From davidw@msa.sps.mot.com Tue Sep 24 10:48:08 1996 From: David Wolfe Subject: Update: Firehawk critical, thanks To: austin-f-body@halfdome.tivoli.com (Austin F-body Club), f-body@f-body.org (F-body List) Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 10:25:12 -0500 (CDT) First of all, thank you, everyone, for your sympathy, support, and advice. I replied to as many messages as I could yesterday at work. It was a real morale booster. A good way to come out of a really crappy weekend. As for my car, it was officially pronounced yesterday afternoon. No tear-down was necessary. This came as somewhat of a relief. There really was nothing left. Anything not replaced would have rattled apart sooner or later. It would have been cheaper to transplant the hood, motor, and tranny into a new shell......Hmmm... When I get the pictures developed and scanned I'll put them on my web page and publish the URL. I haven't tinkered with it in months and it's really not much to look at right now. I now await the insurance company's first offer (Ha ha ha!). They'll be researching on their own for a few days yet while I will be preparing evidence myself. Any information on Firehawk resale value would be sincerely appreciated, particularly '95 coupes. I neither need nor deserve this hassle. Thanks for all the info so far, folks. As for pursuing the space cadet that killed the Firehawk, I'm undecided. If I can't get just compensation from the insurance company, what other recourse do I have? On the other hand, I don't need this aggravation and further disruption of my life. Perhaps I'll take Robert Glover's and others' advice and get a free consultation and see where that goes. Note, however, that this is Texas and you can't touch someone's homestead here. The sport ute will probably be sold off to pay for the State Farm lawsuit -- a daily reminder like an Escort or Aspire seems in order. I don't have a particular need for revenge. I just want what I had and I want my life back. In fact, I'd rather not know she exists ever again -- I have very little tolerance for the appallingly stupid. However, I have absolutely no sympathy for whatever pain this mock justice causes her. She was stupid to let the insurance lapse, criminal to continue driving without it, and flat out negligent to hit a stopped car in broad daylight. They way I see it, she dodged two major bullets: The Geo kept me out of oncoming traffic into which the severe yaw would have left my passenger fatally exposed and no one was in my back seat who might have been permanently disabled. There would be no escaping a felony record and significant jail time. As it is, she was at work Friday morning. Turns out she works at Motorola as do I -- what a revolting development. Anyhow, on to a less frustrating problem: I need a car. I'm tending more toward the ``let's wait for the fully independent rear suspension and LS1 in '98'' idea. Maybe SLP will even be kind enough to build me a new Firehawk then. In the meantime I might buy/lease a nifty toy or cheap out and get a lowly rat trap commuter. I've always wanted a '60s GTO or Firebird or Grand Prix or even a '7[34] Grand Am. Find one that runs well enough for a couple of years before I get the driver and can start the resto. On the other hand, I might want to go with one of the many used '9[45] Firehawks. I've always said if I had it all to do over again I could get a much faster car cheaper (and Austin seems to be the supercharger headquarters), but I loved the 'Hawk. You know where those extra dollars went when the heads turn and the drool flows. Makes John Eaves' dust taste just a little less bitter. ;-) I'm going to give myself some time on this one. Thanks for the help, folks. You don't know how much it means 'til you've been there. -- ``Accidents speak louder than words.'' David Wolfe, '95 Firehawk #523