Welcome to the PCA, (smash my car please)

Subtitle: What is the lady in the truck doing next to my car, and what was that sound?

Yep. Before I got to race at the james dean memorial autoX, some administrator at Minter field who is supervising the event took the opportunity to back into my car with a truck.
Don't even ask how she managed this. My car was out in plain view, and just somehow managed it. I was in shock...car is just painted bla bla bla you know the story.






Anyone who has advice about how I'm supposed to deal with insurance on this matter please speak up. I just dread the haggling and fighting about what will be done.


------------------
Kurt B
'84 Carrera Cab.
carrera_cabriolet@yahoo.com

[This message has been edited by Kurt B (edited 05-26-2001).]

holy crap, kurt!

man, i am so sorry about your accident. geez... if your car isn't safe at a pca event, i don't know what to do.

was the supervisor a pca officer??? i am positive that the club carries insurance to cover this type of thing. however, i would contact personally ALL of the insurance companies involved, including that lady's insurance company, too. you have witnesses, right?

------------------
Adam Nitti
ajnitti@mindspring.com
www.adamnitti.com
'85 911 Carrera Coupe
PCA member, Peachstate region

the airport insurance will cover it I guess, which makes me feel terrible...now what will they do, cancel the event? I don't know. She works for the airport, and how she's related to the PCA I don't know.

She was driving a truck owned by the airport as well. Witnesses...oh yeah, you can imagine it'll be the talk of the day.

Although the picture is flat because of the digital camera, it's a very cherry 3.2 in person...Ah well.

Just after it hit, my old buddies (guy with Honda S2000 and another guy) I haven't seen in months arrived. Just in time for me, completely pale, to tell them I was leaving. I could have run, but I was so...so shocked and stuff, I just wanted to get home.

Let me say, if I were a throw money around kinda guy who spent his way into the car, it would be different. I do everything on it; took off all the rubber for the paint, just put in new injectors, always replacing small things. So there's hundreds of hours of my sweat into it, that's why I just kinda stumbled around in shock while everyone stared at the situation.

And yes, I almost burst into tears while I was leaving. Hahaha...whoa, take a valium buddy.




------------------
Kurt B
'84 Carrera Cab.
carrera_cabriolet@yahoo.com

Bad news Kurt, but think....next month all will be fixed and it will be just a memory.

------------------
Robert Stoll
83 SC
83 944

What was she doing...20mph in reverse?

Well, I can't tell too much from the photos, but it appears like the damage is not too bad from this angle.

Doors are easily replaceable. They are bolt-on, and can be done quite easily. The rear fender is a bit more difficult story. I would have them replace the rear fender.

The good news is that it is a commerical company, which means they are covered, and are probably covered quite well for incidents of this nature.

Get the car repaired according to your specs (keeping your insurance company informed as well), and make sure that you are in contact with the other parties insurance company too.

Don't sweat it - it looks like cosmetic damage from here. I know its frustrating, but it could be worse (drunk driver, you driving, etc.)

Somethings are beyond our control

-Wayne

Bummer. But I agree with some of the others, try to not get too bummed out.

She is undoubtedly insured. It was obviously her fault. Her insurance will pay up to fix the car, and fix it right. The damage is all cosmetic, i.e. no major structural damage.

Since it was just painted, it should be easy to match the color. You can have her insurance pay to have her shop do the work, if you want (but it sounds like you went to a lower budget type place, since its now an insurance job, you might want to go to a top line shop. For example, High Tech (shop that does Crevier BMWs work) and Anaheim Hills Auto Body in Orange County are both really good (I'd probably try AAHB first, they are top notch). There are probably a lot of high line places that have a good rep and have been around a long time in the LA area, too.

Still, a bummer. The (apparent) curse on this list continues!

Kurt,
I feel badly after the work you put into it. Body shops will often not put the same amount of effort and detail you would. I'd feel sick too. Hope things work out positively.

Sherwood Lee

I don't know, Kurt - it looks pretty bad. I'd say the thing's totalled. Sell it for scrap and get another, dude.
So...what size are those rims, anyway? :-)
Seriously, though, sorry about your car but you should be fine. If the door pillar is straight, it should be a piece of cake.
Emanuel

------------------
Emanuel Brown
1983 911 SC Targa
http://home.att.net/~epbrown01/91183.jpg

Holy Crap! Wow Kurt I'm so sorry what happened...and right after you get it painted! Hope everything turns out good. Well, think about it this way. You can now make it look better (I don't know how to make very good ever better, though) and in the meantime you can get yourself ready for the Honda Ho's when it's done!

------------------
Jeff
1976 911S

can you try and trade it in for another one at your local dealership?....just kidding...just trying to add a little humour during a tragedy of a 911 being hit like that..sorry for your experience, esp. at a PCA event!


i'm not surprised it was a woman though.

I've been rear ended 3 times in my life (thankfully never in my 911) and it's always been by a woman

no way!!!

That is really harsh Dude!!

I feel for you.

A similar thing happened to mine. Expect that it was a hit and run whilst I was just parked, and the person just drove off.

My insurance company were the best though. The lady on the phone just said "I guess that as its a classic Porsche you will need to take it to a specialist?".

"yes!" I said, "I will have to take it to Porsche."

And I have never been treated better. I was treated like a god. Porsche sprayed the panels 3 times before they were happy. They had to go back to the origanal paint codes etc.. and mix up a batch especially for me!!!

They may be more expenisive than an independant but you can see why. If I had the money I would get all my work done by Porsche.

Hope everything works out OK.

Alex.

Sorry about the trauma, Kurt! I guess we should consider it lucky you didn't take a tire iron to her vacant skull! I guess red must be an invisible color to some idiots!

------------------
Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Kurt. I trust you're good and relaxed by now, compared to earlier. And you probably made a very wise decision to just call it a day. I'd have been pretty shook up.

On the other hand, insurance will restore it to proper condition, and the repair can and should be done without leaving evidence of any repair or damage. It'll be alright, just inconvenient.

------------------
'83 SC

Sorry to hear of this, Kurt. I can relate too. A couple of months ago I got my valve guides done/heads etc. The mechanic was taking me for a ride in my car to show it was OK as I was collecting it when it was done. He was driving, stopped at a crossing for a person and, bang, someone ran in the back of the car. As it's hard to see a lime green car in front of you I wasn't too bothered at the person who did it(!!).
Anyhow, the insurance was done quickly, the blame was all the other car, which no one tried to refute, and the local Porsche approved repairer fixed it.
The Moral: I was very, very upset, however all is well now and - again like your incident - the blame is clearly someone else's so the insurance was easy.
Good Luck,
Anthony

------------------
'75 911S Targa
'81 BMW Alpina C1 2.3
http://member.aol.com/asaffery/my911s.html

Bad luck Kurt,as a fellow guards red Carrera Cab, I wish it had been mine that had got hit as I could do with an insurance respray, as you can usually get a bit extra for your money.
But your car was already cherry, and in fact I was a bit envious of how good yours looked!.
Looking on the 'cup half full' as the others have mentioned, at least you know who did it and so should not have to pay for it yourself.
Plus yours looks to be non structural, unlike Juans!.
The worst part will be the down time for the car.
Hope it is painless and swift in the recovery!
good luck
rgds Ben

Kurt say to her " Replace it immediately", and the only one you can find in the correct shade of red is a GT2.

Bill, in a freshly painted '79.

Man Kurt...sorry to hear and see that!

I purposely rarely drive my car to places where I have to park/leave it for fear of this. I guess you're not safe anywhere!!

Nick.

------------------
_ _ __ _ _
Nick Shumaker
1982 911SC Coupe
nickshu@yahoo.com
PCA -- Rocky Mtn. Region

I know the feeling...a little while ago, i got my car back and three months after the new paint job, i got a nice whopper of a door ding. cracked the paint and everything. I was PISSED. I don't know, if I were there to actually witness it, I would have wanted to cry, then kill the lady...but seeing as to my nature, i would probably run into the nearest opening away from people and start screaming and yelling and throwing a fit like a two year old.

Oh well, the say it is just a car...some people just don't understand.

Paul

Boy this brings back bad memories. About 5 years ago I was spectating at a PCA track event at Bridgehampton when the PCA Track Chairman (I might be wrong on the title) at the time backed his SUV into my [then] girlfriends car. He was profusely apologetic and promised to make good on the damage. But a few days later the ***** had a totally different attitude and decided to ignore my calls, etc.

I forgot the guys name but if I remember I would love to smear his bad name on these forums; just in case anyone happens to run into this loser *****.