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

Wed Jan 24 09:03:12 PST 2018

Actually not a unusual occurrence. Videos of unmanned vehicles driving in circles is a genre on places like Youtube. Usually caused by the driver exiting the vehicle while it was running and knocked into gear or they leave a pet in the car which knocks it into gear. It usually ends with the vehicle smashing into something and coming to stop, running out of fuel or a cop smashing and window, then wrestling the car into neutral. 

 Message: 1
 Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2018 05:37:46 -0800
 From: Alex Popovics <alex at realestatetimes.com>
 To: silly_little_cars at lists.sillylittlecars.com
 Subject: [Silly Little Cars] One in a
 million GO 4 freak accident with
     a hopefully for the
 99 Interceptor a happy ending
 Message-ID: <BE5B47E1-7DDF-4E40-B6E5-D2659EE1B5F0 at realestatetimes.com>
 Content-Type:
 text/plain;    charset=us-ascii

 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

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