Coming home from the dealership today, some idiot nearly wreaked my car. I was driving down the road and I see ahead of me this pontiac sunfire about to turn from a side road onto the 2 lane main road I was driving on. I guess he thought he was some F1 race car that can turn on a dime and take off before I reached him or something because there he was, turning into my lane.

I was definately going to hit him if I continued my speed, so I signaled to turn to the left lane and let him have the right lane to slowly take off. To my dismay, the idiot went for the left lane and not the right lane like you should when you are merging into traffic.

So the guy's nose is in the left lane taking up 2/5th of the left lane and the rest of his body is taking up 3/5th of the right lane(he was in the middle of the turn)

By now the dumb sh|t started to realized what was happening and frooze, I mean he literally stopped where he was. I knew there was no way I could brake in time and If I could, the people in back of me would plow into my rear.

So I swerved and somehow squeeze through the 3/5th of the left lane that was left to me and swerve back and went on my merry way. The cars after me was not so lucky >_<;;

The 350Z handling is awsome! It was so smooth to swerve and avoid that car, I didn't feel any jolt or hear the tires squeal or felt any slipping.

Has anyone saved their car or themselves due to the 350Z's handling?

PS: I am still in shock. Nearly had a very bad accident. Stupid sunfire!

 

Yes, the handling has saved me from a few sticky situations. I cant even imagine what its like monday after I get my coilovers installed. What happened to the cars behind you?

 

I had a close call in my 1990 300ZX. It was Yellow Pearlstone, a beautiful car! I loved that car... sniff.

I was driving on the freeway in the right-center lane. Another car was in the right lane just ahead of me. A third car came flying onto the freeway from the entrance ramp, into the right lane, right up on the other guy's **** and even with me.

With no where else to go, crazy person started into my lane. It happened very quickly. All I saw out of the corner of my eye was my girlfriend cover her face. In a split second, I yanked the wheel left, then right, and completely swerved around crazy person.

Neither the car nor the tires complained a bit. It was like, "okay, we'll go this way now!" :P I learned the value of good tires that day, I tell you.

 

pj550v12, GREAT photo!! mmm...Lana

 

Yes, I have...I was in the rightlane, approximately 3/5 up to this Toyota Avalon. The lady was on the phone, of course. She signalled to merge..so i'm like wtf...and I begin to brake..and she does too (apparently just seeing me)...so shes yelling at me, while merging and braking, WHILE talking on the phone...and the situation just gets worst when she decides to CONTINUE merging. Instead of staying in the left lane, she said, HEY, let's keep merging, its a "safer" bet. So I got tired of this nonsense, and instead of braking, I went straight into the emergency lane, went from 5th to 4th and nailed it out of there...due to the quickness of lateral movement, I saved myself, my passenger, and my car.

 

what happend to the other car?
??????????????????????????????
ya cant leave the story like that mate! finish it!

 

All I know is that there were lots of cars behind me, then afterwards... there wasn't. I was in too much shock to even honk much less turn the car around to see what happened.

I still don't know how I squeezed through that 3/5th of room since the other side was the Medium. When I got home, I had to walk around my car to see if there was any scrapes. I just couldn't believed I stayed inbetween the car and the medium. I for sure thought I got scraped. It's like my car took a deep breath and got skinny to squeeze by. LOL

Crazy. I am still calming down.

 

I've always felt safer in a sports car for that very reason...your vehicle becomes an extension of your thoughts/reactions. Combine that with a general awareness of your lane options at all times and you can avoid a lot of idiots!

 

i had a similar situation driving from houston to austin last week. the rain was coming down pretty hard. not crazy but it was WET. i am clipping along in the left lane at about 70 when some Malibu comes from the left and into the fast lane right in front of me. well i applied the brakes a bit to keep from skidding, and quickly swerved around him and punched it. i gave him the 'ol finger out the window (and a blast from the horn). 20 min later his car passed me and his passenger flicked me off thru the back window...so i gave another birdie!! lol....some people

 

+1. Better braking, better handling, better acceleration all help to get you out of sticky situations. I've also been chased by crazy people twice (once I was riding with a friend who didn't do anything but got brighted and then chased for apparently staying in the left lane too long next to a car in the right lane and "blocking" this guy who chased us). The other time I was in my old Spec V and a guy came flying up in the right lane as it merged down into the left lane and didn't get around me in time so had to hit the brakes and merge in behind me. Of course this was my fault, so he's flipping me off and shaking his head and when we get to the next stop light I turn left to get onto the highway and he does too. I get over in the right lane right away to get out of his way and he pulls up beside me and throws a glass bottle at my car!! He dented my gas cap cover! I chased his *** and got his license plate number and a description and called the cops and they acted like it wasn't a big deal because he hadn't done very much money worth of damage to my car. I was like, "I could have crashed!" ANd the cop said he had more important things to do, . This is why people hate cops.

 

um, dood... flippin' the bird to someone in Texas can get you SHOT!!

 

**pulls out glock 17**

 

i've had this same thing happen to me in the Z. anytime someone is an *** on the highway or wants to ride my ***, i always make sure to remind them who's brakes are better. that usually works. i don't take **** from people on the roads.

 

ABS wouldn't have let you skid anyway...

 

Glad to hear you came away without a scratch, good driving.

Now, do I have any close calls to tell you about? How much time do you have? I drive in Orange County, CA. Nuff said on that.

 

just happened to me 2 days ago - was leaving work for my lunch break - i just started accelerating from a stop light that just turned green... a big a$$ Suburban on the left of me also starts moving - a lady driver and she is on the phone (classic I swear)

Anyways she suddenly remembered that she needs fuel or something and decided to change lanes in the middle of the intersection to get into the gas station right after the light - no signal, nothing - she didn't even know there was a car next to her - all i see is this huge red SUV about to run over the side of my Z – she was soo close I can hear her yapping on the phone. so I swerve really quick to avoid her while hitting the brakes hard. Thank god for ABS ... no skid and just missed her. She also freaks out and stops a few feet right in front of me.

I look in the rear view mirror and I see this Honda Accord about to slam right into to me - so I bolt as fast as I can after a dead stop, turn on a dime to the left to avoid the crazy SUV now in front of me... again I miss her by inches and the Honda behind me misses me by a foot or so - he almost runs into the SUV

Excellent braking and super fast acceleration saved me for sure that day... love the Z