What's Your Worst Passenger Experience?
We spend our lives pining to be in the driver's seat, but alcohol ingestion means it's not always possible. If Schumi's driving it'll be fun, but in the wrong hands it's often miserable. What's your worst passenger experience?
The line between hooning and exercising a deathwish is often prosciutto thin, but I nearly lost my life in a Tercel wagon driven by an individual who had the sort of zeal for life you can only expect for someone who decided to pursue a life outside of their parent's survivalist ranch. Darting in-and-out of interstate traffic in the Tercel, dodging slower traffic and racing another friend in a hand-me-down LTD wagon was a recipe for disaster. Being all of 14 and having never driven a car myself, it was clear the 16-year-old behind the wheel was reveling in the danger between shifts and drags on his Parliaments. Lacking an advanced understanding of physics or vehicle dynamics it was still clear at the time it would be us dying and not our friends laughing their asses off in the big Ford who would almost certainly die. Making it all better was a malfunctioning safety belt that wouldn't clasp. In a controlled environment, there are few experiences more fun than pushing a car to its limit. In an old Tercel on a crowded highway there are few experiences more harrowing because driving it over 60 puts it immediately at its limit.
We survived, barely, and count the days ever since as a bonus.
(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of the Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)