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

 

Pfew, quite a story Joe! Glad you (and the F) made it okay.

Don't let this event put you off though. Driving at night can be as much fun as during daylight.

Hans

 

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?

 

I had a near miss several weeks ago. The car ahead of me in the right lane got sideways and came into my lane in front of me doing about 65 on the Perimeter (beltway) around Atlanta. There was a van to my left, I hit the brakes hard and moved into the left lane just off the van's bumper as I went through the cloud of tire smoke. It must have looked like a NASCAR wreck with all the smoke. I was very lucky that I didn't get hit or hit someone. This too was a night.

Hey Joe, I also have a 1980, GTSI though.

 

People pull out in front of me all the time. When i honk the horn they look shocked like
"where did he come from?" Now i know why the horn is so loud.

 

You drive your car on 285???

I wouldn't drive my nissan pickup on the Perimeter.

 

I drive my 308 in the same manner that most people ride a motorcycle, such that I give myself a huge amount of distance between all drivers. As you've said, most can't see you and are surprised when you "show up out of no where". I'm always looking for spacious gaps in traffic, day or night.

 

Yeah, that "look twice save a life motorcycles are everywhere" sticker makes alot of sense now.

 

This weekend I had an old mini van try to change lanes into me as she made a last minute decision to exit the freeway from four lanes over. I hit the horn and the brakes hard. As soon as she realised I was there she also braked hard (probably so she wouldn't miss her exit), so we were still together. I was slowing faster to get clear of her rear bumper when the front wheel cover popped off the the heap and, at 60 mph, started to change lanes towards me. The GT4 isn't as low as a GTb/s, but it is down there. I squeezed the car between traffic to my right, minivan at 10 o'clock and a wheel cover coming at me watching the wheel cover roll by until it was so close to me I couldn't see it and just waiting for the scrape or bang along the side of the car but there wasn't any.

Not life threatening (well, the wheel cover part anyway), but stuff happens all the time in urban areas.

 

Joe, next time go to Foster Freeze it's much safer
or maybe you shouldn't have ordered the hot fudge

 

See? If you had stayed to chat up the waitress, it could have all ended differently! LOL!

Glad you are okay, you really DO have to drive them like a motorcycle, aasume they don't see you, assume they will do something stupid....(run red light)

 

Someone buy this gentleman an "Enter" key for his PC please...

And: glad you and the car emerged unscathed!

 

I do and as someone told me "it's only a 308, you really can't do anything to raise or lower the value". Really, I've been told that by another Ferrari owner in my area, they didn't own a 308 of course.

 

Glad you survived the incident without a scratch. If it happened to me I would have had a nice stiff rum and coke when I got home.

 

Actually, i feel safer at nite with my 308 - with the lights on, i look like any other car out there - just a little lower, but folks can see me better than in the day.

 

Me too Doug, I gave rum up after I left the water.... well a few years after! It was Gin that night.