[Silly Little Cars] One in a million GO 4 freak accident with a hopefully for the 99 Interceptor a happy ending

[Alex Popovics]

Hello all,

I just woke up after a harrowing experience that only you as a group can appreciate and possibly solve the mystery as to what happened.

I own now a possibility seriously disabled unique 99 GO 4.

I purchased it a few years ago from the couple that owns the San Francisco Body & Paint Shop. (The Interceptor still has their shop logo on the front).

It was lovingly restored by them in a beautiful yellow metallic paint with a modified bench seat for two, thus having the transmission handle placed on the floor by the left door. That door has been out of alignment so I have kept it locked using the right door only.

Yesterday afternoon I couldn't start the vehicle after using it all day. At first I though the starter was failing due to overheating of its coil.
I did notice though that the transmission shifter felt kind of loose as I shifted it thinking it wasn't engaging on the park position to allow the vehicle to start.

I did however eventually realized it would start on the neutral position but to my surprise it wouldn't get on reverse.

I happened to have to go to my long time regular vehicles mechanic to pick up my van after a tune up before he would close for the day, so I drove there without any problems on drive.

When I got there he assumed the transmission was shot since it lost the reverse gear.

As he was closing his shop the reverse gear started working but the park position still would not engage, then as he entered his car to leave home the park position engaged and the reverse was fine, so I ran to the mechanic before he left and he was a bit puzzled, thinking it might be the transmission safety pin that might be faulty.

I drove to a coffee shop and when I started it afterwards it once again didn't engage the reverse or parking position.

I decided to go to a oil change shop before they closed since I was due for a oil change anyway and to at the same time check my transmission fluid.

When I got there the new management decided not to service my vehicle anymore due to liability concerns since they engine pit is just wide enough for me to back into it and since we had to push it back they didn't feel it would be safe. Thank God for that!

I asked if they could at least help me check the transmission fluid since it was already dark. They did, and about three of their workers gathered around the odd looking vehicle just outside their building at their parking area.

Here's where the weirdest possible set of circumstances created an experience most likely no one ever experienced with a Go 4.

Since I had a few boxes, helmets and coats I'm my trunk I placed them mostly on the seat and roof to slide the luggage/engine cover back. One of the oil changer personnel checking the transmission dipstick asked me to turn the engine on.
I from the outside of the vehicle (in retrospect I now realized that was the stupidest thing I could ever have done, to have boxes on the seat instead of myself!!!), turned the key but since was in the park position it wouldn't start.
I went to the other side of the vehicle from the outside to shift it to neutral.
I inadvertently left the key in the on position and the second I changed the gear also inadvertently into drive instead of neutral the accelerator throttle inexplicably got stuck on maximum as if someone was flooring the accelerator pedal!!!
Because the front wheel was turned all the way to the left the vehicle went in circles at maximum speed with me on my knees on the inside of the circle (I only got my knees scrapped by the ordeal), hanging from the locked door instinctively trying to change the gear to neutral just as if I was at a rodeo trying to rope a steer!
As I shifted from drive to neutral it got into reverse instead (now it worked!!!), and the GO 4 shot itself in reverse on a strait line into and over a curb around a landscaped area by the parking lot, and literally flew on top of a huge and soft bush where it came to a full stop.

Everything inside and on top of the vehicle flew out by the centrifugal force when it was going in circles as the right door was opened, including the luggage/engine cover our of its rail. My ski helmet (for cold weather) got somehow mangled, the only damaged item from inside the vehicle.

At first I thought maybe one of the boxes I place on the seat had fallen on the accelerator pedal somehow, but afterwards I realized that wasn't the case, since after everything inside the vehicle flew out as it was going in circles it still went at full speed in reverse on a straight line on top of the accommodating huge and soft bush.

Afterwards it would crank but not start.

The differential probably hit the curb since it's now leaking some fluid. It was dark and I'm sure Jerry, our master mechanic in SF is going to find all kinds of damage underneath with the suspension and more by the sheer force of hitting that curb at full speed.

I'm obviously thankful that neither I or the fellows around me didn't get hurt nor the out of control unmanned vehicle didn't careened into the nearby street into moving traffic.

I am heart broken though for I know my beloved 99 Interceptor have many parts that are very difficult to find if seriously damaged, not to mention the possible overwhelming cost to fix it, effectively possibly totaling a vehicle without any body damage.

I hope you as a group can help me to figure out how on earth the accelerator throttle got stuck on maximum all by itself.

Keep on driving...

Alex Popovics 
Publisher 
SF Real Estate Times 
(415)278-9500
SFREtimes.com