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1950-1966 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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On saturday evening, I was run off the road by a 16 year old driving his Mom's Lincoln Navigator. He changed lanes into me on a busy residential street in salt lake city. The 99t hit a concrete curb, concrete wall and then took a 12" dia maple tree head on, at almost true center of the bumper at probably just under 40mph or so, which brought us to an immediate stop. Both myself and my passenger were yanked super hard by the belts, and are pretty sore and bruised around our shoulders, hips and sternum areas. Neither of us hit our heads or legs on anything. I had a scrape on an arm, but neither of us had any fractures. We are both still pretty rattled in general. Feels like I took a few sledge hammers to the chest. People at the scene were shocked and amazed that we both walked out of the car under our own power.
As the tow truck driver dragged the car across the pavement, the windshield wipers were still running through their cycle on pause, letting us know it wasnt completely dead.
The driver of the Navigator had obtained his driver's license less than 36 hours prior to the accident. His 3 teenage passengers left the scene on foot before the police arrived. He immediately broke down saying he never saw me, admitted total fault, and pretty much lost it emotionally. Four cars following us all stopped, and were all amazed at how he cut into me and how the saab took the hits.
When I bought this car, I was told it came from a police auction and knew almost nothing of its history. I quickly adopted the view that every drive was a test drive as it had many bugs which needed worked out. It drove fantastically in the mountains of Utah, Idaho and Oregon. It was simply superb on steep, twisty, 2-lane mountain highways. It hummed all the way from salt lake to bend oregon in 24 hours of round trip driving. And the only time it ever stranded me was due to dirty contacts on the fuel pump right after I bought it.
I want to thank everybody for the input on things such as water pumps, odometers, cooling system tricks, tires, turbos, waistgates... you really helped make the test drives so successful. I never wanted to get into high speed front end collision testing, but Im super glad the old 99t passed with flying colors.
Im convinced this is the best car Ill ever own. Not because of its performance, style, practicality and general coolness. Its the best car Ill ever own because it protected me and my passenger when we really needed it to do so.
There are a few photos at the link. Ill be parting out what's left on my own. Ive already started looking for another 99t.
posted by 64.215.17...
http://www.geocities.com/fishface002/ index.html
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