Absolutely speechless...

I can't decide if I'm one of the unluckiest guys on the planet... or one of the more fortunate ones.

My wife and I took the cobra out for a few hours today. My parents agreed to watch the baby, so Lisa drove him to their house in her car and I followed behind in the cobra. We dropped him off and went out for an uneventful 2 hour cruise.

We got back to my parents shortly after 4PM and I parked the cobra at the top of their driveway. Around 4:30 or so, I hear a loud boom sound from the back of the house... thought it was kinda strange sounding but quickly dismissed it. A few seconds later, I hear a second loud boom. I decided to get up and figure out where the sound was coming from.

Here's what I saw:


Somehow, 30 minutes after parking the car it rolled down their driveway, down a hill with about a thirty degree slope, bounced off a railroad tie making an abrupt right hand turn before coming to a rest 50 feet down the hill.

When we got to the car, the parking brake was still set and the shifter was between first gear and neutral. It wasn't all the way up where first gear should be, but it was also not back far enough that you could move it side to side.

I've been driving sticks for a long time now, and I'm in the habit of ALWAYS putting the cars in 1st gear and setting the parking brake every time I leave them. So either the car mysteriously popped out of gear somehow or I didn't have it in gear all the way to begin with. But the thing the gets me is, if it wasn't in gear to begin with, why did it stay put for 30 minutes?

Anyway, here's some more pics of the drama.

The driveway where I parked it...


Bottoming out as it picked up speed...


It went right between these 2 trees...


You can see the tire tracks here. All 4 tires appeared to be rolling (no indication of tires skidding)


Took out these shrubs/weeds...


The view from below... it's a steep-ass hill! You can also see the railroad tie that saved the car from going ALL the way down.


The front wheels were jarred to the right after hitting the railroad tie... and the car slowed to a halt.


Another view of the car where it stopped...


The front end damage:




And the worst part...not even 3200 miles.

i would consider that LUCKY!! It missed the Damn!! trees. No big damage so thats good.

do i smell foul play :uh oh:

fast4v said:

do i smell foul play :uh oh:

Click to expand...

That thought did cross my mind... but I didn't hear or see anyone outside around the house or car.

I just can't understand how it would come out of gear on its own. Or if it wasn't in gear all the way, why didn't it start rolling as soon as I went to get out? Something doesn't add up...

Talk about a bad day

That sucks man. Sorry about your car. I hope the damage is not too severe. You will want to check the underside of the car.

I would not trust the handbrake on the Cobra to hold it on a hill and to be honest I am not a fan of parking on a hill period. Even if it is in 1st.

I don't understand how it rolled down if you had the parking brake set???
Sorry for your misfortune though but it coulda been a lot worse!!!

Wow you really did get lucky with that.

I guess it wasn't pulled up far enough? I don't know...

I know it still works though (I had to use it while the wrecker was pulling me up the hill... it was so steep, he had to keep repositioning his truck to keep the cable from digging to far into the ground)

Hey dude sorry to hear about that!

But on a side note, being you will have to get a new front bumper and paint. Let me know how well the paint matches when it's done. I need to repaint my front end and don't want a two-tone paint.

That absolutely sucks, sorry for your misfortune. I will definately pull up on that parking brake extra high, in 1st gear, and with the steering wheel pulled to the safest side.

man that's too bad. it could have been worse.

Oh man thats terrible. Thats one of the worst things I've seen happen to anyones car sitting in a driveway, who would think it would roll away.

If the parking brake worked when getting it to the wrecker, then it stands to reason it worked before, too. Is it possible someone was in the car at the time, maybe a theft gone wrong, or a kid playing around? If so, it would account for it not being in gear, and the brake "not working".

Just a thought....

I had something similar happen to me. A number of years ago I drove my Ford Ranger to a Surplus Supply Store, I parked it in front and went inside. A few minutes later another customer cam in the front door and said "Who's truck is that in the middle of the Street", I'm like WHAT!. Anyway it turned out the one time I didn't put me truck in 1st gear, the parking brake cable snapped, and luckily it didn't hit anything, and nobody hit it. It was pretty damn funny.

Dude, the same thing happened to my old mach1... but luckly a telephone pole stoppped it.... 12k in repair work later.

That's really strange that it rolled with the parking brake set. I would definitely have the dealer check it, because at 3,200 miles it should be fine. Thankfully the damage was minimal. Could have been a LOT worse.

It looks like the damage is minimal, but I'm setting myself up for the worse. Who knows how much structural damage there is... I figure it had to be going pretty fast by the time it slammed into the railroad tie. Although now that I think about it, the fuel cut-off switch in the trunk didn't have to be reset in order to start the car. Maybe the impact wasn't as bad as I'm thinking? How hard does the car have to get hit in order to trip that inertia switch?

Wow! Sorry for your luck.

Wow you lucked out.

The front bumper is the the cheap part and can be relpaced very easy. No bondo. A 2 to 3 day deal in the shop is all.

Looks like the extra point was GOOD! :rockon: