My car is dead, long live my car

[mac]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but actually it doesn't look like chassis damage to me - usually you get at least one wheel pointing in a funny direction, or just hanging off or missing.

However, if you have damaged the windscreen surround then you are probably still looking at a write off, as it comes as part of the chassis IIRC.

Whatever ... the insurance company will soon tell you and given the state of the car I would be happy not to have it repaired - let them sell it for salvage.

Meanwhile I dug this photo out for another topic the other day - shows just how tough the wee beasties are

Robin

May look tough but it is deceleration injury that kills, not how together the car remains.

I have been on many a Medic 1 (specialist ambulance from Edinburgh Royal with 2 tauma doctors on board) trip some field where some poor chap's car has landed. Often these folks end up on the post mortem table.

Car and cabin can look fine, especially the bigger more expensive sorts, but excessive flexion/rotational injuries to spinal cord axons passing through cervical spine causes shearing and bleeding and can result in hemi or quadraplegia.

Also, deceleration of the brain in the cranium can also cause coup-contra-coup injury where haemorrhage happens both on the front of the brain (direction of travel) and the back (backward movement of brain against cranium after stopping). Otherwise, simply shear stress can cause diffuse axonal injury and brain stem death. And thats before we even get into bleeds and things you can see on CT scans.

These injuries are often not survivable and depend on speed rather than preservation of the car structure. Bye the way, I assume there was no passenger in that picture, or their head would be embedded on the edge of the windscreen surround.

NR

IIRC Rossini (Fluxotine) has in the pax seat at the time of the incident. Can't comment on his mental health as he's just bought Robin's shed

Mac

[bertieduff]

if it was badly buckled you would have felt it driving along the road.

unless you meant, the cause of the buckled wheel was hitting the kerb, in which case i'd say probably

Sore yin mate...gotta be a write-off... Btw as far as rear wheels go, I bought mine with a badly buckled rear n/s- was wobblin all over when you followed the car and watched but amazingly you couldn't feel a thing when driving...

[jj]

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... php?t=1819

I noticed that a while ago Bertie, must have either been before you joined here or your cars last owner!

Phil that looks proper sore, I would be surprised if it wasnt written off. I dont think it would ever be right again if it was repaired, lots of stuff to fix!

[bertieduff]

yeah, that was just after I bought it....never saw u, or your post (liked shugs comments, lol!) Took five attempts to try and get a matching replacement from Lotus....apparently these things are hand- finished in batches and every batch is different...gave up trying and have one very shiny rear wheel now!

Btw, Tut somersaulting over a cow?! That's gotta be the most surreal way to write off a car I ever heard! Respect. Isn't there a nursery rhyme about that?

[dezzy]

Yup, I think all four on mine are a little different, especially the very shiny new left rear

TBH, I think you only notice the difference on the inside of the wheel, as that's where it's darkened. I just let a bit of brake dust build up and it has the exact same effect!

[PhilA]

oh, i didnt mean my wheel was duff before the accident.
i meant i think the kerb caused the wheel to not really be a wheel any more

[bertieduff]

Any news on insurance assesment yet dude? I had a rear shunt that looked a lot less damage than you have and the bill came to bout 12K...reckon you'll be over that

[PhilA]

nope, no word yet.
wish they would hurry up!

[Scotty C]

Phil

As tut said, I wrote off my 340r and I had protected cover=My insurance never went up.

If it works out like this for you then it will be the best way to get top dollar for your car.

All you have to do now is find a nice S1

Fingers crossed for you.

Scotty

[PhilA]

the engineer has been to see it.

he will submit a report in the next day or 2 - but its not looking good for being fixed.

front structure is dead. so is the rear.
one suspension thing has broken off.
he ripped off the front clam to have a look at the front and the front bulkhead is cracked as is the screen.
he said the handbrake cover is off - but dunno what he meant by that - coz i have the alu one.
he says it looks like it has a twist.
he is getting prices from lotus people at the moment.

[mac]

If you've lost a corner I would be suprised if it's fixed as I think that means a new tub.


Mac

[Fluoxetine]

...By the way, I assume there was no passenger in that picture, or their head would be embedded on the edge of the windscreen surround.
NR

As Mac says, I was sitting alongside Robin when he binned his original Shed (That's me standing in the yellow T shirt, trying to get a mobile signal! )

The car stood up very well - Only a few very superficial lacerations to my scalp / left arm...But it wasn't just one huge direct impact, and much of the energy was dissipated by running backwards against the armco before we came to a halt...

Ross.

P.S. On the subject of kinematics of trauma/ mechanism of injury...A friend of a friend was killed in a low speed accident many years ago on the Corstrophine road in a Porsche 930 Turbo...Spun in the wet , and was T boned at 30-40mph...Shearing forces ruptured his aorta...

[max1966]

The inexorable slide toward morbid descriptions of death and maiming by car (glad you are OK Phil) leads me to think you are all fascinated by this topic.

A new thread perhaps is required, NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES, experienced directly and indirectly.

If the stories become sufficiently gory perhaps we'll all give up driving and stay indoors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shug]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but actually it doesn't look like chassis damage to me - usually you get at least one wheel pointing in a funny direction, or just hanging off or missing.

However, if you have damaged the windscreen surround then you are probably still looking at a write off, as it comes as part of the chassis IIRC.

Whatever ... the insurance company will soon tell you and given the state of the car I would be happy not to have it repaired - let them sell it for salvage.

Meanwhile I dug this photo out for another topic the other day - shows just how tough the wee beasties are

Robin

May look tough but it is deceleration injury that kills, not how together the car remains.

I have been on many a Medic 1 (specialist ambulance from Edinburgh Royal with 2 tauma doctors on board) trip some field where some poor chap's car has landed. Often these folks end up on the post mortem table.

Car and cabin can look fine, especially the bigger more expensive sorts, but excessive flexion/rotational injuries to spinal cord axons passing through cervical spine causes shearing and bleeding and can result in hemi or quadraplegia.

Also, deceleration of the brain in the cranium can also cause coup-contra-coup injury where haemorrhage happens both on the front of the brain (direction of travel) and the back (backward movement of brain against cranium after stopping). Otherwise, simply shear stress can cause diffuse axonal injury and brain stem death. And thats before we even get into bleeds and things you can see on CT scans.

These injuries are often not survivable and depend on speed rather than preservation of the car structure. Bye the way, I assume there was no passenger in that picture, or their head would be embedded on the edge of the windscreen surround.

NR

Novice,

Your experience of RTAs and associated injuries obviously puts you in good stead to discuss stuff like this. Wanna clear up some info about the Liz though...

Whilst the tub is enormously stiff and acts like a safety cell - the whole car isn't just a stiff cage. It's actually got some pretty sophisticated deformable crash structures to dampen impacts at a variety of speeds.

Firstly, you've got the clams, which do crumple in a controlled manner.

Then, under the skin, you've got side intrusion beams in the doors (despite the chassis structure having the rigidity required to pass testing).

Most importantly, you've got a composite crash structure (as in motorsport practise) under the front clam which gives very controlled decelleration in a frontal impact. The rear steel subframe is also designed in the same way - to deform in a controlled manner.

I'd much rather shunt my Elise than my 1.5 tons of Merc with a huuge bonnet. Some crashes you just don't walk away from, but I believe the Elise is one of the safest open top cars you can crash.

[Titanium S1 111S (gla)]

Sounds like you need an S1 which has blown its HG and written off the top end. Pay a few quid for that, another few quid to buy back the 111R for the oily bits, quick knock with a hammer, twist with a spanner and you have a Yota powered S1