buki
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For all who bought your XLRs because of their remarkable design aesthetically, may I offer a design consideration you probably have never considered.
Thanksgiving afternoon I was on my way back home from our Turkey Day event at the lake. The temp was 73 with no wind so I dropped the top and headed down the super slab. A few miles in I decided to exit I40 and drive in through the 53,000 acre paradise called Natchez Trace State Park in Western Tennessee.
The combination of curves, beauty and lack of traffic lulled me into one of those ‘this is amazing’ days we all yearn for every day we start our cars up.
Just as I exited the park boundary driving a two lane road into the next town everything changed in an instant.
The trees lining the road were less than three feet off the road edge.
Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, a huge deer in full run appeared out of literally nowhere. I never had time to even touch the brakes so I hit it at about 55 mph. Since the top was down I ducked fully expecting 150 pounds of ****ed-off deer to roll into the seat beside me. The sound was horrendous. It was a moment I will never forget.
The deer went airborne and slid across the hood toward me. It slid up the windshield and the last thing I saw was the entire thing exiting stage right over the passenger seat.
There was no room to pull over so I glanced at the mirror and saw it floundering on the side of the road. All I could think of was the totally caved in left headlight, disintegrated grille, cracked hood and broken windshield. I was in a total state of shock.
Two miles further on I finally turned into a country church parking and prepared me to see the worst. In fact, before I exited the car, I called my wife trembling like a just dropped bowl of Jello.
When I finally got out of my beloved Xenon Blue dream car I took a deep breath and got ready for a very sad moment.
As I stepped around to the front I got an even greater shock.
No broken headlight. No crushed grille. No collapsed air dam.
NOTHING but hair wedged in the grille 5” left of the passenger side headlight. Blood streaked across the hood leading to more blood on the windshield where the deer slid across. Everything was intact. There was a little splattered blood on the passenger seat and nothing more. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a hose and a nozzle and a little bit of soap. Not a scratch anywhere.
Here is what I learned…the wedge design of the XLR front end acted like a cowcatcher. I hit the deer at the leg level which lifted it high enough to miss the grille. My speed essentially resulted in my running under the damn thing. The sloped hood and raked windshield just lengthened the ramp and raised the airborne body above the passenger compartment keeping it out of the passenger seat.
Amazing! Simply amazing!
p.s. One of my neighbors at the lake had hit a deer two weeks earlier doing $4,700 in damages to his Escalade.
I certainly don’t recommend anyone go deer hunting with their cars.
But believe me this design is VERY efficient in many ways I never thought of at all.
Thanksgiving afternoon I was on my way back home from our Turkey Day event at the lake. The temp was 73 with no wind so I dropped the top and headed down the super slab. A few miles in I decided to exit I40 and drive in through the 53,000 acre paradise called Natchez Trace State Park in Western Tennessee.
The combination of curves, beauty and lack of traffic lulled me into one of those ‘this is amazing’ days we all yearn for every day we start our cars up.
Just as I exited the park boundary driving a two lane road into the next town everything changed in an instant.
The trees lining the road were less than three feet off the road edge.
Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, a huge deer in full run appeared out of literally nowhere. I never had time to even touch the brakes so I hit it at about 55 mph. Since the top was down I ducked fully expecting 150 pounds of ****ed-off deer to roll into the seat beside me. The sound was horrendous. It was a moment I will never forget.
The deer went airborne and slid across the hood toward me. It slid up the windshield and the last thing I saw was the entire thing exiting stage right over the passenger seat.
There was no room to pull over so I glanced at the mirror and saw it floundering on the side of the road. All I could think of was the totally caved in left headlight, disintegrated grille, cracked hood and broken windshield. I was in a total state of shock.
Two miles further on I finally turned into a country church parking and prepared me to see the worst. In fact, before I exited the car, I called my wife trembling like a just dropped bowl of Jello.
When I finally got out of my beloved Xenon Blue dream car I took a deep breath and got ready for a very sad moment.
As I stepped around to the front I got an even greater shock.
No broken headlight. No crushed grille. No collapsed air dam.
NOTHING but hair wedged in the grille 5” left of the passenger side headlight. Blood streaked across the hood leading to more blood on the windshield where the deer slid across. Everything was intact. There was a little splattered blood on the passenger seat and nothing more. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a hose and a nozzle and a little bit of soap. Not a scratch anywhere.
Here is what I learned…the wedge design of the XLR front end acted like a cowcatcher. I hit the deer at the leg level which lifted it high enough to miss the grille. My speed essentially resulted in my running under the damn thing. The sloped hood and raked windshield just lengthened the ramp and raised the airborne body above the passenger compartment keeping it out of the passenger seat.
Amazing! Simply amazing!
p.s. One of my neighbors at the lake had hit a deer two weeks earlier doing $4,700 in damages to his Escalade.
I certainly don’t recommend anyone go deer hunting with their cars.
But believe me this design is VERY efficient in many ways I never thought of at all.
