What have you hit while driving your Miata?

[WASABI]

We all know these little cars handle amazing, but sometimes the unexpected happens. Share your stories of road carnage here!

(Please nothing graphic, and this is not a roll bar pro/con thread)

[— kung fu jesus —]

Hit a diving hawk on the freeway at about 70-80 mph.

Cruising along the freeway, heading to a track day, saw a little ball of fur running across the road. Maybe a newborn rabbit or something. I line it up to pass over the top of it and just as I get to it, WHAM!! a diving hawk nails the front of the hood, just in front of the bulge. The bird died instantly, flipping into the windshield, smearing blood over it and the rest of the car as it trailed off, but its wingspan was easily as wider as the car or more. My wife screamed because she was sitting in the passenger sear chatting away. It put a nice crease and dent in the hood, too. It was a little hard to explain to my insurance agent, but my favorite body shop is owned my extended family, so it went well. I got a new aluminum hood and my cousin talked the agent into having the whole front clip painted "to blend the paint to the rest of the car". ;)

[—tsingson—]

Killed a raccoon that decided that midway across the street, he was going to go back where he came from. Pretty good size too. Also destroyed a bird that came from the trees in the middle of 85. Came out of nowhere and when I looked in my rear view mirror, just saw a puff of feathers. I guess my Miata doesn't like animals much.

[Demon I Am]

A mountain. jumped a 3 ft deep rain gulley to do so. bad tires + torrential downpour + NC215 = Bad times

[— kung fu jesus —]

So us NC guys are dangerous, apparently.

[WASABI]

I was coming home last night and at the end of a long sweeping onramp to a two lane road that immediately goes under a bridge. There was only one car traveling on the the main road. I was going to let him pass the onramp, and duck behind, then with my momentum, sweep around him and pass them on the left... well, as I put that plan into action, I didn't see that one of the two lanes was closed, and I ran into a construction cone. It was very dark, and the grass was high, so I never saw the cones. It clipped the the driver's side of the front bumper and whacked the driver's fender. I can feel at least two small dents in the fender. It's been raining since last night, so I haven't been able to really look at it.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Our move from Socal to NC, my wife followed behind me while I was driving the moving van. Somewhere in eastern NM, I ran over a delaminated truck tire carcass (road gator). I couldn't change lanes or alert her because my radio died, so her NB took it in the front bumper after the trailer I was also towing kicked it up.

That gator took a lot of paint off the bumper, spider webbed the rest, destroyed the plastic undertray, punctured the AC condenser, then punched and spider webbed the rear bumper on the way out, also cracking the driver's side taillight at the bottom.

[— Phatmiata —]

I ran over a few bobs barricades on the shoulder of the road once. I was coming home late and fell asleep at the wheel while driving down the highway. I remember dreaming I was asleep in bed and heard a weird / annoying noise. vrummp rump, vrummp rump, vrummp rump, and was I thinking WTF is that annoying noise, as I opened my eyes to see what all the ruckus was I went right into a row of barricades. It destroyed my then Racing Beat type II nose. I looked for signs of police, nothing, so I got back on the road and drove home WIDE awake.

I avoid night time driving, and if I feel tired, I just pull over and take a 10 minute nap in the car.

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

Ruckkehr was slowly scraped down the side along a metal post. I was in a position that it couldn't be avoided, and it felt terrible all the way through. Then she was finished with a 30mph entry into another cars bumper. I am sure it is fully repairable, but I took the opportunity to acquire the new one.

Nothing hit with 二回目 yet *crosses fingers*

[Dentman]

Just bugs so far. Hopefully that's all I will ever hit.

[BoBo]

During this spring semester that just ended, I was driving on my way to school and ran over a sharp metal object on the freeway. It cost me a tire blowout and I was 1hr late for class. I had a group presentation that day, but I still managed to do my thing and graduate on time before I transfer to SSU. I was lucky that I didn't bend my NB wheels. These OEM wheels can surely take a beating.

[The Driver]

6-7 weeks ago, I was hot dogging off of an exit ramp, at three times the posted speed limit. I was using all the available real estate (meaning the edge of the road) when I hit a patch of "magnesium chloride" aka salt. I lost traction, went on a 4 wheel drift, recover the car, but there was one more bend to clear. I over corrected and hit the curb, front wheel first at about 30 MPH.

Two control arms, tie rod end, and two damage BBS rims later; I learned a very valuable and humbling lesson.

[WASABI]

I over corrected and hit the curb, front wheel first at about 30 MPH... Two control arms, tie rod end, and two damage BBS rims

[maharaj]

One morning around 5am a deer ran into the side of my car. Totally not my fault.....here I am driving along and then Bambi's mother decides to ram the side of my car. Talk about a 'WTF' moment.

[The Driver]

Folks, the title to this thread is "What have you hit while driving your Miata?"

Lets keep it Miata centric, alright?