Near miss?

Last night my taste buds were in the mood for something sweet and there is a sonic about 5 miles away. I have not drove the Ferrari at night so I decided to take it for the quick trip. The drive to the sonic was uneventful with the normal looks of drivers at redlights. I parked at the sonic, ordered my hot fudge sunday and sat down in the outside area to enjoy the icecream and the view of my car. I got my order from a cute little thing on roller skates that asked, "is that your little white car"? We talked for just a few seconds, she rolled away and I found myself torn between admiring the car or her cute little tush as she skated to the window to get the next order. As I spooned my ice cream I noticed several cars slowing down, then make the circle of the sonic and never stop to order, obviously doing a driveby to look at the car. The White paint really stood out under the flo-lights of the sonic. While taking all of this in I made some mental notes about the short drive. The dash lights are kind of dim as I expected but the one on the tach is dimmer than the rest. The headlights seem to be OK and its more comfortable driving with one window down and not two. After about 45 minutes I got back in the car and started the drive home. Easing down the 6 lanes of Hwy 49 I decided to go the extra 1/4 mile to I-10 and take her up on the interstate. A small SUV pulled along my right side with about 4 teenage boys looking at the car as we toottled down the road at about 50mph. In the distance I could see the last intersection before the interstate onramp had just got a green light. I had to fight the urge to slap it into a down shift and pull away from the gawking teens in the SUV riding next to me, but I stayed cool. About 4 seconds from the intersection I caught some movement from the left and a white 4x4 truck blew through the light crossing the intersection right in front of us both. I could hear the SUV's antilock braking cherping on the pavement as I downshifted, braked and started to move to the left. The &*#@*hole driving the truck realized he had made a mistake and instead of going on through the intersection he began to stop! I guess my many years of police training kicked in because I released the brake, hit the gas and steered around the rear bumper of the truck into a wide open roadway on the other side. I waited to hear the collision of the SUV and the truck but all I heard was about 9 cars sitting on their horns that were waiting at the light and had front row seats. I pulled over to a small parking area with my heart up in my throat when the SUV pulled up in front of me. The teens got out and we met between the two cars. After we exchanged the "are you ok's" they wanted to know if the Ferrari was real and if they could take a look so I let them look around for a bit. I asked the driver of the SUV "Eric" how he avoided the SUV and he said he was standing on the brakes going straight at it the truck when the truck moved forward at the last possible second to avoid collision. Eric said "I would have hit that guy dead on before I would have moved over on you and this awsome car"! We chatted for a few more minutes and I told Eric that no car was worth getting hurt over but I appreciated his consideration. I gave him one of my business cards and told him to call me on Saturday and I'll take him for a ride. He got so excited he almost ran into traffic! geesh! So I got back in the car, drove home, put it in the garage and ended the one and only time I'll go for a "night drive"! Drive safe this holiday season. Joe

 

I can just imagine the sight the spectators got when I was powersliding around the truck! lol Since this happend last night I've been wondering if seeing the car by other drivers at night is an issue? I find myself being very cautious even during the day with traffic going the same direction. I think the blind spot for a F car is larger because it is so low and others dont see you, especially if they are in SUV's? I'll bet there have been cases where drivers make a lane change and never see the F car, particularly if you are slightly behind them. If those teens had not been admiring the car and didn't know I was there, I'm sure Eric would have made a hard swerve to the left and right on top of me. Any other near misses from Fchatters?