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Okay, car has every imaginable suspension mod including lowering, 205x55x16 rubber and all suspension parts out of the IPD catalog. I was trying to beat a nasty little storm home while coming from work, as it turns out I was two minutes too late. (BTW, car is fine, my shorts are another story). I was driving home on the leading edge of a massive super cell, totally straight and flat 55 MPH two lane piece of asphalt.
I got bumped by a bit of wind from the passenger side and saw a few leaves fly from right to left, a little steering correction, no biggy, it wasn't even raining at this point, so I kept going. Roughly, 1/4 of a mile down the road (wipers now on slow), I see more leaves flying from right to left... nothing to worry about so I kept going, then I see branches, and other stuff flying when it was too late. The car was hit so hard by the wind that all four wheels squealed and drifted entirely into the oncoming lane, I counter steered, over corrected, and spun her out. Bleen mostly stayed on the road and I got her turned around and made it home. Pure luck or divine intervention... I'll take both!
When I got home, I more or less changed shorts and went out to inspect the car for damage. I assumed the passenger side had been trashed by debris, but thankfully it wasn't! As I was walking back towards the house, I noticed that the wiper arms looked weird, yep, they were both bent and twisted. I looked at what was left of the rear wiper, most of it was gone.
My guesstimate would be a 75 to 100 MPH straight line wind gusts, I have the good Lord to thank that I was able to drive home, but I can only think about how that would have turned out in a stock suspension 245. She probably would have flipped.
After that, I can assure you that when I'm coming up on a major storm, I will pull over and find the nearest ditch for me to hide in. Ma Nature taught me a lesson this evening! Please note that was straight line wind qty. 0 tornadoes were reported or detected.
Be safe out there folks!
jorrell
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92 245 278K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!
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