I have been asked a few times to share the story of rolling an up-armored Toyota Corolla in Afghanistan earlier this year. No, it was not a lack of driving ability. No, it was not bad road conditions. No, it was not entering a turn with too much speed….well sort off…LOL. It comes down to a the most basic of all driving rules: know your equipment. When I got in the car I did not know it was up-armored. I was back in the team room talking with a new SEAL that had just arrived about rally racing. We were discussing some of the basic tenets such as left foot braking, vision, etc. We decided that it would be a good idea to go do a tour of the base in a small front wheel drive sedan to display some of the rally racing techniques. I grab the keys of the Corolla I had seen parked in the lot for a long time and we jumped in it. Now, the base we were on (Camp Gecko/Fire Base Maholic) has windy roads leading up and down mountains and the base also has motocross tracks on it. I was taking the “new guy” over to a Helo Landing Zone (HLZ) to show him where it was. We took a back road that was about 2 miles up a mountain to the HLZ. On the way “up” the mountain I was displaying some really good left foot brake drifting around corners probably never getting above 50 mph. I was hitting some seriously sweet drifts! At the top of the mountain we turn around and we start to make our way down the mountain. I hit the first turn and hit a perfect slide…I come over a small crest with about a 100 foot fairly steep drop with a 90 degree right hand turn at the bottom with a small bridge I need to place the car in after the turn. I come over the crest and say “fuck it”….and stay in the throttle. As I approach the bottom and pitch the car right and stay in the throttle….the car pitches right and slides straight off the side of the mountain rolling one and a half times about 30 feet down a steep embankment. I’m hanging upside down with the new guy…we look at each other and start to laugh our asses off. I turn and say “I guess I ran out of talent on that turn”. We got out and walked our butts back to our compound and told our supervisors what had happened….”we were coming down a hill and hit a spot in the road with loose gravel, locked up the brakes, and slowly slid off the side and rolled the vehicle”. They laughed and said “what a knuckle head”…..YES I AM!!! LOL I had thought the vehicle was a “thin skin” and did not realize it was up armored adding a significant amount of weight to it. Would it have prevented the mishap….I’d like to think so….but you never know! I have been known to do stupid shit from time to time!
LMAO! Glad you're both okay and can laugh about it. And yeah, typically Toyotas are powder puff light. Part of why I gave them up when I realized Dodges were bricks.
Yeah, I thought they were powder puff light as well. I drove my brothers up to Yosemite a few years ago and threw it around some dirt trails there. In Afghanistan I was driving up hill and was thinking how fast I had to go to get it sideways. When I went downhill....not so much! LOL NO...if Momo would have written it it would have been masterfully worded...I just sounded somewhat literate!! Thanks Dave. Glad my demise can give you a slight chuckle Nevin!!
well rick as many times as ive came close to flipping my neon and mustang, i too said "fuck it" and went faster then got in a bad stop which too left me walking to get another truck on foot to pull my ass out and having one pissed wife walking back or helping dig my ass out :rofl: you painted one clear ass picture :worthy:
