(Sorry in advance for not doing my due diligence and taking pictures, I was too pissed off.)


Take 1 softball size seed pod (sometimes called a "monkey brain") falling from 35 feet at standard gravitational pull.

Then take an automobile (lets say an s2000, top down) moving at 55 mph.

Now what do you get when you intersect their trajectories at the point where the convertible top folds?


... one HELL of a mess.


On my way home I got hit by one of those bastard things so hard that it sounded like someone pounding the passenger seat with a baseball bat. It hit right in the join where the main support arms of the top split in half and basically exploded all over my interior. It took me 2 and a half hours before I just quit trying to get it out. The stuff got in every crevice of the interior, all the way to behind my seat and on both sides of the soft top. It hit so hard that parts of the seed pod got stuck under the plastic part attached to the seat that guides the seat belt.

There are still some small pieces that are stuck inside the various tubes that make up the top support frame (pieces went in every little hole and crack possible, had to use a tooth pick to get some out) as well as behind all the black plastic trim pieces that cover the roll bars etc. I am going to have to basically strip my entire interior at some point to get it all out.

Honestly I'm just glad it didn't hit my windshield to myself as it would have undoubtedly knocked me out. Easily the one of the scariest, and now sticky/messiest moments of my automotive history.

 

With that type of impact, ur right about it knocking u out if it hit u. Some thing flew in through the window and hit me dead in the eye. It felt like a rock. I never found what it was.

 

Money shot by plant life. Ouch!

 

that reallllly stinks! at least you didnt get knocked out by it while driving... that could've really been bad!

 

 

i dont know what a monkey brain looks like... can someone post a pic up...

not to hijack, but i was driving past a highschool and there was a girls softball game going on... i wasnt paying attention to the game as i was driving by, but all of a sudden a flash of yellow comes flying past my face... a girl laced a foul ball and went right in from of me... it was prolly feet from me... if i was ripping it, my car or my face would have been totaled...

 

Just for you guys I put myself at risk and pulled over to the side of the road at the scene of the crime to take a cellphone picture. Note that I would call my hands medium large or slightly above average. This thing is approx 4.5" in diameter, or slightly larger than a softball.

Here is a "Monkey Brain", still not sure what it is really called, but imagine this hitting your car at 50mph+ and exploding into quarter size pieces that got everywhere.

Edit: After matching my hand to the picture, I estimate the diameter to be closer to 4.75 - 5" for an average size one.

 

man that thing is ginormous. i've never seen one of those

 

I'm pretty sure they're called osage oranges. Wiki. I see a bunch of em around me. I try to avoid certain roads this time of year when theyre dropping because it can get ugly. I passed a guy who had shattered a windshield with one last year. The trees are usually pretty gnarley and have thorns on them I think. Apparently theyre good at deterring mosquitoes. Past that, not a whole lot other than being a pain in the butt.

 

- from wikipedia

This sounds right, pain in my ass.

Hmm... deters mosquitoes huh? May have to plant one or two of these in my back yard...