Today i watched
05-13-2006, 01:49 PM
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We got up early this morning to try and avoid the traffic going to Cardiff for the FA Cup final. Unfortunately we failed and ended up crawling through it.
The reason we were going to wales was to pick up his 911. It was in to get the window seals fixed and the alloys refurbed and some other minor work done. Looked beautiful when we pulled up. Waxed and ready to rock.
We went for a nice meal in a pub and then began the trek home. We took M4 across the Severn bridge (owned by bloody Germans who done take plastic so we had to write a cheque?! as neither of us had any cash)....
On the M5 entering gloucester area it began to rain quite heavily. No problem. E60 with new PS2's is ace in the wet. Porsche was doing fine too. Left the heavy rain and continued travelling back. We passed the signs for Worcester.... It had started raining again but it was light....however there was a fair bit of water on the road every now and again....
No problem tho. Not much traffic and not so much the tyres were having trouble coping.
As we were driving it suddenly struck me as to how wide the tyres on his car were. I remember him saying that the reason my old Polo was good in snow was that the tyres were narrow and cut through it and would be good in the wet too. I thought 'i hope his tyres are ok...no wait they are because they are newish...'
As ones mind tends to do i continued the train of thought and ended up at the obvious 'if he did aquaplane and lose control....id be behind him in my car and id watch as he died....how horrific would that be'...
I shuddered at the thought and brushed it aside. I looked down to IDrive briefly to check on what time we were meant to get home. When i looked up his car suddenly lost complete traction and the back end went sideways..
We had been travelling Dead straight at around 80.......my car didnt do anything. no aquaplaning..nothing...
Meanwhile the rear of his car had come all the way round and he was in a full out uncontrollable spin. In the space of a second or two he was facing me in the middle lane with the rear of his car facing the direction i was travelling. He continued to spin wildly across all 3 lanes (thank the good lord there was no traffic) and onto the hardshoulder. Every now and again the car would regain traction but then lose it violently putting him into another spin. He spun over the hard shoulder and onto the verge.
As luck (or god) would have it for some reason there was a great deal of verge on the side of the road. I have no idea why as most motorways dont have it.....when the porsche hit the grass this did him no favours and it became even harder to steer.
I just sat there watching feeling completely and totally helpless. The grass and mud was flying out from both sides of the car as it continued to swing wildly left and right or spin round. However his speed was decreasing. I hurled my car across all 3 lanes and stopped on the hard shoudler just as he stopped about 100 yards behind and off in the grass. IF he had continued to travel he wouldve ended up flying through a hedge or just dying....
His car was at a standstill and i thought 'oh my god thankgod he didnt hit anything' then his tyres began to spin as he scrabbled to get out the mud.
The description doesnt adequatly describe what happened but if you have ever seen a sports car lose it on a circuit and fly off into the grass totally out of control and in a spin you have some idea of what it looked like. When its your own father in the car its different to watching it on tv.
He said he didnt really think about dying although it did go through his mind but instead concentrated on trying to correct it. He said he turned into the skid because he was worried if it caught on the tyre the car could flip.
The chances of no traffic
The chance of him not spinning off right (into the central reservation and metal barriers)
The chance of there being enough (and almost precisely enough) grass verge for him to slow down and for the car to come to rest
Suffice to say it scared the shit out of me and made me realise just how we take things for granted. In the blink of an eye my entire life could have come crashing down through noones fault and all i couldve done was sit and watch. Alone.
The reason we were going to wales was to pick up his 911. It was in to get the window seals fixed and the alloys refurbed and some other minor work done. Looked beautiful when we pulled up. Waxed and ready to rock.
We went for a nice meal in a pub and then began the trek home. We took M4 across the Severn bridge (owned by bloody Germans who done take plastic so we had to write a cheque?! as neither of us had any cash)....
On the M5 entering gloucester area it began to rain quite heavily. No problem. E60 with new PS2's is ace in the wet. Porsche was doing fine too. Left the heavy rain and continued travelling back. We passed the signs for Worcester.... It had started raining again but it was light....however there was a fair bit of water on the road every now and again....
No problem tho. Not much traffic and not so much the tyres were having trouble coping.
As we were driving it suddenly struck me as to how wide the tyres on his car were. I remember him saying that the reason my old Polo was good in snow was that the tyres were narrow and cut through it and would be good in the wet too. I thought 'i hope his tyres are ok...no wait they are because they are newish...'
As ones mind tends to do i continued the train of thought and ended up at the obvious 'if he did aquaplane and lose control....id be behind him in my car and id watch as he died....how horrific would that be'...
I shuddered at the thought and brushed it aside. I looked down to IDrive briefly to check on what time we were meant to get home. When i looked up his car suddenly lost complete traction and the back end went sideways..
We had been travelling Dead straight at around 80.......my car didnt do anything. no aquaplaning..nothing...
Meanwhile the rear of his car had come all the way round and he was in a full out uncontrollable spin. In the space of a second or two he was facing me in the middle lane with the rear of his car facing the direction i was travelling. He continued to spin wildly across all 3 lanes (thank the good lord there was no traffic) and onto the hardshoulder. Every now and again the car would regain traction but then lose it violently putting him into another spin. He spun over the hard shoulder and onto the verge.
As luck (or god) would have it for some reason there was a great deal of verge on the side of the road. I have no idea why as most motorways dont have it.....when the porsche hit the grass this did him no favours and it became even harder to steer.
I just sat there watching feeling completely and totally helpless. The grass and mud was flying out from both sides of the car as it continued to swing wildly left and right or spin round. However his speed was decreasing. I hurled my car across all 3 lanes and stopped on the hard shoudler just as he stopped about 100 yards behind and off in the grass. IF he had continued to travel he wouldve ended up flying through a hedge or just dying....
His car was at a standstill and i thought 'oh my god thankgod he didnt hit anything' then his tyres began to spin as he scrabbled to get out the mud.
The description doesnt adequatly describe what happened but if you have ever seen a sports car lose it on a circuit and fly off into the grass totally out of control and in a spin you have some idea of what it looked like. When its your own father in the car its different to watching it on tv.
He said he didnt really think about dying although it did go through his mind but instead concentrated on trying to correct it. He said he turned into the skid because he was worried if it caught on the tyre the car could flip.
The chances of no traffic
The chance of him not spinning off right (into the central reservation and metal barriers)
The chance of there being enough (and almost precisely enough) grass verge for him to slow down and for the car to come to rest
Suffice to say it scared the shit out of me and made me realise just how we take things for granted. In the blink of an eye my entire life could have come crashing down through noones fault and all i couldve done was sit and watch. Alone.
05-13-2006, 02:01 PM
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Originally Posted by JayJay' post='282006' date='May 13 2006, 02:55 PM
I realise this is somewhat unrelated to BMW apart from the fact that whilst the Porsche 911 gave out the E60 stayed totally true....
No worries about relevance. I am glad everything came out OK. LONG READ though.. haha
05-13-2006, 02:05 PM
#4
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My Ride: 2004 E60 Bi-Fuel
Business Navigation
Park distance control
Sunroof
extended airco with armrest
18" M5 rims with Runflats
xbox with 2 headrests LCD
front LCD video enabled
Detachable towbar
Alarm
anti-blind rearview mirror
Adaptive Xenon
Bluetooth carkit
Garage door opener integrated
Headlight cleaning system
Seat heating front
damn.....you not often see a car crash happen, and now seeing a car-crash with a relative insidehappening in front of you...that is something....
Didn't he had any injuries?
Today I had also luck.. my dad was sitting next to me (I was driving) and we were passing a road crossing. 4 cars behind me and 3 cars in front of me.
suddenly on this crossing my dad was looking to his right, and screamed " he is driving trough the red- traffic light" and a car was approuching us with high speed.
It passed us about 2 meters behind my car ..... we were very lucky
something like this:
http://www.steakandcheese.com/content/deta...9&type=1&page=1
damn
Didn't he had any injuries?
Today I had also luck.. my dad was sitting next to me (I was driving) and we were passing a road crossing. 4 cars behind me and 3 cars in front of me.
suddenly on this crossing my dad was looking to his right, and screamed " he is driving trough the red- traffic light" and a car was approuching us with high speed.
It passed us about 2 meters behind my car ..... we were very lucky
something like this:
http://www.steakandcheese.com/content/deta...9&type=1&page=1
damn
05-13-2006, 03:00 PM
#7
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My Ride: 530d Touring
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Originally Posted by JayJay' post='282011' date='May 13 2006, 11:11 PM
Contisport contacts
They are newish too.....hes talking about changing it for a Carerra 4 now.
They are newish too.....hes talking about changing it for a Carerra 4 now.
Glad he is OK though.
05-13-2006, 03:29 PM
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My Ride: 530 2006
msport package, steptronic, pdc, mystik blue, grey dakota leather, sunroof, Bi-Xenon, heated rear seats, Hi-FI system, velour carpets
I'm glad to hear that you all are OK. What a terrible situation!
