Paging Higgins : Porsche accident

[oldE]

I think at one time or another most of us (if not all) have 'over cooked it'. Many of us have been lucky enough to have continued on our way with nothing more than a sharp reminder of how lucky we were. Personally I have a few such moments which come to mind and another which wrote off the vehicle.
As we were reminded above: you're not going to live long enough to make every mistake. You had best learn as much as you can from others.

Best
Les

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by oldE

I think at one time or another most of us (if not all) have 'over cooked it'. Many of us have been lucky enough to have continued on our way with nothing more than a sharp reminder of how lucky we were. Personally I have a few such moments which come to mind and another which wrote off the vehicle.
As we were reminded above: you're not going to live long enough to make every mistake. You had best learn as much as you can from others.

Best
Les

A lot of truth said here . Sometimes the end result is based on skill , other times it's luck .

[911 Rod]

Typically you would think he would have snapped it and gone off the other side of the road backwards. My guess is he lost all grip.
But ya, we have all made bonehead moves.

[creaturecat]

lesson learned, methinks.
could it possibly be covered by an insurance claim?

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by creaturecat

lesson learned, methinks.
could it possibly be covered by an insurance claim?

Why would insurance not cover this?

[pwd72s]

After being submerged, probably only a parts car for the non electric parts. With replacing those, and the body work, a new car probably less expensive.

[Jeff Higgins]

So, it appears all of the stories that this happened on the way home from the dealership are untrue. It happened the day after it was picked up at the dealership. Here it is, the day it was picked up, at a local Tuesday evening car gathering that I frequent (I missed this particular gathering). One day prior to getting dunked. Beautiful car:

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

Why would insurance not cover this?

One reason would be, we do not know what insurance he purchased for his car. He may not have purchased collision coverage.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Beautiful car...

No kidding.

518hp. 0 to 60 in 2.7 seconds with an automatic transmission...I had to look up the specs.

I frankly cannot imagine that amount of go-go. My last 911 before the 356 was a 250hp 964 Targa, which remains the favorite two-seater I have owned, and that relative mini-van got me into trouble.

I had a 1972 BMW 2002tii. Here are the specs:

In 1972, the model with 2-door sedan body and Line-4 1990 cm3 / 121.2 cui, 93 kW / 126 PS / 125 hp (SAE net) engine offered since August 1971 for North America U.S.. According to ProfessCars™ estimation this
BMW is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 8.6 sec, from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.5 sec, from 0 to 160 km/h (100 mph) in 30.3 sec and the quarter mile drag time is 16.8 sec.

And I thought, my senior year in HS and through college, I was En fuego...and I got into trouble with THAT absolute mini-van!

I point no fingers these days; I just try and get out of the way.

[Tervuren]

Having driven a 2015 911 the electronics in it are amazing.
It's the only car I've ever driven where I didn't want to turn them off at all at any time.
They felt like an extension instead of a restriction.

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

I will admit that the stability control saved me on my brother's 2015 911. It was too quiet, too composed, and too easy to get into trouble.

He got out and said, 'You're a better driver than me, I never drive it that hard', and I thought 'I will never drive it that hard again either'. He never knew the stability control saved me.

[DonDavis]

Is he in that pic?

[Jeff Higgins]

No.

[porsche930dude]

Well basicly track tires on a cold wet gravely road like that is about the most unpredictable tire you can run even when they are brand new. I almost ditched my car a few times running tires like that glad they wore out quickly.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by porsche930dude

Well basicly track tires on a cold wet gravely road like that is about the most unpredictable tire you can run even when they are brand new. I almost ditched my car a few times running tires like that glad they wore out quickly.

Yup. I have three sets of wheels, one mounted with DOT legal slicks for the track, one with Potenzas for damp track days, and one with Yokohama Avid Ascend GT's (a four season "touring" tire with a 65,000 mile warranty and a tread wear rating of 740 ). I've gotten lazy and left the slicks on it between closely scheduled track days. Even on dry public roads they can catch you out. Gotta get some heat in them, and keep it there, or they are even more slippery than the Avid Ascends.

Guys give me a hard time for running that tire on a car like mine. I love 'em for public road use. As shown in jyl's LED headlight thread, I drive year 'round - rain, snow, you name it. I'll sacrifice a good deal of ultimate performance (that I wouldn't use on public roads anyway) for the safety, stability, consistency, and predictability of that class of tire.

[pmax]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Yup. The sharp corner you drew where he careens left into the water is where he hit the tree. It's hard to say if he spun or simply understeered, or if he was going backwards when he hit that tree, and it flipped the car around to where it went nose first.

He took a lot of bark off a second, smaller tree as well, to the left of the big one. There was a third, much smaller tree tipped over into the river, even further to the left of the big tree. As damaged as the rear of the car is, it looks like he might have backed it into those trees. Hard to say.

There is enough room to have done at least one full 360, if not two. The lane he should have been in has a pretty good bank, or positive camber to it (visible in the third picture I posted), but there is one hell of a crown, with the oncoming lane being steeply off-camber. Going over that centerline would have abruptly unweighted the car. That might be what started the whole thing.

It was raining when we went up there, and it was raining, or at least wet, when this happened. No skid marks to help decipher how it all happened.

[speeder]

I wonder if someone pulled up next to him at a light and said, "Jesus, what a waste of machinery."

[911 Rod]

Wow. Looks like he managed to smash up every part of the car!

[greglepore]

Paging Mat Armstrong...

[jhynesrockmtn]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

One reason would be, we do not know what insurance he purchased for his car. He may not have purchased collision coverage.

Who doesn't purchase collision coverage for a $250k car? Maybe someone who puts it in the river the day after picking it up. Not likely. I do wonder if the insurance company tries to weasel out if he is ticketed. I assume he'll get cited for speed in excess of conditions.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by jhynesrockmtn

Who doesn't purchase collision coverage for a $250k car? Maybe someone who puts it in the river the day after picking it up. Not likely. I do wonder if the insurance company tries to weasel out if he is ticketed. I assume he'll get cited for speed in excess of conditions.

One of our old XXX Root Beer Drive-In crowd rolled his 964 many years ago. He was cited for "speed in excess of conditions" (which, as in this case, was self evident) and his insurance paid. I'm not sure they can avoid paying, no matter what happened. I've heard of drunks totaling cars, getting arrested, and their insurance still pays. I think that's kind of what we are paying for with "collision" coverage.

Let's just hope he didn't drive it home thinking "yeah, I'll get to that next week"... That would only be possible if he paid cash, however. If he had a loan on it, I don't think the dealership would release it without proof of insurance. Not sure about that, though - I've always paid cash.