35 People Are Sharing The Heartbreaking Moment They Realized Something Was Very "Off" About Their Family
NOTE: There are mentions of sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, and drug use.
1."It's outrageous to think of it now, but I remember getting in trouble for having health issues. I had epilepsy as a kid, and it was absolutely forbidden to talk about. In fact, if I had a seizure, my parents would be furious with me. When I was in junior high school, I missed several days of my medication while on vacation. I overdosed because I was afraid my parents would find the missed medication and punish me. (I obviously wasn't the brightest!) I had to go to the hospital, and I remember there was a psychiatrist consult who asked if I did it intentionally. I said, 'Of course! I obviously didn't want to be punished for having a seizure because I missed my meds.' The way that man looked at me when I said that...I realized that most kids don't get in trouble for having health conditions they can't independently control/manage."
—Anonymous
2."When my friends gave me faces of shock when I told them that my father performed 'bra checks' on us by running his hands down the front of our chests when we were in middle school. Among other things, I found out we were actually being horrifically abused and neglected."
—Anonymous
3."I was about nine when I was running errands with my best friend and her mom. When we passed by the jailhouse, I said, 'My daddy goes there sometimes' and laughed. She knew about our family drama and shared with me that I shouldn't tell people that my daddy was in jail. I didn't understand because my mama would tell everyone like she was telling a funny story."
"As an adult, my ex was having some problems, and I had to check him into a psych ward. That night, I went to a party. When asked about him, I just said, 'Oh, he's taking a "grippy sock" holiday for a while,' and laughed. No one else laughed. I then realized that I had turned into my mother, and it hit me that family trauma isn't funny. I got help. After years of therapy and work, we are both better and thriving, BTW."
—Anonymous
4."My dad and I were in a car wreck when I was about 10 or 12. This was before seat belts, and I broke my nose hitting the dashboard. My dad was fine. A friend took me home, and my dad stayed with the wrecked car. When I got home, my Mom was standing on the sidewalk waiting for me with her purse in her arm. Apparently, my dad had called her about the accident. My nose was bleeding. She took one look at me, never said a word, got in the friend's car, and left. I was alone in the house for several hours until my parents got home. They didn't even take me to a doctor."
—Anonymous
5.Similarly..."When I was about 15, my friends and I got into a minor car accident. No one was hurt, but we all called our parents to let them know and to come pick us up. Everyone's parents greeted them by asking if they were okay. My mom didn't even greet me; she walked right past me to tell my friends' parents how much weight she'd lost recently. That was the first time I realized something was off."
"What really made it stick, though, was when my mom met me at the door with a gun pointed at me because I was five minutes late for curfew."
—Anonymous
6."My sister and I were thrust into a world that felt like a cruel twist of fate. Our home, a ramshackle property in the mountains, became our prison after our mom and evil stepfather claimed it as their 'free land.' At just seven years old, and on our first night on the new raw land, I was left alone with my little sister, abandoned in a place with no running water, electricity, or escape. Our parents disappeared eight miles into town, seeking solace at the local bar until the early hours of the morning, leaving us to fend for ourselves. The only shelter we had was the old truck."
"Dad thought it would be 'good for us' to learn how to be on our own. As night fell, fear wrapped around us like a suffocating blanket. The howls of coyotes echoed through the still air, circling the truck. We would huddle together, tears streaming down our faces, as we stayed locked in the truck — our first night in our new home.
But as the years passed, abuse and neglect became the norm. Until we started spending time with our friends' parents — that's when we realized how bad we really had it. I moved out at 18, and my sister followed suit at 17. With fierce determination, we forged our own paths, immersing ourselves in education and hard work."
—Anonymous
7."When I used to leave my toddler sister with strangers at a hotel so she would be safe while I went back to the family hotel room to try to stop my stepfather from beating my mom. I begged the strangers to call the police. When the cops came, they took my stepfather away. My mom got my sister back, then got dressed to go get her husband out of jail. She left me (aged eight) in a strange hotel room with my two-year-old sister. She returned hours later with him. I realized it was up to me to keep my sister and myself safe. I couldn't count on anyone else."
—Anonymous
8."I got a starring role in the first-grade Christmas play; I even had a little singing solo. My teacher asked to meet my mom after the play, and I had to tell her my family was not there. Dad really did have to work, but Mom did not work outside the home, and we lived only a few blocks from the school, so there was no reason she couldn't have been there. This was the start of a childhood filled with them not coming to events in my life."
"As life played out, I could see that other families were different than mine. I made a decision fairly early in life to do the opposite of everything my parents did and see how that would turn out. I decided I would stay in school, go to college, keep a job, and have a happy family. I did it."
—Anonymous
9."I realized that something was terribly wrong with our family when I began to keep a baseball bat behind my bedroom door for protection. Every Friday night, when the adults did not come home from grocery shopping right away, we knew they had stopped at the bar. We three kids always dreaded those nights because we knew there would be a screaming, hitting the glass, breaking fight when they got home. Sometimes, our stepdad would smash the TV or try to drive the car into the house through the wall. It was no surprise that none of our friends wanted to come over. The whole neighborhood knew about us."
—Anonymous
10."I realized that my family wasn't normal after my dad boarded up all of the windows on the inside of the house because he had been awake for four days on crack, and my stepmom finally left him. He became convinced that I was a narc, and when I came home from ninth grade, he put a bullet in the wall next to the door I had just entered. I left home and became independent at 15."
—Anonymous
11."I was preschool age. My mother often became angry and physical with me. One day, she was screaming at me and began choking me, lifting me off the floor. I vividly remember thinking, 'This time she's going to kill me.' When she stopped, I told myself that I was going to tell my dad as soon as he arrived home from work and that this time, he would have to do something about what she was doing to me. But she rushed to meet him as he came in the door before I had a chance. I saw her crying and telling my dad that she had 'over-disciplined' me. My dad did not ask any questions; he just replied, 'Don't worry about it. I'm sure she deserved it.' From then on I knew I could not count on him, and I had to be self reliant."
—Anonymous
12."I was kidnapped by the sexual predator school bus driver, who drove me around for hours looking for a place he could bury my body without it being discovered. I was six. For some reason, he changed his mind and drove me home. When he dropped me off at my house, My father shoved money at him and thanked him, saying I always lied and made up stories and drama to get attention. My mom made me write him a thank you card for taking such good care of me. I had to continue taking his bus to school each day after that."
—Anonymous
13."Listening at a family get-together to my dad and uncles discuss how to dispose of bodies and how to kill quickly with a knife. I was six years old. I'm almost 70 now, and I still have nightmares. Thankfully, they have all passed away."
—Anonymous
14."I knew we were doomed when my adopted mom came running up the stairs at 4 a.m., screaming at us (two adopted girls, ages 7 and 9) that we had molested her, then dragged us out of bed and threw us over the banister to the tiled foyer below. I looked up at my adopted dad and sobbed, 'What's wrong with her?' He told me nothing was wrong. She'd always been like this. It did not get better. And we did NOT molest her."
—Anonymous
15."When I signed myself back into high school after six months of deciding I didn't want to go. This was my first year of high school. A girl was standing next to me, and I explained to her that I had dropped out for six months. She asked me, 'Don't your parents care about you?' That still stings because it made me really question if my parents did actually care."
—Anonymous
16."I was 15 and would go to my first boyfriend's house to visit. The family would laugh and joke around. I remember one of the kids tickling their dad's foot, and everyone laughed at his reaction. I came home and tried to tickle my dad's foot, and he lost it on me — screaming at me that he was my parent and not a friend. He said, 'Don't ever touch me like that again.' His reaction is something I'll never forget. My dad was addicted to alcohol and smoked weed every day, and I thought that was normal, too."
—Anonymous
17."When my dad told me to pack my things to leave our family home because my mom was not 'happy' with me. I was 12 years old."
—Anonymous
18."When I was about eight years old, a new family moved next door. It was a young couple with two daughters, five and three years old. I used to go over and play with their little girls all the time. The couple was very nice. Mike was a cop and was very handsome. Diane was super pretty. One day, while I was outside hanging with the girls, Diane invited me in for a snack and some lemonade. First off, my mom never offered us anything to eat ever. Then she said to hop up on the bar chair in the kitchen and just started talking to me like an adult. She started asking me questions about school and just conversing with me. It was the first time (outside of one set of grandparents) that anyone had treated me like a human being. My parents treated me like I was a disgusting, mangy street dog. They never asked me any questions growing up, like how my day was."
"They never came to my school or any school event. I walked to school by myself or with a friend starting from the first day of Kindergarten—it was over a mile away. They never said a kind word to me or touched me, never said 'I love you' or hugged me. So I just thought Mike and Diane were spectacular!"
—Anonymous
19."When I was a kid, they always had 'show and tell' at our school after we came back from Christmas vacation. It really sucked because I got to see all of my classmates showing off the new toys they had gotten while I had to decide if I wanted to show off the apple or orange that I had gotten; I had also gotten a handful of assorted nuts. It was always the same every year, so I started just playing hooky on that day to save myself the embarrassment."
—Anonymous
20."My dad has a PhD and has always had very high academic expectations of us. My older siblings were normal students (not at the top of the class, but definitely not at the bottom), but I remember them constantly getting beaten badly for struggling with their homework or not receiving an 'A' on their tests or assignments. Since I was the youngest, they didn't want me to experience the beatings they did, so they helped me with my homework every night for as long as I can remember. I was always at the top of my class, went on to engineering school (Go Jackets!), and now have a well-paying job in NYC. Now that I have school-aged kids of my own (who are in public school), I realize how barbaric my dad treated my siblings. Public schools have so many FREE resources for kids who are falling behind or want to get ahead. I didn't even know families actually take advantage of these resources all the time and that resorting to violence is completely unnecessary."
—Anonymous
21."When I was in grade school, I had a friend who was close enough to school that he would go home for lunch. He invited me, and his mom had lunch all made when I got there. It blew my mind. I remember wishing my mom would do that for me. My older sister and I would cook breakfast and make school lunches for ourselves and our siblings. My mom never got up in the morning with us. We were on our own."
—Anonymous
22."I realized my mom was a bully when I attended my high school reunion, and no one remembered me, but everyone remembered my mother."
—Anonymous
23."When I asked my college boyfriend if he regularly beat his sister. My brother beat me all the time, and I thought it was normal. My parents didn't make a fuss about it."
—Anonymous
24."I realized something was off when I got raped during my last year of college, and no one came to check on me once I revealed what I'd been through. My mother skipped over the assault and was excited for her first grandchild as I found I was pregnant after being assaulted. My father was pissed I was pregnant and accused me of sleeping with random men. Not a single person came to see me, and when I asked my mother to keep my pregnancy a secret until I decided what I was going to do, she told my family so I couldn't even have an abortion in private if I chose to. My family essentially considered sexual assault to be the result of stupidity on the victim's part. I then had to endure months of my mother villainizing me for not going to the police after the rape. And her telling me how heroic she'd have been had it been her that got assaulted, but she was 'too smart' to let that happen to her."
—Anonymous
25."I realized something was terribly wrong with my family when I was at school in about third grade playing with a girl, and we asked some other kids if we could join them while they were playing jump rope. One of the girls told my friend she could play, but I couldn't. I started to cry and asked why, and she said her mother told her she wasn't allowed to play with me because of my mother, and the others said they weren't allowed to either."
"The girl lived two blocks away from my home, and I guess the whole neighborhood knew about her reputation of her yelling and screaming at us kids while using the F word plus beating on us in front of others (I was the youngest) and that I had an older unmarried sister who was pregnant (I was too young to know that at the time and it was never talked about in front of me). This was in the early 1960s; I was judged and made an outcast because of my family. I grew up very shy and felt ashamed that I wasn't good enough to be included with the other kids."
—Anonymous
26."When I was in high school, my Dad would ask me to score him weed, and I was the only person in the household with a job. That lasted from age 15 until I moved out at 18."
—Anonymous
27."Like a lot of abused kids, I had no idea how bad my family was until I was in first grade and started making friends and going to their homes to visit. My friends didn't have chores at age six, like doing laundry and all the housework. They didn't get yelled at or hit with belts or whatever else was handy every day. They got snacks when they got home from school, whenever they wanted, and the food and beverages weren't in a padlocked pantry and refrigerator. Their families seemed to all like each other and laugh and talk to each other."
"At home, I wasn't allowed to speak except for 'yes sir' or 'yes ma'am.' The realization that other kids' parents loved them and enjoyed being around their kids made me burst into tears on the walk home from my first visit to a normal family. At six years old, I vowed when I got old enough, I would leave and never see my parents again. I graduated early from high school ten years later. I had secretly saved money from the many jobs I had been working. I moved out and never looked back. I had suffered every kind of abuse possible by then and knew if I didn't get out of there soon, I was going to be too damaged mentally to ever be a decent, normal person. I thank God that I had made friends with some normal people and got the chance to see what kind of life I wanted a chance at."
—Anonymous
28."I realized in my mid-twenties that my parents were not quite normal when I got married. I was only allowed to call my parents once a day and only between certain hours. Never, ever after 9 p.m. or before 11 a.m. And certainly never at lunch or dinner time. Also, I needed an appointment to visit them. I was an only child. I realized my husband and his entire family were nothing like this. We were allowed over any time, even without calling first. We always called first. I'm in my seventies now, and they are still like this."
—Anonymous
29."In my marriage, I share tales with my wife, like the time my mom got so furious that she drove her car into all the vehicles in our driveway or when she lashed out at us after we disagreed with her. I used to think my life was normal, but seeing my wife's expression suggested I might need therapy to sort through some issues."
—Anonymous
30."When I got married to my partner (now of seven years) and started harboring secret envy of how her parents and sister cared for her, communicated constantly, came to visit, and bought things for us while we were stationed overseas. I would get angry that her family wanted to make sure she was okay and take it personally like they didn't trust me or thought I was a bad husband because they were just checking on their daughter/sister, even calling them overbearing and 'helicopter parents.' It really put a strain on our relationship very early. Meanwhile, I (continue to) attempt to cultivate a relationship with my mom and brothers while navigating anxiety around who needs money or is going to demean me for being relatively successful."
"It wasn't until I joined the military that I realized most people don't overachieve or work hard in spite of their family but usually as a byproduct of their support. Luckily, I've been able to attend therapy and continue to seek help for what I know is a warped perception of love and caring, especially as a parent now myself."
—Anonymous
31."I didn't realize it was abnormal for parents to say, 'I don't like you,' when they were mad. I grew up in a home in which my parents' love was completely conditional based on our behavior, school performance, and how we impressed the parents' friends. If we struggled in a subject in school, we were shamed. I didn't realize this wasn't normal until my then toddler was having a very public tantrum in a public place, and the words 'I don't like you right now' almost left my mouth. I took a few deep breaths, picked up my screaming son, and said, 'I understand that you're mad now, but we don't throw things or scream in the store.'"
—Anonymous
32."Dating my husband made me realize how difficult my father could be. One small tease or joke and my dad would boil over, not talk to you for days, leave the house for hours, etc. However, it was perfectly fine for him and all the other adults to tease and humiliate you. My mom never did that; she knew it was wrong. Fast-forward and I started dating my husband. His family is huge; all of them joke and tease and make fun. and everyone just laughs. No one storms out, refuses to talk to you for days, or belittles you. Being around them built you up instead of breaking you down. I realized they all knew that humor was part of life and that laughing at yourself was a part of it, too. Being with him and knowing his family has definitely changed my perception of what family is. It shouldn't be that fragile."
—Anonymous
33."When I went to college and discussed things with my friends. Their lives were mildly screwed up, but nothing like mine. I found out that other people had more than one bra, one pair of underwear, one pair of jeans, two blouses, two pairs of shoes, and their dad's old winter coat. None of them learned to hold their breath for two minutes because if they moved the tiniest muscle while their mom was screaming into their face, she would beat them violently, leaving handprint-shaped welts on their lower backs. None of them was treated as adults, with adult responsibilities, from eight years on, never receiving a pleasant word when those responsibilities were accomplished, but only criticism that something wasn't done to her expectations (and there was always something)."
"They were not expected to —somehow — buy things they needed or were told to buy, at 14, with no transportation and no money...and they were not beaten when these things were not purchased. Oh, and that their parents were paying for college. Yeah. College was the beginning of my new life."
—Anonymous
34."I had a lot of trouble talking to people in the outside world. I remember hanging out with friends and wondering why they would say nice things to me: were they trying to get something from me? Or trying to build me up so it would hurt more when they insulted me? It took a lot of time to realize that sometimes people are nice because they like you. Essentially, my mom had taught me and my brothers a language that only her family spoke, one that was full of manipulation and lies."
—Anonymous
35.And finally..."When I read the list of 37 times people knew there was something off about their families and I could identify with most of them. I am 61."
—Anonymous
When did you realize something about your family was "off"? Let us know in the comments or via this anonymous form.
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
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And when the gull wings reach for the sky and their amber warning lights alert the neighborhood's lowflying Learjets to the new obstacle, all the world's air-traffic controllers, striking or not, couldn't channel the glut of instant onlookers. 1982 De Lorean 130-hp V-6, 5-speed manual, 2840 lb Base/as-tested price: $25,600/$25,600 C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 9.5 sec 1/4 mile: 17.0 sec @ 79 mph 100 mph: 35.1 sec Top speed: 120 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 206 ft Roadholding, 282-ft-dia skidpad: 0.77 g C/D observed fuel economy: 18 mpg When they look inside, they lose all control. The original black-leather interior is best saved for the dead-serious souls, but the new pewter-gray one should bring all the special-edition designers in Detroit directly to their knees. It looks wonderful. You fold in and do De Lorean's version of a Nautilus exercise with the tug-down door strap, and all at once They are away in the distance out there and You are gloved in the car. The sills are high (great for transferring water into your clothing as you get in and out when rain falls), the seats are low, and the backbone frame runs down the middle like a Corps of Engineers breastwork. It was Colin Chapman's corps of consulting engineers at Lotus that arranged it so for Mr. De Lorean, Chapman obviously feeling that any inconvenience encountered in elbowing up to the shift lever would be overcome by the layout's structural advantages. The box-section frame forms a Y at each end to allow the mounting of the radiator, the suspension, and the fuel tank at the front, and the follow-me suspension, the transaxle, and finally the Renault-based V-6 in back. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver More than any other car in the test, the De Lorean encloses you, leaves you feeling as though you've sunk into a mammoth beanbag. A few shafts of light enter over the bunker-high cowl and past the thickset A-pillars, the rear roof runners, and a set of those unfortunate matte-black, Venetian-blind slats arrayed behind the back window. Directly beneath that window is an elasticized fishnet to hold whatever baggage you haven't been able to fit into the nicely finished forward trunklet. A pleasingly nappy gray headliner follows every inner contour of the roof and the uppermost surfaces of the gullwing doors. De Lorean offers direct fresh air to his customers only through elongated, electrically operated portholes, handy in the otherwise immobile side windows for forfeiting money at gas stations and tollbooths. Mass ingestions of The Big Sky are purely the province of the four preestablished contenders for the throne, which variously offer sunroofs, T-tops, and targa toplessness. The instrument markings in the car from Northern Ireland are a touch heavy-handed, but the display is clear and logical, as complete as the rest of the interior. With all the expected trappings of comfort and entertainment, only the unreasonable could go away displeased with De Lorean's ergonomic success. A few moments' preflight familiarization will take care of any general questions, and adjustments of the ventilation, the steering column, the seating position, and the stereo system serve to maximize the Friendly Factor. Tall drivers will fit fine with the seat raked back, and we'll call on John Z. only for modest improvements in lateral and fore-aft seat support, and for something better than the near-deaf, windshield-encapsulated antenna. It doesn't pull in the outside world much better than Marconi's first efforts (the bass and treble controls are a little weak, too). Bring cassettes. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver The other cars in the test have been around long enough for massages of attributes and drawbacks alike. The Ferrari 308, for instance, continues to improve with startling rapidity. Even in the face of the De Lorean, the 308's Pininfarina styling is in a league of its own, and last year the car got fuel injection for drivability and a new tightening of quality control. This year it's put together better than ever, and it gets lovely subjective refinements in clutch action (easier and smoother thanks to a new linkage), shift behavior (more natural motions through the gated gear slots, thanks to an inch-taller lever), and ride and handling (thanks to a switch to Michelin TRX tires, inch-taller wheels, and new alignment specifications). 1982 Ferrari 308GTSi 205-hp V-8, 5-speed manual, 3320 lb Base/as-tested price: $55,375/$56,650 C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 7.6 sec 1/4 mile: 15.6 sec @ 89 mph 100 mph: 21.5 sec Top speed: 140 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 210 ft Roadholding, 282-ft-dia skidpad: 0.80 g C/D observed fuel economy: 13 mpg View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Ferrari 308GTSi Gone is the old control crankiness that called for a heavy hand. The 308 has assumed its rightful place as a natural road car, no longer wagging between understeer and tail-happiness, now happy to tread the line of your choice without complaint. It has become supremely drivable. The headroom is better in this thin-roofed, pop-top spider than in the coupe, the pedal placement is good for heel-and-toeing, and only the nice leather wheel needs repositioning, its current rake-away rendering it less than helpful in tight corners. That's a small problem in a magnificent car, a car made that way by Fiat's unrelenting surge of improvements. If the 308 doesn't watch out, it's going to be every bit a good as the Ferrari faithful have always believed it to be. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver In dealing with the 911SC' s rear-engined design, Porsche has had far more ground to make up in handling balance than Ferrari, but a decade and a half of technical advances have proved more than enough. With Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection much like that of the Ferrari and the De Lorean, the 911SC also enjoys excellent drivability; and whereas the Ferrari delivers a long-legged, thrusting kind of power and the De Lorean a mostly long-legged sort of mild urgency, the Porsche gives great, reaching rushes of honest, ohmigod, pray-for-tomorrow energy transference. This sterling acceleration gets lashed to the pavement via Pirelli P7s, and their stickiness and size difference from front to rear take considerable credit for taming the 911's infamous trailing-throttle oversteer. 1982 Porsche 911SC 172-hp flat-6, 5-speed manual, 2700 lb Base/as-tested price: $28,365/$34,165 C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 6.3 sec 1/4 mile: 14.7 sec @ 94 mph 100 mph: 18.2 sec Top speed: 135 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 185 ft Roadholding, 282-ft-dia skidpad: 0.77 g C/D observed fuel economy: 17 mpg The car will tell you everything that's going on, and it will make the planet pass beneath you at a remarkable rate as long as you apply yourself unfailingly to overseeing the chassis's ultimate shortcomings. Otherwise it will spit on your grave. Until that moment, entertainment doesn't come any more satisfying. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Porsche 911SC The 911SC's standard interior is finished in leather and its seats are built by Recaro, which tells you why it ranks near the top of the list in accommodations. The driving position is high, the outward visibility is virtually unobscured, and the instrumentation is terrific. Once again, Porsche has made its very nice yearly improvements to the once-vague shifter. The brakes are still among the very best in the world, and Germany continues to build the most solid, best-finished car in this group. Like the Ferrari, the 911SC is a whale of a deal if you can afford it. After the De Lorean, the 280-ZX Turbo is the second most illustrious newcomer on the block. Moreover, we have for you here the first Datsun Turbo five-speed to escape Nissan's prototype shop. This Borg-Warner-built transmission will be an option by the time you read this, and brings with it a number of chassis beefings, some of which Datsun hopes to introduce on regular 280-ZXs and Turbo automatics. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Datsun 280-ZX Turbo 1982 Datsun 280-ZX Turbo 180-hp inline-6, 5-speed manual, 2960 lb Base/as-tested price: $17,500/$17,500 (est) C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 7.1 sec 1/4 mile: 15.4 sec @ 90 mph 100 mph: 22.0 sec Top speed: 135 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 191 ft Roadholding, 282-ft-dia skidpad: 0.76 g C/D observed fuel economy: 15 mpg Each five-speed car will be fitted with a modified rear suspension with re-angled lower control arms and relocated pickup points; a modified differential mounting, which alters the deflection-steer characteristics of the rear crossmember for less wigwag in corners; stronger constant-velocity universal joints; spring rates increased 12 percent over the 1981 Turbo's; and shock-absorber rebound control bumped up by 8 percent. Anti-sway-bar sizes remain the same. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Our prototype had most of the new chassis pieces, and the change in ride characteristics was less than desirable. The car was prone to crash, bang, and bound over bumps the Porsche and the Ferrari took little notice of, and that tendency was mixed with a distinct lack of fade resistance on the part of the brakes to make for some truly eye-opening moments at high speeds. The five-speed is more than happy to take you right up there, albeit a little more slowly to 60 mph than the automatic, but it has a stubborn tendency to hang up on two-three upshifts. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Inside, if you like accessories and plush accommodations, all is well in the 280-ZX Turbo. The seating and steering-wheel positions are the best of the five cars, and the multitudinous controls and adjustments are just as well done. The most important addition to the Datsun's comparatively mundane, if practical, exterior is a dashing set of quadrangularly bladed alloy wheels. Except for these whirling eye-catchers, the Turbo's long suit may be its stealthy ability to blend easily with the madding crowd when faced with police power, something none of our other sports/GT aspirants can do worth ducky dung. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver Your basic Corvette is about as old as the basic Porsche, and in no way as up to date in execution as the charismatic De Lorean. The Corvette huffs and chuffs with cubic inches and preens in a new thirteen-step paint process that adds an overcoat of clear to make its metallic base last longer and shine brighter. But the plastic Chevy's physical persona remains the same: a caricature in fiberglass that looks racy as hell and fits together like something laid up by Prof. Irwin Corey. The new paint process, introduced when Corvette production was moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, seems to fill in some of the warp and woof formerly associated with Chevrolet's heavy-hitter. Perhaps the introduction of the long-awaited '83 Corvette will see an across-the-board improvement. 1982 Chevrolet Corvette 190-hp V-8, 4-speed manual, 2960 lb Base/as-tested price: $16,258/$19,000 C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 7.2 sec 1/4 mile: 15.4 sec @ 91 mph 100 mph: 19.7 sec Top speed: 130 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 198 ft Roadholding, 282-ft-dia skidpad: 0.79 g C/D observed fuel economy: 15 mpg View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver The best part of the current Vette is its effortless low-rpm responsiveness to the throttle. A brush of the pedal in almost any gear causes gaps to open behind the car. Unlike all the others (except perhaps the Porsche, to a lesser extent), the Corvette's transmission is almost superfluous in traffic. Likewise, its massive-section Goodyears exert a rousing influence over smooth pavement, sturdy braking gets forward motion arrested instead of you, and grudging understeer quiets your beating heart when you go ramming into comers. Meantime, you've got all the standardized GM life-of-Riley appurtenances to keep you company when the squeaks, rattles, and lurches over bumpy roads begin to take their toll on your peace of mind. By that time, the semi-dreadful seats (to be replaced by Recaros in 1983) may have cricked your spine to a fare-thee-well. The Corvette, more than any other car in this test, requires you to love it a whole lot going in if you're to have much affection for it at all coming out. This car was due a major overhaul it never got way back in the days when John De Lorean was still the man to watch on the GM ladder. Now, like John De Lorean, we are left to balance what each of these cars is against what it does. Sports/GT cars are expected to perform, ideally in some direct proportion to the way they look. The surface answers lie in our results box. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver We would qualify the Waterford Hills results only by pointing out that it is one of the tightest road circuits we've ever seen, thus favoring the torquey, big-tired, understeering Corvette. Then again, Corvettes usually turn good times over the smooth and predictable confines of artificial courses, and even had the Porsche not been, shall we say, unexpectedly eliminated from that portion of the competition, it's unlikely it would have surpassed the Corvette's easily posted time without lots of practice. The Datsun's brakes faded away entirely at the two-lap mark a number of times at Waterford. Because of this failure, the Turbo only managed to match the De Lorean in bringing up the rear. The De Lorean was hampered partly by its Corvairish tendency for the tail to make mild, unwanted advances toward passing its front at awkward times, but more by its simple lack of power. It is not gutless on the road, but neither does it bend your comprehension of acceleration. On the road course, the Ferrari was mainly involved in an internal squabble with its own curb weight, which outweighs its high-speed agility on successions of snug corners. Still, it finished up second best. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver It was here that we came to the real world, Ohio style. Do not ask us exactly where the Particular Stretch lies. We are saving its fourteen miles for future unsullied (read, unpatrolled) use. We will tell you only that it is one of the most devilishly tortuous and narrow tracts of pavement ever to give meaning to the words "lumpy" and "unpredictable." It has everything you could ask in order to drain the color right out of anybody's face. It also has one stop sign in the middle of nowhere (which was religiously obeyed); it has virtually no sources for interference except one tiny town with a much-reduced-speed succession of right-angled turns; and, oh, yes, it has a 2.5-mile stretch in the middle across high country that can be taken nearly flat-out, except maybe for the big, blind, bounding whoop-de-dos at about the two-mile mark. Owing to the nature of the course and the tender sensibilities that live even in the heart of the Designated Runner, each car was given only one timed run and each car was kept on its own side of the road, no cheating. Each could have been asked for a last bit of speed, but the relative results would have remained the same. The Corvette came off corners like a house afire, but the bumps set it to kicking around like the Rockettes on reds. Its bulk was too unstable to run as fast as you would expect on a wider, smoother road. The Datsun went a leaping, not as badly as the Corvette, but its brakes went woozy and induced a sickening front-end shudder when making their way down from high speeds. In handling, it was mainly a case of trying to match the suspension's peculiarities with those of the road, managed with limited success. But the Datsun did tie the Corvette in speed. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver There were two kings of the hill, and they have the sort of pedigrees that might lead you to imagine them on top: Ferrari and Porsche. They took their work seriously, chewed well, and swallowed what they'd been served with never a flinch. The Porsche answered up with fine acceleration, stunning brakes, a suspension that gave not a single damn how bad the road got, and the feeling that it was about half the size of all the other cars. It was easy to place and a lot less trouble to keep track of than its reputation would have you believe. It was a machine absolutely in its breathtaking element. What the Porsche whipped into line, the Ferrari nonchalantly balanced across. Its feeling through the controls was exactly one of ideal coordination. It gathered that scofflaw road under its wing, gave it a little scolding, and sent it on its way the wiser. Its suspension feels as if it has a little less travel than the Porsche's, and its brakes are not quite as inspiring, but it has that gift of drivability that makes it perhaps the most pleasing of all. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver But you should not be concerned for the De Lorean. Yes, it was the slowest in Ohio, just as it was in most of the proving-ground tests and at Waterford Hills, but then it's got tall gearing, excess curb weight, and the weakest engine. And the best fuel economy. However, its performance outlook is likely to do a complete about-face if John Z.'s deal with Legend Industries, the builders of Fiat's turbo roadsters, bears the twin-turbocharged fruit he's counting on. Engineers at De Lorean are already anticipating the upgradings they will have to make in Mr. Chapman's chassis, but they must be sustaining themselves with thoughts of the legend wrought by the Porsche 930 Turbo. One of the first things De Lorean's technical leprechauns should address themselves to is his car's tendency to get very antsy indeed at hyperspeed over bad pavement. Hopping, darting, and corkscrewing motions are not the stuff of confidence (we suspect that a distinct lack of torsional stiffness between the backbone and the body is the problem), especially when the car cuts into one's outward vision as severely as the De Lorean does. But such thing need not concern California executives and similar breeds, because John's De Lorean will provide them with all the flash and substance they need—and for a car so new and so different, that's a bunch already. What De Lorean has here is no less than the executive sports car. View Photos Aaron Kiley | Car and Driver If De Lorean keeps this up, he could be the only North American besides Henry Ford to leave his mark and his name on this business for the foreseeable future. It's a long row, but John Z. De Lorean is out here hoeing like mad. And the Designated Runner is standing by for the twin-turbo, hoping for no cops.
