This is a true story. Long, but true.
In 1986 or 1987, my wife and I were heavy into autocrossing, and were helped out by Goodyear who helped us out with tires at a deep discount. At a late season event, we had issues with the tires on our tow vehicle, a Chevrolet Beauville van, and they gave us a couple of Goodyear Eagle ZR "Gatorback" DOT approoved race tires while we were at the event so we could make it home.
Of course, being the frugal chap I am (some say cheap), i left these on for awhile. Another month went by, and it was Halloween, and we went to a Halloween party with the folks I worked with. I went as a sperm, and my wife went as an egg. I will leave it to your imagination as to what we looked like, but suffice to say they were good costumes.
We partied til the wee hours of the morning, and were headed home around 3a, on the outerbelt around town. My wife was asleep in the passenger seat of the van, and I was cruising along minding my own business, when a deer ran out in front of the van, from left to right as you look out the windshield. I was going about 65 mph and tried to swerve and miss (those race tires on the front really gripped!). Still, the front left corner of the van hit the head / neck of the deer, and the body of the deer came back and smacked up against the drivers side of the van. I slowed and looked in the rear view mirror, and saw the deer collapse on to the side of the road.
We got home without further incident. The next morning, I got up and went outside to inspect the damage to the van. The headlight and surround was smashed and the side of the van was all dented where the deer hit up against it. While surveying the damage, my neighbor came over and asked what happened, and I told him we hit a deer.
He said, "You picked up the deer, didn't you? That's your deer".
I told him that I thought better of it. I would have had a tough time explaining to the police what happened while loading a deer in the back of my van, with me dressed as a sperm and my wife dressed as an egg. With my luck, I would have ended up in the drunk tank dressed as a sperm, and that would not have been a good thing.
The best part was I wrote a letter to Goodyear about the incident, explaining that the race tires saved my life as I was able to avoid hitting the deer's body, and that Goodyear really came through for me. They got such a kick out of it they circulated it around to all the tire engineers!
