Air Time

[Your Uncle Moe]

Alright its 3am here in NY as I write this....

Overview:

The last couple of days it has been raining cats and dogs. The rain has caused serious damage to our express ways (ESPECIALLY the Grand Central). A LARGE section of it fell from an overpass ontop of a van. The driver miracilously survived. This happened at my exit too! Tonight was the first time I got back on the expressway since last nights rainfall.
I thought that the damage was only done to that specific part of the express way. But I soon realized that there was more damge than that all over the expressway.

Now to the part about my car:

Since it was 2 am at the time I was driving home, the road was EMPTY. There was no rain. I usually do about 80-90 MPH coming home. (I know its a lil too fast, but I been doing this for years now and I know how to handle myself). I came across a straight strip of highway and the ground started to get a little wavy. So I slowed down to 60-70mph. Then I came across some areas that where damaged by the rain. The rain caused certain areas of the ground to sink down and other parts to rise up. Forming little "HUMPS". I hit one of these "humps" in the ground and went SOARING in the Air! I got about 5 feet in the air and luckily for me, I landed Straight. I wasn't turning at the time and didn't spin in the air at all. But Heres the problem. When I landed.....I landed HARD. I bottomed out. Sparks litterally flew. I was too busy looking straight when I landed, but out the corner of my eye, I could see lights shooting from behind me in my rear view mirror (Most Likely Sparks flying). After landing I continued to hit the humps little brothers and before I could get a chance to safely begin braking, I hit ANOTHER "hump". Again I flew a few feet but not as high as the first one. While I was in the air from the second hump, I flew over the third one. lol
After I got back onto normal ground, I shut off my radio and checked to see if I could here any noises or see anything wrong. Everything seems to be going fine.

Now to my questions:

I couldn't really inspect my car much after parking it around my house. It was too dark. But everything seems to be looking fine. My bumpers are intouched. My wheels SEEM fine. Actually, everything seems fine. There were no vibrations or anything driving back home. Is there anything you guys recomend I should REALLY inspect closely for damage?

Thanks in Advance.

[Fresco Bob]

maybe check yur exhaust for displcement or holes, that coulda bin what made sparks. gen 3s are built like tanks, they can handle a few feet of air. next time get it on video!

[The Wolf]

Holy crap! That would scare the crap out of me. Yeah, like Fresco said, I'd check the exhaust, and probably the front bumper. Might want to check the struts, too. If you notice anything "shaky" or the steering feeling different, might want to consider balance & rotation and/or alignment.

next time get it on video!

[cam2Xrunner]

Check the oil pan just to be sure. Check all your tires for seperations and rims for stress cracks. Hopefully you got some tokicos with lifetime warranty and you can get those replaced. Look into some new strut mounts if you hear clunking in the front.

[CamNub]

Check that everything is still tight/ in-position.

[Xevuhtess77]

that would be the sickest video hahahaha
if tha thappened to me i would have pissed my pants

look on the bottom where the gravel guard things are for scrapes, that would probably help you gauge just how low to teh ground yoru body got, and how much other stuff could have been damaged depending how low it hangs in relationto those scrapes

[Your Uncle Moe]

Originally posted by Xevuhtess77
that would be the sickest video hahahaha
if tha thappened to me i would have pissed my pants

I really didn't get too scared because years of driving in the city have made me immune to shit like this. But Ill tell, ya. When the car launched in the air; for a second I was scared. NOT of me the car in the air; but scared about how I was going to explain this to my dad. Or even worse, the cops if I get pulled over or crash.

But again, thank goodness this happened while I was going straight. If this happened on a turn, the car would have flown at a tangent to the curve in the road and I would have been thrown OVER the median, and onto oncomming traffic! Now that would have been crazy!

[Erbe]

Originally posted by Gridlyne
But again, thank goodness this happened while I was going straight. If this happened on a turn, the car would have flown at a tangent to the curve in the road and I would have been thrown OVER the median, and onto oncomming traffic! Now that would have been crazy!

i wouldve paid to see that one

but seriously, im glad you and your car are ok....damn new york

[amerikim]

Jesus, and I thought we had some questionable roads here in Oregon. You got yourself the makings of a rally course there.

[Your Uncle Moe]

I should really mount a camera on my car and show you guys how I drive at night. Since the roads are empty, Im usually free to do whatever I want on them. I basically race all the way home. Im the Takumi of GCP.

j/k of course. TN Dosn't condone reckless behavior!

(vidz coming soon.)

[2wickedtoyz]

most likely the subframe that holds the motor scraped and that thing can take some serious abuse.
take pictures of that road so we can have a look see

[dave_thomas]

Reminds me of the time I had my 87 Camry airborn when I was young and stupid. Now I'm just a little older and not quite as stupid...lol One of my friends bet me $100 I couldn't get my Camry airborn so I took him up on it. Got up to about 80 mph and ramped some railroad tracks and was airborn for about 40 feet and probably about 5 feet off the ground. Funny thing was it was my dad's car and he had the oil changed a few days later and the mechanic said the front axle was cracked. Boy was it hard not to laugh when my dad asked me if I knew how the axle got cracked.

[Your Uncle Moe]

OMG. I hope I didn't mess yup my axels. I just changed 'em both about 2 months ago.

[Marvelicious]

...Looks like the Duke boys are in a whole mess of trouble!

Well, my 2 cents... back when I had my '94 corolla, it left the ground quite a few times and never had any trouble. (my '94 4x4 has really been hammered, but thats a truck, so its a whole different story) I would bet you are OK, but I would get underneath with a flashlight and checkout the struts as well as any bushings cv boots etc...

amerikim
"Jesus, and I thought we had some questionable roads here in Oregon. You got yourself the makings of a rally course there."
C'mon out to the backroads of Columbia county. I can show you some real chaos!

[dave_thomas]

Originally posted by Gridlyne
OMG. I hope I didn't mess yup my axels. I just changed 'em both about 2 months ago.

I sure hope ya didn't either. That kinda slowed my jumping the car quite a bit....lol