Ever Had A Car That Scared you, For Whatever Reason.

[mercrocker]

My 2.0 rwd Ascona was the Grim Reaper's company car.  Twice the bloody throttle lever went over-centre at the carb end, the second time I was quite happy to let the bastard rev its knackers out were it not for the rapidly advancing roundabout swarming with school-runners... 

[dollywobbler]

I haven't driven a DS yet, based on my childhood memories of them making me travel sick the moment they are in motion.

So yes, its suspension is floaty, something the CX suspension is not the least bit.

It is correct that most DSes do not yet have the DIRAVI, only some very late examples and even those only in case the appropriate box on the order sheet was ticked, so most of them would be at least steerable when the hydraulics PHALE.

 

I'm starting to wonder if it really was a CX you experienced. Mine was plenty floaty albeit not as floaty as a DS, as Wuvvum correctly states. Didn't think any DSs had DIRAVI - why would they bother going to the trouble of developing it for the DS when the CX replacement was already in progress? I know in theory that the steering can fail big time, but you don't very often hear of it.

[nigel bickle]

My Standard Pennant, totally stock save for a huge supercharger professionally squeezed into the engine bay. The first trip out saw 75mph , on tickover, in top. It felt awesome & suicidal at the same time. The sound was amazing..

 

Sadly -that was its only trip. It was driven to the barn, bigger brakes & suspension mid fit when it melted in the big fire.

 

The car was totally destroyed, but I saved the supercharger, which will need machining to live again, as the invoice for the work was still very fresh in my mind.

[Junkman]

I'm starting to wonder if it really was a CX you experienced. Mine was plenty floaty albeit not as floaty as a DS, as Wuvvum correctly states. Didn't think any DSs had DIRAVI - why would they bother going to the trouble of developing it for the DS when the CX replacement was already in progress? I know in theory that the steering can fail big time, but you don't very often hear of it.

 

Both of my CXes were GTIs, which means they had the suspension stiffened up to a degree where they were anything but floaty. To the contrary, they were quite harsh. They often gave the impression that the suspension system reacts too slow to an extend that they actually were juddery on for example gravel or cobblestones. Drive any yank in comparison and you'll see what I mean. I find my P6 being more floaty than the CXes I had were.

As I said repeatedly, I don't understand the hype regarding the Citroen suspension anyway. I find it pointless considering the complexity and inferior to many a conventional setup.

The DIRAVI became available at extra cost in 1970, but only on LHD cars and very few were so equipped. It was standard on the SM though from the onset.

[Station]

My MR2 in last year's winter.

The boss let us go home early on a Friday afternoon as the snow outside was coming down in clumps. I left work at 12.00 and managed to crawl three miles in 4 hours.

I finally got onto the motorway (M40) which was 6 inches deep in the areas that had been slushed flat by other cars. The front tyres, I realised were bare, with 1mm of tread left. I had recently changed the ball joints and a new steering rack so the wheels must've been out quite a bit, wearing tyres with about 5mm of tread in a couple of months.

 

I had 130 miles to drive through the worst snow I've seen, passing more modern cars that had 100% straight tracking with tyres that had grip that had gone off, I saw over 15 cars in various coniditons, upside down, over the armco, etc on the way home.

As I drove on, I noticed the car was a bit squirmy. I noticed this a bit further on - when one (bald) tyre hit a patch of ice, the other one would pull hard to the left as the other one had lost traction. It was doing it the other way as well, due to the tracking.

 

At several points, the car pulled, and then the back end followed, before whaletailing and going straight. Other driver's must've thought I'd lost the plot - attempting to drift on a straight road.

I was sat upright with inches between me and the dashboard and my hands ached from clutching too hard onto the steering wheel. I was constantly correcting, and cringing everytime I spotted a piece of hardened ice on road. The icing (no pun intended) on the cakes of the journey was a sudden scraping noise, and realising the back box had come off, and was dragging behind the car. I pulled over in one of the emergency hard shoulder bits, which was a good two foot under snow, and attempted to get it off the floor with a bungee rope by attaching it to the towing eye. The undershield also came loose, and was acting as a big scoop, collecting up a solid lump of ice by the end of the journey.

 

I couldn't turn back as I'd checked out of my hotel, and they were completely blocked, the trains were off, so I had no choice but to carry on - I genuinely though I was going to crash on the way home, not a case of if but when. It got too much on the M6 toll road, so pulled into the services and swapped the spare tyre and swapped one of the rear's over with the front. The handling was improved, and I got home safely. I was so relieved, I kissed the driveway when I got home. Definitely something I've never got over, while I won't have my 4wd Impreza by xmas, I'll have another 4wd.

 

The second time, in the same car, was heading home, about 2 miles from my house. The weather turned to shit, and the skies emptied a torrent of hailstones. Within seconds, I witnessed several cars leave the motorway and collide with the central reservation/hard shoulder. I felt mine start losing it, but I wasn't going fast enough to actually suffer the same fate. Horrible!

 

 

(* Lip marks in snow out of shot).

[dollywobbler]

Funny you should mention snow and MR2s...

 

December 2010. We'd recently moved to Wales and headed down to Cardiff to see the excellent Tim Minchin on his Heritage Orchestra tour. We stopped the night but it snowed heavily while we were asleep. Stupidly thinking we'd better get home so the cat didn't starve, we set off. Within minutes, we'd almost crashed into a Mk3 MR2 which got very, very sidewards while doing all of about 20mph. One minute it was in the next lane, the next it was broadside in front of me. Cue cadence braking, panic and then relief when we didn't hit it.

 

We noticed heavy traffic ahead and tried to find a background route around it. All mountain routes were, unsurprisingly, closed. We went back onto the main road where we ended up stuck for the next four hours due to a jackknifed lorry. Eventually, we were taken through the crash barrier and back to the roundabout we last saw several hours ago. It was still snowing heavily - in fact, I'd had to get out of the car several times to clear snow of it as we sat motionless. Thankfully, the heater was good.

 

It was starting to get dark now, and we'd not even got as far as Merthyr Tydfil. We hit the diverted route, which crawled along agonisingly for hours. At Abergavenny, I eventually got fed up with muppets and overtook a queue of traffic. We'd been held up there for about an hour because people were determined to overcome the laws of physics by turning right up a hill.

 

My shoulders were aching with tension as we came down a hill towards Talgarth. It was quite a steep hill and I began to realise that there was a roundabout at the bottom. I nervously breathed upon the brakes. Instant wheel lock. I downshifted from third to second. Instant wheel lock. I went into manual ABS mode, frantically pumping the pedal as the roundabout approached. I was still carrying too much speed. Stopping wasn't an option so I began to pray for no traffic. My prayers were answered and we slithered around the roundabout.

 

This went on for the next two hours. It was approaching midnight, the snow had mercifully stopped falling but was now freezing. At one stage, going past a stranded lorry near the Sweet Lamb rally complex, we started bumping all over the place. The wheel tracks we were following had gone straight off the road! We saw many stranded lorries. Apparently, the road had been closed, but there were no signs. We carried on and got about three miles from home. We tried one approach but gradient defeated us. We went off to try another route. First though, I had to put the car on high and kick snow out of the wheelarches, because they were so packed with ice that the wheels were having trouble turning. Our diversion didn't help either. The combination of gradient and ice was simply too great for a car on summer tyres. I tried letting air out of the tyres, my wife tried pushing, I tried pushing while hanging out of the door with one foot on the throttle. It was no good. Our only option seemed to be to walk three miles in snow, in sub-zero temperatures.

 

Thankfully, a Pajero turned up and gave me a tug up the hill. This was also terrifying as he thought momentum was the key. At one stage, I was heading straight for a gate post, completely unable to steer away from it. Braking wasn't an option as Pajeros are quite strong. I jumped on the throttle which fortunately pulled us away from the post at the last minute. That was VERY scary.

 

We got to within half a mile of home when gradient defeated us again. This time, we did walk. We got home 14 hours after we left the hotel.

 

[Station]

Horrible, I absolutely hate harsh, cold weather conditions.

[Micrashed]

57 Plate Zafira B

 

Went into Limp Home Mode on the M6 in the middle lane towing a tonne and a half of caravan at 70MPH on an uphil stretch - it was like someone jumping on the brakes and frankly with a bloody great coach sat behind me one of the most frightening experiences with the hateful piece of shit or indeed any car ever.

[Joey spud]

Years back i had the pleasure of getting dropped off at a customers house by my boss so i could bring an FSO Polonez back to the workshop.

I had not had my licence long and had a fwd Datsun120A as my first car.My then boss said ''mind the handling on the way back'',surely a 1500cc FSO would be no match for a young driving god like me...

 

Feck me i wasn't even doing 30mph and i managed to swap ends on a slightly damp bend in front of a fast approaching school bus.

Another time after refusing to drive the same car i put it on the back of a Transit spec lift instead,and after a few miles the rear brakes got so hot they caught fire causing me to stop outside a florists and douse the flames with a couple of buckets of water.

 

I have never been near an FSO since.

[Mike D]

This bastard:

 

 

I had the overwhelming feeling it would likely grenade spectacularly every time I drove it. It was a BEAST though. I do miss it!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I used to have a 205 GTi 1.6, i often crapped myself in it after spinning it/bumping it into kerbs/failing to control it properly etc, it was impossible to drive it in a sensible manner. 

[Station]

I once looked at a 205GTi out of my living room window. Unfortunately it was at the same moment I lifted my leg to fart. I frantically attempting to regain control of myself, but span uncontrollably into the couch before cartwheeling into the newspaper-tidy. I was killed instantly.

[Pete-M]

Last car I spun on the public highway was a 205 GTi 1.9 on ditchfinders. Lairy little bastard, that. Fun, but that feeling that it wanted to kill me never really passed.

I was once stupid enough to try to keep up with an Exige down my favourite twisty road in a 911 Carrera 3.2. I couldn't keep up. On the straights it wasn't too bad, but in the bends the 911 would have chucked me straight off the road if I'd even thought about taking any liberties with it. Oh, the 911 felt brilliant down that road normally, but I'm nowhere near good enough to start trying to fight a 911 at the speeds the little Lotus was doing. It was a case of "back off, or die", so I backed off.

My first P38a Rangie just scared me every time I wanted to drive it. What was going to break this time? Just how much fuel was it going to use, and would it make it there were merely scary things to worry about if it actually started.

[oman5]

1987 Mercedes 420se.  sometimes the autobox would make funny noises and judder alarmingly when changing gear. most of the time it was fine. it scared me waiting for the next thing to go wrong and wondering how much more than on a "normal" car it was going to cost. I knew I wouldnt last long with it when I got charged 80 quid for a new dizzy cap.old mercedes s class. a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.

[forddeliveryboy]

Any computer run modern car quietly worries me, in the way it can cut off the engine without warning. Or apply a brake, steer the wheels and so on. What happens when corrosion affects connections? I prefer mechanically-controlled stuff, at least there is some warning of failure.

 

As for junkman's CX, I've always felt safer with six litres or so of oil in the brake reservoir and a whole set of failsafe design in it, such as slow collapse of the suspension then loss of steering before the brakes can fail, together with a big red light. Did Citroen ever investigate the cause? Your story is as scary as a rusty W210 which can dispose of its front springs through a corner.

[Barry Cade]

Not sure if this is what was meant by the thread title, but I've had a couple. A Mk2 1.6 Ghia which seemed to have a presence in it- now and again I'd smell fart..and certain it wasn't me, then something would brush the back of my neck. Sitting reading the paper one day in it, a golf ball hurtled through the rear screen and smacked me right in the fishnet, bloody hurt. Then all 4 wheelstuds sheared on a back wheel and the wheel came loose but went UP inside the arch and chucked me off the road.

 

Few years later I had a 216 Vitesse which was a brilliant car, but every time I went out in it I hit a seagull. 1 cracked the screen and another busted the grille- this happened maybe 7 or  times. Never happened before or since with any other car.

[Junkman]

As for junkman's CX, I've always felt safer with six litres or so of oil in the brake reservoir and a whole set of failsafe design in it, such as slow collapse of the suspension then loss of steering before the brakes can fail, together with a big red light. Did Citroen ever investigate the cause? Your story is as scary as a rusty W210 which can dispose of its front springs through a corner.

The car was taken to Citroen Deutschland in Cologne for examination, but the findings were never revealed to me.

The planned sequence of failure however is steering -> suspension -> brake.

My car had a sudden total loss of pressure though, which can only be caused by an internal leakage, not fluid loss.

[Vince70]

Not sure if this is what was meant by the thread title, but I've had a couple. A Mk2 1.6 Ghia which seemed to have a presence in it- now and again I'd smell fart..and certain it wasn't me, then something would brush the back of my neck. Sitting reading the paper one day in it, a golf ball hurtled through the rear screen and smacked me right in the fishnet, bloody hurt. Then all 4 wheelstuds sheared on a back wheel and the wheel came loose but went UP inside the arch and chucked me off the road.

 

Few years later I had a 216 Vitesse which was a brilliant car, but every time I went out in it I hit a seagull. 1 cracked the screen and another busted the grille- this happened maybe 7 or  times. Never happened before or since with any other car.

Maybe seagulls like a bit of 80s retro Austin Rover are you sure you wasn't playing this on the cassette player.

[forddeliveryboy]

The car was taken to Citroen Deutschland in Cologne for examination, but the findings were never revealed to me.

The planned sequence of failure however is steering -> suspension -> brake.

My car had a sudden total loss of pressure though, which can only be caused by an internal leakage, not fluid loss.

Yep, I forgot the steering should go before the suspension which should then power the brakes as it slowly descends. Years since I've had one, loved them more than most for their enormous abilities. Journeys shrank and Jaguars seemed second rate. Had I experienced what you did, I may not have even had the balls to buy another though. What exactly did Citroen tell you?

[Lord Sterling]

Mazda 323 - A mate of mine bought a dodgy early 90s Mazda 323 with no brakes years ago, I offered to drive it to petrol station a mile or so down the road, I'd only been driving for a couple of years so was inexperienced, driving the thing required the use of the handbrake a few times which almost as useless as the brakes.

 

Mk5 Golf - When I worked at the garage we had this Mk5 Golf come in for an MOT, the car had been very poorly maintained and there was also evidence of very poor attempts at modification. The front wheels had so much play in it that when driving it, it felt like the car was actually going to "fall over"

 

Nissan Almera saloon - Belonged to a mate of mine who brought it to the garage for an MOT. The car had been used for window cleaning rounds so sported a fairly long ladder on the roof, the Almeras steering was very heavy during motion, I think it failed on a steering rack or something.

 

'04 Transit - Something happened to the driveshaft so only 3rd gear was selectable, as it was facing away from the garage, I had to drive it forward and try to get it back to the garage forwards so they could start work on it. I shoukd have taken it to the roundabout and brought it back but for some reason I thought it would be better to take it down a local housing estate, on, y at the end did I realise that reverse gear couldn't selected, this culminated in me having to put it in neutral and push the van back and forth to get it facing the other way.

[makum101]

My current one... a new Vauxhall Insignia. Drives its self sometimes. I have to turn the ignition off to stop it revving. (hasn't done it for a hile now like).

[londonm]

I miss this car immensely.  However, it terrified me when I accidentally joined the M1 in it and had to drive for 3 whole junctions before I could escape.  I felt completey invisible to other road users and really, really tiny.  Lorry wheel nuts were about level with my roof line!

 

 

None of my other cars have ever scared me, but they've all been much, much slower.

That's the most fucked up Polo I've ever seen, it was clearly the same cheap orangey red as mine at some stage. What was the problem driving it on motorways though? I drove all over the country on motorways in mine and didn't find it especially small? You should try a long run on a motorway in a classic mini or fiat 500 if you want to know what small feels like, and those cars didn't particularly phase me. Get over your concerns by buying a Daewoo Matiz.

[garycox]

I think Vulgalour's Polo was metallic blue originally, then black/red. I'm no Polo fan, but I liked it with the chrome bumpers etc. Would've looked good finished.

 

I don't really get the 'tiny' thing though, but I've probably spent too much time driving the 126 and Mini!

[vulgalour]

It was originally VW's version of doom blue and it was frustratingly close to being sorted before my whole world went tits up.  Sold to a chap that was planning to bin the engine and turn it into a van, but as far as I know it's still sat in a field in Nottingham somewhere.  I actually really miss the little thing, but I couldn't even begin to imagine how terrifying being in anything smaller and lower on the M1 would be.

[dollywobbler]

Pffft! A Polo is like a bleedin' tank compared to a 2CV. Or Mini. Or Scootacar. Ah yes. I've been scared in one of those before. I was a passenger, which meant I was wearing the rear window and sitting pillion to a crazy (but very friendly) Scotsman. He advised me to lean into the bend as we hurtled around the big roundabout at the A14/A1 junction. That was quite scary. CARS seemed huge!

 

2CVs tend to at least get noticed. But they do catch the wind quite a bit - you learn to watch out for gaps in hedges. I once hurtled merrily around a roundabout near the Birmingham Business Park and just as I did my usual cornering-on-the-doorhandles bit, a gust of wind caught the underside of the car. I must have had the rear wheel off the ground. It's not often I brick it cornering a 2CV, but I did then.

[forddeliveryboy]

Pffft! A Polo is like a bleedin' tank compared to a 2CV.

I once hurtled merrily around a roundabout near the Birmingham Business Park and just as I did my usual cornering-on-the-doorhandles bit, a gust of wind caught the underside of the car. I must have had the rear wheel off the ground. It's not often I brick it cornering a 2CV, but I did then.

 

There'd be little in it in a crash, me thinks. Bloody low in one of those old breadvans and they weighed little more than a 2cv. Plus there were two bloody great MacPherson struts poking up into the body, between you and the collision. A 2cv uses its strong bits as deformation rather than attack, occupant wise. And if you had to swerve or brake to avoid a crash, I'd take the Citroen any day. It'll out-brake many modern cars and comfortably 2cv-cross a verge including drainage cuts which would have many a modern on its roof, or in the ditch.

 

The gust of wind probably caught the top side of the car as well, but the side and underside would have been like an arrow into the breeze rather than a vertical block as with a car which wasn't heeling, surely? Lightweight a 2cv is, but the mass distribution is very, very low and they are far more stable, even in a sidewind, than many give them credit for. Perhaps it's the very intimacy with the conditions and directness of the mechancal linkages which makes a 2cv rider believe they are more vulnerable than in a Eurobox.

 

I remember piloting an Uno down the A74 (now M) with a girlfriend on our way back from a holiday in the Western Isles. There was a stiff and gusting crosswind blowing and above 70 the car would drift from lane to lane, no matter what you did to the wheel. The steering wasn't worn, it wasn't out of alignment but it was a simple matter of mass versus force. Even at 70 in a 2cv through a nasty crosswind (downhill or in a lorry's wake, obviously) I've never had a 2cv be blown from lane to lane. It may have felt like a yacht in a storm, but its ability to maintain its course was never a huge problem. The heel of the 2cv is akin to a branch swaying in the breeze - it prevents the tree from being uprooted. Plus it has tenacious roots.

[mouseflakes]

Something about this car terrifies me...

 

[Pete-M]

Weird fact.

I'm a good friend of Frank from A Flock of Seagulls. He's a funny bloke, a bloody good musician (surprisingly), and he makes a cracking cup of coffee.

He's also no longer the owner of a gloriously 80s haircut. Ironic as he used to be a barber.

 

Random photo of Frank with Steve Plater at Oulton Park.



This has bugger all to do with cars.

[Spiny Norman]

The only times I can remember being scared by how a car reacted to a situation were when I forgot I wasn't driving my own car and hurled whatever it was at a bend at what I considered a 'safe' speed.

 

The first time this happened was when I was in a colleague's Corsa B instead of my own Mk1 Clio. 90 degree left hander which posed no problems in the Renault was a major challenge for the concrete-tyred Corsa and it just about understeered into some poor sod's living room.

 

The other one that I'll remember till the end of my days was driving a brand new Mercedes 500ML belonging to my boss home to Glasgow from Dunfermline. Scotoshiters may well know the sharp right hander I'm talking about, as the M876 briefly joins the M9 just past Bowtrees. My Alfa 156 would quite happily scoot round it at 70mph, but this £50k-worth of someone else's property took an extreme dislike to it at that speed.

 

Luckily I'd been in the outside lane to start with but it soon became clear the big Benz wasn't happy taking the bend at that speed and instead of just under-or-oversteering, it started doing a little dance across both lanes of carriageway and by the time it had bounced across to the hard shoulder I could have sworn wheels had started to leave tarmac. Whether or not this odd hopping behaviour was to do with the 4x4 system or the traction control I didn't know but the dirty, dusty hard shoulder seemed to suit it better and it sort of straightened itself out enough that I was able to coax it away from the Armco.

[warren t claim]

I had a few scary situations in my late teens and early twenties, normally involving a Suzuki GSXR750 with a tiny and slightly incorrect number plate and Merseyplods Vauxhall Senator 24v traffic car usually on the M53 on a Sunday but as there's not statute of limitations in this country I'm not going to elaborate any further.