posted 12-20-2004 06:10 PM                  

It seems that even though it was like reading a small novel, folks liked it. We've gotten a couple of PMs lately asking if we have any more stories. Naturally, we all have the stories of folks in cars or on Harley's giving us the thumbs up, coming out of a movie theatre and seeing 20 folks around your Prowler, trying to move over to exit and having someone in the right lane looking at the car (and speeding up and slowing down as you do, so as to look longer), etc.

However, whether it's because I drive my Prowler so often, because I attract the unusual, or because folks in Cali are just plain weird, I tend to have a few unusual stories. So, to appease our fans and to entertain y'all, I thought I'd start this thread of unusual Prowler stories that have happened to us. I'll occasionally post some stories here either as they happen, or as I remember them.

I hope you enjoy them.

posted 12-20-2004 06:12 PM                  

A few months back, Melissa and I are returning from Stockton in the Prowler with the top down. Suddenly, a new Corvette convertible (fully loaded with the optional "Two Hot Women" package) pulls up next to us. The ladies check out the car and us, smile impishly at us, and gun it.

Now, having owned a Mustang in high school (and having watched National Lampoon's Vacation), I knew what this meant. So, naturally, I gun it. We weave in and out of traffic, pass each other several times, and generally act like a bunch of high school kids. (Don't ask how fast we were going. )

As we approach our exit, I tell Melissa, "I'll take the cute one," at which point she punches me in the arm. I take the contusion on my arm to mean that these terms are not agreeable, wave and honk goodbye to our fellow lunatics, and take our exit.

Who says that a drive through the Central Valley is boring.

-Dan

posted 12-21-2004 02:45 PM                  

We're driving one night at about 11pm with the top down, when a Viper Coupe flies past us in the left lane. It brakes pretty fast, then allows us to catch up. We drive along, side by side for a few minutes, with the driver smiling. Then, a Mercedes SL 500 (crazy Germans, but we'll give em a pass since they are in the same family now ) comes flying up on the right hand lane to join our "Wall O' Cool Cars" (TM). We drive like this for a while, with cars passing us, taking pictures, then falling back. (In case you were wondering, yes, flash pictures at night are hard on the eyes.)

Eventually we hit our exit and broke up the show.

Not the kind of thing you expect at 11pm, but that's what's cool about driving a Prowler.

-Dan

posted 12-21-2004 03:16 PM                  

When Rebecca & I got back to our Prowler parked in a reserved lot in the infield at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the Brickyard 400 a couple of years ago there was a group of people just standing around staring at the Prowler. We started to get in and put the top down when one lady asked if she could get her picture standing in front of it before we left. I offered to let her sit is the car for the picture and she almost wet her pants she was so excited. :

Sometimes doing such a small thing makes people happy. Not many cars could get the same reaction the Prowler gets.

posted 12-21-2004 04:15 PM                  

Letting a young man who some of you have meet on the Light House Event sit in my car in Daytona last year has sent me letters and drawings and visits this page and chat room every once and awhile.

At every car show I go to I let people sit in it for pictures and I get the most fun out of young kids and senior citizens, I had lady who must have been 85 sit in it 2 years ago at a car show in town and took her for a ride around the block now every time she sees me with or with out the car she says HI and Smiles from ear to ear and says " Are you taking good car of my black race car".

I was at a friend of mines house for a Saturday BBQ and it was his moms 60th Birthday so let her take all of her grand kids ( must have been 10 of them ) out for a ride. When she was all done she must have said thank you a thousand times and all the kids were chatting about it all day long that Grandma took the cruisin in that Hot Rod.

About once a month I head over for dinner on the lake at a pretty nice place and we meet up with other couples and have gotten to know the manager pretty well, the first time we took the Prowler over I pulled into the Valet and they would not drive it but said I could leave it right by the front door, so 6 of use are having dinner and Mike the manager comes over and starts asking me about the Prowler and that he was thinking of getting one so I said go ahead and take it down the road and back with the warning you break it you own it, so he does comes back and says thank you, well about 3 hours later when we are ready to leave we ask for the check and the response is Mike took care of it. I was shocked dinner and drinks for 6 runs around $400 to $500.

posted 12-21-2004 04:16 PM                  

1) Put down the Prowler top.
2) Wear Santa hats.
3) Drive around.

At first we noticed the reactions we expected to get - lots of people smiling, honking, and waving. Soon we noticed a different reaction that made it even more fun. Kids were losing their minds!

That's right. Whenever we pull up beside or behind a car with a kid (or even better multiple kids), they go completely nuts. They start smiling, pointing, screaming, bouncing, waving, trying to get everyone in their vehicle to look, etc. You can't see this reaction and not laugh. It's like dangling a string in front of a kitten that has had a couple double espressos.

I've considered buying a Santa beard, but I'm afraid of the repercussions....

---

Wanted: Santa Claus AKA Chris Cringle

Mr. Claus has been causing children's heads to explode by appearing in a silver Prowler. Although the scientific cause has yet to be proven, most doctors believe that when children see this sight, they smile so widely that it creates an imbalance in pressure, causing the children to explode with joy.

If you enjoy Christmas and cool cars, please avoid this sight at all costs. Both car and driver should be considered cool and extremely dangerous.

---

I'd hate to be responsible for the Big Guy ending up in the poky....

-Dan

PS Simonsez, whenever something like that happens to me, I assume that it's my dashing good looks.

posted 12-22-2004 12:27 AM                  

To answer your question Buddy, we bought cheap $2 Santa hats. They are size adjustable like a baseball cap. So I crank it down small enough to where it cuts off the circulation to my brain (funny, I notice no change ), slouch down in the seat, and let her rip. I've managed to get up to 75 mph, but felt like much more than that would have caused it to fly off. Actually, I prefer this for city driving since you get far more victims. And contrary to what my friends may tell you, I don't drive 75 in the cities.... often.

posted 12-22-2004 07:46 AM                  

...one story, although not exciting, was the most touching for me...

...I was at a downtown bank branch one afternoon and had parked my black Kat right in front of the banks doors...to the untrained eye, Prowlers might look like a real antique car.....anyway, I was done with my banking and was starting out the door with a handfull of free suckers..... a well dressed lady was standing there looking at the new black Prowler just a few feet away thru the glass doors of the bank.....she was about 75 years old and had a very frail voice, .....she then asked me if it was my car, I told her yes it was.....she had a very far away look in her eyes and said very softly, "I sure did have a lot of fun in one like that when I was a young girl"....I didn't realy want to hear any more details about what a "lot of fun" was, but I slowly took her out the door to see the car and helped her into the passenger seat .....she sat there for several long minutes and never said another word,just sat there silently while slipping into the distant past....she felt the leather seats, looked the dash over closely while touching all the gauges....she got out of the car and had tears in her eyes....she went back into the bank and I drove off....I never did tell her it was a new car, I just let her think it was the real thing....

....I do think time travel is possible, if only in the mind...

posted 01-24-2005 01:23 PM                  

I'm driving home from work in the Prowler. I drive through an interesction (with a green light) when a woman in a minivan comes from the street with the red light and pulls out in front of me (causing me to smoke my tires and barely miss her).

The Mercedes in the lane to my left honked his horn (I had assumed to warn me that he was there and not to try to shift lanes). At the next light, we had a red, and the Mercedes pulled up next to me. It was an older Mercedes that had been pimped to the nines. Very sweet ride. He rolls down his window and says to me, "That *insert colorful word here* don't know how much that toy cost. That was straight up playa hatin."

To which I replied, "As long as there are playas like us, there will always be hatas." (I think it helped give me some cred that I had P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent playing).

He nodded and said, "True." The light turned green, we waved, and went our seperate ways.

Just another day in the life of a playa.

posted 01-24-2005 03:00 PM                    

quote:

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Originally posted by Danderson:
[B]Then, a Mercedes SL 500 (crazy Germans, but we’ll give em a pass since they are in the same family now

---

My next door neighbor just got the king of those delivered to his home about 1 month ago. It's a black SL65.

To those that don't know, this is a limited edition SL convertible by AMG that sports a V-12, twin turbos, 607 hp. and 9 million ft/lbs' of torque.

Although they sticker for somewhere around $190K, try to find one for less the $230K+.

posted 01-25-2005 05:50 AM                  

quote:

---

Originally posted by tangled up in BLUE:
...one story, although not exciting, was the most touching for me...

....I do think time travel is possible, if only in the mind.....

---

Larry.... ever see the movie "Somewhere in Time"
one of our favs...

posted 01-25-2005 06:59 AM                  

My favorite thing is to give kids a matchbox replica of my Prowler. They light up and parents are extremely appreciative. Kinda of like the old Coke commercial where Mean Joe Greene tosses his jersey to the kid.

My favorite story.
I pulled into a shopping center lot and as I was getting out a well dressed attracive couple came up in awe of the Prowler. They were very polite in asking questions, as was I with answers. Finally the guy said, "I bet you women love it" and be ore I could answer his spouse/mate said "you know they do and I bet even you (speaking to her mate) could get some with this car!"

posted 02-24-2005 10:34 AM                  

Finally, a story that happened while Melissa was driving:

We're coming back from Santa Cruz at about 3am. This van full of college aged guys pulls next to the right side of the car, then takes a couple pictures. They slow down and get behind us and take a couple from the back, then pass us on the left and take some of the left side and of the front. Finally, they slow down so that they are driving next to us on the left. We hear raucous cheering, and when we look over, they are all smiling and giving us "thumbs up." The next thing, the four that are at the windows closest the Prowler drop their drawers and moon us - all the while still cheering and giving the thumbs up.

Of course we laughed. Melissa tells the story that they were so overcome with the Prowler, that the only way they could express their joy was 4 moons side by side.

Personally I think they were just a$$es.

-Dan

posted 04-20-2005 06:54 PM                  

Melissa and I are driving to Napa in the Prowler, when this SUV behind us starts driving erratically. Since he's in the fast lane, and I don't want to risk getting into an accident, I go over to the far right lane. He immediately goes into the far right lane, cutting off cars in the process, and onto the pull-off lane to pass cars.

Now, I'm getting a bit concerned. I'm not sure if I've angered someone, if someone has mistaken me for someone else, or if someone is just a psychopath, but I'm not going to stick around to find out. Unfortunately, I have a wall of cars in front of me that I cannot get around, and he's coming up fast. So, I come up with a quick plan for what to do if it is the worst, and wait for him to come along side me, which he does.

I look over, getting ready to make my move, and see that he has a video camera out and is taping the car.
Melissa and I look at each other, laugh, then let him get his footage. The car in front of us exits, so I thought I'd give the cameraman a good view of the exhaust, and gunned it.

Damn paparazzi.

posted 04-23-2005 12:16 AM                  

quote:

---

Originally posted by tangled up in BLUE:
lotsa Kats, lotsa miles, lotsa smiles.....

...one story, although not exciting, was the most touching for me...

...I was at a downtown bank branch one afternoon and had parked my black Kat right in front of the banks doors...to the untrained eye, Prowlers might look like a real antique car.....anyway, I was done with my banking and was starting out the door with a handfull of free suckers..... a well dressed lady was standing there looking at the new black Prowler just a few feet away thru the glass doors of the bank.....she was about 75 years old and had a very frail voice, .....she then asked me if it was my car, I told her yes it was.....she had a very far away look in her eyes and said very softly, "I sure did have a lot of fun in one like that when I was a young girl"....I didn't realy want to hear any more details about what a "lot of fun" was, but I slowly took her out the door to see the car and helped her into the passenger seat .....she sat there for several long minutes and never said another word,just sat there silently while slipping into the distant past....she felt the leather seats, looked the dash over closely while touching all the gauges....she got out of the car and had tears in her eyes....she went back into the bank and I drove off....I never did tell her it was a new car, I just let her think it was the real thing....

....I do think time travel is possible, if only in the mind...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.....

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