Sorry for the double-post Admins, but a lot of the Performance guys have been a great help to me, and some don't visit Bench Racing too often.

Anybody Driving home around 4-4:30PM on the 60FWY, just past the 57 going towards L.A.?

If so, you probably saw all of this happen in Realtime.

Anyway, I was doing my usual Monday/Wednesday commute. I had a good traffic-free day today, quite odd, Monday was just he opposite. I had just come off of the curve from the 57 and merging onto the 60FWY. I started changing lanes, as usual, being careful, getting to the left lanes. Did my last lane change and just as my passenger wheels went over the little bumpies into the last lane, all the craziness broke loose.

All of a sudden the car was sliding side ways, heading towards the wall, I tried my best to keep it away, but alas, the laws of physics and not being a professional roundy-round race car driver took its toll. I couldnt get the car to steer, and I knew hitting the brakes wasn't a good idea at this point with cars behind me, so I left off the gas and tried my best to steer away from the center barrier. Well, as soon as I let go of the gas, I was no longer in control, the car slammed into the divider, i thought it was going to end there, nope.

Suddenly, after hitting the wall, the car responded to the steering wheel again, not exactly a good thing. I was just holding onto the wheel for dear life, and the car did a fishtail 180 spin across all four lanes of the 60FWY and It this freeway dance ended when I slammed into the guardrail on the opposite side of the freeway, all the way past the right lane. But the craziest part was what happened between hitting each barrier.

During the fishtail 180, the car swung across all the lanes, sort of facing head-on towards traffic, leaning as far to the drivers side as I'll ever want to feel it lean. I was pretty sure it was about to flip. All i heard was wheels screaching, I looked around and saw NO cars, THANK GOD. The whole time i was spinning across, I had somehow got throught the lanes traffic-free, no honking or sounds of other cars swerving to miss me, not big-rig horns blowing, nada. Just me and the car dancing across the lanes.

I hit hard the second time, driver door pinned against the guard rail. I let myself soak it all in, then tried to start the car again. No dice. After a few minutes of trying, i notice i wasnt even cranking the engine, no battery power. I sat in the seat and half-cried and thanked God for a while. Then I unbuckled and hopped out throught the driver's side window (side that's away from traffic.) Quickly ran to open the hood, saw the battery cable hanging off. Put it back on. Ran back over and hopped the rail/car door to get back in. Put my belts back on. Hit the key and the throttle a few times til i got the baby-mouse to crank over, once I heard it fire I put it in gear and drove scraping on the guard rain (trying to get as far as possible from teh on-coming traffic), found a clearing, turned the car back around and a nice man in van let me back into traffic. I drove a few miles and a Nice CHP officer was waiting for me ahead, and we both got off the next exit. Officer asked me to pull into the gas station, so I did. He checked to make sure i wasnt mangled or drunk/stoned (I wasn't). He only saw the part where I was driving the wrong way. I explained to him everything that happened. He called in to make sure no other cars or people were involved/injured. Everything cleared out. He stayed with me for a while til i was calm and cool. Then he called his buddy and a second patrol car came, first one left. Second guy stayed til my license had checked out. Then he waited til i found a phone. A nice man let me borrow his cell, I called home.

Brother and Mom came to get me. Brother drove the Chevelle home, slowly but surely throught the backstreets as the driving wheel (passenger side, non-posi, it didn't even hit anything ) was wobbly and the hood wouldnt latch all the way anymore.

Anyway, I got home safely. THAT"S WHAT COUNTS.

The Chevelle needs a new driver's fender, fender extension, and some body work on the door/quarter panel. And a Quarter panel marker-bezel thingy. BUT, that is the LAST thing that needs to be done, the bodywork.

First I need to find a frame shop to make sure the frame checks out. Then I need to find out what the Heck was going on with the rear wheel and how it ended up "bow legged" and toe'd in. After the rear gets checked and checks out, Off to a front end shop to make sure my suspension, steering components, steering box and all that good stuff is in good condition.....

Whatever, the car can be fixed, sold, parted, or even junked.

I live on to do what I must with the car, most likely fix it and keep driving it. It wouldn't have worked the other way around, its not easy to fix a human life that's gone.

Lord, thankyou for being with me today. I love You.

Guys, be careful out there, take care and drive safely.

Enrique "God helped me cheat Death" Rodriguez.

RIP Indian Larry

good for you, i would of been pissed about the car! but thats me, i tend to take things like that for granted, i always look back and wish i would of done something different!

Not ME! Screw the car! I love it, but if its between me and the car, take the freakin' car! There's other cars out there, but there's only ONE of ME!

Take care everyone.

Wow, Enrique, that's a heckuva story. I've responded to a couple of your posts lately and so I checked this one out. I'm glad I did. You're right, just one of you and still a couple hundred thousand Chevelles out there. I have a similar story regarding me and my 70, but I won't steal the thread from you.

I'm so glad you're ok. I can't say as to what caused it, but I'm sure you'll pretty much know it when you see it. Maybe a broken axle?

CONCORD, N.C. August 30, 2004; The AP reported that a custom motorcycle builder known for his appearances on cable's Discovery Channel died Monday at a hospital of head injuries suffered during a stunt, officials said.

"Indian Larry" fell off a motorcycle Saturday while performing before 8,000 people at an arena outside Charlotte. He was not wearing a helmet, the officials said.

Indian Larry was standing on the moving bike when it began to wobble and went out of control, said Mike Downs, Cabarrus County deputy manager. His full name was not immediately known.

"Indian Larry was a man with great skill and talent as a mechanic and metal sculptor," said Robert Freeman, chairman of the county board of commissioners. "He will be truly missed by his fans here in Cabarrus County and throughout the nation."

Indian Larry, who appeared in movies and television shows, was featured on a Discovery Channel series in which motorcycle builders design and build bikes from scratch, then have them judged by motorcycle aficionados.


never scrap,never sell,always build and have self satisfaction and something to keep you busy..
remember everything in life is a lesson,remember what you did wrong and you probably wont do 'er again.
as for Indian Larry,what a freakin loss to the scooter community,and the rest of us who dont own harleys cause we got to much tied up in our classic muscle,but enjoy the hell out of sunday nights watching a healthy dose of a type of brotherhood of wits,talent and of course loving competition, that we can all relate to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
deepest regards,
shane

For Sure! You need to take in a Mass and receive Communion now. I AIN"T - KIDDIN"!

Glad to hear you're OK!

Boy, I'm glad you are alright. You're right the car can be replaced but you can't. Any idea of what happen? Why the car went bonkers?

It sure looks like The Big Cowboy In The Sky was watching over your every move that day.

Neither coincidence nor luck saved you but rather our Father's Hand.

Yes, come and see ... God is Good!

I'm glad you're O.K. man. You got so lucky that there wasn't a big truck right there waiting to cream you. Good luck fixing the car.

Frames can be straightened,metal can be replaced.Glad your OK!

Wow, glad you're OK. Let us know what you find out that started the craziness.

I'm at school right now, I havent looked at the car myself except for the body damage.

Dad is at home tho, I called earlier and he said the tire on the driven wheel is lopsided, like it had been over-inflated. I had checked the pressures last week before school started, everything was fine, filled to the tire's specs. So I thought I was good to go. Thing is, these tires were bought used from a junkyard, they were supposed to be on my brother's Nova, which isnt driven. But we put it onto mine two weeks or so ago because they were shorter, wanted the gear advantage at the track. Oh well, that might have been what did the car in.

I don't thing the frame is doing to bad, but i'll have it checked out soon. First I'm gonna have the front end re-aligned and have my rallies and BFGs mounted back on, they're good and balanced, bought new and all that good stuff. That way I can drive it slowly to the frame and body shops.

Thanks guys.

Hey Pat, can you give me the number to the rear-end shop again? The GM-only place? I want to have all the internals checked out to make sure an internal mechanical problem wasn't involved also. Thanks. (Might drop buy your house, I'll call first, I might add the 3.36s while the rear is open.)

The radiator support is a 70 only thing right? Any chance of any of the other GM models having the same one?

Saw the tire when I got home tonite. About 5/8-3/4s of the tire was lop sided. The tread on the inner part (the part that was facing the differential when mounted) is noticibly higher than the rest of the tread. My dad says it looks like it "spontaneously inflated" for some reason. He said that and over-inflated tire doesn't look like what we've got on our hands here.

I don't know about a tire "spontaneously" inflating, but, maybe some of the radial broke. It's happened to me, the radial has broken inside which causes the tire to bubble up. Sometimes it's obvious and can be noticable, and other times it's not as noticible and makes it's "presents" known at the wrong time. Something to think about. I'll say it again, since we haven't spoke since yesterday, but, I'm really glad you're doing good!!! graemlins/hurray.gif graemlins/thumbsup.gif graemlins/beers.gif

Yeah Alex, Never thought about the radial tread letting lose in one part. You're welcome to come over and see it anytime you wan't man, As are the rest of you guys.

The tire, thas a bout 2 inches (wide) of the thread that is "bubbled up" as Alex describes, and goes almost around the whole circumfrence of the tire.

its good to hear you are OK!

I'm sorry to hear about the car getting banged up.

Enrique, Sorry to hear about your accident. It was probably a belt separation in the tire and when you hit the irregularties in the road the belt tore inside the tire where it wasn't visable. You were very fortunate indeed. Is it a steel belted radial? This was a common problem in the older ones like the firestone 500s of the 70s. (a steel belted disaster of a tire). What brand and type of tire was it? I always replace old tires with brand new ones for just this reason. Steel belted radials have gotten better but still have a limited lifespan to my way of thinking.

Enrique,,,,
Sorry about the ride but really glad to hear your OK ;)

GLAD TO to hear you are OK ,GRACIAS A DIOS ! ,I am sorry for the car .