Scottish Elises

Yesterday I was on my way to hire a van, I was with my ex who was driving to the hire centre. Driving down a B road we came round a wet corner and lost the back end, fish tailed a few times at around 45mph and within seconds we had hit an enbankment wall. The impact was unbelievable, I saw an explosion and then pure white all around us, which seemed to be the gases from the airbags. Unable to breathe or move I felt a little paniced but realised I was just been winded and had slightly buggered my back and my arm which i think hit the door, my ex had burst her lip on the airbag and bruised her chest from the seatbelt.

This was in a VW lupo. Most of the dudes on pistonheads reckon the Elise would stand a better chance in this sort of accident being light and a very strong chassis. Still can't help but take it very easy just now!

Jeez, sorry to hear that mate

I've been in a front-ender in a airbagged car, it's a shock when they go off and no mistake!

Still you were both only superficially hurt - that's the main thing. The car can be replaced...

Bad luck!

Never experienced airbags. Cant imagine it was very pleasant!
Hope ur both ok!!

I crashed my Mx5 and both airbags went off, and it was scary as f*ck.........and the smell doesn't leave you for a bit.

Glad to hear you are ok, it took me a while to get my confidence back but i think in the long run it makes you a better driver......well i did in my case cos i was driving like a twat when it happened

Sorry to hear about you accident, the lupo can be a nippy wee bugger. Hopy you both mend quickly

That sounds like a sore one. Hope it doesnt affect your confidence too much, I found after a minor prang I was a bit edgey for a few weeks. Makes you safer, I suppose. As long as everyone was OK...

Sometimes small cars can be better, sometimes worse. My wee brother wrote off his smart car last week, and the only injury he got was from the airbag going off. He hit a wall at 45deg at about 40-45mph. Police reckoned in a bigger car he would have been worse off as it could have turned. Having seen his car afterwards I can believe it.

Accidents are never good...

that sounds like a sore one!

glad to hear that you are both relatively unscathed tho. more shooken up that actually injured by the sounds of it. it certainly hits your confidence pretty hard when you crash but at least the airbags did their job and prevented any major injury.

the car's only a car after all - it'll be repaired or replaced.

ninja

Must have been quite an impact. The air bags on the Lupo ars designed to go off at a straight on impact at (roughly)30 mph. The control unit has mercury in it and if it gets hit hard enough then the mercury gets forced down a tube and sets off the bags. the tube sits longitudinal, longytudy, feck it, lengthways in the car so it takes a good head on thump to set them off. With the tiny wheel base aswell she'd have had to be lighning fast to catch it once it came round. Sounds like you were both very lucky. Glad your both ok. Dunno how safer you'd have been in the Elise as the Lupo has crumple zones in the monocoque so it designed to crumple up and absorb the force of the impact. Never seen an Elise crash, but i'd imagine the fibreglass would shatter off instantly and leave you in a rigid tub to get rag dolled about in and the occupants would bare more of the impace force. I'll prob be proved wrong on that bit though.
G

There is a pretty good crash structure in the Elise - the front-end is made of a composite controlled deformable crush-box. Back subframe is designed to fold in a controlled manner. Pretty decent, all in all.

As I understand it, it will transmit more force in a low-speed impact than a eurobox, but once you get to impacts that would fold a normal car and trap occupants, the safety cell is much more resilient. That's why I run with harnesses 100% of the time.

Cheers for the reassuring comments guys, she doesn't share the same love of cars as me and wasn't driving in a 'spirited' fashion. She did actually catch it but over corrected it which is where the wall came in.

On a seperate but almost related note apparently on the 2006 model Elise airbags (driver and passenger will be an option) amongst other new things such as an LSD and switchable traction/launch control (seems a bit non-elise-ish).

Nasty, as it sometimes take soemthing like this to happen to slow you down... I spun my BMW (no piss taking!) on a roundabout coming back from Glasgow, lost the back end and tanked it down the embankment. It has made me a lot more careful in the VX, however Ed on the other hand is happy to whack it round wet corners!

Ed, I am suprised the airbag didnt go off when the ned Nicked your scooter, and then when you crashed the Braemore Car into someone all in the same week!!!

Dave

Yes i did get the work scooter nicked (resulting in having to walk to work) and then driving like a twonk i bumped into another car! Wasnt paying attention! -(ah hem.... at least it wasnt mine).

Its all a (an expensive) learning curve and now ill be more careful and double lock the scooter which ive have justed learned has been found in Craig Miller having been crashed and smashed.

Dont think my inusrance can take any more claims/points so going to have to fork out the cash.

An expensive week it was!

Who do you work for? I used to work for Pizza Hut (delivery/takeaway) in Newington and we got a scooter stolen almost every couple of weeks. Not on my watch though! And without fail they would turn up in Craigmillar or Niddry gilmerton etc.

Even chased down a few of the barsteward, was good for entertainment.

Once got a police escort driving a stolen one back - it had everything ripped off of it - looked like a BMX with an engine!

2years ago I worked for Rushour in the cowgate delivering pizzas - one night a guy left his keys in the delivery car and nipped in to the shop to grab something, and two junkies from the cowagte dropin centre hopped in and drove off! They drove it to Lothian road and abandoned it