expense of the tires. I then drove the remaining miles in fighter pilot mode (steering wheel to my chest) at approx 20 MPH. At that time I wondered if there was enough beer in the world to calm me down. Years later still wondering

  9. Herb

    We made the 10 hour drive to go drag racing at the Sanair track in Quebec. After some beverages decided to cab it to the “exotic dance” bar a few miles away. The doors barely shut when the driver’s foot went to the floor and we took off. 60 – 70 miles per hour thru a city weaving in and out and every stop was a screeching pedal to the floor event. Driver took exception to some young folks in another car and tried to put them off the road. I was very happy to get out of that car. Sadly it was not a fluke. The return trip was almost as bad but we were more “numbed”.

  10. Tod

    During a trip to Mexico I had an emergency and had to get back to my personal vehicle after wandering around for a few hours by myself so I got in a Tijuana Taxi and this guy said it would be $2 American to get me back the few miles to my carpark. I said sure and brought out a $5 figuring this is the right thing to do. After not quite a quarter mile on a one way road, the wrong way, and listening to the rear view mirrors banging off oncoming cars I threw a $20 at the guy and said STOP! I got out and fell to the ground with a pant load and walked back to my car shaking the whole time.

Comments are closed.