Not a Bedtime Story, Celica's Performance and Handling!!! Options

[claudio]

This happened a few years ago when I just got my Celica. It was a little after 2 am on a clear winter night and I was driving on this freeway. No lights and pitch black, the freeway was totally empty-no headlights in my rear view mirror and no tail lights in front. I could only see as far as my headlights lit the road. I was going a little over 80mph for the past 40 minutes. I was chatting with my girl (at the time) feeling a little drowsy (long day and we just got back from a club). Suddenly, the expression of my girl's face changed. She looked straight in front of my left headlight. I turn my head and with the light from my headlights a few feet ahead of me I can barely make out a car (all lights off). Half a second later I can now see its a brown cadillac. It is sideways (perpendicular to the road). The front end was in the bushes at the center median and the tail side sticking out completely blocking my lane. It was crazy, everything slowed down. In a moment I was about to hit head on the drivers side door and rear tire of this old brown cadillac PARKED on the freakin freeway . . .at over 80mph!! Before I can think of pressing on the brakes or swerving the car, I see my left hand go from 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock on the steering wheel. Before I know it I am looking at my driver's side mirror which is an inch or so from the cadillac's tailight. In one motion I swerve right around the cadillac and back into my original lane with an inch or two between my celica and that cadillac. Two seconds afterwards, I immediatly turn to see if my girl's alright. Her eyes are shut tight and her arms are over her face to protect her head. I tell her, "its alright." and she looks up and says, " I was sure you were going to hit it. I didn't even feel us go around it!"

The front of my new (at the time) car could have been totalled (and we probably wouldn't have looked too good either). No screeching. No back injuries from the quick swerve. And complete control of the car.
Thanks to: Seat Belts, Bucket seats, good suspension and catlike reflexes (joke) - more like lady luck.

All I have to say is, that night, I know what Celica means when they say Performance and Handling.

[iceman23]

Ha,ha...something similar happened to me but I had a 96' Camaro at the time. Ha, I guess my camaro got a wild hair up it's arse cuz as heavy as it is I got around the P.O.S. that swirved in my lane.