84 505 STI - XN6, BA7/5 manual

1984 505 STI. This was my daily driver for quite awhile. I hit a deer travelling South on Highway 2 toward Lethbridge on a -20C day in broad daylight - don't know why he picked that particular time to run out, but I ALMOST missed him. Had I seen him a fraction of a second earlier I would have certainly avoided him, but as it turned out the collision caved in the front right fender, destroyed the front passenger-side door, shattered that window and starred the windshield so badly I could only see straight ahead. I did two complete 360s in the middle of the highway and hit the ditch, luckily nose-first. After a couple of seconds to regroup I got out, ran to the road and dragged the dead deer (a nice Muley buck - wish I could have thrown him in the trunk) into the ditch, then picked up the bits and pieces of my car that were littered all over the road. After all that I was able to drive the car out of the the ditch without help and complete the drive to Lethbridge. It was a really, really cold drive...

I pounded out the fender as best I could and changed the door and windshield, then drove it for another year until the head gasket went. I bought another 505 and wound up cannibalizing this one for spares. Parts car now, but with plenty of good memories attached.