Floating Porsche(Long but worth reading!!)

[Aj]

You guys wouldn't believe the shit that happened to me the night before halloween....

I'm driving home on my way home from class, and in traffic I see some guy in his mid-thirties weaving in and out of traffic in his new 996 convertible with the top down, and music blasting.

I start to follow him through traffic, very soon, he gets into a left hand turning lane, where he proceeds to talk on his hands free kit on his cell phone. After shooting me the "HAH, kid in slow little rice burner" look, he jumps on the green catches like three cars on me, so I was already playing catch up. We come to another light, after me catching up with his ass, where he proceeds to look over and say: "Need to spend some more money, ha ha ha!", even though I didn't even know he wanted to go off the left turn arrow.

Any way, we go off the light, he gets me by like a car out of the hole, mainly I think because he jumped a little before green, but also because he's rear wheel drive, rear engine, and would've probably got me by some any way.

We go for about another 3/4 of a mile, by this time, I'm at like almost 11,000 RPMs in fourth, I'm doing like 135 and he's still going, probably at like a buck fifty. I'm not exactly sure if he knew, but the road we were on comes to an end in like a little over a quarter mile, and you can either go left or right at that intersection, but not straight, and the street that runs perpendicular to the one we were on, where you make the right or left has a drainage/water run off canal about 40-50 feet past it, running parallel, the whole length of the road.

In any case, a little less then a quarter mile away from where the street ends, I started letting off the gas, especially cause it had rained earlier that day, and though there was no standing water, it was still a little slick out, and I wasn't interested in taking any chances. I see this guy still going. I think he was just tryinng to rub it in, or just hadn't noticed that I slowed down. He was ahead of me by the same car length we had started from, so he might not have noticed. Any way, I noticed him tap the brakes a couple times, which seemed to be upsetting the balance on his car, which I'm sure as most of you guys know was due to the fact that he was hitting them way too hard at too high of a speed on a road that had a tiny bit of a curve to it. He got off the brakes to let the car settle.

This is where it gets nuts, the guy sees the green light ahead, so I guess he just assumed he could go straight and didn't see that the road ended, or as it seems, was just plain nuts, and waited till the last second to slow down, he must have been doing like 80-90mph when he was like 3 feet from the bar that marks the beggining of the intersection, where he proceeds to slam on the brakes, putting the car into a diagonal slide across the intersection. He hits the curb, that basically marks the end of the street, catches like a foot of air, lucky as hell he didn't roll the bitch, especially with the top down, slides across the fourty-fifty feet of grass, then I see the lights point a little upward, I see the car vanish, then, I see the biggest splash I've seen since Sea-World, I mean, the splash must have been almost as high as the power lines. By the time he had hit the water, I was just getting to the intersection.

Just having seen all this shit, I was shocked, amazed, and I know it's kinda fucked up, but laughing histerically, to the point where I was having trouble breathing. I parked my car as close to the curb as possible, and after realizing what had just happened, I realized his top was down, and he might be seriously injured, so I jump out of the car, and run to the edge of the canal, which was elevated like 4 feet above the water, which was only like 3 or 4 feet deep where he splashed down.

There it was a goreous 2001 Porsche 996/911 convertible in black with a beige interior, the whole passenger side under water, from about the enblem in the center of the hood over. The tires on the drivers side were still spinning, the exhaust still sputtering, and like three or four little trees he took out on the way were stuck under the car(poor unsuspecting foliage).

At this point, I'm not sure how I had the self restraint not to say anything cocky and or cruel, but I just asked him if he was ok, when he said yes, I asked again, if he was sure, because he just landed his car in a lake (hehehe, sorry, couldn't resist!!!) He said he was fine.

I could tell he wasn't the brightest star in the sky when I asked him if he needed me to call a tow truck or 911, and he said no, that it was ok, and proceeded to look for his cell phone which was sitting on his passenger seat prior to the, I guess you could call it "accident", which was now under water. After finding it, he was surprised to find out that it wasn't working(DUH!!!)

In the five minutes following, I called everyone that I knew, and told them to hurry up to see the floating Porsche. In the distance like a mile or two away, I could see flashing lights, so given that I really didn't want to explain my role in this whole ordeal, I split.

Many of my friends, although I was gone, and the cops made them stand across the street, watched as they had to get two, yes I said two, tow trucks to hoist this thing out of the canal. I almost started to feel sorry for the guy, I mean after all, even though he was being a cocky prick, no one deserves to have that happen to them. My buddies told me that the whole pasenger side of the car was done for, and the the car must have been totaled.

They always say, what goes around comes around, I just wasn't expecting it to come around so quikly, or better yet, be witness to it.

Any way, I figured you guys would get a kick out of it.

If I can find any of my friends who happened to have film or digital pics of them towing it out of the canal, I'll be sure to post them.

Remember, good car is no substitute for good driver. Don't learn the lesson the hard way.

Later,
Aj

[Airbag]

dUDE...THATS LIKE THE FUNNIEST STORY EVER TOLD. iTS LIKE A CAR CHASE IN ACTION FILM. i'M GLAD TO HEAR THE GUY ALL RIGHT. WHATS THE RETAIL ON A 911? GREAT STORY NOW I HAVE A GREAT STORY TO TELL AT WORK...DRIVE SAFELY

[Trey]

Great story AJ

Retail on a 994 AWD TT Porsche can climb into the $140,000 range easily. I know someone that paid about that for one.

[Aj]

Well it wasn't a Turbo, just a regular 996/911 convertible, but with the drop top, they still start in the low 80K range, and go all the way into the mid 90's.

I used to manage a Ferrari/Porsche dealer in Ft. Lauderdale, I was almost tempted to give him a business card, but figured he'd probably still be in denial at that point.

Later!
Aj

[00civicsiturbo7psi]

great story! cant believe the guy in the 911

[bbqman]

Wow, great story!
For me, it sounded like the ending of a street race I did on my CBR600 three years ago , against an over- enthusiastic first time rider.

Old drag race site, new kid on a new ZX-6 and a sharp cuvre at the end.
Guess how it ends?

BBQman

[Ford Prefect]

This reminds me of way back when I had my '84 Shelby Charger. A brand new (still had window stickers) Fiero GT was acting real badass, but couldn't pass me, and followed me (tailgating me real bad) into a 50MPH turn on I-495 (DC) at 85MPH, when I came out of the turn I looked in my rear-view only to see him smack into the cement wall of the bridge after spinning across 3 lanes. I guess he learned that a Fiero isn't really a sports car

[paul98itr]

[Aj]

It reminds me of this dogfight I was in. (I'm a fighter pilot in the air force). It was a practice and my wingman was to my right. We bumbed the thottle up to past mach1. Then the bandits came up on our 6..........O never mind, the rest is classified!

Fighter Pilot huh, what kind of plane do you fly?????
I have a couple good friends who are pilots, where are you stationed???

Later....

[Alexander]

I see the biggest splash I've seen since Sea-World
...
and like three or four little trees he took out on the way were stuck under the car(poor unsuspecting foliage)
...
I asked again, if he was sure, because he just landed his car in a lake (hehehe, sorry, couldn't resist!!!)

Haha awesome story Aj! Glad you didn't get hurt and played it safe! (although 135 isn't that safe)

..Alex