Upon reflection

[vx220]

Well its the morning after and time for some reflection.

Really enjoyed meeting up with everyone yesterday, was enjoying the run out until the acident happened.

Had a little bit of time now to get used to the whiplash and start the insurance process going. Just been out to the car to have a look and its in a very sorry state, every panel is damaged with most damage at the front end, looks like suspension and wheel damage too Very sad to see what was an immaculate car now in such a state.

But I do feel I was very lucky really and am counting my blessings, things could have been much worse. The barbed wire fence went right up the car over my head, so glad the soft top was on. Dont understand why the airbag didnt deploy though!

I took some pictures of the car, is it ok to post them or should I wait for the insurance to get sorted first?

Must admit am feeling a little out of sorts really, at the moment not really sure I will be back in a Lotus at all, I know they say always get back on the horse you just fell off but really not sure I can or want to, we will see what happens.

So its been a sweet start that has turned rather sour, I hope to still enjoy the social side of SE but not too sure I will be back in a car again soon or if at all.

Fingers crossed the insurance gets sorted, have heard all sorts of horror stories about them and since this was my first accident I have no experience with them at all. They have already started to quibble over the excess on the policy ( I am with CCI who have been great so far, the policy is with Aviva)

Cheers
Kevin

[Gourlay83]

I can only imagine how you feel Kevin,

The conditions were terrible yesterday. Some nice dry patches which was excellent but a far too much standing water. In conditions like that its easy to caught of guard.

There's no doubt about it, Lotus's etc are dangerous cars. Let the insurance sort it out and have a think about what your going to do next.

Alan

[ed]

Sorry to hear of your accident. Dont post anything until its all sorted with insurance etc.
And dont accept your first or even the second offer should they decide to write it off. HTH cheers Ed

[Shug]

Alright, I'll post my thoughts never having met you, so please take that into account and don't take it personally.

Since joining, you have had a bit of a 'go 110%' mindset, just from reading your posts. Whether you've taken that approach, or it's just been a bit of chat, I really don't know. When I first got my Elise, it was a case of the car scaring me for the first year and me showing it lots of respect to get to the stage I'm now at (which still lags far behind those with real car control) 8 years later. There are some lucky guys who can jump in the cars and get the feel for them very quickly (I'm naming no names as their heads are big enough) but the rest of us have to get the seat time in - preferably on track - and learn the car the hard way.

If you do decide to get an Elise, and that is and can only ever be your call, then take this experience as a good one. Take the hint it's given you to get some training, not push the boundaries on the public road and get yourself to a stage where you *would* know why the car spat you in a field (that's the most telling thing - a VX or an Elise won't spit you off itself, but you need to know what you did).

I don't think you should discount one at all - in some cases your experience is a good way to enter ownership as you've binned a car you wanted rid of anyway and you now have a new insight on how quickly they can bite should you decide to get an Elise (and bear in mind, an S1 is a more twitchy animal than a VX - S2 less so). Just go into it with your eyes open and get some training and don't push too hard too soon.

So, in short, take the hint the car just gave you and you'll probably never have such a bad experience again.

FWIW, it can happen to anyone, it's a real bummer and I feel really sorry for you mate. The good thing is that you're still here, the car doesn't need sold now and you have the ability to make the choice to get an Elise or not.

/annoying git faction

[Shug]

There's no doubt about it, Lotus's etc are dangerous cars. Let the insurance sort it out and have a think about what your going to do next.

Alan

With respect mate, that's f*cking nonsense They don't mollycoddle you like most modern electronically dumbed down motors do, but they will protect you when you run out of talent or luck

[tut]

Stop being a woofter and start looking for an Elise. Your write off did not even reach kindergarten level compared to some of us.

The original N1 TUT a few days before Tut Towers 2001. End over end into the field, even scalped a cow on the way. Told nobody, bought a new bog standard identical one on eBay the next day, flew down to Luton to pick it up, put NI TUT's plates on, all the Southeners who were doing TT were meeting up at a Hotel next door to drive up, joined them as they were leaving, they could not work out what the hell I was doing there as I should have been in Old Deer, did not even notice the different car until they heard the exhaust, drove upto their Hotel in Newcastle with them, had a beer, drove home arriving at 0300, a few hours sleep, then down to KH for the start of the TT weekend with nobody on S_E knowing what happened.



Keep in touch regarding the Insurers, we are experts on here and will make sure that you do not get conned. Similar thing happened to Brian Laing last year before you joined, though he was quite badly injured. He came out of hospital, got the use back of his arms and shoulder and bought a 340R, turned up for the next road runs and also KH. The thread is below, so once you have got over the shock, hopefully you will start thinking differently.

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... ng#p253994

All the best

tut

ps CCI offered Brian £8K for his Honda S2, he ended up with £20K.

[Gourlay83]

There's no doubt about it, Lotus's etc are dangerous cars. Let the insurance sort it out and have a think about what your going to do next.

Alan

With respect mate, that's f*cking nonsense They don't mollycoddle you like most modern electronically dumbed down motors do, but they will protect you when you run out of talent or luck

Bollocks

Fast, RWD and no assists are dangerous to me. I know any car is dangerous in the wrong hands ... blah, blah, blah

I have heard the "its as safe as any car" before and I don't buy it.

Light fast cars with no assists deserve respect, guess thats a better way of putting it.

[andyc]

My Lotus is totally not dangerous at all......but then it has sat in the garage for ages on trickle charge waiting for some sun or for the wife and kids to go away for a weekend!

[Stumpy Nugget]

Sorry to hear about your crash.. But at least you are ok.. Regarding the discussion on the elise being dangerous. I dont think the car is dangerous, it just deserves respect. Jump into any modern car these days and all the electronic gizmos will more or less see you right. Try and do the same in even a baby elise like mine and you will be eating hedge. For me I respected the Elise that much I ran away from it years ago and bought an MR2... but since buying the S2 last year I am slowly starting to get things to the point where I can understand what I can and cannot get away with in the car.

Back to my main point though.. you are safe, the money / insurance will sort itself out. Was it a lucky escape or was the elise well built enough to cope with the crash and save you. I am sure there will be loads of discussion on that.

[s29ttc]

From my experience I would definately go for another Lotus. I came from a standard pug 206 1.4 diesel with my previous car being a 1.2 8v clio and jumped into a S1 111s with no abs, no servo assist, no power steering and 145bhp. Now I am far far far from being anywhere near the ability of people of here but my view is if you drive the car within your capablilities you should have no issue. I have had the car now two years and Ive never pranged it yet *touch wood*, so I think if you treat it with the right respect you will love the car.

I took my car to Kames and was about 10 seconds behind everyone else on a 1:30min lap, but do you know what, I had an absolute scream of a time. Also Ive been out on road roads where I do not feel I can keep up and the best thing to do is go at your own pace and catch up at the next stop which never posed any problems for me.

What I am trying to get across, which I hope I am doing not in a ar$ehole way, is that if you do opt to go for a Lotus do not feel like it will kill you at the first chance it gets. Take you time to learn the car and drive it and enjoy it at the pace you feel comfortable. Ive had those moments where the car slides a bit of the brakes lock a little but I managed to control it as it was at a pace I was comfortable with.

I am really sorry to hear about your car, I can not imagine how gutted you must feel, but look at it in a positive would be to learn from your mistake and do not be put off by these types of cars. Get back in and mabye think of doing some track days and really feel and learn what the car is like when you are reaching the limit. I remember locking the brakes at Kames big style and getting a little sh*t in the pants moment, but was the right place to feel what it is like and learn what to do and the next few laps you learn how to avoid locking up and what to do when it does happen. Put this one down to driver error, go get a lotus and progress you skills with the new car and take it at the pace your comfortable with and I am sure it will be all good

[Shug]

There's no doubt about it, Lotus's etc are dangerous cars. Let the insurance sort it out and have a think about what your going to do next.

Alan

With respect mate, that's f*cking nonsense They don't mollycoddle you like most modern electronically dumbed down motors do, but they will protect you when you run out of talent or luck

Bollocks

Fast, RWD and no assists are dangerous to me. I know any car is dangerous in the wrong hands ... blah, blah, blah

I have heard the "its as safe as any car" before and I don't buy it.

Light fast cars with no assists deserve respect, guess thats a better way of putting it.

It is as safe if not safer than some cars when you crash it. The MSA thought so when they passed the safety structure with only one bar needed for additional reinforcement (unlike 5 star NCAP saloons) I agree though that the average driver will find that out in an Elise much more easily than a lot of other cars.

What we're arguing about is how you define dangerous - you're meaning dangerous, in that it's easy to crash - I mean dangerous as in unsafe in a crash. It's 'dangerous' in one way, but you can't claim it's 'dangerous' in the other....

[Sanjøy]

Personally I would ask the mods to delete all mention of this incident until you have cleared it up with the insurance company.

Also do not be to hard on yourself until you have discounted mechanical failure. Was it a toe link that popped on you Shuggery ?

2p

[Shug]

Indeed - if something like a toe-link did indeed go, then you'd be spat off quick smart (I saved it, that time, but 'twas a 50/50 luck job really)

Simple to find out - if your rear wheel is flailing at an angle now, then it might have gone pre-crash - if both rears are straight, then no.

Plus - you're not claiming no-fault, are you, so I'd not see much to be gained from deleting the thread - unless you had something else in mind Sanj?

[tut]

As you can imagine Shug, I am starting to re-think road runs now. Not from my own point of view, I think I have got it about right and I have nothing to prove, my geo and tyres were way out yesterday, so there is no way I would have tried to stay with Scotty and Craig had they been with us.

However that is the fourth or fifth Elise that has now been written off when running next to me, and I do not want another one, Brians was a fraction off fatal. As usual I spoke to the two drivers who were on their first run, saw them in my mirrors for most of the day, spoke to them again when we stopped, and they had been happy with the pace and their own driving. This had been on wet, damp, sometimes flooded, covered in grit roads, whereas the accident happened on a dry clean road at only cruise home pace for me on a perfectly normal corner, and Kevin's car was handling far better than mine. This is probably what is on his mind that he does not know why the backend went there, and not earlier in far worse conditions. If we make an error we usually know why and either what we did wrong, or less likely the car, plus I have thousands of miles on track under my belt, many of them spent catching the car after I have over done it. On that stretch from Huntly to Turriff which I know backwards as it is the way to Ricky's, I was really on autopilot and enjoying taking it easier after the earlier conditions. Although Kevin said it had no bearing on it, I had just overtaken two cars behind a slow van and trailer, so was checking my mirror and watching to see whether he had passed them before the corner. Without realising, he could have carried more speed into the bend as a result of the overtaking. Hard to work out when next second you are airborne and crash landing, then in shock.

tut

[Gareth]

Sorry to hear you crashed and I'm glad you're OK but for risk of being flamed...

This is not the 1st or 2nd time there's been a SE run crash. I'll eat my words if it's proven to be mechanical but it's a recurring theme of not driving to the road conditions. I was driving over probably the same roads as the Sunday run. Roads were very wet...then dry...then wet mud/snow/ice. Having been on many SE road runs in the past (but not for some time and probably will never again) i know what they're all about. Yes there's no pressure for anyone to do a "100 Tuts" but you get carried away.

Want to go fast...go on track where it's a whole lot safer with less things to hit and lower risk of things going very wrong or even fatal.

As for Lotus cars not being safe I disagree. Tut, Robin, Scotty have proven that theory wrong with some big impacts.