Accident A27 Chi. Bypass Sun 27/11 Westy mangled

[ljsanders]

If any of you guys saw my Orange Westy in the outside lane of the A27 Chichester Bypass today, eastbound just at the beginning of the bypass near the Terminus Road roundabout.

That was my car that was a little bit mangled.

Just to let you know that I'm glad to say I walked away from it without a scratch, boy, someone up there must have been looking out for me today! I feel very lucky indeed. (and very p*ssed off as well).

I wasn't going very fast, 20-30mph, a little bit of throttle on exit of the corner, backend just gave way. I lifted off to correct the slid by which point I hit the crash barrier.

Now for all the messy stuff with the insurance etc....

Police were ok about it. No-one else involved, bit of a dent in the crash barrier.

I should have gone to the Hants & Wilts meet at the Rockingham Arms instead, but was at a wedding at Chilworth Manor, so I didn't get home till gone midday.

Cheers,

Lee

[pistonbroke]

glad to hear your still in one peice , how bad is the wreck ?

must be a fair few now who had this kind of low speed accident , escp. coming off roundabouts  

[leighc]

glad to hear you're ok mate

[Owen9364]

Glad to hear you're ok , hope the cars not to bad .

[brianm]

Westy/kitcar insurance will soon be up there with the rest of it. No disrespect to you, but this is becoming all too common this year.

B.

[ljsanders]

Thanks guys.

I hit the crash barrier side on, on the off-side front wheel first, followed by the rear wheel.

Near side is all ok. Off-side front wheel badly twisted, rear off-side suspension collapsed and went straight through the rear wheel arch.

I did take a picture on my camera phone before I left the scene,

but accidentally had it in video mode. I'll post a picture of it in a minute hopefully it'll give you an idea of the damage.

The police towed (or should I say craned it) the car to Westbourne Motors in Fontwell, so I need to visit there at some point to retrieve the tax disc off it.

My mechanic skills are limited to service and I dont really have the tools to fix it myself, so I'm already hoping the car is written off.

[ljsanders]

Sorry about the picture quality. I captured a single frame from

the video and posted it onto my MSN space.

[url=

http://spaces.msn.com/members/megabusaferrarieater]

http://spaces.msn.com/members/megabusaferrarieater[/url

Use the full screen picture button to the bottom right

of the picture. But I think it gives you a pretty idea of the damage.

The car is a Wide bodied SEi, with a 1600 CVH on Twin Weber 40's. Engine is fine, done 23k miles, in fact the engine was still running after the crash.

I can't speak to the insurers till Monday. So I'll let you all know how I get on. In the meantime, if the car is written off and I get a reasonable value for it, there is a cheap Westy going for spare bits if they want.

I was thinking of selling it in the spring to buy a quicker one, thank god I hadn't done that before having the prang.]

[ChrisF]

Glad to hear that your okay   Sorry to hear about the your car  

The roads are mega slippy atm with the cold weather and rock salt all over the place...be careful guys.

[hilux]

Stuffed my Ginetta last year so I know the feeling, glad you`re ok.

Note that when the roads are dry the salt powder fills the cracks and if its really dry a fine layer of salt dust sits on the road reducing grip.

Even on a dry bright crisp day with no moisture in the air or on the road it is still pretty slippery out there.

[JeffC]

beware of the

[neilb]

Glad to hear that is just you pride that got hurt, sorry about the car

[Al Yupright]

Sorry to hear about this Lee

Your Westy is one of the first I saw, awaiting your collection from the factory when I picked up my starter kit in 1999.

.

Get it transported upto Westfield for them to do a repair valuation.

If paying for labour it could be a write-off. If mending it yourself it would be new chassis, wishbones, uprights, bodywork, so probably 3-4K of parts

[Leon B]

Lee, bad luck mate, glad to hear you're ok though.

Yep you definately should have been at the meet instead

Good luck sorting it all out, let me know if I can help.

[ljsanders]

Thanks for the picture Al ! Another to add to my collection.

Yep, I remember the day I collected it from the factory. I was well chuffed.

Leon, thanks for the offer.... tbh, I'm not sure what I am going to do yet. As I said, I'm not particularly mechanically minded, normal servicing is about the most I get I'm willing to get into. Also my garage doesn't have power (its the other side of the street from my house).

So I'm not sure if I want to get into fixing the car myself and the labour costs for someone else to fix it, I'm sure will be pretty huge.

3-4k parts... ouch, I have the feeling i'll write it off probably.

The car (pre-crash) was probably only worth about 6k anyway.

Thanks for your support, advice and sympathy everyone.

[ljsanders]

Just got back from the garage after taking some pictures of the car.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/megabusaferrarieater

Damage is "limited" to:

- Chassis is bent on the right hand side of the engine. Front drivers side wheel is well embedded into the side of the car.

- Front wishbones completed bent and uprights broken. Steering rack detached from front right.

- Rear drivers side wishbones bent and upper and lower are detached from rear uprights.

- Sump split. Oil pee-ing all over the place.

- Both right hand side alloys are very bent and split, along with the tyres (as you would expect).

- Carbs looked like they might be alright, although the bent chassis was pressing hard against the air intake.

Left hand side looked ok from the looks of it. But probably needs checking and replacing to make sure.

I'll have to see now what the insurance company say. Probably a write-off by the looks of it.