Well, this is both a rant and a praise to the fine engineers at Chevrolet...

Last night on my way home, I was on a four lane highway. Two lanes each way, separated by a cement median. The left lane traffic was going at least 5-10mph below posted limit, and in the right lane, 20+mph below the posted limit.

As we in the left lane were passing vehicles on the right at a normal clip, I left quite the distance between myself and the person in front of me as I was very tired last night on the way home.. as I came upon an elderly lady in the right lane, I was about to overtake her.. remember, this is all happening at well below posted speeds.... right at the moment my front bumper lined up with her front fender I noticed the turn signal indicator come on, to come into my lane.

What amounted to simply sheer reflexes, I found my right foot all of a sudden firmly planted on the go-go pedal. Thanks be to GOD for 340 ft lbs of torque, because each and every foot pound kicked in and launched me right past the potential disaster. As I passed her, I could see her in my mirror realize what just happened, and she began to vascilate in her lane from what I am sure was shock.

I'm sure the roar of the L98 didn't make her feel much better, either.

ANYWAYS, I just wanted to share with everyone that sometimes having gobs of power available to you can actually save your bacon. It did for me.

3 CHEERS FOR CORVETTE!

 

Dude ! I'm just glad you didn't get drilled !![sm=icon_rock.gif]

 

I'm glad it worked out, but consider this: as you describe the moment you saw the turn her signal indicator come on, your car was not quite directly alongside her car -- your front bumper alongside her front fender, so . . .

You could have hit the brakes. Any street car, even a Corvette, can de-celerate harder than it can accelerate* and you had less distance to move, relative to her, slowing backwards (less than a full car length) than accelerating forwards (slightly more than a length to clear her completely). Yes, if you hit the brakes hard, you had to worry about someone behind you hitting your car, but I doubt you had someone tailgating you.

I would have hit the brakes.
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* A C6 can accelerate to 70 mph in about 6 seconds. It can decelerate from that speed to a stop in a bit less than 3.

 

Good point, Lee!! My wife said pretty much the same thing last night when I told her all this. I dunno really, it just "happened"... a knee-jerk reaction I guess to plant the foot. There was a 3/4 ton pickup right behind me, so... but, yeh, to be honest, I am sure he would have slowed down in time...

Regardless, all I know is if I had done nothing, my car would be a mess today.

I totally concur with your post here, bro. Next time IF this happens again, I bloody well plan on plantin' the binders that's for sure.

 

Yeh, thanks bro! I was shakin' for about 2 hours after that.... []

 

YOU DEFINITELY HAVE GUARDIAN ANGLE ON YOU SIDE.I BET YOUR FOOT WAS SHAKING ALL NIGHT[8D]

 

With a lot of newer cars having front and rear side marker/turn signals, I can see this happening with front bumper to front bumper. Glad It worked out O. K. for ya.

 

This important thing is it worked out and you know you can depend on your reflexes and intuition.

 

This important thing is it worked out and you know you can depend on your reflexes and intuition.

 

Hi TopSpeed: You are exactly right. You have to go with that instant reflex. If you sit there and scratch your head and say "what do I do" , it could be over in a moment. I was looking for a parking space in the mall, and honestly some people never even look when they start backing out, I was behind the car and they started plowing backward. This is one time I floored my vette. He would have hit me in an instant. I was so shaken after the episode. He came up beside me and said "sorry, I wasn't looking, that was very apparant. I have seen where people hit the accelerator instead of the brake, and I have thought, that's crazy, WHO would do such a thing. That statement came back to bite me, the 61 vette lost brakes as I was leaving my office several years back. When I backed out of my parking space, it would not stop moving, in the excitement I was hitting the accelerator, anything to get the car stopped, the last thing I saw was a tree coming toward me , and finally the idea of the emergency brake came to mind. You just never know in that split second what is going to happen. I remember when it happened, hubby ask, why didn't you try the emergency brake. All I had in my head was just trying to get that car stopped, and yes, that was why I was hitting the accelerator.