arbeitm

Don't feel bad. I know someone else who had his targa top fly off...although he "claims" he had it latched on properly. He was on the highway though. I think he had it rebuilt after that.

dshepp806

It only takes ONCE and it will probably never happen again.

No Traga experiences here, but during my first 2 months of Coupe ownership, I had the experience of heading down the road and having the frikin hood come upward on me! Not at high speed, mind you. It was like I had rehearsed this event, as it concluded perfectly. As it rose upward, I responded quickly with brake application (lowering the hood downward), then an acceleration providing a slow, uneventful click to it's rest position....ever so gently. I then pulled over into the Ace Hardware lot, pretending that I had a failure of the utmost complexity to entertain the parking lot (observant) audience. Embarrased as hell, I was,..knowing that my inattentiveness almost wreaked havoc!! Hell,..I now check it every AM before I crank the car. Could of sustained some serious damage had I been at a higher rate of speed,....never again....never, ever again.

Glad it seems to have worked out for you...

Best,

sjanes

Soooo, what you're saying is that if I see another white Targa driving around Ottawa, I shouldn't drive behind it

There are two things I always do before going for a drive in the 911:
1) push up on targa top to make sure I didn't forget to latch it
2) pull on steering wheel (it's removable) to make sure it's on.

I've never had the top fly off, but I did pull the steering wheel off on the track once cause I didn't lock it on.

old man neri

Well, if you do just make sure you pick up the top for me.


Ya, it's in good hands. It's been running great. Finally fixed that oil leak, turned out to be a $6 part although I lost almost a gallon of oil before all was said and done.

Ya, the pilot thing, my dad recommended I get these just so I remember the next time.

srf506

Kind of off topic, but racing at Sebring in a SCCA National race in the first time back on track after a really bad shunt in Daytona, I take my freshly rebuilt and repainted SRF out for the Sunday afternoon "sprint". I do my warm-up laps, take the green, and on the old Tower turn the car goes incredibly loose and I actually run off the track gathering it back up. I come back around by start/finish and my then girlfriend says into the radio, "what happened to the tail?" Well in a spec you don't have that great a vision to the rear so I'm craning my head left and right trying to see what's wrong with the tail. My response back into the radio was "What? Did somebody hit me?" She says "No, the tail's gone!" Of course that has my attention and I figure my brand-new $1000 fiberglass tail is in a million pieces on the track. So I'm looking for the shards on the track, but its clean and green. I run the whole race without that tail, and its amazing how much downforce I lost. It was a loose handfull to drive.

After the checker I pull into my paddock and start getting out when the club's chaplain comes over and says in a serious voice, "Jim I think they want to see you at the Marshall's trailer. Something about running under minimum weight!" then busts into a big belly laugh and walks off shaking his head. Now, about three drivers who were behind me come over, they're like, "What happened to your tail?! That thing flew up in the air over my car about 15 feet and I was praying it wouldn't land n front of me, or hit me!"

By now, I'm checking things out. The tail is secured by two latches on the front sides and two pins on the rear top. There were the two pins still sitting over my antenna were I always put them so I know where they are and they get put back on. They ran the whole race around that antenna. About that time my girlfriend comes over and when she sees the pins goes ashen and says "Oh my God! I'm so sorry I forgot to put them in!" She had secured the tail, taping the latches and such, but I should've looked too so I couldn't really get mad.

The last part of this long-winded story is that here comes our fire marshall in his truck with my intact tail in the back! Seems it flipped off the car, and then floated down like a parachute and lightly landed right side up just off the track in the grass. It had one little chip in the paint on the edge, otherwise it wasn't damaged! That's why I never saw the pieces, the corner workers ran out after everybody had gone by and put it behind the wall until the race was over.

So, what's the point of all of this? Nothing I guess other than never be in too big a hurry to double-check things and sometimes when s_ _ t does happen, you get away clean with it. Of course I didn't run real well in the race, but that's another whole matter.

Mike Murphy

Good stories - both of you. I had the hood come up on me in my '68 Nova, had the door swing open on a turn in my '49 truck, and all sorts of other things in cars. It's all part of the experience

Amber Gramps

....so when I broke the cam into multiple pieces, dropped several pistons into the pan, found my double pumper on the sidewalk, and grenaded the clutch in my '64 Cuda, it was just part of the experience?

psychoideas

Or just your bad driving

Amber Gramps

Thanks Frank. I guess word get's around...

old man neri

Oh, I got another one for you guys. I am visiting my parents for a little bit. They just had their drive way repaved and put some interlock stone into it, looks really nice. They have been inquiring a lot about the oil leaks of my car. Basically they are worried I will stain their driveway so they want me to park in the street......the shame!