Terry Adams

Much better than the alternative, where you swerve, hit something worse, run car off road, flip car ....

I encountered twice in my 993 obstacles in middle of road.

1. A retread big as a suitcase, at 75 mph. Steered my car for the middle of it, took out the front bumper cover, and retread slid under car protected by skidpad front and rear.

2. Boulder size of small (American) football. Steered over middle of it, no damage to bumper, skid pads pulverized it on the way back.

Also, by running the car over the middle of it, you avoid damage to expensive suspension parts.

In each case above, car took a leap, oil pressure dropped to zero for 10 secs, and I thought there would be damage to engine, but none.

turbojohn

and driver jailed as well

gmsracing

At least you didn't swerve! That can be hard not to do sometimes. I remember when I was younger driving the back twisty roads to my parent's house after visiting my girlfriend. It was about 2 in the morning in my GTi. I was ripping around the corners at 60-70 mph when I crested a hill and saw three deer on the road. One moved off, but one just stood there. No where to go with hills on either side of me. I got on the brakes as hard as I could and then at the last moment I gunned it so the nose of the car would pick up. The deer went into the front of the car and then underneath it. Took out the fenders, hood, grill, etc. Drove home; parked it, and then drove back in my parents car to drag the body off the road so no one else would swerve and hit it.

4ocious

Poor cat, lucky driver, lesson learned?

TT Gasman

So even though visibility was good, you didnt have time to scrub some speed with the brakes? Badness happens fast in an uncontrolled enviroment like a public highway, for that matter on the track too. You might want to slow down a little, it might not be a cat next time.

rotesAuto

damn cats!

Redmist

It can be worse. I was behind a car in the middle lane on the interstate. Lucky for me I was following at a decent distance. all of a sudden the car in front swerved and revealed awhat looked like an industrial sized piece of HVAC ducting laying in the highway. I swerved and I'm glad I did. Speed and visibility count.

B-Line

This "do not swerve" idea.... Who said, "do not swerve" ??

I've always been under the impression that if something jumps out in the road in front of you, aim for the exit.
Don't look at the object you are going to hit, look behind the object, where it came from, cause that's behind the object. And steer where your eyes go (assuming you're looking at the exit.)

SimonK

+1. Avoidance is the goal here - if you can that is. Busy highway = ram the cat. Empty highway = avoid at all cost. 911 turbo will have no problem turning quickly at 110mph. Also, you can actually safely drive over it with your front wheels - actually better than hitting it with your bumper. At the advance motorbike safety course we were told that in an emergency any animal (up to the cat size) one should ride straight over it. Of course it all depends on how it happens. If the cat jumps in front of your car, at a distance of 50 yards or less, whilst you are driving 110mph, you are just a passenger.

Macster

There are exceptions. And there are exceptional drivers.

But for most the best advice is to not swerve, but try to slow the car down as much as possible and if one has the time to hit the thing square.

Now a cat is one thing.

A cow (or a horse) can be a different matter but still...one can't see the future and an impact with a large animal is perferrable to leaving the road. You think a cow is going to leave a mark in your car, try smacking a tree or a concrete bridge abutment. (I came upon an accident one day where big rig had hit a bridge abutment -- it was assumed the driver fell asleep -- and the impact destroyed the cab of the truck and killed the driver and co-driver who was probably in the bunk sleeping.)

Also, late one night driving on a highway in Arkansas I saw a big rig hit 3 horses that had wondered through a hole in the fence onto the roadway: The driver didn't swerve. Tore the heck out of the front of the truck and killed the horses.

Too often the object catches the driver by surprise and an avoidance maneuver turns onto a guardrail encounter, or off road excursion, or a head on collision.

Now I will admit I've ignored the don't swerve advice at least once. The one time I remember the clearest was when on a freeway (I was in my Boxster) heading south from Amarillo TX I pulled out into the passing lane from behind a slow moving car in the right lane to pass the slow moving car only to spot an oncoming car up ahead.

No time to think. Barely time to react.

I swerved.

I swerved and I didn't even think about the car I had just passed until after I got through being so scared I couldn't even dial the cell phone to report a wrong way driver.

Thankfully the car I had passed had continued to slow and was probably over on the shoulder when I swerved from the passing lane into the slow lane to avoid a head on collision with wrong way car.

Another time a large piece of metal was thrown up by a vehicle in front of mine and was coming straight for my side of the windshield. I swerved. Oh God did I swerve.

I have swerved at other times as well. Sometimes it is just because I know I can. I spot the object --- usually a small animal -- in time and slow and swerve. Once in a great while the animal -- a squirrel usually -- will actually change its mind and dart back into the path of my car. I never look back.

But other times I'll not swerve. It depends upon various factors. Regardless, I try to not even feel for any impact though sometimes I can't help but feel one but again I never look back. I like to think the animal just suffered a minor bump on the head and will safely stagger to the side of the road and recover.

Once a coyote, at least what I think was a coyote, came out of nowhere and so suddenly I had no time to react. The thing changed direction seemingly in mid-air and while I braced for impact there was none. How that thing avoided the car I'll never know.

In the case of a mule deer I had no time to swerve. The animal stepped out right from behind the end of a guard rail into the path of my car, well, the path of the right front headlight/fender.

Might have been for the best. The road was wet and slippery. While I was not going that fast a swerve might have put me off the road. And at around 7K feet above sea level on 50 highway west of Ely NV (where the impact occurred) there are not too many places one can leave the road without serious consequences.

The best advice I can offer is to try to drive in in such a way the sudden appearance of something in the road way can't happen of you have plenty of time to react and avoid the thing without having to wrench the wheel madly one way or the other.

dasams

Sorry to hear about your accident. Do you have a tip or pdk? A 3rd radiator is used due to incremental heat generated by the transmission, i.e., there's a heat exchanger to transfer heat between the transmission fluid and the radiator fluid.

The 997's use a heat exchanger to transfer heat between the oil and radiator fluid. Hence, it doesn't have a traditional oil cooler. At least that's my understanding...

Twinturbom3

thank you.

Would you elaborate on this please?

Napoli

Good thing it wasn't a black cat.

malmasri

could be worse, Sebring has night driving without cats