Some pictures...

http://bervickbradstreetracing.com/cricket...reck/index.html

21 years and never a wreck, never a fender bender, nothing... until yesterday. Had the bald 12 inch race tires on the back of the SS, and we saw it was going to rain. I was at my girlfriend's house and told her we needed to get the heck out of there and get the car back home before the rain came. We were about 2 miles from my house when we crested a hill. We were going 5 under the speed limit, 40 mph, 4th gear. The rain was getting heavy, and the back end washed out to the right. I went opposite lock on the steering wheel to try and keep it on the road but it snap hooked and we went backwards into the tree. We were just cruising, no throttle input, perfectly straight line. I guess we just hit too much water.

Looks pretty forked up. Not sure if it will be totalled or not. The cop was asking "why is there no interior in this car?" and I said "it's a racecar." I'm sure the insurance company will like it.

Since there is no interior, I shot up into the metal roof and cut my head open, had to go get some stitches put in. Other than some stiff necks we are both alright. I should have had those Simpson 5 points and race seats in, but oh well.

Since this is my first accident, I don't really know how things work. If the insurance company does total the car, I know I can't let them take it, there is too much in the car and it would take me months to de-mod it.

On a happy note, I got an email from LS1Speed saying the Darton block for the 427 is done... just need something to put it in now.

/cries

I'm really glad to hear that you are both ok. That is the good news.

The rest of it really sucks. From the looks of the car, it may be close on being totalled. I hope you get it back (if you want it back) or that your insurance company takes good care of you.

I'd consider telling them that you were getting ready to put a custom stereo system in it and that is the reason the interior was removed (they might buy it). Just remember, those tires were "DOT legal" tires and were NOT race rubber. They may have been performance tires and they may have been a little too worn, but they were NOT competition tires. Your answers to their questions may be very important. Be very careful how you word things. And don't think "race car", think street car or project car. I'm not suggesting insurance fraud by any means, just suggesting that you chose words carefully. The car was street legal (I'm guessing) on worn out tires, that is not a "crime", but saying autocross car on race rubber may make it a crime to them (or give them a reason to try to reduce their payout).

I hope it all works out well for you. I'm really glad to hear that you are ok.

I could break in the Darton motor for you if you need somewhere to put it.

I'm glad the 422 isn't in yet.

Next time total a cookie cutter T-Top. Hard tops are something special to me.

Tough break man sorry. At least YOU are ok,there will be other cars... you are one of a kind. I'm afraid the car looks totaled.Keep your head up and find a roller somewhere to stick that bad boy 422 in.

Trackbirds advise is dead on.Keep your head and avoid anything that has to do with racing in your statement.The statement is the important part of the claim.

GOOD LUCK Cricket
Tony

Oh Lordy don't remind me about it being a hard top. I searched for so long to find that car. Every other SS I went to look at was a t-top.

/cries again

It's looking like a 50/50 split from people that have looked at it on whether it will be a total loss or not.

What bothers me more, is I always prided myself on my driving, whether being a punk ass 21 year old or not. What bothers me even more than that, was that it wasn't a wreck due to showing off like some high school kid, but rather just cruising on a perfectly dead straight road at 40 mph.

But it's like Dale Earnhardt said "You win some, lose some, and wreck some."

Hmm... May 15 '83 eh?

I'm May 18 '84. I'm keeping my Z28 parked for a month after I turn 21.

Sorry to hear about your wreck. I learned that lesson the same way many years ago. Gotta keep good rubber on your car.

I hope that comment doesn't come back to bite you later. It's very possible the cop put that comment in his report, and the insurance company will likely ask for the accident report.

All I can say is cross your fingers and hope. I hope you get a good claim on the car, because it does look like to me that it's totalled.

hehe..

oh man.. i did the same thing in my 2000 Z28

had the BFG drag radials on the back.. they were brand new.. actually more tread depth than a victoracer in the middle... very little tire pressure

anyway.. on my way back from Ennis.. Texas Motorplex(i think) 1/4 mile drag strip... Ennis is an hour away from my house... it started to rain about 3 minutes after i left Ennis.... and i got within 5 minutes of my house driving in the rain without an incident...

then all of the sudden, WOOSH, the rear end started to come around.. so i did a little counter steer.. but it doesn't matter when your rear tires have no chance of gripping the surface, so i probably would've been better off just sliding sideways to a stop without any countersteer... anyway, i ending up doing like two full 360s on I-35 in a straight line.. but then the highway had a curve in it.. and luckilly it was a right hand curve so i hit the wall instead of going into the ditch...

when i hit the wall, i went airborn.. it was crazy.. i never stoped.. the wall straigtened me out and i continued driving home..

about 8-10 thousand dollars later the car was fixed



i couldn't sleep for a few days.. i loved that car... first nice car i ever had...


hope you and your GF are OK... doesn't look like your car will be straightened out

Aww man. I feel for you bro. When I get home I'll share the pics of my wreck.

RIP - 1996 Camaro SS #226

Well the thing is, I can't take $10,000+ worth of mods off and go back to stock if the car is totalled and they want it. So either way, 1999 Camaro SS #4224 stays with me, whether I pay the $1000 deductable to fix it or whether I buy the salvage title for it.

I guess if they total it, I'll get to work on it with a welder and some hammers and turn the SOB into a CMC car. If not it will stay a half-assed street/auto-x/rr/drag strip car like it is.

I fully expected that you would be buying it back if they totalled it. If you can get it and build a race car out of it, even better. If not, I guess you can always strip it, keep what you want and sell off the rest to finance a new home for the Darton motor. You would have an engine, harness, computer and other stuff to sell off. That may pay the cost of buying the salvage (depending on what they ask for it).

It always sucks to see this happen to anyone. The headaches and paperwork are the worst part, though many have come out ahead afterwards. Just remember, the odometer only works with the key on. If they are afraid to put power on it, they will not see the mileage. I know of a car where they assigned "average mileage" since they couldn't read it from the odometer. It could be interesting to see what happens there.

Have you spoken to your agent yet?

When my mint 1983 Monte Carlo SS was stoten and crashed by the thieves a few years ago, the insurance company's first position was to give me "book value" (something like $3,700) and total the car and keep the car. I flipped. The car was a 60k mile perfect example of the rarest color of the rarest year and almost never saw rain. After a negotiation period, I ended up getting $5,500 and the car. They key here was that I had the title and could do what I wanted with the car. It was a negotiation and it took some time and patience. In the end, I spent just under $10k to fix the car.

It sounds like you first have to wait and see if the insurance company totals the car. If they do, they will want to keep it. If they don't they will want to give you a check and tell you to have a nice day. The things that you need to be prepared for is:
1) At least in PA (I don't know where you are from), it is illegal to have a car on the road with tires below a minimum tread depth. I do not know if you are at risk here. Alot will depend on the police report - does it mention this? If it does, a "pissy" insurance company could decide not to pay your claim since your car was technically "illegal". I do not know how real of a possibility this is, but you need to be ready for this.
2) In order to process your claim, the insurnace company will send an adjuster to look at your car and estimate the damage. This means that the adjuster will see your gutted car and mods. There is no way around this. There is nothing illegal (in PA) about driving a car with gutted interior so they have no legal position to take on this. However, they could start to "cop an attitude" towards your claim. I think that how you deal with them will go a long way to avoid this.

My guess is that the car will be totaled. I would first be angling for the best settlement that I could get. After that, I would quickly be trying to get the car so that I could get the goodies off of it.

I'd say totaled. Even if not it looks like it would cost a small fortune to fix and probably wouldn't be worth it.

It's a shame because it is an SS but if you're really planning on going racing, you should start with a beater anyway. Most everything on an SS would most likely be ripped out and replaced with better parts.

See my avatar... V710's in the rain. Big ski's....

....I can't see that car being fixed.....I don't think you could even get it into "race car shape"...looks like the rear is toast.....

I would second the notion that choosing your words VERY CAREFULLY now is your top priority....the "race car" comment could very likely end up costing you several thousand dollars...insurance companies are sharks....be careful what you say...

Well the police officer seemed to be indifferent about anything I said. He was pretty easy going and cracked a couple jokes when I was climbing through the hatch to unlock the doors.

In fact, the only time I saw him writing anything down, was when he just asked for the basic stuff; where I worked, phone number, etc. He didn't even ask much about the accident.

At any rate, the story is now it was just my "car" that I can't afford back tires for, but I had enough money to rip out the entire interior to install a super fancy stereo system... which isn't in yet.

The saddest part was the car was ready for an auto-x on the infield road course at the Texas Motor Speedway. Looks like now I'll be racing ye ole 92 RS with 3.1 liters of fury under the hood instead.

I'll keep posting about the fun times I'm sure I will go through in this ordeal.

Actually, you were doing a super fancy stereo system and new rims and tires which is why you had not changed the rear tires yet. You were going to do it all at once. That's all.....

Sorry to hear of your loss Kyle.....I too was looking forward to driving it on the road course of TMS /

As for my e-mails that I sent you, I neglected to mention something that doesn't look as if it was touched on hear.

As your car will most likely be totalled, due to the damage being in the rear, the insurance company would much rather sell the car back to you "as is" and deduct it from your settlement, TRUST ME. That being said, as stated above, don't be afraid to "haggle".
Remeber, the insurance co. doesn't want to have to deal with trying to auction it off, takes time and money, and it would be much easier to sell back to you and never have to cut a check for the additional money and have to try to make it back up.

......these things I know

Good luck......and I hope your head is getting better.

Dead:
'00 T/A WS6 M6 (shot engine)