Scottish Elises

As some of the Facebook-ers amongst you have already seen, I done a bad thing...



Short story: slight smir of rain after a dry spell, dual carriageway, pulled out to overtake, bit of oversteer, no room to correct with other traffic alongside, so had to let it do it's own thing. Clipped the angled kerb and launched into the central armco. Standing on the road afterwards I was shocked at how slippery the tarmac actually was under-foot. The annoying thing was that two minutes earlier I'd thought 'Oh, spots of rain- road will be greasy, best take it easy', so I didn't feel I was pushing too hard at the time. Lesson learned.

Anyway, as you can see from the sheared wishbone and damper mounts, the damage is terminal:


Slightly gutted that I'd just had the front clam re-sprayed and a 4-figure service when I put it back on the road three weeks earlier! Also, I had it on good authority that it was the only one of that colour in Scotland...

However, all is not lost: the shed has now had a facelift...



But hey, any shunt you walk away from as they say...

Glad your seeing the lighter side of it and that you got away from it unhurt.

Gutted for you, main thing is you are OK.

Gutted for you.
Glad you're OK, that's the main thing.
It's never nice to see another Lotus biting the dust, particularly such a lovely colour

Shame Are you sure it cannot be welded? N1TUT was similar through corrosion and was repaired ...

The damper mount is bolt on, so can just be chucked away provided the plinth on the chassis is not damaged.

Cheers,
Robin

I did the same in my black exige, touch of drizzle, 50mph nose slide along the cheeze-grate-style central reservation...
Had to stop traffic to get my radiator off the carriageway...
Again - it's just a car.
Was glad to walk away unhurt..
(embarrassed but unhurt)

P.s. Love the car badge.

Owwww. Gutted for you mate.
Easily done, main thing is that you are ok and you appear to be taking it well.

FFS.....bummer. Whats the plan for a replacement?.

Sorry to see that Bertie. Glad to hear you are OK though. Lotus badge on the Corsa made me laugh.

Thanks folks...am a bit gutted. Loved that car. No idea about a replacement yet.

robin wrote:Shame Are you sure it cannot be welded? N1TUT was similar through corrosion and was repaired ...

The damper mount is bolt on, so can just be chucked away provided the plinth on the chassis is not damaged.

Cheers,
Robin

TBH I don't know the answer to that, Robin. It took a reasonable shunt. I sent some photos to Craig @ MMC as you'd suggested, and he was pretty emphatic about not touching it. Insurance CAT C'd it and made a decent offer. Both upper wishbone mounts sheared, both lower ones deformed. Wishbones bent. ARB bent. The damper bracket was badly deformed, so I'd have my suspicions about the plinth it sits on. Add new lights, clam, wheel, crash structure, radiator, trays, grilles, re-spray (churned through a lot of gravel) etc and it'd be getting an expensive business, I'm guessing.
Plus it was a K, so would be due to blow up on it's inaugural outing.

Would have been tempting though...now you're giving me second thoughts!

DJ wrote:Sorry to see that Bertie. Glad to hear you are OK though. Lotus badge on the Corsa made me laugh.

What's good for the Carlton is good for the Corsa...

So sorry for you especially after all that time (and money) spent with it off the road getting sorted.

Glad you are ok, more quality time in the Jizz then

IanD wrote:
... more quality time in the Jizz then

Must be Shug's summer holidays: I remember the day when SE was the by-word in school-boy humour...

could have been a lot worse.