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Oops! Thought I had the whole 'opposite lock' thing down.


edenc

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A very heart felt 'Thanks for the condolences yawl'.

 

I had been away for a weekend in Honfleur with my wife, my mate and his wife. My mate was in his Lotus Exige S. Real bummer as we'd behaved in exemplary fashion all weekend, abiding (pretty much) by all speed restrictions and just having a bit of straight line fun. Came home on Eurotunnel and arrived next door to my mate at a traffic controlled roundabout. I need to be careful what I say here in case there some insurance detective prowling the web (just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you) Well, just off the roundabout there is a tight left hand entry to a short stretch of dual carriageway. Problem was that being with a 3.5 litre, supercharged go-kart all weekend I had switched the ESP off to give that little extra where it was needed in a straight line; I forgot to turn it back on so on the tight left hand entry to the dual carriageway the back broke out and I over-corrected. A tank-slapper ensued, followed by a 180 which slammed the car into the near side curb and crash barrier where (after the driver side airbag had gone off and deafened me...yes, the simulated effect in Need for Speed, Most Wanted is accurate) we came to a standstill. Oh! and in the process I had clipped the nearside rear quarter panel of my mates Exige!

 

In the photo, I was scrubbing the dust and tarmac dust out of my hair. Not something I have had to do since I turned my 1500 Triumph Spitfire over 20 years ago, but man, it brought the memory back afresh.

 

I am insured with Admiral and they have been absolutely brilliant so far. Suffice to say that we switched to them after I was hit by someone in the wrong lane at a roundabout who then fell off the radar; this is about four years ago. Direct Line (my insurer) did nothing to progress the claim and in the end Admiral who insured the girl who hit me called and said that given I had a witness, their insured had disappeared and my insurer was sitting with their thumbs up their butts, they wanted to give me a courtesy car and take mine off for repair. All I had to do was sign a document to say that in the absence of their insured, this was without prejudice. You know what, they gave me a MB C350 as a courtesy car to boot!

 

They have already been in touch with my bro in the Exige and his is being taken away and dealt with already. I am awaiting a decision on mine as to uneconomical repair but I think I may get the same car back.

 

I have lost two years no claims, but that's peanuts in the big picture.

 

You have all said the same thing that my buddy in his Exige said when I promised him that no matter what, he would not be out of pocket for this even if I have to cover a loss of value at sale time owing to evidence of a bump. "it's just stuff. The wheels are insured and more importantly, we walked away". Well apart from the fact that my wife and I had to get a cab home because his car was too fing small to get a gnats cleavage into, let alone our weekend satchel, I wholeheartedly agree.

 

I'll keep you posted on how the repairs/writeoff go and in the case of the latter a BIG hunt begins.

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BTW meant to say I saw the weirdest thing whilst in France. A beautiful, rose black 370Z sporting a tow bar (on a French plate)!!!! And even stranger, it was fixed, not a removable swan neck!

 

My buddy with the Exige and I deliberated for quite some time over this disturbing anomaly and I came to the conclusion that he must have a 750 MV Augusta that he tow's about. There can't be any other excuse. That at least would be two out of the three most beautiful things made by man co-joined (the third being a MkII Supermarine Spitfire).

 

So if you lot have any other reasonable excuses for having a fixed tow bar on a 370Z, I'd love to hear them.

 

Wish I had taken a photo!

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