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buki

Account Suspended
Joined
Dec 2, 2013
Messages
88
Location
Jackson Tn
My XLR/V(s)
2005 Xenon Blue XLR
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.
 
FANTASTIC!! LOVE THE WAY YOU TELL A STORY. Glad you escaped damage free, though I bet your pants had a few Turkey droppings in them!
 
Looks like in some cases SPEED SAVES! I bet that wouldn't have worked so well if you had managed to hit the brakes (& I remember driving lessons about keeping in mind sometimes accelerating out of trouble is better than trying to stop short of it & failing).

Nevertheless, you need to go play the lottery, & play it NOW.
 
No hunting license,,,, 2 of us,,,

You were very lucky indeed,,,,with the car and yourself. I've heard stories of the deer and elk's hooves coming right through the windshield and striking the driver and/or passenger right in the head or upper body torso. Chalk this one up to the Lord was watching out for you that day...... If you attend church, toss an extra c-Note in the collection plate.


BTW,,, On Nov 21 I was traveling on I-25 north in central Wyoming with the XLR cruise set at 87mph (80 speed limit
icon11.gif
,,, and came around a long curve and low-an-behold there were four large antelope standing still across both lanes. Brakes and horn applied, and I stopped 15 feet short of them,,,,and then they scampered off the roadway. I rubbed the cross hanging from the driver's a/c vent and continued on.
 
Glad you are OK......man what a story........... :thumbsup
 
Glad you are OK......man what a story........... :thumbsup

I hit a deer not in my XLR but a Toronado. I was going about 55-60mph, it wasn't a place I could stop easily, I filed a police report and it turns out they have a scheme where somebody checks the site, maybe they get to collect the venison, I didn't think to ask. Months later the guy who had been driving behind me noticed my car and asked if I was the guy who hit the deer as he could tell me where it ended up. For me it vanished from view. It was thrown a long, long way across the road to the other side, several 100 feet. The deer was killed instantly, its head was down and hit the front bumper. In terms of reaction times I had my foot on the brake at the moment of impact but had not slowed down at all.

When I came to review the damage, at first sight there was none at all. Closer up, still none at all. Closer still and there was the most extraordinary damage. It was like compressed air had gotton inside all the light fittings and had blown them apart from the inside. The the front lamps (except the hidden headlamps) had been blown out, the plastic fittings sheared off backwards. To look at, the front of each light fitting was untouched. The very fine fur of the deer was wedged inside the paint, not stuck to it, but tiny cracks had opened up where the deer hit and had trapped the fur under the paint. I replaced the fittings and had the paint fixed. That was it. Not a dent. The headlamp covers still worked fine too.

I also cannot recommend hitting deer, it is not a nice experience.
 
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Well, you're luckier than me! Coming back from one of the Bowling Green trips with the XLR a few years ago. A deer hit me, yea, HE hit me! I saw him, I stopped to wait, then he took off running scared! And he "danced" across my hood. Had to totally replace the grill and repaint the whole hood. His hoofs left LONG scratches in the hood. It SUCKED!!
 
For all who bought your XLRs because of their remarkable design aesthetically, may I offer a design consideration you probably have never considered.....


Wow!!!
 
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.


Wow, that is amazing there was NO damage and you were not hurt badly either. I think someone was watching over you and perhaps felt you deserved a small miracle and saved your beautiful XLR! What ever the reason, you were darn lucky. Good to have you still with us. :thumbsup[SUB][SUP]<strike>
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