F451

Had to share this one.

Was in the house and heard the wife screaming my name from the front yard. I started towards the front of the house, but since it wasn't a shrill scream, and my wife's family has a tendency to "panic now and avoid the rush", I figured it couldn't be anything too serious.

She continued screaming my name until I got out front and saw my '88 S4 resting against the lip of the driveway.

WTF?

Wife explained that she glanced up and saw my 928 out in the middle of the cul de sac and wondered where I was going. Then she realized I wasn't in it.

Then she watched it lazily glide back towards the drive and come to rest on the lip of the drive.

Holy s**t!

I immediately realized what had happened. Minutes before I was in the garage checking the fluids on the car, and while adding some power steering fluid, I started up the car and turned the wheel a few times back and forth to make sure the fluid got circulated.

Then I must have turned the car off without putting it in gear, or engaging the e-brake like I normally do. Why I did not do this, I have no idea.
Then I walked back into the house.

Much to my amazement, the S4 rolled itself straight out of the garage (and I always thought my garage floor was perfectly level) without hitting either side of the opening (which is not that wide), then it missed a brick column for the front walkway overhang. Then it cruised down our short drive and missed a decent sized tree by the corner of the drive.

Next it glided off the drive out into the cul de sac, rolled to the exact center of the high point of the cul de sac in the middle of it, then stopped (when my wife spotted it), and rolled back towards our drive and stopped resting against the driveway lip.

I still cannot believe it rolled so straight that it didn't hit a thing.

Here's a previous pic showing the open garage bay it rolled out of, brick column it missed, and pointing to where the tree is by the corner of the drive:



AND, most importantly, it didn't hit any of the swarm of kids that are normally playing out in our cul de sac. We get little to no traffic in it, so its usually a bee hive of activity with an obstacle course of kids toys in it.

With a silent car rolling along it could have easily hit one the kids without any warning.

Anyway, while it was an amusing event in itself, I feel like I dodged two bullets. One much more trivial then the other.

Learned an important lesson there. -Ed

perrys4

Your very lucky!! The kid thing came right to my mind.

IcemanG17

WOW your very lucky!!!

Mike Frye

Holy Crap!!

That was one luck-e-brake!

I had my car drift halfway into the parking space in front of it one time when I didn't pull it up enough clicks recently. Fortunately there was no car in the space at the time. Man was I relieved that it only went that far and like you, no one was hurt.

The Porsche gods were smiling on you! The car just wanted to go for a cruise, you should not leave it in the garage all the time or next time it might just keep going.

FlyingDog

I'm amazed the first 5 comments weren't about the car needing a bath.

It would've been even funnier if it rolled back into the garage before you got outside. "Honey, I SWEAR the car rolled itself out of the garage, up hte hill, then back down the hill into the garage. No dear, I haven't been drinking or smoking anything. It's true, really!"

Panzer9

FYI - Garage floors are always pitched 1-2 % for water drainage pupposes- Good idea to always set the E-brake

Brett Jenkins

I watched my 90 S4 roll across a parking lot and hit a minivan last year. I even reached through the window and tried to steer it away from the minivan, but the steering wheel was locked and the lever was in park, but I guess not quite in park. Put a pretty deep dent in the left rear quarter. I thought about diving through the window Bo Duke style, but didn't act fast enough.

heinrich

Ed that was a little one in the scheme of things

Richard S

I had mine roll out of the garage as well. We have a somewhat steep, short driveway. I had just lowered the car in the garage, turned to do something at the workbench and heard a "whooooose" noise. I turned back around to see the car gathering speed down the driveway and into the street. By some miracle, I had the front wheels turned, so the car rolled and turned into the center of the street as I ran after it. Reached into the open window and yanked the e-brake. Took quite a while for my heart to stop racing. Scary stuff, I always check to make sure it's in gear with brake on now. Glad to see you came out OK as well. Hope it never happens again!

Rich

Courtshark

This is your get out of jail free card. I guarantee you will NEVER forget to check/set the brake or put it in gear when parked again. Having watched Risky Business about 100 times does this for me, since I never want a shop owner to walk up to me with a smirk on his face and say "who's the u-boat commander?"

Charley B

WOW! You sure got a free pass on that one. Your also getting a free pass on the filthy car because we recognize it as the morning after the cross country drive picture. :>)

Nicholbry

This was your car's way of saying "take my a$$ down the road for a drive". Listen to her and she'll speak volumes like "I really need a bath".

What is it anyway about these 928's? They seem to just have a mind all their own (Risky Business, now you guys). Maybe the next Christine movie should feature a really ticked off 928; I've even seen enough images here on Rennlist of fire damage. I can just see the flames now. Christine's all bug-eyed and gained a little weight in the *** end in her old age. What do ya say?

CaseyH

I think we can all agree it's too early in the year to hand out this award.

SteveG

Never: Testament to your alignment! These cars have their faults and then something like this happens and half credit is due to the quality of the instrument. Glad no scratches or bumps. Or small children!

F451

You guys are cracking me up:

Good one Mike!
Tru dat! 4 days, 3720 miles! http://edb.smugmug.com/gallery/2361888#124580223
LOL!