So I'm on my way home from work today, and I realized I left something on my desk. @!#$. Well, at the time I was headed south on I-83 but fortunately hadn't passed the last exit. I get off the highway, loop around and get back on northbound to head back to work. Again...@!#$. I hate wasting time :(
Anyway, I merge back into traffic and get up to speed. Speed limit in this section of I-83 is 50MPH, but actual traffic speed is about 70. I head over to the fast lane and I'm tooling along for about a mile when I see this car coming up on me in my rear view mirror...FAST. There is a line of traffic in the lane next to me that I'm about 5 cars back from the front of. I look again and he's still closing fast...no signal or sign he's gonna pull off. I floor it and by the time I get past the head of that line of cars I'm doing over 90. I jump into the center lane and this guy's car was just a blur going by me. I was doing over 90MPH and he went by me like I was sitting still. I counted off the best I could when he passed the tenth-mile markers ahead of me...around 3 seconds per tenth-marker -- That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 120MPH! @!#$ tool.
We come to a section of the highway where it rounds a gradual turn, then goes downhill then back up. After rounding the curve you can see a good mile and a half ahead. All I see is this retard (still at full speed) weaving in and out of traffic, twice crossing all three lanes to get around people. Next thing I see is brake lights, swerving cars, smoke and lots of flashing lights. Then I realized I wasn't seeing any flashing lights...I was seeing the lights on the retard's car over and over again as it rolled repeatedly, then went end over end at least twice.
Fortunately for those of us with brains, all the swerving and locking up of brakes kept everyone at a safe distance from the destruction of this guy's car (now on it's roof laying off the shoulder into the median). Lots of people, including me, stopped and I ran up to what was left of the car with a couple other people. The guy was still in his seatbelt and still in the seat and SOMEHOW still alive and conscious. He popped the belt loose and crawled out the window and laid on the ground a bit, then got up and started walking around. Me and everyone else there was amazed that he was even alive, let alone walking. He looked to be about 18, and was pretty shaken up but seemed to be getting around ok. We kept telling him to sit down but he wouldn't.
So anyway, the police get there and start taking everyone's information and interviewing all of us that stopped. They got my address etc, then started asking me when and where I first saw him, how fast I was going and all that good stuff. I told the cop how fast I had been going, as well as the fact that I had to get up to 90+ just to get out of this guy's way and he STILL blew by me like I was in reverse. I said I thought he was going at least 120. The cop told me that their initial impression was that from the length of the highway this guy had @!#$ up rolling his car, plus the fact that it had gone end over end at least twice toward the END of it's roll they were guesstimating 130, but the accident investigators would figure it out exactly. I can hear the guy being asked questions by the cops as some paramedics are attending to him on the side of the road. he keeps telling them he "can't understand it...it just broke loose...it just broke loose...it's not supposed to break loose like that. It just got away from me and started spinning"
OK, so fast forward to now. I'm sitting here typing and reading, making sure I didn't miss anything to make sure everyone can get the full picture in their head of how ugly this was. The only thing I've missed is WHY DOES ANYONE CARE?
The car that blew by me at 120+ before getting some "custom body work" done was a 2003 Cavalier. Could be an '04, I dunno for sure...but the tails looked just like the ones on my brother's '03. Ive never seen '04 tails).
Yup, you heard right. A 2003 Cavalier, in all it's speed-limited glory. I wonder where he got the information on how to disable the governor. Being a Cavalier, I'd say there's a good chance it was here.
In this litigious society of ours who knows what can happen now. If some dumb @!#$ can get millions for pouring coffee on her lap and being surprised that it's hot, who knows what could happen out of this. I'm just glad that nobody could point the finger at me for this one. Someone says "VSS mod" to me and I say "you're a @!#$ moron" to them. I'm in the clear on this one.
Now for the good part...
This part is for those of you that refuse to stop asking about "killing the governor", "I'm tired of civics beating me past 108" and every other variation of the question we hear here 2349523456234 times a day.
My good friend Art (Event Omega) is absolutely right. If you have enough of a car to be worthy of doing 108+ on ANY track, you would already have enough knowledge and ability at your disposal to get rid of the governor on your own. If you have to ask the question, then you don't know enough about your car. If you don't know enough about your car then you probably haven't done anything to the suspension or brakes to support a car travelling at speeds like that. Aside from the fact that travelling at speeds like that on a public road is just plain unsafe. Unsafe for you, I don't really care about. If you're the one asking this question, I don't give a @!#$ about you anymore. I'm worried about me. I'm worried about my fiancee and my son. I'm worried about my friends and my family. This son of a @!#$ could just as easily hit me or run me off the road or hit me had I not been paying attention to my mirrors.
So shut the @!#$ up. NOW. Do us all a favor and get it over with today. Find a brick wall, bridge abutment, or even a well reinforced building and run your car (at 108) and your selfish, inconsiderate, juvenile punk @!#$ into it. We are much better off without you. "The I-83 A$$hat" described above was lucky. He didn't kill himself or anyone else. But it could have VERY easily gone another way. There was ALOT of traffic on I-83 today and he was weaving in and out of it at full speed. All he lost was his car. Maybe COMPLETLY lost his car too, since insurance companies look for governor tampering in speed related accidents now, but that's for a whole different thread. This thread is dedicated to how much of an a$$hole you all are.
"But I'm a good driver!" / "It's OK, I know how to drive" -- SHUT THE @!#$ UP! Most of you asking about this mod are like 17-20 years old. You DO NOT know how to drive THAT WELL yet. Besides, your driving skill has nothing to do with it. Do you think Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon drive their cars at 150MPH on the highway just because they are professional drivers? Doubtful. So you're doing 108MPH and you know exactly where you're gonna go. What about the guy in front of you that you're gonna go around. Only he doesn't know that...he sees you coming and tries to get out of your way at the same time you move to go around him. Then you correct, overcompensate and suddenly your car looks like the Cavalier formerly owned by "I-83 A$$hat". Worse, maybe you hit the guy and then spin him out of control, into a wall, into another car, etc. Didn't think of that, did you Speed Racer?
"I only do it on country roads where nobody is around" -- Again, SHUT THE @!#$ UP. At 108MPH you are travelling at a speed that gives you little time to react to anything. WHAT IF something DID happen to be around? Or just "show up"? Just because it's a country road where nobody is around doesn't change the fact that it is STILL a public road that everyone has just as much right to be on as you. I work for Verizon and recently, a Verizon technician was killed by a street racer. Imagine being out there doing your job, in this case hanging at the top of a telephone pole. Then imagine that you hear the sound of a couple cars coming down the road at full speed. Then imagine that you watch one of these cars lose control when they try to avoid your truck and orange cones on the side of the road and shear off your telephone pole at the ground. Then imagine riding that pole down to your death. While you're at it, imagine the two children whose 27 year old mother will never be coming home again, you inconsiderate @!#$.
You have no "right" to street race. You have no "reason" to street race. Hell, let's be honest here. Most of us have small 4 cylinder cars. We barely have the MEANS to do anything that even resembles "racing".
OK, I'll leave the rant at that, because if I go any farther it's just going to turn into an obscenity-laden tirade about social responsibility and how The Fast and The Furious is causing the downfall of modern civilization.
I don't think much will change as a result of this, but I will make whatever changes I can. Starting with banning the VSS question from JBO Chat. I'm responsible for the JBO chat servers and I don't want to be indirectly responsible for that question being answered, even if I don't answer it. Anyone that asks that question will be politely asked not to, then if they insist on asking will be kicked out. Anyone that answers that question will get a vacation from chat. Those of you asking about it on the forums, well, at the very least make sure your sigs are within spec. I'll leave it at that.
Considering that there are more lawyers than accident victims in this country, I'm also strongly recommending that [rules are made] regarding this kind of information on the forums. There is just too much risk in allowing this information into the hands of the blatantly stupid. Let's get back to the example of the dumb @!#$ at McDonalds...Coffee is hot (duh). We know that. She won millions of dollars because coffee was hot and she dumped it in her lap. WOW! Well, let's draw a parallel... I know that cars at high speeds can kill people. Some tool who tampers with his governor probably knows it too, but let's say he ignores that and does it anyway. Then he kills himself and someone else. Next thing you know his family will be whining in court about how the evil J-Body Organization and it's evil moderators allowed him to get the information to make his car go too fast and kill himself and now they want lots of money. @!#$ that. I want no part of it.
| Created: | 01-30-2005 |
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| Modified: | 10-10-2005 |
| Rating: |
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John Lenko wrote: It is bad. Stop. Now. Bad. Bad bad. Bad bad bad.
...j