[Steve PH]

Audi V Lotus!



And the story to go with pics...

Well, my elise dream is over. I'm sure you've all seen the pictures by now - that once lovely 111S under the Audi A8 was mine. I was still in the car when that picture was taken.

I've admitted blame, no point denying anything here. Traffic was moving at a fairly slow pace (I honestly couldn't say how much, but I'd guess around 30 - 40ish) when all of a sudden everything stopped. I braked hard but obviously saw it all too late and smashed into the back of the audi. There was a bloody big bang and the next thing I know there's an A8 on top of me.

I didn't have the roof on at the time. The windowscreen caved in and ended up resting on the steering wheel but the passenger compartment was otherwise untouched. After a few frenzied moments spent trying to get out I realised I was pretty much stuck - the audi's wheels were resting on my doors. I really panicked when I realised I was sat underneath an exhaust and a fuel tank but the people on the scene really helped to calm me down. I was a touch uncomfortable as well as there was some trim wedged in the seat behind me - I assumed that it was something off the back of the audi but it later turned out to be most of my bonnet. Looking back, it was probably a good thing I was in such a low car, as a taller car would have needed to absorb much more energy. I'm pretty sure that this little blue sports car saved my life.

The fire crew jacked up the audi just enough to open the door of my car and I crawled out with just the odd scratch and a sore neck. And a very battered pride. The car was a complete mess, but amazingly one of the fire crew managed to start it drive it up onto the verge.

I want to thank all the emergency services for helping me out here and all the people on the scene who help me to remain calm. I'd also like to apologise for anyone that got held up in the resulting traffic jam.

I'd also really like to thank Jon (bittenbythebug) and the rest of your party for organising coming to collect me and get me back to the midlands, and especially Gordon (fizz) for giving me a lift back home to my tearful wife. I'd only met these people that morning (I'm not sure I even spoke to Gordon) yet they turned around and came back to rescue me. I cannot thank you enough, you're a credit to this forum and all Lotus owners.

So, thats it. I'm sure there'll be an amount of slagging off for this, and I guess I deserve most of it. For what it's worth I would like to say that I wasn't driving quickly or beyond my limits. I just didn't see everyone braking soon enough.

I'm devestated about the car and even more so for the stress I'm putting my heavily pregant wife through, but I'm alive and well so I can only consider myself lucky. It's been a fun year (I'd owned it a year to the day, having just renewed my insurance the day before). I've met a good few people on here and been on some good drives but I guess this is the end for me. I might log in once in a while to see what's going on but it's taking my all my effort just to write this, so don't be too surprised if you don't hear from me for a while.

I know I really shouldn't laugh at somebody else's misfortune but I just cant help it!