Pheasant nil, MR2 one

heathstimpson · April 6, 2004, 19:05

I thought that women drivers were meant to be safer; your just plain bloody unlucky Sandie s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · April 6, 2004, 19:13

Quote from: "heathstimpson"I thought that women drivers were meant to be safer; your just plain bloody unlucky Sandie s:? :? s:?

thanks for that! s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:wink: :wink: s:wink: I don't think it's me that's unlucky - more like the car! I've had many years and miles of trouble free driving, until I got the 2! Had it 7 weeks when Vectra-arse rammed me, now this. I'm not a bad driver honest - ask the fellow Treasure Hunters who were infront of / behind me. Or Martin - he let me drive his turbo so I can't be that bad? s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Am starting to think that maybe I should get shot of the beast and replace it with something like a Warrior tank though s:evil: :evil: s:evil: s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

heathstimpson · April 6, 2004, 19:26

Sandie no other car you've owned probably goes and stops like the 2; hence taking out a pheasant and having a Vectra rear end you. Now think of the fun you would be missing if you got shot s:cry: :cry: s:cry: Two down, one to go eh s:?: :?: s:?:

Anonymous · April 6, 2004, 19:53

Sandie,

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news s:? :? s:? but 2 claims in a 5 year period normally means you'll lose your no claims bonus protection. s:(

s:( s:(

s:(

It shouldn't actually reduce at this stage but with the protection removed it will start to reduce if you have any more bumps.

Anonymous · April 6, 2004, 20:25

Quote from: "heathstimpson"Sandie no other car you've owned probably goes and stops like the 2; hence taking out a pheasant and having a Vectra rear end you. Now think of the fun you would be missing if you got shot s:cry: :cry: s:cry: Two down, one to go eh s:?: :?: s:?:

Vectra didn't rear end me - it was full on side-side impact! s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: I was overtaking, nice and gently on a 40mph dual carriageway. Was doing 35 tops (and have 2 witnesses), when Vectra-moron suddenly decides that he wants to be on the exact piece of road I'm on. Either that or he mistook me for someone who'd been really mean to him! Instead of looking, indicating, and pulling across gently, he just swerved across hard into the side of me - and stayed there (have mid-road barriers flashing pst me on RHS at this point). didn't even bounce off me - stayed right there! It took everything I had to keep from ramming the barriers on my right - there was untold rubber on the kerb for weeks afterwards. I shot him a look to indicate that I wasn't best pleased (am being polite here), he pulled away, slipped into left lane and slowed down to stop. I did the same - just as i'm getting out of the car he thinks better of it and tears off down the side road he's pulled up just before. Didn't get his number, witnesses only got half of it, plod not interested (happend 1/4 mile from the station!) - my insurers coughed up £2k for a whole new nearside! I lost excess etc but insurers referred whiplash claim to solicitors who are pursuing a claim for me from some central fund that they all pay into but tend to keep quiet about!

So, now it looks like I get a new front end as well. Half a car in total. Aren't I the lucky one! You're right about not owning such a beast before, but IMHO the vectra incident was unavoidable (unless I want to spend my whole life pootling along on the inside lane) as he came across the lane so quick that I didn't have a chance to hit either pedal etc. And as for the pheasant, I'm actually glad that I didn't try to brake / swerve - reckon it would have been alot worse one way and another. s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Anonymous · April 7, 2004, 08:25

just in case you want to see gory pics of the damage... s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:cry: :cry: s:cry:

m http://www.mr2-roadster.co.uk/rocstuff/sandie-yuck1.jpg m

m http://www.mr2-roadster.co.uk/rocstuff/sandie-yuck2.jpg m

(cheers for this Kris!)

Slacey · April 7, 2004, 08:29

Ooooh... nice. Shame about the damage s:(

s:(

Anonymous · April 7, 2004, 08:45

Quote from: "Slacey"Ooooh... nice. Shame about the damage s:( s:(

too right! s:cry: :cry: s:cry: Am sitting here waiting for the car to be collected by the fix-it fellas. May phone Mr T to check out some prices in the meantime tho - not sure I'm up to attempting work on my baby though. Am ok on old bangers cos they don't matter quite so much if yoy know what I mean, but the 2 is a bit precious so maybe best elave well alone and let the proffessionals sort it. At least I've got some come back if there's a problem later.

Anonymous · April 7, 2004, 16:26

On a very evil note here, and I'm sorry Sandie, but I did have chuckle over that first photo: you can still see the pheasant's head stuck in the rad! s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

It doesn't look very happy... s:D

s:D

Anonymous · April 7, 2004, 16:56

Quote from: "ekona"On a very evil note here, and I'm sorry Sandie, but I did have chuckle over that first photo: you can still see the pheasant's head stuck in the rad! s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

It doesn't look very happy... s:D s:D

I'm not suprised she wasn't very happy - her wing had been wedged into the huge crack that she made in my bumper (see what's left of it after I'd hosed it down etc in photo 2). Think I'd be a bit p'd off if I'd lost a wing AND been decapitated, all in one night s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

(and I hope you lot appreciate the trauma I had to go thro to take those pics - it wasn't a pleasant task. put me right off my breakfast s:(

s:( )

Anonymous · April 7, 2004, 16:59

... nextdoors cat was licking his lips though s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

The fella that picked the car up earlier had a good look, said it smelt like a butchers. gross!

Anonymous · April 9, 2004, 17:15

I nearly came a cropper with a lady pheasant today!

Was driving back from Stansted via the back roads (Broxted, Thaxted, Bardfield: basically, the route of the treasure hunt!) and came to a nice piece of straight road which almost demanded I put my foot down. So I did.

I was doing a tad over 60 (well, 63 according to the Road Angel) when I saw a smashing little brown bird appear from the bushes on the right hand side of the road. I thought that it would wait. Boy, was I wrong!

The stupid little thing started crossing the road r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y so I just carried on cruising. Then it sped up. Then a little more. Then a little more. As it started to speed up, I thought that I'd miss it easily, that it would be well across the road by the time I got to that particular point. It wasn't.

After seeing Sandies' photos I knew that I really didn't want to hit it at 60+, so I had to:

1: Hit the brakes (love that squealing sound!)
2: Swerve right hard
3: Realise the back had gone, so had to swing left quickly
4: Release the brakes and floor it again

... all in about 0.3 of a second!

I feared for both car and pheasant, I really did; it was that close. Glanced in my rear-view mirror and saw said bird trundle happily away into the bushes, awaiting the next '2 to pass so it could attempt another ambush... s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

Seriously though, I now have a really great appreciation for the handling of this car: if I'd been in anything else, I'm pretty sure Mrs Pheasant would be dead, or I'd be in a ditch. It's also nice to know that the old reactions are there and ready to be used, when need arises. s:D

s:D

Humble Jim · April 9, 2004, 18:42

Interesting nobody has mentioned the potential food bonus. When I was growing up my Dad hit a number of pheasants with his car and used to bring them home. Squished ones weren't viable obviously but the ones knocked away from the car were. Apart from being very tasty you could bite into the meat without fear of breaking a tooth on some shot (usual danger when troughing pheasant).

I know the horror and despair you feel when you run into wildlife though. On a holiday in New Zealand last year I killed a possum during a night drive. The last thing I saw was its big eyes as it scuttled toward my headlamps even as I was trying to swerve away. It felt like hitting a brick though the campervan sufferred no damage. As they're an introduced species running riot most New Zealanders consider possums vermin wreaking havoc on indiginous species. So I was doing a 'good' thing. Come to think of it though it was humans (an introduced species of the worst sort) that made a bunch of NZ species, including the giant Moa, extinct...

Whatever, it was NOT nice.

aaronjb · April 11, 2004, 16:53

Quote from: "Humble Jim"Interesting nobody has mentioned the potential food bonus. When I was growing up my Dad hit a number of pheasants with his car and used to bring them home. Squished ones weren't viable obviously but the ones knocked away from the car were. Apart from being very tasty you could bite into the meat without fear of breaking a tooth on some shot (usual danger when troughing pheasant).

On a slightly related note s:D

s:D I seem to remember someone telling me (I think it was my Dad, after I'd clobbered a fox in the Renault) that it's actually illegal to knock an animal down and then pick it up - that's poaching..

However if you find one someone else has knocked down - that's perfectly legal (you're just picking up carrion..).

Something like that anyhow s:)

s:)

Humble Jim · April 11, 2004, 18:20

I think I've heard that too. I can see the case say if you say knock over a deer in a park owned by somebody or other. Is it poaching though if it's escaped and killed on public land/road? If it's a sheep maybe so, it's often obvious that it came from field A or field B owned by farmer A or farmer B because you might spot its brethren nearby. But a single pheasant? That could have flown in from miles away. Unless it's tagged how are you going to begin to trace the owner?

Though maybe on legally shaky ground I think my Dad saw it in maritime terms, like it was "salvage" s:)

s:) .

The only alternative in practice would have been to leave it for the crows, which is what normally happens I guess.

heathstimpson · April 12, 2004, 07:44

Quote from: "Humble Jim"The only alternative in practice would have been to leave it for the crows, which is what normally happens I guess.

A few years ago I worked with another engineer who was really into country life and associated sports. One nightshift he came into work with a deer hung across his back saying he found it on the roadside. He through it in our film test freezers overnight and took it home the next morning to skin. God knows what our testing operations must have thought as they opened the freezer to place a sample in it and faced a bloody dead deer looking up at them s:shock: :shock: s:shock: s:? :? s:? s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Anonymous · April 16, 2004, 02:32

man... i have an story too... with my Corolla TS

I was driving down 2 lane highway around 11 PM, no cars around... me and my girl were talking about how much we love cats and about the cats we had at certain points in life... (not crazy about cats just like them).

So there you go of course, i see an cat in left lane... in the middle of the damn highway! and she is just sitting down, acting as an farmer cat - just staring stupidly into the lights (unlike city cats which stay away), so i slow down to like 20mph (from 60), and just as i am passing her, i blow my horn so she runs away and nobody runs her over...

stupid farmer cat (of course), instead of running from the car, and into the damn field full of juicy mice, goes longer route and runs blazingly fast under my car... we hear slight bump-bump... look at each other and just were quiet for next 20 mins of the drive...