The October Quickening, October 17-19, 1997, Cape Cod Massachusetts.

We had the ride of our lives. And our ride saved our lives...

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Read on my friend for you shall soon know
Just what happened, not so long ago.

It was Quickening eve, October eighteenth
What I am about to relay, will make you grit your teeth.

The ride started innocent enough
Twin Turbos only, these roads are too rough.

We fit 12 adults in three cars and left the lot
Headed to Popelbottom and the rest will not be forgot.

The sign was posted "Scenic road" ahead
What was seen will now be told. Beginning to end.

The twist and the turns were very exciting
The S curves ahead were even more inviting.

You could feel the car lose the ground
This high tech car kept us safe and Sound.

Three cars negotiated tight lefts and rights
The fasted car was out of our sights.

We regrouped at the end of the first run
We agreed it that was way too much fun.

Where next was the question a hand
But the lead diver, had a plan.

Down Farmersville road, the across Old County
Then back to the Tavern for food and bounty.

Farmersville was a fast run, nothing really notable
But the cars were amazing. The following is quotable.

"I didn't know they used wood in these" was said
More on that after you have read...

We turned down old county, slower than before
When the car I was in came around to a site of Horror.

In the middle of the road it was
There was no immediate cause

Four people rolled out of the wreck
The worst injury a sore back and neck

My god I thought is everyone okay!
My brother ran to me, the driver, what could he say?

I'm sorry he cried shaking a bit...
If I were driving I would have sh*t

911 I dialed to phone the local PD
When they got there, they were looking for ME!

I went to fetch my sister and a camera too...
Well if your car was just wrecked what would you do?

The police had nothing nice to say, kids screwing around...
But they had nothing on us, no drugs or booze to be found.

The car took the abuse to keep the passengers alive
Believe it or not the speed was no more than 45!

A pot hole on the side of the road dismounted a wheel
At that point the survivors say they could feel

The driver had little control of the counter clockwise spin
This was a battle the trees would win.

Nose first, passenger side impact
Then the side was on the rack.

The car pivoted on more time with a crunch in the rear
Then came to rest in the street all exited with fear.

After all were safe and sound
A look for wreckage, what could be found?

The bumper brace, filled with wood.
Well, that can't be good.

"I didn't know they used wood in these..." was said.
And could be because nobody was dead.

-- Eric Lotter, Owner of the ill-fated car, Picture 1

Picture 9: The Crash-Test Dummies:
Driver Justin, Eric, Melissa, Jimmy.

Here's my account of what happened. It's the message I sent to the Stealth/3000GT mailing list...

Hey folks,
Well, since the legal side has been settled and the insurance dealt with, we are now free to talk about what really happened at the October Quickening the weekend of October 17-19, 1997. Those that were in attendance I'm sure will agree that we all had a great time.

Well, 4 of us experienced what few others have, and had the special "treat" of something that the others missed out on...

First off, general pictures of the gathering are scanned in and awaiting uploading. They'll be up very shortly. My web page is going thru some changes right now and things are happening. But that aside, here's the story of the accidental "main event" of the Quickening, I'll tell about the rest later, or on the picture page...

After having driven around, had good eats, discussed stickers, taken pictures, riden in a Hennssey Viper 550, and had a general great time throughout Saturday morning and afternoon, we all met at the Sandwich Tavern for dinner, drinks and relaxation. Well, before we went in, some of us wanted to go riding around on some of the local back roads. It was firmly stated that only the all-wheel-drive cars were allowed to go. The service of 3 cars was enlisted and 12 of us piled in, 4 per car. Jimmy, Melissa, and myself quickly staked claim as passengers with Justin because we all knew that he was a great driver and he knew the roads, we knew that we were in for a treat. Justin led the way with Eric's 93 TT (his brother), Ed followed in his 95 VR-4, and Lorne trailed with his 94 VR-4. We made our way to the road Justin and Eric (who were local and know the area) had planned for our fun. When we hit that road, the turbos came alive as we zipped up and down and left and right, Justin masterfully flying the car along the little road. What a rush! After that short but exhilirating ride, we stopped at the end of the road to regroup. Eric hopped out of one of the following cars to consult with Justin as to what to do next. They decided on a couple other roads then it was definitely time to sit down with a cold one and relax back at the tavern. We set out on the second road but had to keep it quite slow due to a seemingly unusual high amount of oncoming traffic. It was a pretty straight road, more up-and-down, and was easy to see if cars were coming around turns since it was dark and you could see the headlights preceding the cars. We again stopped to regroup at the end of that road, there was little side-road/driveway we regrouped in. Then headed for the third road. Turbos again came alive on this road but the speed was acutally not as high on the first road. I don't think we ever even got above about 50. We rounded a right-turning curve which was on a bit of an upward hill. The rear swung out just a bit to the left as we were coming out of the turn, but it had done this on previous curves in the first road. The AWD straightened us right out previously. Well, it did this time, too. The car simply bounced back straight... but it didn't stay. The back of the car continued to go around counterclockwise. Having a good sense of our cars, deep down inside I knew when we had passed the point of recovery and readied for the worst... Justin was driving, Jimmy was shotgun, Melissa was behind Jimmy sitting slightly sideways so her feet were propped on the back of the center console, I was behind Justin, sitting sideways, butt in the seat, legs across Melissa with feet against the far/passenger side of the car. When I knew we had passed the point of no return, I simply locked my legs down and ducked my head under my arms - "protect the head". Before I tell you the rest - within 10 - 15 seconds later after this point, we were all standing outside the car assessing what had happened. Ok. The car was headed into a counter-clockwise spin. I heard a crash, but felt no hard or jarring jolt of impact. At that same time, I knew we were also off of the road because I felt dirt, debris and I thought it was glass flying all over inside the car. I was pretty sure Justin had his window cracked about 4". I thought a window had broken. I thought the back window, which was essentially right over me, had shattered. Next thing I know, we are stopped. I look up, made a quick mental assessment of myself - still breating, no immediate senses of pain, nothing felt broken, didn't see any blood. -whew!- Melissa looked ok, I asked and she said she was. Justin got out of the car, as did Jimmy, both doors opened and they just got out. Justin tried to move his seat forward but was having problems. I yelled "get out of the car" a couple times then "move the seats" a couple times. Justin was trying and Jimmy was in a slight dazed state of shock. A second later he clicked and responded to my shouts and moved his seat forward, with no problems. We helped Melissa out of the car and I crawled out. "Holy shit!" was the initial reaction. Everyone checked themselves and everyone else out to see if anyone was hurt. Everyone was walking around and gave the "I'm OK" to everyone else. When I got out of the car, I wasn't even sure which direction we were going. the car was stopped in the dead center of the road, pointed almost straight ahead, turned out to be in the direction we were headed. The other 2 cars came up and stopped. Everyone jumped out and was quick to make sure everyone was ok. Then the "what the hell happened"'s started coming up. Justin, Jimmy, and myself were already putting things together. The passenger side of the car was hit at the door hinge, but it didn't look like a direct hit, it wasn't crushed in, it was more scraped really bad. Then we saw the back of the car. Yikes! That's where we hit. Dead center of the back of the car. It was crushed in a good foot. The rear corner on the passenger side was REALLY banged in. Both passenger side tires were dismounted. One thing that struck us what that the back one was dismounted INWARD - toward the car. The front tire was pulled outward. The front bumber had been ripped almost totally off. Justin's question upon seeing that was "why didn't the damn airbag go off?!?" I took a closer look at things and realized it didn't go off because the sensors hadn't been activated - the front facia was not smashed in, it was ripped off the car in a forward direction, the tree just took it clean off. Justin continued to look at the front end, picks up a piece and says what will forever live in infamy as good humor at the strangest time: "I didn't know they put wood in these cars!?" We all got a good laugh at that one, almost sadistically as we had just cheated death. Turns out what happened was the car spun counter clockwise, about 180 degrees, headed off the road, sideswiped a big tree, which did the damage to the passenger door, as it continued past that tree, the front facia hit it. The big aluminum piece that resides behind the plastic front end, the real bumper of the car, well, the the front facia crushed around that when it scraped the tree, the big square piece that is the internal bumper punctured through the front facia, jabbed into the tree, and stuck. As the car continued past, it pulled out a chunk of the tree (thus the wood in the car) and proceeded to rip the front end right off the car. Because the car was spinning counter clockwise and it hit this tree on the side, the car just kinda used it as a pivot point and continued to spin, with the back end hitting a couple other trees more directly, but they also served as pivot points and the momentum of the car in its spin kept the car simply moving along, rather than coming to a dead stop against one of the trees. At this point, it spund the rest of the way around and stopped in the middle of the road, facing the direction we had been going, completing a single about 375 degreee spin. Looking things over, we thought we had blown a rear tire. That was our assessment. The police were called. Eric used someone's cell and called the police. Justin, being the driver, obviously couldn't leave. Eric, the only other one there that knew where we were, left with Lorne's car to get others at the tavern and I gave him the keys to my car to grab my camera. He left. A couple minutes later, the police arrived. The first officer to arrive, a male officer, was pretty calm and cool about everything. He was stern but reasonable and understanding - doing his job. The female officer that arrived second, well, we'll fill you on on that once further proceedings are completed. A tow truck arrived. The guy got out, took one look, and called back for a flatbed, which was apparently already on its way as it arrived only minutes later. Eric returned and went to the police. The police were starting to think alcohol was involved since Eric was the car's owner but had left. When he returned he got things cleared up. There had been no alcohol consumed by anyone there at any point up to that time. BTW, the accident occurred at 7:14 pm, once we stopped and got out, and made sure everyone was ok, I asked for the time and that was given in response. I asked someone if Eric brought my camera and was told it was in one of the cars. I ran back to get it and started taking pictures as they were loading it onto the truck. Thank heavens they came out, my batteries were about dead in the flash! They took the car, the officers got statements from those involved (Eric, Justin, Melissa, myself, didn't ask Jimmy - missed him I guess). We all piled into the cars there and headed back to the Tavern. Once there we were all in a strangely cheerful mood. "The Crash Test Dummies" we were. We agreed that if we were cats, we just lost one of our lives. We were all amazed and thankful that we all walked away from that mishap with zero injuries to any of the 4 passengers. We agreed that these cars are pretty damn tough. Personally I'm glad I was in a stealth. I decided that if I was going to be in an accident, that was probably the best damn car I could have been in. Center of gravity is very low, making rolling a very low probability, it's a heavy car, very sturdy, made with metal, not plastic, and it's big. Turns out that the passenger window had shattered, thus the glass, and that was why all the dust and dirt was flying everywhere inside the car. It shattered when the first big tree hit the front door. The back window did not even crack! The trunk/back end absorbed the impact wonderfully. The reason we didn't feel a real impact (and others said they didn't really feel too much of one too) was that we were in a spin, and hit the trees perfectly such that they were pivot points. When we hit the hardest on the back of the car, it was straight on (but pivoting) and we were all simply pressed into our seats. Justin's seat had jammed because of this - he's a big guy - but it held, only cranking back a couple inches. It did not cave in on me behind him. We all went into the tavern and ate and enjoyed the company, everyone happy that we were all gathered in a tavern rather than a hospital.

Here's a funny one... Justin said he never stopped driving the car. No that's not funny. I'm thankful for that - he probably kept us all alive! What's funny is that he said when the car finally stopped, he put it in first gear, turned off the lights, turned off the engine, and got out! The next day when we went to the garage it was at, we got in close to get some more pictures and check it out more closely in daylight. Well, just for the hell of it, he tried it... The damn car started right up!!! Revved to life! WOW! But it was definitely totalled other that that. The rear suspension is gone, the rear passenger wheel was moved about 6" forward. And the whole back end is crushed. But the interior, where we all were, is perfectly intact. Then we went out to where it happened. It became all too clear what happened when we got there. We saw the huge hole on the side of the road. The rear tire hit that, dismounted, and continued to spin around - can't exactly drive a car on rims...

Anyway, I've set up a site with some pictures. They're about 300k worth, 17 pics, and all on one page, may take a couple minutes to load depending on your speed conenction...

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/5095/

Enjoy, and be glad you're driving the car you are. It's more than just fast and good looking. It could save your life... Did mine. And you don't even have to be going 100+ mph to come too close to "the edge". And I still thank Justin for the ride of my life. I'm just glad it wasn't my last.

Eric Bowden
The 222 HP Stereo...
"still counting his lucky stars"

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