Tire - 1; Audi - 0

[CyberPMG]

I'm bummed about it, but glad this didn't turn out to be any worse.

I was on my way to my bowling league tonight, and I was traveling on a back road out in the country. It was getting dark. The roads were wet (black top surface), and there was a Jeep Liberty in front of me. Out of nowhere, a tire was lying on it's side in the middle of my lane (the Jeep was tall enough to drive over it). I didn't have time to avoid it and hit it at 40mph.

The result was loosing my lower center grill (custom to match the mesh of the Ultrasport side fog grills), the passenger fog grill, the shroud behind the passenger fog grill (to divert air to the passenger side intercooler - part of the DSMIC setup), and 90% of the plastic bellypan. 10% of the bellypan remained connected to the car by one screw.

The bumper itself looks surprisingly ok. Some paint chipped from the flexing upon impact. The lower edge on the passenger side isn't 100% flush, but it's close.

It looks to me that the bumper can be repaired and repainted without much difficulty. I can easily get a new fog light grill and bellypan, but the custom lower center grill is going to take some time to replace.

I also need to know the part for the air shroud that fits behind the passenger fog light grill that diverts the air to the intercooler (or someone who can get the part for me).

I'll have pics in a few days (going on a road trip to Detroit tomorrow to check out NAIAS 2009).

I'm glad the damage wasn't worse, but c'mon... who leaves a tire in the middle of the road... honestly????

[A4ringedONE8T]

I'm bummed about it, but glad this didn't turn out to be any worse.

I was on my way to my bowling league tonight, and I was traveling on a back road out in the country. It was getting dark. The roads were wet (black top surface), and there was a Jeep Liberty in front of me. Out of nowhere, a tire was lying on it's side in the middle of my lane (the Jeep was tall enough to drive over it). I didn't have time to avoid it and hit it at 40mph.

The result was loosing my lower center grill (custom to match the mesh of the Ultrasport side fog grills), the passenger fog grill, the shroud behind the passenger fog grill (to divert air to the passenger side intercooler - part of the DSMIC setup), and 90% of the plastic bellypan. 10% of the bellypan remained connected to the car by one screw.

The bumper itself looks surprisingly ok. Some paint chipped from the flexing upon impact. The lower edge on the passenger side isn't 100% flush, but it's close.

It looks to me that the bumper can be repaired and repainted without much difficulty. I can easily get a new fog light grill and bellypan, but the custom lower center grill is going to take some time to replace.

I also need to know the part for the air shroud that fits behind the passenger fog light grill that diverts the air to the intercooler (or someone who can get the part for me).

I'll have pics in a few days (going on a road trip to Detroit tomorrow to check out NAIAS 2009).

I'm glad the damage wasn't worse, but c'mon... who leaves a tire in the middle of the road... honestly????

I see it all the time down here, I think I have to dodge flying tire debris at least once a week. Sitting in the road is fine, what makes it worse is the assholes who hit them and throw them at your f'in car with no where to go

Good luck getting the repairs done, I lost a front end and splitter last year from shit in the road

[lookaught]

Bummer. I think it's more common to hit a retread on the highway than a tire but you're lucky it didn't do more damage. A retread annihilated the entire front bumper cover of my brother's S4 in 1999 only a few months after he bought it. In the end it wasnt a bad thing because the repainted bumper held up much better vs. factory paint over the last 90,000 miles.

[A4ringedONE8T]

Bummer. I think it's more common to hit a retread on the highway than a tire but you're lucky it didn't do more damage. A retread annihilated the entire front bumper cover of my brother's S4 in 1999 only a few months after he bought it. In the end it wasnt a bad thing because the repainted bumper held up much better vs. factory paint over the last 90,000 miles.

I think thats what he meant