Near miss, the pucker-factor skyrocketed...

[John Gervais]

I posted this on MM, but y'all may find it entertaining as well -

I had an 'intense' moment today -

I decided to check the front suspension bushes today and grease the front end while it was off the ground.  As it's not exactly rocket science, it went quickly - grease guns loaded with their respective lubricants, fresh dust caps for the zerk fittings and the car was back on the ground in no time.

Super - a nice day to take it out for a drive, so out I went, cruised out to the highway and headed north with the intention of surprising Hyacinth leaving her office.  Well, traffic was really heavy, so I took the road less travelled; a smaller highway, though still limited to 110 kph (68mph).  Traffic was moving right along at 90 -95kph (55 -60mph), despite the concentration of vehicles.

I can see that there are tons of cars merging onto the road I'm on, so I hung a fair distance behind the guy in front of me, and moved into the left-hand lane just before the other highway joined.

As we crested a small rise in the road, the car in front of me nosedives in a really heavy braking maneuver.  Wow - traffic jam...  90kph, not a whole lot of space between me and the car in front, cars to the right  - can't go there, car behind me - hope he sees me...  Foot on the brake, starts slowing, give a bit more, still closing fast, push the pedal down -HARD-, lock up all 4 wheels, still tracking straight - a good thing...  starting to think - holy crap...  add foot to cluch pedal, look at his bumper, thinking of the new lamps fitted to my car...  getting closer, listening to the Yoko's squealing, still moving forward, but ok, so is he before me - just not as fast as I am...

I ended up about 1 meter from his bumper and as the mini settled, a HUGE cloud of white tire smoke engulfed my mini and the car in front of me.  It's amazing how slowly time passes sometimes.

A couple of cars passed on the right, I signalled into their lane and passed the traffic that was jamming the left lane - could see no reason for any type of stoppage.


Wow!  I really need to install that 3rd brake light, just in case...

[94touring]

Wow I bet you're heart was pounding after that one! 

[John Gervais]

Big time - the worst is that I've a big roll-cage and stickers on the car - it's kinda conspicuous and the big cloud of smoke didn't help.

I'm just glad that I avoided an accident.  I've never had to really use the brakes like this - at least they worked!  Whew!

[jeff10049]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKdvTecYAM

[John Gervais]

George Carlin!  My buddies and I were fans back in college, had since forgotten.  Thanks for bringing back some great memories.

Fantastic - I've seen that video before, very good indeed!