Embarrassing moments in Supercars?

Embarrassing moments in Supercars?

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antacid

373 posts

106 months

Saturday 10th December 2016
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I had a recent clanger in my 911.

It came equipped with a Gemballa suspension and deep sump. A very, very deep sump. It used to graze on my old driveway which would always remind me when starting a trip how careful I needed to be. I scraped it about as much as I did my old Vantage ie every now and then you'd hear a feint noise going over a speed hump.

Things took a turn for the worse when I ran to a DIY store after buying my new place. It has 100% level with road driveways so I don't have to think twice about going for a spin.. But the store had a metal speed hump that I crawled over at 5kph.. The front barely made it, as did the sides. Then the speed hump came loose from the ground and slid backwards. Being rear engined, the sump hangs down some way back behind the rear axle. THUD.

A couple of people look, I cringe and park up at the far end of the carpark.

I check the back and see a bit of oil leaking. Crap.

So I figure I'd run inside and pick up an allan key set incase it had just knocked and loosened the sump.

Nothing going. I loosen the plug and it pops out straight away. burning hot oil. EVERYWHERE. I'm on the floor trying in vein to get the plug back in hoping that a different angle would see it stopped. The entire contents of the sump were now over the DIY store carpark. Cue some teenagers not knowing what a spill kit was, and turning up with about a cupful of sand, waiting for 3 hours for a tow truck and having cones and sand all over the carpark.

gutted frown I was going to take the hyundai too god knows why I didn't.

She was on the road again some 3 months later after 10k worth of insurance work! I"ll never forget standing in a shop, burned arm, oil stained tshirt, flicking through google for a tow truck that could lift low cars. Luckily the guy the insurers sent towed a lot of race cars so was used to the low life..

Edited by antacid on Sunday 11th December 06:41

Marc p

1,023 posts

141 months

Friday 16th December 2016
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I have a few, but a couple off the top of my head:

First is mainly due to LHD-RHD collection of cars, Mustang and Corvette LHD, R8, Supra, 944 and daily RHD, que many instances of getting back to the car with a small gathering(I actually find this kind of embarrassing, I'm not one to revel in attention), then me just trying to be cool and casual, get in the car...........st! Wrong side again! This is then followed by me casually rummaging around in the glovebox and/or behind the seat and pretending to look like I've lost something, then getting into the correct side.

Next one is in the '69 Mustang, this by far and away the most attention seeking and loved car I have! It's a Restomod car so it does really stand out, anyway, coming out of town I see the people look and point, so I think 'lets open it up a little', lock the auto box in 1st and put my foot down, what followed was a glorious sound, very quickly followed by a 'thunk' under the bonnet, engine light and a HUGE cloud of white smoke billowing out the bonnet, this then led to a rather embarrassing stop round the corner as the car emptied it's entire coolant content all over the ground (turned out the alternator belt came off and hit the coolant pipe causing it to split and spray its water all over the bay).

Another time was in the Corvette, pulled into service station and up to the pump, shut the engine off, hit the door release button..............nothing, all the electrics appear to have died! Crap, how do I get out? Anyway, after a few seconds of panic, I remembered the manual door release lever wedged between the seat and the door, great! Yank the release, door lock pops and I'm free.........or am I?

As in most frameless window cars, the window drops slightly to allow the glass to clear the seal, but this can't happen when the car has no electric power, so although I had managed to get the door off the lock, it was now jammed against the window seal. I should add at this point, I had a few people looking at the car including a couple who were somewhat patiently waiting for me to get out so they could maybe ask some questions.

So there I am, with one option available and that is to shoulder-barge the st out of the door to get out, did it open on the first barge? No, second maybe? No, I was pussy footing this and trying to be too careful, i had to barge the door with all my force behind me, did the door then open? Yes, but with such force that the door swung open with incredible vigor as I, with flailing arms, followed and saw myself exiting the car face first towards the ground, just as my hands were about to touch the ground, I realised that the door, with the speed it had opened with, was now maintaining that speed AS IT CAME BACK TOWARDS MY FACE!!! This ladies and gentleman meant that I now had a door, that is not German and has been made without the knowledge of soft touch plastics and fine, soft, nappa leather, was smashing me in the face with what can only be described as the feeling of being hit my a jumbo jet at full speed.

This wasn't the end.....oh no, I wasn't to be spared that luxury, my nose started bleeding, so there I was half in the car half out the car, blood dripping down and looking like the scene of a car jacking gone wrong, the original couple that were waiting to speak to me are now stood there, not quite knowing what to say, I don't know what to say, we looked at each other with an unreal silence, at which point the woman decided to say 'That's a beautiful car', quickly followed by her partner/husband dropping the best line he could have 'It's completely off the crazy/hot scale, damn things just tried to break his nose'.

I couldn't bare the embarrassment of going inside, so fixed the car (luckily, just had the negative connection pop off the battery) and just drove off hoping to last til the next one.

ryandoc

276 posts

154 months

Sunday 18th December 2016
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Mates 355 in my company one Sunday after a full 5 days driving around the Scottish highlands, pulled into Kinross services on a very busy summers day. Lots of attention, few photos being taken. Get myself fed and watered and ready to set off.
Could not get the car started at all, lights on, click, nothing. An hour of trying. Mate who was in Glasgow in my car abandons his plans and comes to meet me.
Nothing at all, recovery called they take the car away and hold it securely overnight. Monday morning then drop it off at Grey Paul in Edinburgh, mechanic jumps straight on and starts the car ......

Fast forward one year similar situation another mate, 355 Berlinetta, another Scottish highlands drive and me on my own pulling into Kinross services. Fed and watered get in the car and click, nothing !!! Phones mate stating that I cannot believe this is happening again but with his 355 now. Took me about 45 mins and she eventually started.

2 separate 355's absolutely true story and the only assumption I can make it that there is what I assume to be a military golf ball style radar about a mile or so away, both cars were original Ferrari immobiliser, so assume the radar hit a sweet spot and interfered with the immobiliser. I can find no other rational reason for it.

willy wombat

906 posts

147 months

Sunday 18th December 2016
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Not often I laugh out loud reading PistonHeads but I did at marc p's Corvette story. Many years ago I owned a V12 E Type. One Sunday I decided that I would use it to collect my (then) 5 year old daughter from a birthday party at a local leisure centre. As I drove into the leisure centre I had to drive over one of these folding metal poles which can be locked upright to prevent access and which still leave a metal stump about three inches high when folded down. I forgot how low the E Type was and drove over the stump which caught the front of the silencer and pulled the exhaust clean off at the manifold. So I pull up in front of the leisure centre in front of all the mums, dads and kids in a totally unsilenced V12 E Type at which point an American mum (who I didn't know) exclaimed loudly "Gee - what a shame to have such a beautiful car and not be able to afford to maintain it".

taz turbo

654 posts

249 months

Sunday 18th December 2016
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ryandoc said:
2 separate 355's absolutely true story and the only assumption I can make it that there is what I assume to be a military golf ball style radar about a mile or so away, both cars were original Ferrari immobiliser, so assume the radar hit a sweet spot and interfered with the immobiliser. I can find no other rational reason for it.
I would concur, likely to be from radio interference, stopping you from disarming the immobiliser. On the telephone exchange in my village there is an array of radio aerials, parking then 355 within a few hundred meters interferes with the immobiliser, basically if it wont let you set the alarm get back in quick and move the car, otherwise once the immobiliser auto sets itself you can't turn it off. Well I finally managed to turn it off when a big truck was between me and the offending aerials.

Chris.

geopetrolhead

263 posts

96 months

Saturday 24th December 2016
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taz turbo said:
ryandoc said:
2 separate 355's absolutely true story and the only assumption I can make it that there is what I assume to be a military golf ball style radar about a mile or so away, both cars were original Ferrari immobiliser, so assume the radar hit a sweet spot and interfered with the immobiliser. I can find no other rational reason for it.
I would concur, likely to be from radio interference, stopping you from disarming the immobiliser. On the telephone exchange in my village there is an array of radio aerials, parking then 355 within a few hundred meters interferes with the immobiliser, basically if it wont let you set the alarm get back in quick and move the car, otherwise once the immobiliser auto sets itself you can't turn it off. Well I finally managed to turn it off when a big truck was between me and the offending aerials.

Wow that actually makes me glad I have the older 1995 model with no immobiliser.

Some great stories posted above by the way, the mustang one was particularly good

Chris.

ILoveMondeo

9,614 posts

225 months

Sunday 25th December 2016
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geopetrolhead said:
taz turbo said:
ryandoc said:
2 separate 355's absolutely true story and the only assumption I can make it that there is what I assume to be a military golf ball style radar about a mile or so away, both cars were original Ferrari immobiliser, so assume the radar hit a sweet spot and interfered with the immobiliser. I can find no other rational reason for it.
I would concur, likely to be from radio interference, stopping you from disarming the immobiliser. On the telephone exchange in my village there is an array of radio aerials, parking then 355 within a few hundred meters interferes with the immobiliser, basically if it wont let you set the alarm get back in quick and move the car, otherwise once the immobiliser auto sets itself you can't turn it off. Well I finally managed to turn it off when a big truck was between me and the offending aerials.

Wow that actually makes me glad I have the older 1995 model with no immobiliser.

Some great stories posted above by the way, the mustang one was particularly good

Chris.
Yup! Not super car but happened to a golf I had 15 odd years ago, can't recall where it was (was a field engineer all over the country) called the AA, thankfully the guy was local, just said "yup, happens all the time in this car park" towed me a mile down the road, started first time. He reckon it was something to do with the power lines over the car park. No idea what it was but moving the car did the trick.

It was an old style immobiliser where you had to hold the fob next to a sensor hidden in the steering column.

fatboy69

9,371 posts

186 months

Sunday 25th December 2016
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I once managed to spin my boss's F40 - a full 360 & a bit type of rotation.

In the wet.

In a straight line.

Learnt from that little episode that heavy right foot in powerful car means trouble.




MalcQV

241 posts

233 months

Tuesday 17th January 2017
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topless360 said:
Some great stories so far! I have a couple myself:

A month after buying the 360 I pulled up to a petrol station (I'm noticing a theme with these stories) on Christmas Day. The metal petrol cap was on very tight and I couldn't get it open.
Cue a couple of excited guys turned up asking to get pictures with the car. I agreed as long as they could get the cap opened, which they did.
They do have to be on quite tight else you get an EML on the dash. Filled up and drove out the garage only to be alarmed by the light on the dash. I thought dodgy fuel etc. It got worse and the engine less responsive. We were on a weekender in Wales with a group of Ferrari owners and I just happened to mention we might have to go home. The loose fuel cap was mentioned. Hey ho tightened and off we went.

Embarrasing moment was in my Mondial several years ago that would never start warm. Stuck at traffic lights replacing a hot fuse for the fuel pump. Plenty of giggles from passers by biggrin

br d

Original Poster:

8,388 posts

225 months

Tuesday 17th January 2017
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Just remembered one from about 10 years ago.

I had an F430 and was sitting at a set of lights minding my own business waiting to turn left, no other traffic around at all. A warning light of some description came on (as they are wont to do on the Italian Stallions!) and the best way to check if it was an actual problem or just a false flag is to stop the engine and just start up again, nine out of ten times it would clear. When you start an F430 it does a quick high rev thing which has nothing to do with any driver input. As it did this I noticed a bloke walking past start giving me the coffee beans sign!

I'm not powerfully built or anything but it just annoyed me so I pulled around the corner, stopped and got out.
I said "Why are you giving me the wker sign mate?"
He says "Cos you are a wker mate, you're sitting there revving your car up just cos I was walking past"

I was momentarily torn between just driving off or kicking him in the balls but I gathered myself and said "Listen".

I then leaned over into the car, started it and naturally it revved up.

Got to give it to him, his face lit up and he said "That's really cool that is! Sorry about that!"

I said no problem and carried on my way. Could have worked out a lot worse I suppose!