p1d ce saved me from a cold night out in the bush!!

[skyline_man]

Okay, i'm driving from Adelaide to the Riverland at 1am on one cold winter night. Its about a 3 hour drive, most of which is through isolated bush area (you folks in the US would call it country area). Anyway, about 1 hour on the road in my Nissan skyline GTR - a stupid kangaroo decided to play chicken with me. I spotted it at the last minute and slammed on the brakes, but it was too late as my skyline smacked the poor thing, front on and sending it toppling through my windshield.

Naturally, i was shocked and quite pissed off as to the extent of damage to the front of my beloved car. Luckily the car can still be driven but upon closer inspection, i found that both my headlights were destroyed beyond repair!! I'm now stuck in the outback, pitch black at 2am in the morning. Driving with no lights was out of the question, it would be stupid and suicidal. Furthurmore, i wouldn't be able to see where i was going anyway. And leaving my car there and hitchhiking back is something i would never do. So it looked like i had no choice but sleep out the cold night in my car. Until a thought came into me...maybe i can use my p1d ce as a headlight? The damn thing put out enough light to light up the highway for 50 metres, surely it's not out of the question. Besides, the remaining trip would take 2 hours and i've got a spare battery with me, so on high - this little pocket rocket of a light would last long enough to take me to the Riverland.
Anyway, after carefully tying the p1d ce to the front of my car with some cable ties i was ready to go. And what a trip it was, for 2 hours the light was faultless. Lighting the way for me with awesome brightness. I was able to see so far ahead of me that i was comfortable driving at 120km/h. Also the oncoming truck drivers must've been quite surprised when they saw that the source of light from my car was just a little black flashlight!

So has anyone got a story of how their flashlight helped them in times of need? And i'm talking of something more serious than a blackout.

 

[slick228]

What happened to the kangaroo? Did you kill him/her?

 

[skyline_man]

Yeah the thing was pretty much dead. So i did what most Aussies would do - i took out my leatherman, chop off it's two legs and put them into the boot of my car so that i can throw it onto the barbie later on! Makes good bush tucker!

Just kidding, us aussies aren't that barbaric We do however eat our national emblem though....:huh2:

 

[LESLIEx317537]

skyline_man,

Sorry that story sounds both tragic and funny.
I love Skylines, they are one of my favorite cars. I drive a 2004 STi I got in 2003, and love the thing. I can only imagine how you felt after hitting the kangaroo.
But to strap a P1D on to your Skyline, is funny I dono why. I can picture you driving back carefully with a little LED on your hood.
Here in NY, I would get pulled over right away with a LED light on my hood as a primary light.
Lucky you had your P1D.
Good luck to your car and repairs.
-Les

 

[LESLIEx317537]

What happened to the kangaroo? Did you kill him/her?

I don't think Kangaroos are endangered. Skylines are.

 

[Hedgehog]

sending it toppling through my windshield.

Naturally, i was shocked and quite pissed off as to the extent of damage to the front of my beloved car. Luckily the car can still be driven but upon closer inspection, i found that both my headlights were destroyed beyond repair!!

THROUGH your windshield? It was in the car's cabin? Was it still alive and kicking then?

How'd it knock out both headlights? You sure you didn't hit two of them?

 

[luigi]

Your story is better than all the Surefire Catalog stories together, and the best part is that it is true
Thanks for sharing very good!

Luigi

 

[Patriot]

Good story Skyline. It must have been pretty bad to take out both headlights like that. Now, did it actually come through your windshield!!?? I'm glad that you weren't injured!

I've driven with diffenent flashlights before. Sometimes on a remote street in the desert near my house I'll shut the headlights off and drive with a flashlight held out my drivers window at 35mph or so. It's all just for fun, because I'm a flashaholic. I did it about 3 weeks ago with my Orb Ns. It's surprising how well it works once your eyes are adjusted.

5 years ago I was spared a wet, cold night in the Kaibab Forrest while archery hunting. I was instructing a friend on GPS navagation earlier that morning and he placed it back in my truck without turning it off. It was still my fault for not checking it before I went out that evening. I knew the area pretty well so I was in my comfort zone. I stayed out about 20 minutes after dark because deer had come into the area and I didn't want to spook them out. It started to rain and I began the 30 minute walk out. I got all turned around out there in the dark and overcast skies. When I went to use my GPS the batteries were toast and I knew why. I used a ArcAAA, E2E with extra set of batteries and compass to find the dirt road which led me back to my vehicle. The ordeal lasted about 3 1/2 hours and I ended up walking much further than I really needed to in order to get back. I was pretty tired because of having to hike all the ravines with the load I was carring. I was carrying a treestand on my back and had to leave it out there to get the next day. I was mostly dry because of good clothing. It was embarassing and the guys had started to get worried and were coming to look for me.

The experience reminded me once again to double check equipment and carry a dedicated package of extra batteries even when it's just a short hike in an erea that I know well.

 

[skyline_man]

To be honest, i was more worried about my car than getting pulled over by the cops. Down here in South Australia it's not like NY, at 2am you'll have more luck winning the lottery than running into a cop

Nice ride you got. I love Subaru's as well! One of the best 4 cylinder turbos money can buy. My mate's got one - a 2006. It's his pride and joy cos for a 4 cylinder stock, it just destroys the locally made Holden 5.7 litre v8 Monaro's (I believe they are re badged Pontiac GTO in the US).
Anyway, he's got a bumper sticker on his car that reads, 'milk and juice may come in 2 litres, but cheap wine comes in 5' hahaha...

 

[matrixshaman]

Hey - awesome story! Glad you were able to make it back safely. I had a big Motorhome that the headlight went out on one time just a few miles from my destination. Unfortunately at that time I didn't have any bright flashlights but did have my Eternalight Ergomarine and as little throw as it had I was able to use it to get into a town knowing at least oncoming traffic could see me and I was able to see the road enough to get along slowly. Now after that experience I've always got strong flashlights sitting right on the dash or nearby when I'm going down the road (although I did fix the headlight problem - a bad switch replaced with a heavy duty toggle switch).

 

[skyline_man]

THROUGH your windshield? It was in the car's cabin? Was it still alive and kicking then?

How'd it knock out both headlights? You sure you didn't hit two of them?

No actually it bounced onto my windshield - cracked it and bounced off. Lucky the windshield didn't shatter or else i would've been injured!!


Yeah, the damn Kangaroo was a biggie. measured head to tail, it would've been at least 2.5 meters. I would've had to hit it dead centre in order for both my headlights to be destroyed. Good thing i didn't try to swerve or else i would've hit a tree for sure

That's right Patriot36, preparation is the key. No point carrying the best flashlight in the world if you don't have the ammo. Worse still, don't have it with you when you really need it! That's why i prefer small flashlights to big ones. Something that i use as an EDC. And i always carry spare batteries and my trusted leatherman with me in my car as well..

 

[Daniel_sk]

Excellent story.:thumbsup: MacGyver wouldn't do it better.

 

[LESLIEx317537]

Yea, I read some articles about some cars from down under.
Always wanted to visit your area. Seems so unique with all types of weird animals.
I'll have to make a trip out there some day. I'll just be sure to watch out for Kangaroos like Deer in upstate NY.

 

[LGCubana]

I don't think Kangaroos are endangered. Skylines are.

If a marsupial had done that to a SkyLine in my presence ,

 

[kavvika]

Great story! When I get home I'm gonna have to try driving at night using only a flashlight!

 

[tostada]

Cute story!

:lolsign:

Sorry, but I gotta call BS on this one. None of it happened, and you probably don't even own a GTR. If it actually did happen I'm sure the first thing you would've done is gotten a picture of yourself standing in front of the wrecked car holding that Fenix.

If you had time to hit the brakes at all, you also had time to swerve at least a little, but instead you hit the thing head-on. Also, note that you did hit the brakes in a car with 4-wheel disc brakes, ABS, and a 60-0 stopping distance of 125 ft, so the chances of you hitting something hard enough to go through the windshield are pretty slim.

One time I was driving down a highway in the coutry about 75 mph and didn't see a deer till my low-beams lit up its eyes 40 ft. away. Its head was in the middle of my lane, and its butt was off to the right of my lane. I swerved as gently as I could to the left while slamming on the brakes when my headlights lit up a second deer 10 ft. behind the first one in the left lane. I had to go off the road a little to miss both of them, then I yanked the wheel back to the right and ended up doing a 360 down the highway at 50 mph. I came to a stop on the right shoulder of the road and just sat there for about 5 min before proceeding home. So that's my experience, and maybe it's just me. But I was totally freaked out by it, and still I was able to at least attempt to swerve.

If the kangaroo was actually big enough to destroy both your headlights, I doubt you would've just driven away. First you said it went "through" the windshield, and when that set off everybody's BS detector, you changed your story to "bounced off and cracked" the windshield. There's a massive difference. Nobody accidentally says "a kangaroo went through my windshield" when it bounced off.

If your windshield was cracked and your headlights were destroyed, how exactly did the radiator and intercooler hold together? There's no way you're destroying enough of the facia to break both of your headlights without also damaging the radiator. Even if it still held water, it probably would've overheated because of damage to the fan.

I said "both headlights," but I should really say, "all four headlights." Destroying the headlights would take a LOT of damage on a Skyline. Skylines have separate low/high beams, and the center of the nose sticks out pretty far while the headlights are angled back more at the sides. So you're talking about a freak accident that broke both low beams and both high beams (otherwise you just would've driven with the lights that still worked), which would've had to completely destroy the whole front 12" of the vehicle. If that was the case, I can't imagine how the car would be drivable. I guess the GTR's 4-wheel steering is better than I thought!

And then there's the issue of your insurance claim. If you nearly totaled a car which cost around $75,000, you would not even think about driving on. You would immediately get on your cell and call the police. You would wait at the scene and file a report. You would make absolutely sure everything went by the book with your insurance. I'm sure things work a little differently in Australia, but I doubt insurance companies just give out free Skylines to people who wreck them just because they claimed the accident was caused by a kangaroo.

I suppose you can claim that there are no cell towers between Adelaide and Riverland (you certainly can't claim you own that car but don't have a cell phone), but that could probably also be disproved pretty quickly.

And how exactly did you drive using just the flashlight? Were you holding the flashlight out the window? That must've gotten pretty cold on a winter night! If you were shining the light through the windshield, that would've been harder to drive than with no lights at all the way the cracks in the windshield would've lit up. You probably would've just waited for your night vision to adjust and driven slowly with no lights. I suppose now you'll change your story all the way from "kangaroo goes through windshield" to "kangaroo causes extremely small crack in windshield."

See, when cars hit animals, sometimes it can bounce off the hood and go right through the windshield, but usually when the front of the car absorbs any real force of the impact, the animal is basically deflected off the crumpling hood and doesn't really damage the windshield, or else the animal stays stuck on the front of the car in which case the windshield is only damaged if the force is great enough that the whole front of the car is destroyed. Size really doesn't matter, whether it's a deer or a kangaroo or a bear. The point is that an impact that destroys the front of the vehicle and all four headlights and cracks the windshield is going to render the vehicle undrivable almost every time.

Deer vs. windshield:

10-point buck vs. Vette (notice the car is undrivable but the left headlight would still probably work):

Almost every head-on impact with a big animal looks about the same. Damaged front end, but headlights still work. Car is usually undrivable.

 

[RustyKnee]

very cool story hehe. shame about the roo...and your car. The R33 is my favourite. What is yours?

My p1d is getting used as a headlight when navigating paths to my mates houses in the dark....so I don't go arse over tit on my crutches that I am on at the moment hehe....I dribble a bit when its in my mouth....but at least I can see my way hehe.

Stu

 

[KuoH]

Almost. I think this one might still be driveable...once they get the horse out of the way.

KuoH

Almost every head-on impact with a big animal looks about the same. Damaged front end, but headlights still work. Car is usually undrivable.

 

[jur]

I don't care if it is BS or not.

A roo is a much lower animal than a deer and the impact is exactly at the headlight area.

But it IS bold to drive at 120km'h with a P1d.

 

[TorchBoy]

It takes a lot of light to drive safely at 120km/h, since you travel 50m in 1.5s. How do you bust both headlights on one basically two-legged animal, without suffering any radiator damage?