Don't try this at home, kids

mbouse · Post by **mbouse** » Thu May 24, 2007 1:59 pm

Thought I was gonna die this morning when I neared the office at the end of my commute.

If you know me at all, you know that I enjoy driving in a â€œspiritedâ€ fashion; especially when driving with the top down, and most definitely when I know where I am going. Such was the case this morning. A spirited maneuver from a stop sign to a left hand turn. Traffic should be cruising between 45-55 mph, with oncoming speeding up as they leave the city limits.

As I finalize my left turn in the Spider, with the top down, I hear someone VERY close blat his horn at me. In wide eyed panic, I perform the Linda Blair imitation; turning my head 360 degrees in two milliseconds. As soon as I recognize that there is no impending threat to body and limb, this guy honks again. The sound is SO close, impact must be imminent! Again, I swing my head â€˜round to see just who it is that is going to mow me down.

Eyes darting everywhere, mirrors, windows, over the shoulder; everywhere !! When he screams with his horn for the third time, I notice something amiss near my left hand. I glance down at my white knuckled, trembling hand to see my horn button dangling from the wiresâ€¦.shorting out and therefore causing MY horn to blow. It had popped out of the steering wheel at a very inopportune time.

I reach into my mouth, and stuff my heart back down to the chest cavity where it belongs. It is amazing that I did not need to perform a partial wardrobe change.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Thu May 24, 2007 3:24 pm

here in So Cal when someone blows the horn the immediate response is to stick your arm out the window with a single finger salute, then fire a warning shot in their general direction

bran100 · Post by **bran100** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:31 pm

I can't remember the name of that Steve Martin movie where he was driving down I-5, talking on his cellphone while shooting at other drivers, but it was classic.

Haps93 · Post by **Haps93** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:50 pm

HAHA....fell off my chair with that one...............Great story Mike.

.....Chris

78 Spider

spidernut · Post by **spidernut** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:13 am

In 1981 my wife and I were sitting around in the house when we suddenly heard our Spider's horn honking in the garage. I was very young at the time and frightened thinking someone was in my garage messing with my car (not a logical conclusion of course since honking the horn would be the last thing a thief would do).

After carefully cracking the door open and looking inside the garage, I saw nobody. As I entered the car, I found the horn button had stuck partially depressed. It had arced enough to honk the horn in a continuous tone.

I can empathize with you!

John

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:19 am

So Cal Mark wrote:here in So Cal when someone blows the horn the immediate response is to stick your arm out the window with a single finger salute, then fire a warning shot in their general direction

Here in the Southeast, we fire a warning shot then the single finger salute.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:29 am

priorities, priorities. It's just that we're so much friendlier out here that the warning shot comes second

manoa matt · Post by **manoa matt** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:14 pm

I moved a year ago and drivers and traffic patterns are way different from Chicago to Honolulu

In Chicago the horn was used to warn someone to get out of your way, or indicate your dissaproval of their manuver.

In Honolulu, everybody is so laid back that no one gets angry enough to use the horn. The only time its used is to let someone go in front of you.

Matt

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:53 pm

drivers are allowed to go in front of you? who wudda thunk it?

manoa matt · Post by **manoa matt** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:17 pm

They call it: driving with Aloha.

perthling · Post by **perthling** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:48 am

I had a similar issue recently with my Coupe - I'd be driving along and suddenly the horn would go off. Sometimes in a turn, sometimes driving straight. I checked out all around the horn button etc to see if it was arcing to the steering wheel, but nothing obvious. Then when i happened to have the steering wheel off I saw that one of the small copper rivets which holds the tang in place behind the wheel had broken and the tang was floating around behind the steering wheel - occasionally hitting metal and sounding the horn.

My interim fix was just to disconnect the horn compressor lead...