| Author | Message | ||
| Bernd Beitz (Rubber)
New member Username: Rubber Post Number: 12 Registered: 2-2003 |
All � again, thanks a lot for your comments. Ron - I absolutely agree. Cause I �only� hit the crash-barrier twice the car didn�t seemed that damaged. But in fact, the car was bent. Frontframe was upset, the fronthood and both fenders had contact with the windscreen, the door on the driverside only shut with some resistance. The rear of the car was also upset � see the wrinkles in the body between rear wheelarch and door on the right in the third picture. Needless to say that the exploding tire destroyed the oil-radiator, water-radiator and everything else around. Closer inspection showed that the rear subframe was bent and the canvas top also didn�t shut propperly anymore. It took a while to have everything fixed with the insurance, but this is another story. Bernd | ||
| Bert Kanters (Bert308)
Junior Member Username: Bert308 Post Number: 120 Registered: 11-2002 |
About airbags: I always read that we in Europe have smaller airbags in our cars because we wear seatbelts, in the US bigger airbags are needed because they have to protect people not wearing seatbelts. Once in my Lancia Montecarlo I drove topspeed, which is only near 200 km/h, the end of the Autobahn was nearing and I slightly pressed the brakes, just some sort of routine check to see how they react, like you do when driving through the rain for a long while without braking. They didn't do anything...the wide wheels had cut trough the flexible rear brakeline. Pumping on the pedal! Pulling the handbrake! Double braking system with 2 separate circuits? Forget it, don't rely on that. 2-3 km further I came to a stop, no damage only a pale face and super fast heartbeat. 2 more times I experienced total brake failure, once on a racetrack nearing a fast corner. Always escaped! | ||
| William H (Countachxx)
Advanced Member Username: Countachxx Post Number: 3101 Registered: 2-2001 |
Damn, blown tire is scarey> I had a friend who blew a tire on his F40 on the Pocono track, he was doing like 170 Mph at the time. He was very lucky, he had almost no damage to the car although I'm sure the wheel was garbage | ||
| Bob (Dr_bob)
New member Username: Dr_bob Post Number: 42 Registered: 4-2003 |
Quote: Again, the main thing is that you are here to tell us about it..THAT'S ALL THAT COUNTS ok, my story, the boss of my dad always drove new 5-series. Always serviced them at the dealer, always speed driving. Regular trips around 200-250 km/h. Didn't care about wearing seatbelts. One day, something snapped (probably steeringhouse) he crashes and is thrown out of the car. His girlfriend did wear her belts and only had some cuts and brouses. Since it was a 2-man company my father had to search for other work, worked out fine gladly to say. On the other hand, it's a shame loosing somebody... | ||
| Ron Thomas (Ronsupercar)
Intermediate Member Username: Ronsupercar Post Number: 1037 Registered: 5-2002 |
Bernd and to all that has lost in these situations, Sorry to hear of the losses. Again, the main thing is that you are here to tell us about it..THAT'S ALL THAT COUNTS. After looking at the pics, I must admit, the damages are not that bad for the speed you were driving.. The Car even seems repairable.. What did your insurance say?? | ||
| Byron (Bmyth)
Intermediate Member Username: Bmyth Post Number: 1305 Registered: 10-2002 |
Bernd, I'm glad to hear that you made it out of this crash ok. It truly is amazing how well these cars hold up in high-speed accidents... tires will explode during high speeds if under-inflated. The sidewall of the tires heat up to very high temps and simply collapse. You are very lucky that the spin took speed off your car... 1/2 mile tire tracks?!! geez. JRK, That is very sad about your father... I agree, always wear belts. | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Senior Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 6398 Registered: 8-2002 |
i guess, in a sense, you 'Bernd rubber'...! Ok, ok, no more jokes... The important thing is that you're okay, Bernd... That's all that matters. | ||
| Bernd Beitz (Rubber)
New member Username: Rubber Post Number: 11 Registered: 2-2003 |
All � Thanks for your posts! Tom � To be precise, the crash happened around 5.45 am, the photos were taken by my parents (the silver E-Class, I called them to pick me up) around 6.45. William - The explosion of the tire caused the spin. Rear tire failure right makes the back of your car turn to the left � left rear tire failiure and your back turns right. At that speed, around 80m/sec, I didn�t had the chance or the ability to react. I think, I pressed the clutch but I didn�t recal for sure. Bernd | ||
| Wolfgang Eistert (53345)
Member Username: 53345 Post Number: 738 Registered: 3-2003 |
Tom, "....does the sun really rise at 4 am this time of year in Germany?" ".....On Saturday I woke up at 4 am ...... One hour later I was on the Autobahn..." Yes, in summer the sun realy rise around 05:00 a.m. in Europe/Germany. Wolfgang FORZA FERRARI | ||
| TomD (Tifosi)
Advanced Member Username: Tifosi Post Number: 4334 Registered: 9-2001 |
glad to here your ok - does the sun really rise at 4 am this time of year in Germany? | ||
| William H (Countachxx)
Advanced Member Username: Countachxx Post Number: 3096 Registered: 2-2001 |
Bernd, glad to hear that you are ok, sorry about the car. What did you hit that caused the spin or was it mechanical ? Did you lock uo the brakes as soon as the spin started ? Thats the best cause of action in a spin | ||
| PlayersMarkus (Playersmarkus)
Junior Member Username: Playersmarkus Post Number: 148 Registered: 10-2002 |
Berndt, you may want to rename this threat to : How to become a passenger... Markus Playersrun.com | ||
| J R K (Kenyon)
Member Username: Kenyon Post Number: 732 Registered: 10-2002 |
My dad is American and so am I, but we have mostly lived in Europe. In Germany and Italy people do not seem to mind not to wear seat belts. My dad and his friend made a bad choice.... Life must go on. I will always wear my seat belt... More damage is done to your self when you leave the car.... | ||
| John (Cohiba_man)
Member Username: Cohiba_man Post Number: 256 Registered: 1-2003 |
JRK thats a very sad story, one of my friends brothers was riding in a jeep that crashed into a tree at low speed, and if wearing a seatbelt at worst MAYBE would have had a broken nose from the airbag and bruises from the belt (all other passengers were fine, damage wasn't really too bad) but he wasn't wearing it and was thrown through the windsheild headfirst into a tree and died. BTW, why weren't your dad and passenger wearing belts at 155 MPH? | ||
| J R K (Kenyon)
Member Username: Kenyon Post Number: 731 Registered: 10-2002 |
My father had the exact type of accident in a M3 BMW convertble flat out. Same circumstances as you with the weather the speed of 155 and hitting the barrier and spinning all from a rear tyre blow outin GERMANY. The only thing is, he and his passenger had no seat belt on and with the force of the spin through them out of car and hitting opposite motorway barrier. My dad hitting is back and now paralyzed from the chest down and his friend dead on spot by hitting the barrier head first. The car kept spinning up the motorway. The police said if they had their seat belts on they would only had a few broken bones. This happened 12 years ago. Always where your seat belt.... | ||
| Crawford White (Crawford)
Junior Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 150 Registered: 3-2003 |
WOW - count your blessings, and don't stop until you hit 1,000,000!! | ||
| Joe (Jts)
Junior Member Username: Jts Post Number: 63 Registered: 8-2003 |
Bernd - your incredible story made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Thank goodness you're still in one piece. | ||
| Wolfgang Eistert (53345)
Member Username: 53345 Post Number: 729 Registered: 3-2003 |
Bernd, thanks a lot for sharing this horrible-crash story with us. I`m very happy to hear that you haven`t been hurt. For sure, you are the most "luckiest bastard on the planet"!!!!!! Take care & enjoy your drive Wolfgang FORZA FERRARI | ||
| Michael W. (Whimike)
Junior Member Username: Whimike Post Number: 57 Registered: 7-2003 |
Amazing!!! I am glad you are ok. | ||
| Bernd Beitz (Rubber)
New member Username: Rubber Post Number: 10 Registered: 2-2003 |
My 355 spider was covered by the extended factory warraty, so I decided to have a final �under-warraty-highspeed-run� over a couple of hundered kilometers to have everything detected the dealer has to fix. I live in Hamburg, Germany, and my girlfriend lives in Berlin. The distance is about 190 miles, straight autobahn with even surface and mostly without speedlimit. My plan was to start on Saturday pretty early, burn some rubber and some fuel, pick up the girl in Berlin, driving back to Hamburg and spend the rest of the day at the sea. I wanted not to waste any time on Saturday morning, that�s why I prepared everything on Friday evening. The funny thing: Something like a bad feeling, call it premonition, came up that Friday night. If you have told me something like that before, my answer would have been: �Sorry. I don�t belive in that sort of spiritual, darkage fairytale!� Cause I like to drive my cars as they�re intended, I keep them in a condition wich meet that purpose. What means I regulary check the cars suspensionparts, steering, driveshafts, etc. for loose bolts, nuts and things like that. Due to the strange feeling that came up when I went to the gas station that Friday night I double checked everything back home in my garage. I even controled the weelbolts with a torquewretch � everything was fine. Last thought as I went to bed � �Maybe it�s raining tomorrow morning - then I'll stay home.� On Saturday I woke up at 4 am from the first rays of the early morning sun � bright sky. One hour later I was on the Autobahn, hood down, heading towards Berlin. Weather conditions couldn�t have been any better, traffic was quite low, speed on the speedo always between 270 Km/h (168 mph) and the maximum, 300 Km/h (187 mph). The only thing disturbing was, as always, the hoodcover, wich went out of it�s fixing and blows like a spinnaker sail behind my head. I passed a couple of cars and after 30 minutes driving I saw two trucks comming up on the right lane. A large gap between them, so I didnt�t expect one of them to change the lane. About a mile behind them, I switched the headlights on to get recognized, and took action to slow down a little bit - while overtaking other vehicles with such a great speed difference, I normaly lift the right foot from the gas, place it some milimeters above the brake and keep my eyes on the others on the right lane. Engine did 8300 in 6th, just as I startet to lift the gas I heard something like a hard loud bang and �••••, you hit something!� came to my mind � I could�t even finisih this thought. In the same splitsecond the car began to spin and my mind went into highspeed mode, from now on everything happend in slowmotion. The next thought (true) �Okay you starting to spin - maybe your�e lucky enough to stopp the car without a damage!� This thought was interrupted when the back of the car hit the middle crash-barrier to my left. One more spin and I saw, still in slowmotion, the crash- barrier comming towards me. Thought now: �Okay, with the next impact you�ll be dead.� I� don�t know if anybody had a similar experience, in my case the feeling was wether bad nor scary - in this moment for me it was a fact that I�m going to die within seconds. No fear and no pictures of my life passing by, just the stupid crash-barrier and some green bushes approaching. From then on I didn�t recall any images, just the spin went on and on and on � I think in such a situation you just �duck and cover� by reflex. Without hitting any other objects the spinning went slower and slower and finaly stopped. I found me and my poor Ferrari in the middle of the two autobahn lanes, front facing towards the traffic. Obviously my mind was set back in realtime mode and I thought: �Brilliant you�re alive, even without getting hurt - so get out of the car before someone crashes into you and ironicially kills you after you survived the hard part.� The both trucks, some seconds before to my right, now were standing in a couple of hundered meters distance on the emergency lane, wich now to me was on the left. The whole autobahn was empty and I decided that ther was enough time to collect my wallet and my cellular before leaving the car and - don�t laugh - to switch on the hazard flashers! Then I called my girlfriend (Surprise!) and my parents to pick me up and started to inspect the car after the truckdrivers moved it from the driving lanes. As you see in the pictures, the right rear tire completly went of. I collected it's parts on my way back to Hamburg from the other side of the autobahn. My feelings about all of that would have been different, if the car had been crashed by my mistake. For insurance reasons there wouldn�t have been any difference, but the face in the mirror had always whisperd �Moron!� to me. But F_ _k it was not my fault and I wanted to know: How can a tire explode without any signs of warning. Eveyone I asked (Roadservice, various dealers and mechanics) told me that the tire overheated due to wrong tire pressure (nope Sir!) or a loss of pressure caused by driving over a sharp object on the driveway. I couldn�t imagine that you won�t recognize a different behaviour of the vehicle if that happens. As it turns out, in Germany there is one adress were they can tell you for sure why your tires shows up with such a bad behaviour � the T�V in Munich. The result of their research: A older internal demage of the tire structure, caused by abusing the tire, i.e driving over a sharp object or the edge of something. The T�V guy also told me that you don�t see such a damage in the sidewall of low profile tire nor there is any warning before it colapses. �When we have a tire with a similar damage for a testrun on our roll, a second before it explodes there is a vibration. That's all - you don�t even have enough time to hit the emergency off button on the control panel!� Hmm, I was the first owner of the car, the only other person ever drove it was my father, while I sat next to him the passenger seat. And � the staff of my official Ferrari dealer! Suddenly it made click: Over the winter the year before the car was stored at the dealer. As I picked it up and checked everything I recognized a tiny dent in the rear rim. Half the size of your small fingernail, less than one milimetre bent outwards, the paint of the rim wasn�t even damaged. My thought at that time: "Strange that you didn�t notice it the last times you washed or checked the car. Must be there from new!� Then I didn�t pay anymore attention to it. Thank you, official Ferrari dealer. What a shame that I can�t proof that the tire was damaged at your place. Meanwhile they lost their official dealer status, Ferrari Germany didn�t want to tell me why. What do I think after all of that? Never, never forget how sensible your tires are. If you have the slightes doubt about their condition have them x-rayed! The money is well spend. Race drivers get payed for driving at insane speeds � most of you and me don�t. Just for the thrill you bring your life and the life of others in danger. I knowed that before, but now I had a lesson. The most important thing: I�m one off the luckiest bastards on the planet. When instead of the right rear tire the left rear tire had collapsed the low ferrari front would have gone under the crash-barrier. Like a band-saw it had sliced me and the car into handy pieces. The cinetic energy of the car was exterminated by the spinning of the car (the police measured tire marks over a distance of half a mile) and not by the two impacts - the reason why I�m alive and even the airbags didn�t came out. I could have hit something more solid, one of the trucks or the pier of a bridge not far ahead - a million worse things could have happen. B.t.w. six people died in accidents on that particular autobahn A 24 that particular saturday. Have fun, drive save, never ignore your inner voice and notice the username that I choosed month before the crash. Bernd     |