- Joined
- May 23, 2004
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- 41
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- www.audi-sport.net
Well firstly an apology; if any of you got stuck in traffic on the M6 southbound on Sunday afternoon after about 14:15 around the Standish area, I'm very sorry.
Now the Rant...
Why the hell isn't the Armco in the central reservation on motorways a 200 yard wide layer of strawberry jelly and feathers?!?
(You can see where this is going, right?...)
OK, I was on my way down to see the focus of my affections on Sunday afternoon, I'd been re-routed closer to home for traffic but was now on the motorway and making progress. There was a bit of traffic on the motorway but it was all moving quick enough and the outside lane was pretty clear and flowing at around the limit. I had the Sat Nav on and a good selection of tunes and everything seemed sweet...
There was probably 50-100 yards between me and the car leading me, and he passed a red Fiesta which signalled to join our lane, as he was moving a bit slower I started to graze the brake as I approached him to maintain the distance. The car started to slow gently and then after a couple of seconds felt like it aquaplaned (I say felt because although the road was wet I didn't notice anything that looked deep enough to be particularly worried about), or maybe it just skidded/slid; it all happened so quickly I'm still not sure what happened. Either way though, I was out of shape with wheels over the rumble-strip at the central reservation rather quickly and the car was tracking a really unattractive wiggle instead of a nice straight line which I was trying to regain. Thankfully my ability didn't run out before I thought to not just jump hard on the brakes, but nothing else was going to help me after that as I'd already got into the very beginnings of a slide towards the Armco. A fraction of an instant later and my baby A3, probably still doing perhaps 60mph, hit the barrier pretty much square-on and started to spin. Just before I struck the barrier I remembered to move my thumbs, bend my elbows and lift my knees - but thanks to Fritz at Ingolstadt I needn't have worried. Anyway, back to the pirouette... I let it go round once, trying to use steering only to stop me from pinballing-around too much; and once it had done one rotation I started to use the brakes again too. I think it got through another spin and a half before it stopped; thankfully without straying into the path of any other traffic, but none the less facing the wrong way in the outside lane of the M6.
Dr Fritz as mentioned played his part beautifully, I looked down and noticed that all of me was still attached, turned the ignition off, pressed the hazard switch and tentatively went to get out of the car and on to the shoulder.
A generous member of the persuing traffic had stopped and already called the police - big thanks to the chap in the black Seat! - and it wasn't long before the cavalry started to arrive.
First on the scene was a Lancs. officer wondering what the traffic was, GMP (who's patch it was just inside) arrived a few minutes later. Anyway, after checking that there were no injuries or other problems, he asked me if I could face getting back into my car and helping him tow it to the hard shoulder; which I promptly did. Once we'd done that GMP and the Highways Agency started to arrive. I was informally asked what'd happened by a GMP officer, and he asked the Lancs chap if I'd given a sample of breath yet, as I hadn't that was the next thing that happened. He looked at the machine and with a puzzled face silently showed it to his colleague who pulled a similar face and said: "Sir, at this point I have to ask you if you've had a drink in the last 12 hours" - I promptly laid a brick and worridly replied "No, the last drink I had was a bottle of Becks and half a glass of red wine on Christmas day" (note: I've been doing a LOT of driving lately!) - "Ah that explains it then" was his response, which I took to mean it must've been a 0.00 Anyway after that not much more was said and done (no questioning or statement or anything like that (they didn't even want to know how fast I was going?)), most of the police officers jumped in a BMW estate that had turned up, presumably to have a play with it as it looked brand new. The highways agency sorted the road out (closing a bit of the outside lane - I'm sorry!), and waited for grit to arrive.
The recovery truck came and pulled the wreckage of my car onboard and off we went. So, I'm currently sat here waiting for my car to be written off and an offer to be made on it, thanking my lucky stars it wasn't worse for me and of course the traffic I might've pinballed-into. Oh, you might call me soft but the maddest part is that I'm more ****** off I didn't get to see my girl than that my car's totalled!
Anyway, just thought I'd let you know what's happened, apologise for the traffic, and offer a reminder of just how good a car to have a crash in your Audi is - the Police, Highways Agency and my Dad (a retired Firefighter of 40 years) all remarked that if I was in anything less I'd probably have suffered serious injuries, if not worse...
That's how it looked after it was hauled out of the outside lane; apologies for the picture quality but I was still shaking a bit when I took it!
Anyway, to summarise, I wish the Armco was a big thick layer of jelly and feathers! I might not be looking for a new car now!
Regards,
Rob.
Now the Rant...
Why the hell isn't the Armco in the central reservation on motorways a 200 yard wide layer of strawberry jelly and feathers?!?
(You can see where this is going, right?...)
OK, I was on my way down to see the focus of my affections on Sunday afternoon, I'd been re-routed closer to home for traffic but was now on the motorway and making progress. There was a bit of traffic on the motorway but it was all moving quick enough and the outside lane was pretty clear and flowing at around the limit. I had the Sat Nav on and a good selection of tunes and everything seemed sweet...
There was probably 50-100 yards between me and the car leading me, and he passed a red Fiesta which signalled to join our lane, as he was moving a bit slower I started to graze the brake as I approached him to maintain the distance. The car started to slow gently and then after a couple of seconds felt like it aquaplaned (I say felt because although the road was wet I didn't notice anything that looked deep enough to be particularly worried about), or maybe it just skidded/slid; it all happened so quickly I'm still not sure what happened. Either way though, I was out of shape with wheels over the rumble-strip at the central reservation rather quickly and the car was tracking a really unattractive wiggle instead of a nice straight line which I was trying to regain. Thankfully my ability didn't run out before I thought to not just jump hard on the brakes, but nothing else was going to help me after that as I'd already got into the very beginnings of a slide towards the Armco. A fraction of an instant later and my baby A3, probably still doing perhaps 60mph, hit the barrier pretty much square-on and started to spin. Just before I struck the barrier I remembered to move my thumbs, bend my elbows and lift my knees - but thanks to Fritz at Ingolstadt I needn't have worried. Anyway, back to the pirouette... I let it go round once, trying to use steering only to stop me from pinballing-around too much; and once it had done one rotation I started to use the brakes again too. I think it got through another spin and a half before it stopped; thankfully without straying into the path of any other traffic, but none the less facing the wrong way in the outside lane of the M6.
Dr Fritz as mentioned played his part beautifully, I looked down and noticed that all of me was still attached, turned the ignition off, pressed the hazard switch and tentatively went to get out of the car and on to the shoulder.
A generous member of the persuing traffic had stopped and already called the police - big thanks to the chap in the black Seat! - and it wasn't long before the cavalry started to arrive.
First on the scene was a Lancs. officer wondering what the traffic was, GMP (who's patch it was just inside) arrived a few minutes later. Anyway, after checking that there were no injuries or other problems, he asked me if I could face getting back into my car and helping him tow it to the hard shoulder; which I promptly did. Once we'd done that GMP and the Highways Agency started to arrive. I was informally asked what'd happened by a GMP officer, and he asked the Lancs chap if I'd given a sample of breath yet, as I hadn't that was the next thing that happened. He looked at the machine and with a puzzled face silently showed it to his colleague who pulled a similar face and said: "Sir, at this point I have to ask you if you've had a drink in the last 12 hours" - I promptly laid a brick and worridly replied "No, the last drink I had was a bottle of Becks and half a glass of red wine on Christmas day" (note: I've been doing a LOT of driving lately!) - "Ah that explains it then" was his response, which I took to mean it must've been a 0.00 Anyway after that not much more was said and done (no questioning or statement or anything like that (they didn't even want to know how fast I was going?)), most of the police officers jumped in a BMW estate that had turned up, presumably to have a play with it as it looked brand new. The highways agency sorted the road out (closing a bit of the outside lane - I'm sorry!), and waited for grit to arrive.
The recovery truck came and pulled the wreckage of my car onboard and off we went. So, I'm currently sat here waiting for my car to be written off and an offer to be made on it, thanking my lucky stars it wasn't worse for me and of course the traffic I might've pinballed-into. Oh, you might call me soft but the maddest part is that I'm more ****** off I didn't get to see my girl than that my car's totalled!
Anyway, just thought I'd let you know what's happened, apologise for the traffic, and offer a reminder of just how good a car to have a crash in your Audi is - the Police, Highways Agency and my Dad (a retired Firefighter of 40 years) all remarked that if I was in anything less I'd probably have suffered serious injuries, if not worse...
That's how it looked after it was hauled out of the outside lane; apologies for the picture quality but I was still shaking a bit when I took it!
Anyway, to summarise, I wish the Armco was a big thick layer of jelly and feathers! I might not be looking for a new car now!
Regards,
Rob.