DRIVE GONE BAD!! Understeer = TEH FAIL!!! (carnage warning)

[downhillracer]

Went on a drive on Sunday with a few other cars, my buddy Nate in his e30, Dan in his Volvo 244, Dan #2 in his 1982 Volvo 245Turbo and Moose in his 01 A4. We went from Auburn to Cool via Hwy. 49, then from Cool to El Dorado Hills by way of Salmon Falls Rd. We got to El Dorado Hills at around 1:00, so we decided to head up Hwy 50 to Placerville and take Hwy 193 from Placerville to Cool in order to get back to Hwy 49. We finally got to Hwy 193 around 2:00 and started the 30 mile trek back to Cool. We ended up getting stuck behind someone in a pickup for a couple miles until they pulled of on a wide hairpin curve. Once we got going again, we went throug a couple really tight turns and s**t hit the fan. Dan #2 was in front leading everyone in his 1982 Volvo 245Turbo my buddy Nate in his BMW was 2nd in line, I was 3rd in line, Dan in his 244 next and Moose in his 01 A4 was bringing up the tail. We went around a turn that gets really tight on the exit around the mountain side, I was going probably 25 miles per hour around the corner and I really had to steer hard to stay in my lane as the corner got tight out of the blue! I heard some tire screeching after I had exited the turn just in time to look in my mirror see Dan sliding (with his front wheels in full turn) into the oncoming lane which just happened to have a Jeep Cherokee in it. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

















Moose in his A4 understeered as well and ended up in the back of Dan as you can tell by the pics, and ended up bouncing over to the driver side of Dan's car. I'm pretty sure all three cars are totaled. Good news is that nobody was hurt too bad, bruises and bumps, with the obligatory bruised ego. The SAFE volvo did its job!

[norcatalyst126]

WOW...that is some carnage!!!!.....glad to hear everyone is OK.....All 3 look totalled, like you said....this once again confirms why I don't do runs/drives anymore....

[got boost.]

the a4 looks repairable if the frame isnt damaged that bad. Good thing nobody was injured.

[speedydragon]

WOW...that is some carnage!!!!.....glad to hear everyone is OK.....All 3 look totalled, like you said....this once again confirms why I don't do runs/drives anymore....

+1

Insurance for that volvo is going to suck :| Is the volvo at fault?

[RolledMySTi]

That sucks. At least Volvo's live up to being boxy, but safe. Stuff like this always happens at the end of a good day. And yeah, those cars are totaled.

[Audiboy]

Sux that it happened. It could have been worse - like the 2 cars fly off the cliff or hit a biker on the other side. How is the Jeep driver? Glad everyone's ok.

[Mooseimage]

Last I heard, the guy from the jeep and his family are okay. I just got back from the towing facility, having my car towed back to my house tomorrow morning. We were thinking about driving it back, but the car doesn't turn over (safety feature after crash possibly?). Also, I think my car has frame damage maybe, cause the hit side is pushed all the way that the wheel is touching the well, plus the fender has been pushed back, and the passenger side door doesn't open. Didn't pop the hood yet.

The major lucky thing that happened for me in this whole event is that I did not follow my initial instinct to turn the wheel sharply to the left, cause then I would be over the cliff instead of typing this up.

I'll post some pics I took after I have some of this stuff taken care of. If car is considered a total loss, I'll part it out. If not a loss, with some upgrades.

[norcatalyst126]

Moose.....if you need recommendations for a body shop.....I HIGHLY recommend Auto Body Expressions in Elk Grove.....they've repaired 2 cars for me and I couldn't have been happier....Also, I know the owner, and he'll work with you on things....if you know what I mean....

[downhillracer]

+1

Insurance for that volvo is going to suck :| Is the volvo at fault?

yes the volvo is at fault, he only has liability but He got all his goodies off of it and that's all that was worth something.

[Mooseimage]

Moose.....if you need recommendations for a body shop.....I HIGHLY recommend Auto Body Expressions in Elk Grove.....they've repaired 2 cars for me and I couldn't have been happier....Also, I know the owner, and he'll work with you on things....if you know what I mean....

Thanks for the heads up, we actually have a family friend who might help us, but they're located in Dixon. That's my dads plan, since the guy fixed our van. Personally, I though the guy did a half ass job.

Once the car gets here and the car has been inspected, I'll pm you on that, could use a good shop. If I get money off this car from being totaled though, I might have the urge to get another Audi and try parting this out. (Shhhhhhh! Don't tell my dad, but I'm a thinkin S4! I wish, insurance would kill me) I'll see what happens.

[Mooseimage]

Little update. Guy from insurance comes and takes pics of damage, can't get the hood to pop. I'm at work so I can't do shit. Come home, pop hood in like 10 seconds. I am so suprised as to the minimal damage from the inside. Everything in the front got pushed back a bit, but nothing broke that was located inside the hood. Hell, I think the radiator must be intact too, just pushed back a bit.

Once I get home at 10 and youtube my smallville I missed yesterday and naruto (yea, I religiously download the torrent every friday), I'm gonna start taking apart the panels to see the damage on the frame. Then I'll update with lots of pics.

Also, I've never taken off the front bumper before. Since it's already fcked, can I just yank it off or will that break something it could be attached to that I don't know about?

[Daddy MO]

Daymnnnnn... all those cars should be a total!

[Audiboy]

it will take a lot of force to even yank out the outer cover. Better to unbolt it. The bumper is still most likely secured to the frame via the bumper shocks. There’s good chance that these shocks absorbed the damage and there might not be much damage to the unibody after that. The radiator support section is most likely damaged, but that’s like a plastic / resin material.

It’s not hard to unbolt the bumper. You need allens, torx and a few sockets to remove the front end and fenders. Good learning experience for you in taking it apart.

[Mooseimage]

I'm gonna enjoy wrenching the shit out of my car. It only gives me an excuse to spend 13 hours straight with some music in the background to work on my car. (I say 13 cause that is how long I worked on a Dodge Colt nonstop we owned about a month before my dad donated it. I was PISSED!)

[Mooseimage]

So I've finally closed the case more or less with the insurance company, they are going to pay off the car, but no extra money for me. My car has been given a salvage title, they assessed damage to cost about $8500, valued my car at a little over 11k. I've been searching for a replacement car with no luck, and now that the case is closed, I'm gonna put what money I have to fixing me car.

My plan is to strip out the entire engine bay except the suspension, and find a shop to straighten out the frame (yeah, I know it's unibody and a bitch to fix, but I'm gonna do it). Once done, I will put back everything, except I will save up to have my engine bored to 2.0 and hopefully put in a BAT with all supporting mods. Also hope to fix up the exhaust so I have the cat farther down so I can swap from straights or HFC to regular cat when I have to do emmissions. Hopefully I pull this off. Come to think of it, I might as well have the car painted black too since I'm taking apart most of it.

Wish me luck.

[roTTirocket]

ouch..good thing everyone is ok!

[kastro]

when u do straighten out a frame.. u have to strip the car..at all?.. take out seats.. motor area..etc.. curious cus i was in an accident with maybe a bent frame.. i dont really like the idea of stuff being removed andput back :s.

[kastro]

by the way, no air bags deployed in the volvo?

[Mooseimage]

nope, volvo didn't have airbags apparently.

I don't know if I actually have to remove the entire front end. I've only removed the bumper, hood, headlamps and fogs, and right fender for now. Gonna work on removing the front black thing the radiator is attached too so I can see if the timing belt was damaged and too have a final assessment of the damage.

[adam's rotors]

....this once again confirms why I don't do runs/drives anymore....

there it is

[CONTROL TWO]

adam knows from experience.. in a bad way..

[adam's rotors]

you have no idea

[norcatalyst126]

^^^That just gave me the chills!!!!!

[piaadoll]

holy moly! adam, you are for sure a lucky one


just rereading the thread...i thought i had responded earlier. weird. anyhoot, glad everyone came out of the accident ok. time to count our blessings.

[downhillracer]

holy shi* Adam!!! I knew it was bad but not that bad...wow!