strokervette

While going back to my friends house in the Vette I followed him up till we got on his street and I decided to pass him. No problem, and I was now passing his house so I could turn around to park on his side of the street. As I came up to a side street passed his house I went wide to make a complete U-turn, and as I was turning back in to the right to make the U-turn............SMASH!!!!!! He was still coming behind me and thought I moved to the left to let him by so he gunned it to re-pass me and instead was shocked to see me cut in front of him at the side street. He hit my pass side front wheel and then had to cut the wheel to the right to avoid a BIG tree in someones yard. He popped the curb near the corner and managed not to hit the tree and get back onto the road.

He now had a totalled front alloy rim, popped front tire, bent lower control arm, bent sway bar, possible damage to the CV joint, dented drivers side front fender, broken lens on the blinker, damaged wheel well cover and a whole lot of yellow paint smeared across the side of his car. His car is NOT driveable!

So far the Vette sustained a badly dented rim, popped front tire, two small cracks behind the wheel well on the fender, and a dented primary tube on the exhaust right before it goes into the collector. I took a friends car to my house and got a spare wheel and mounted it. When I started to drive the alignment was way off but I managed to drive it home. Having not looked into it any further yet besides looking from underneath, I know there is still a problem with the steering linkage and/or my lower control arm bar as I noticed today one of the bolts is loose and there is a gap in where the bushing is. The actual lower control arm looks ok but I still have to see everything while the wheel is off and the car is on jack stands.
I'm not worried about the little bit of body damage since I haven't started to work on the body yet and so far all of the other damaged parts were going to be upgraded anyway! LOL At least this gives me more of an incentive to get the ball rolling on this project sooner now. I know there will be some flaming going on about this one and I'm ready for it. I learned that even a little spirited driving can spark the racer in someone and then it has the potential to get ugly. I should have known better.
Pics are sure to come soon with the carnage!

swtato

how did you explain it to the police?

GridIronMac

It was an accident, sounds like both of you are allright and can deal with the mistake . It doesn't take much for the adrenaline to kick in. Show us some pics soon and then get to work on the vette.

strokervette

Well.........Hmmmm. Both of us accepted the consequences our actions and we decided to take of it on our own.

strokervette

I got out to the garage today to take some pics of the damage. It looks like the control arm shaft is bent on the front side where the bolt is. Weird thing is that both the lower control arm shaft bolts were loose. I remember torquing them down tight. These are the ones at the ends of the shaft. I also noticed that where the upper ball joint connects to on the spindle is bent, well at compared to the other side. Other than that I can't figure out why the steering is way off. The steering components look ok and are not bent. So I think most of the problem is in the control arms and spindle equip.

Click here for the pics

pef427

As it should be!
Glad you guys are OK.
Stuff happens...

1fastC3

while bad, it could've been worse, also it gives you an excuse to buy ceramic coated or stainless steel headers.

-alex

strokervette

Not a bad idea but I just got the exhaust a year ago. For now I can live with a little dent. What it does is gives me an excuse to get tubular control arms sooner.