My son totalled his first car!

My daughter turns 16 next summer. She will be driving my Dodge 04' 2500 4x4 quad cab with this on the front. I just feel sorry for the other poor bastards on the road if she hits them.

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Dodge Ram (2003-05)​

• Custom punched honeycomb shaped grill insert ​
• Fully welded one-piece design ​
• Wrap around loop design ​
• Standard 2" receiver tube ​
• License plate holder standard ​
• Fog lights and tow hooks can be retained ​
• 4" schedule 40 pipe bumper ​
• Black powder coat finish ​
• Shown with optional upright bumper pads ​

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It wasnt thrill seaking and while I may occasionaly 'make good time', I dont generaly run anywhere NEAR that fast. Long story short, had been helping a girl get away from a violent felon x-boyfriend who beat here badly and frequently, had left her where we thought she would be safe in another state with family and were headed back when she started pageing every couple minutes with strings of 911s (was before cell phones were common) and we had already gotten the message he was armed and claimed to know where she was. He had pulled armed kidnappings before so thought the worst and was trying to get to a phone to be sure she was ok and that police were on the way and she had the shotgun ready and such. Found the exit when was right on it and had to jump across in front of a semi and thought had a good ways up hill to decelerate but turned out to be a sharp cloverleaf with a sugested speed around 30 MPH. Given the distance once realized that it turned I knew wasnt gonna be able to stop and had done some thrill seeking/playing on abandoned back roads powerslideing around corners and such so figured it was the best chance I had at that point.

Was still stupid, especialy since it turned out she had decided she wanted to just head back with us and wanted to catch us before we got to far.

 

Yeah, I found out a long time ago trying to help abused women is a worthless waste of time. 95% of them just go back to their abusers and will do so multiple times. Any effort put on them is a total waste. The issue is not their abuser at all funny as that might sound. The issue is their self-worth, untill the woman's own head is fixed they will stay with or simply find another abuser.

Just wish them best of luck and let natural selection take its course. Help them AFTER they leave and have stayed away from their abuser. Till then it is just a waste of time.

 

Yup, she had left and after creating a lot of problems and danger for a lot of folks went back to him, setting it up to LOOK like a kidnapping, then left again for a while and wanted (and got help) then openly just went back to him.

It took me several times of similar experiences to figure it out and it sounds horible but you right. That situation was about 12-13 years ago in my early 20s.

 

Glad he's o.k.... I've had my share of accidents... glad he got away without a scratch... cars you can replace...

 

I've never totally a car either, hope to keep it that way. As far as expensive goes, the car only cost him $500 but he'll be paying for it in increased insurance. He's lucky the only property damage was replacing a telephone pole and a phone utility box.

Thank you

 

Never heard of it until now and did some searching on the net, I'll have to check into and see if it's available locally. A motorsport that doesn't cost big $$$

Thank you

 

Hey, glad you looked into it. Autocrossing will give him a good environment physicaly and mentaly. Only one car at a time is allowed on the course and it is set up with cones, simple and safe. It will challenge him most of the course are tight twists so much of the time the car is sliding to set up for next corner. He will have to learn attitude control. He will have to learn to control the front of the car with the steering wheel at the same time the back end with the gas/brakes. A technique called left foot braking is best for this. It allows you to control the clutch, brakes and gas at the same time in the middle of a curve. Feels alien at first but quickly you'll realize the efficiency of it.

He will also be around people that have been there done that. Lots of amazing drivers at local chapters. Most of the time new people are amazed to realize how they thought they themselves were good drivers. Only to realize they were mediocre at best. All of this done in an environment where safety is first and that will be drilled into his head by everyone.

Hope your son likes SCCA autocross meets. Oh yeah, if he is into the high speed stuff (more straight less sideways) scca also has road courses. Speeds are much higher they might require rollcage in the car at that point. Good luck to your son. Enjoy.