warm weather, dumb drivers

[T-Bone028]

So, over here in the Washington Metro area, we finally got some warm weather. Or at least warm enough to have a lot of nice cars wake up from their winter slumber. Naturally, I took my Z out for a nice afternoon drive. I get onto the highway and just cruising around 55 mph and see a Lexus IS300 in my rearview weaving through traffic. Its a 3 lane highway and I'm in the middle lane, he pulls up beside me, stares at me and continues to keep driving, navigating his way through erratically. The driver was maybe early 20's, and the IS300 had a carbon fiber hood and exhaust. Not much more that I could tell from the 2 seconds or so I saw it for. It also had a personalized plate that said "U2 CLOS3". I laughed and kept minding my own business.

 

Then I see it happen. About 8 car lengths ahead, I see the lexus lose control, it starts fish tailing to the left, then hard to the right, and then really hard to the left, finally spinning out and the rear end colliding with a guard rail and slamming into a ditch/dirt embankment. I slowed down immediately as soon as I saw it happening, and drove by just as I saw the driver get out of his car, staring at the damage he just caused.

 

Point of the story? Enjoying your car and taking it out for a nice drive is one thing, but doing dumb stuff with a bunch of other cars on the road and putting other people at risk is another. Luckily, no one else was involved and the driver was ok. Take it to the track if you want to go fast. If you think youre the next Cole Trickle, then prove it on the track where other people are actually racing and its a semi-controlled environment. Lastly, if you do dumb crap on the highway and wreck your car, then you will feel like crap because you knew you shouldnt have been doing it to begin with.

 

And thats the end of my rant.

[ModernS30]

I would have pointed and laughed. Then stopped to make sure he was ok and call him a dumb ass.

[Lazyeye]

If you're going to do something stupid, use a deserted length of rural highway to do it, then have your friends tow you back when you break something.

[cygnusx1]

I am going to try to make it through this season without any dumases running into my Z!      My Z is still snowed in but the temps are into the low 50's and the squids are out already. 

Edited March 8, 2010 by cygnusx1

[T-Bone028]

I'm sure you were just joking, but if you MUST take your car out to a deserted rural highway because you are too lazy/cheap to go to a track, please do it in broad daylight and make sure you have someone on lookout.

 

There was an instance in MD a couple of years ago where a group of street racers were drag racing on a deserted highway at 2:30 - 3:00 in the morning. A large burnout created a huge wall of tire smoke into the highway. As spectators stood in the highway watching the cars race down the road, a car struck them, killing and dismembering 6-8 people. Who would imagine there would be a group of people standing in a highway at 3:00 am? Most drivers would think that it was just fog, not tire smoke with people watching a street race. Could you imagine the kind of weight you would have to carry knowing you killed someone? Let alone multiple people?

 

Not sure how the case turned out, but its another example why public roads shouldnt be substituted for a race track. I'll get off my soapbox now.

[josh817]

What about doing dumb stuff on back country roads that are always empty? >_> I love doing that!