Has this ever happened to you?

[montoya_fan01]

It's the GOOD thimking you dazent do worth a darnmn! But thank you for the compliment!

E

I knew it, you're Bill Ramsey's Engrish teecher (or perhaps his father?).

[Ricklandia]

Well, it was friday afternoon (day off work) and i was taking my 240 for a little fun run up and down highway 33 (Ventura County). On the way up the hill I got lucky and there was zero traffic. I turn around and head back down the hill and I see this red Mitsubishi GT 3000 going up the hill.....to make a long story short, the guy in the GT 3000 had turned around and was chasing after me. Just near the bottom of the hill I see the guy in my mirror so I pick it up a bit. As luck would have it, just as we both were begining to have a little fun (nothing crazy mind you), my front fiberglass spoiler decided it was time to come loose. Apparently the bolts securing the center of the spoiler had come loose and the spoiler tipped down enough to catch an edge and roll under on the pavement. Holy crap! What a nasty sound. So, I slow and pull off the side of the road to inspect the damage while watching the guy in the GT 3000 cruise by smiling. As you can imagine my pride was the only thing that suffered any damage to speak of. The spoiler....well it was not as bad as the nasty sound made it out to be. So, have any of you had your parade rained on like my little experience?

Anyone who says they don't have a similar story is either a liar, or they haven't raced very much.

I'll give you a more embarrassing moment: I had a '72 Chevelle Convt. that I'd just replaced a starter motor in. It's Spring Break, Ft. Lauderdale (my home town) so a few friends and I decide to hit A1A for a little Saturday night cruising. the place is rockin, people everywhere, when suddenly the starter motor decides to engage... and not stop. I mean it's just GRINDING AWAY... LOUD as $H*T. I quick pull over and turn off the ignition, and the car wont stop! I mean, it was loud enough to wake the dead! Folks are coming out of thier hotel rooms onto thier balconies, the bars are emptying out cuz it sounds like a buzz saw on methamphedamines, folks are screamin to shut the damned thing off! :stupid: I pop the hood, which only makes the damned thing LOUDER to see WTF is goin on, and all I can see is friggin blue arc as thick as my thumb going from the starter solenoid to the block. I'm thinkin "F-ME!, I'm gonna get electrocuted trying to fix this!"

I had a tool box in the trunk, so I figure I gotta do something - I grab an old T-shirt, wrap it around the wrench and head right for the battery terminal, hoping I don't get the jolt of a lifetime. Meanwhile, my "friends" have abandoned me, stepping from the car and mingling into the ever growing - and HOSTILE crowd, acting like they never seen me before in thier lives! Nice, huh?

Well, I got the battery cable loose without getting shocked, the engine finally dies, and I get a rousing cheer from the crowd, not to mention a beer can thrown down from above somewhere above. After my adrenaline comes down, I hook it back up, fire up the car, and everything worked fine. Total weirdness. I had a few choice words for my "passengers" to say the least. Never did figure out what the problem was, next day I yanked the starter back out and returned it to the shop I bought it from.

Ahhhh.... memories...

[montoya_fan01]

I had a throw-out bearing start screeching (constantly) that drew the kind of attention you describe. Thank GAWD it wasn't in my Z or any other nice car. That would have been even more embarassing.

It was my own fault, I'd had a premature pressure plate failure and thought I could get away with only replacing the p/p. I learned my lesson and now replace EVERYTHING when doing any clutch work.

[Fun_in_my_z]

Me and a Friend of mine where riding along one night. It was probably like a 35 mph zone and i was probably doing closer to 70....

Came to this corner before i knew it and spun out. nose first into the ditch we went. Now this is the night before thanksgiving so its flippin cold outside.

We stood out their for 45 minutes waiting on this stoopid cop to decide what to do.

We got the car out and drove it home. Later we discovered the steering rack was shot.

[Zs-ondabrain]

So I'm at a red light like soooo many times before. the Camaro next to me is an easy win on my race card. We both rev up when the light is ready to change, I bring the RPM's up to about 3 1/2 or 4K. The light turns green, He chirps a little and goes, I drop the clutch and smoke tire through the intersection, It all looked pretty damn inpressive until I hit second gear a little too hard.

First gear must have chipped it cause when I hit second, I sheared every tooth in the Diff. Worst damn noise you'll ever hear traveling through the bar-link suspension of a 78' 510 (A10).

I came up against him a week later and smoked him real bad, He figured it would be a slam dunk until I pulled away in a big hurry, leaving him to breath in the aromatic aroma of tire and exhaust smoke from a little datsun 510.

[RAZ1]

Ricklandia, now that is a funny story. I'm glad I wasn't there because you would have been pissed at me. I wouldn't have hidden in the crowd, but I wouldn't have been much help either due to the tears running down my face from laughing so hard. Classic.

[Donni-Jay]

I had an extremely embarrassing moment with my Alfa Romeo car. (Before I ever got my 280ZX) I lived in the Kings Rd, Chelsea, London and was taking it easy down this famous road in heavy traffic.

Suddenly, my friend in the passenger seat and myself heard a sound like a tractor. We looked around, but did not see one. Well, we didn't really expect to, not in the middle of London. But, each time the traffic moved up a few feet, the terrible noise could be heard. Eventually I peeped out and saw the side strip hanging off my car.

I asked my friend to pop out and see to it, but she lowered herself in her seat until she could be hardly seen! I got out, and I was wearing hot pants and a small top! Didn't want to make a spectacle of myself, so I tried to quickly pull the car strip off. It would not break or come off no matter how much I tugged. My humiliation caused me to laugh madly. And, only the top of my friend's head could be seen in the car. She ignored my pleas for help and would not come out and help.

No-one else offered to help me, although there were plenty of stares and laughter. The traffic started to move and I finally gave up and climbed back into the car. As we continued on our way, the strip made the most awful noise as it dragged on the road. We tried to ignore it, though the noise should not have been heard above my friend's screams of laughter. She was still hiding under the dashboard! Finally we found a quiet place to park the car and were able to pull the offending strip off altogether.

As for embarrassing moments in my 280, none really. But, I did get fed up of young chaps wanting to race me off the traffic lights. At first my pride made me take up the challenges. (Of course I won) But, after a while I made sure to ignore anyone level with me at the traffic lights. I did love the roar of the engine though. Especially, when going through a built up area.

[dogma420]

At one point in time I owned a Fiat 850 spyder...a little convertible car that had a 850cc motor in the rear.

Anyways, I was doing cookies spinning out with a friend in a gravel parking lot with a buddy in the passenger seat and we were trying to impress some ladies (we were both 17 yrs old, a long time ago)...

On one side of the parking lot, was pavement...anyways, while doing cookies, burning out, I slide around and onto the pavement....took my tire right off of the rim when we hit the pavement! Very embarrasing...esp. when I found out we didn't have a jack! but we did have a spare....

The only good part about this was, we figured out that my friend was able to hold up the rear end of the car while I changed the tire, that's how light this little 850 spyder was! I think it weighed something like 1200 pounds. It was a cool little car that I got for $300 from a buddy..he had tried to run over a 'pylon' that turned out to be a metal post in concrete...and the whole front end is one piece (no fenders)...anyways I bought it from him, put a come-a-long on it, and pulled it right out and did a quick paint job--it looked great....I'll post a picture tomorrow.