And so a sorry tale begins and the cathartic process of posting the experience on here.

A week last Friday I left work heading for a lunch appointment. Sun was out, top down and I was going on holiday the next day, life was good!

2 minutes into the journey going round a roundabout I lost it. Nobody else to blame and thankfully nobody else involved. Too much right foot at the wrong time on cold tyres and not enough talent to save it.

I basically repeated what I'd done on the track at Donnington last time out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu8-QPRaFFM
(first 15 seconds)

expect this time there was a kerb and a road sign to help stop the car!

The result:



an interesting variation on RWS!

Damage is pretty much all to the rear end, although front nearside wheel is scuffed and front offside panel damaged at the bottom where it went over the bent road sign.





The nearside rear wheel took most of the impact and it smashed the wheel and broke the brake disc:



Obviously now off the road with the insurance taking a view on it.

My main concern is that the rear looks to have taken a good part of the impact so god knows what this has done to the chassis, the suspension and drive and hence I'm in two minds whether I'd trust any sort of repair without a 100% guarantee that it can be put back correctly.

I'm really pissed off with myself for being such a prat, but am thankful I didn't hurt myself and more importantly anyone else and the only damage is my bent metal.

This obviously puts my attendance at Rockingham on April 6th in some doubt and I'm sure it will have knocked my confidence.

At 43 one would have thought I was old enough and wise enough to avoid such things, but clearly you are never too old to learn.

Any views or advise on dealing with the insurers please let me know.

 

Sorry to hear m8,
i hope it all works out for you. hopefuly see you on the 6th.

 

Commiserations, that's horrid.

Well done for being man enough to admit it was your fault, the roads are so slippery at the moment and it's easily done.

Find out who the approved repairer will be (assuming it's not being written off, which is a possibility). If they do write it off, never accept their first offer and negotiate for more.

Just be patient and see what the assessor reports.

 

Advice:

* Make sure you drilled discs are declared.

* Auction the broken bit off at the next MM

* Make sure they repair it at a garage your happy with

* Grab a beer

 

Ahh, bugger! Glad you're ok though.

As for a repair - i'd imagine that'll be a no problem repair.

I think it looks worse than it is.

Worst case, you'll need a new subframe, but I'd doubt that.

As for the panels, most of that will push out - need a new bumper and light though.

 

OMG that poor wheel.

Glad you are ok though and hope it goes through with no hastle.

 

how fast in the corner were you going ?

 

Would guess 3k to

 

Gutted, it happens to the best of us though!

As Crusoe says, sign it off when yuo are 100% happy only - I have a 12k repair going on on my M3, as you can imagine it will be gone over and test driven so carefully before that gets signed off, even taking my dad along as pair of eyes number 2.

 

Sorry to hear and see.

An old New Zealand saying may help you and others in the future.

" To be Old and Wise, You must first be Young and Stupid"

Kiwi