There are those rare moments where you're behind the wheel, everything is on the line and you drive like a character in a Jason Statham movie. What's your favorite hero driving moment?
It was college. Austin. I was on my way to a BBQ at a friend's house and had the girlfriend and two of her friends in the Ford Taurus I was driving. After dropping off a few DVDs at the indy movie shop I pulled the old sedan out on Guadalupe Street when I noticed an older white Caddy rapidly filling the rear view mirror. I swerved out of the way. Was it my bad? Was the driver going too fast? I wasn't sure, but I apologized to my passengers and thought nothing of it. Then the Caddy started following us. Then it pulled close to the driver's side. Too close. Not wanting to get into a road rage incident (it's Texas, they could have a gun), I pull quickly turn off on a side street, hoping they'll just leave us alone and we can take the scenic route to the BBQ. No big deal.
Like the 18-wheeler in Duel, the Caddy somehow turned around and caught up with us again. Not sure what their deal was but, knowing they probably didn't want to give us an award for good driving, I floored it and cut down another street. At this point the chase was on. Someone said they saw the passenger reaching for something. That probably wasn't what it seemed but everyone quickly pulled out a cell phone to call 911. My one advantage was, miraculously, they were driving a car heavier and less agile than a Ford Taurus.
Knowing the neighborhood fairly well, and not wanting to speed through for fear of hitting someone/something, I plan to take a quick exit to a more visual and well-traveled road around the corner. Then the driver of the Caddy tries to overtake us and cut us off. It's a narrow street and if they can get ahead of us it's bad news. I yell "Hold on" and slam on the brakes. The white whale goes screaming by and I throw it in reverse.
I'm now driving backwards, through a residential neighborhood, about as quickly as a Ford Taurus can go (it felt like 50 MPH, it was probably more like 25 MPH). I remember there's a roundabout coming up and navigate around it without clipping anything. At the next roundabout, lacking a traditional parking brake, I quickly put the Taurus in neutral and slide the car around so it's pointing down another street (mostly). I hit the gas and make haste for where the police plan to meet us.
A quick glance behind me and I see the Caddy has just negotiated the street and turned around. At this point I know I'm far enough along to make it to the police before they can catch up with us and, either they saw the police and turned around, or they gave up. Either way, we were safe.
The officer who met us said we did the right thing. This is probably because we didn't mention the high-speed, reverse slide around the roundabout. But once I stopped shaking it felt pretty good.
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