Pictures of my wrecked 911
 

We'll see Monday how good/fair my insurance company is.
(Mercury Casualty)


http://gallery.rennlist.com/gallery/albun02


Mike Mueller

Man, Mike, that's just sad. Sorry about your misfortune but glad you guys are ok.
Mark

mike,
hope all turns out fine. keep your spirits up. and damn...you're from antioch? i'm from antioch! don't see a lot of p cars there. i live in pleasant hill now but visit the folks on the weekends. parents live down the hill from park jr high. if you're ever in the area and see a silver 68L up on jackstands come say hi. my dad is very generous with his garage. btw, their house # is 911. growing up there i guess i was destined to own one.
bob

Wow--makes a good case for having real bumpers!

My only concern knowing that you're OK is with the appalling failure of the tire itself. I had not imagined that a high-performance tire would destruct so badly from a mere puncture @ 70mph. I mean, the whole sidewall gone? What brand was it? Shoot, we also have blowouts on motorcycles (never had one myself), but I've never heard of anything self destructing like that before. Or, is this normal in cartiredom?

I'd definitely contact the manufacturer and see if they're willing to supply new tires--a pair of sets, even--if you're wtill OK with the company. Or more. They weren't Firestones, were they...?

Thanks for the pict's.

Looks to me, the tire lost its' pressure from the screw . . .and was driven on for a while.
It's more difficult to notice a flat on really low profile tire, with stiff sidewalls. . . esp. motoring along at a constant 70-ish mph.

I agree with Island. Once flat, it doesn't take long at highway speed to destroy the sidewall like that.

I had a low profile rear tire go flat on me too. Driving straight down the highway, it wasn't very obvious at all.

Car felt a little funny so I pulled onto the shoulder to have a look. Tire was toast. I limped 1/2 mile down the shoulder to the next exit. That slow speed 1/2 mile was enough to tear the sidewall out, like yours.

If you guys ever notice a blowout on the highway, do yourself a favor and drive on the rim to the nearest exit. A friend of mine got a flat on the highway, pulled to the side of the road to investigate, and was hit by a drunk driver. He lost his leg, and was in physical therapy for a good many years.

It's NOT worth the cost of the wheel to fix it on the highway.

Just my thoughts.

Jared

What a scarry situation Mike. I'm pleased you two are ok and the best of luck getting the car going/replaced. Remmember it could have been worse :)

I have to jump in here. the folks who taught me to use guns, and the folks who taught me to use cars, both were super safety freaks. And I am glad. If I need to pull to the side of the freeway, I pull as far away from traffic as I can, and then I evacuate the car and direct the passenters to go stand by the fence. And keep their eyes peeled. Most of you have no idea how likely a parked car is to be hit. More likely than you think. Do this.

Also, the tire blowout discussion should clear up another mystery for some folks. Why do the experts recommend that tire pressures be checked no less often than weekly? The reason is because a tire that is low on air is very dangerous. The sidewall heats up from doing all that flexing, and pretty soon you have a tire with MUSH (hot, soft rubber with no reinforcing cords) for sidewalls. This is how the entire side of a tire can blow out catastrophically.

I am not a cop, but if I were, I would stop everyone with low tire pressures. I'd stop everyone with less than two working brake lights, tail lights, front running lights, etc. Those are dangerous conditions that people often ignore. Don't.

Again, Mike, glad neither of you were hurt.

Yours looks alot like my 911 when it was wrecked (I bought it crunched). You'd be surprised how strong the unibody is on this car. Its probably worth repairing (from what is visible in the pics), but the question is will your insurance company decide that they'll be hurt least by repairing or just cashing out. If you want to keep the car, I suggest you arm yourself with comparitive value statements, reciepts, etc.
If I recall, when I was repairing my 911, an OEM Porsche fender was like $2000, so I guess its easy to reach a large % of the total value, I'll be interested to hear.

Nick.

As long as the problem can be solved by money, then it's not a problem.

I totally agree with Super. About three months ago I bought another Toyota Corolla (I sort of collect them - sad) and on the way home I noticed one of the tires was a bit flat but I didn't do anything about it. I had about 500 yards clear in my lane so
I wound it up to try it out a little and the damn tire blew. I nearly wiped out a few other cars and the armco (sp). By the time I found a safe place to stop the rim was stuffed as well. I learnt my lesson :eek:

I feel your pain, Mike. It looks a little like my damage.

http://bender.annenberg.edu/cars/pel.../TheUgly-T.jpg

Difference was, I hit solid concrete, and had no insurance coverage (timed, competitive, track event).

Make sure that neither of you was hurt. That's all that will seem important 20 years from now. The rest is just the usual human aggravations: time and money.

Hey Jack.....I saw pictures of your car on imbecilracing.com, I didn't connect the name and car......have you started to get pricing on what it'll cost to fix?



For my car, I hope that the insurance company will pay to have it fixed, but if not, anyone have an idea what it would cost to purchase the car back so that I could repair it myself ???

Mike

We were unfortunate enough to enounter and follow a severely intoxicated man driving on the highway. Using our cell phone we called 911 cause this dude was all over the road. As were talking to the dispatcher we suddenly come up to a pickup on the side of the road with a landscaper (father of 3) trying to tighten a ladder falling off his truck as his brother looked on. In seconds the drunk driver swerves and hits the man throwing him across two lanes of traffic killing him. The impact was so hard the man had his clothes ripped from his body including his shoes. The shoulder was very wide (1.5 car widths) and the truck was as far over as possible. The drunk driver continues as if nothing happened so we follow and eventually lead police to apprehend him. The drunk driver was driving a new truck with no plates on his way to his daughters first communion and had no memory of hitting anyone. His blood/alcohol level was something like .28 and it was 11:30 am on a Saturday morning. What a way to celebrate. :mad:

There is a family maintained shrine on the roadside now where the man was killed that gets flowers every now and then. If you have car problems get off the road as far as possible or better yet drive to the next exit. Your family and friends would rather be buying a new tire and wheel than a headstone.

Dave...are you ****** kidding me??? that is one of the worst things I have ever heard? I am not stopping on highway ever!

joe 68 L

I will never stop on the side of any road again. That's what parking lots are for.

On the flip side I had another friend who was driving drunk that pulled over on the highway because he was too drunk to drive. Well, yep you guessed it, passed out in his car he gets rear ended by another drunk driver sending them both to the hospital. This happened about 10 years ago at like 3:00 am. Bar closing time is a bad time to be on the road. I was a bartender for longer than I care to remember, trust me I know.

Here in South Africa we NEVER stop on the side of the road, not out of fear of being hit by another car, but rather for the fear of getting robbed/ or shot etc!!

Cheers

just a couple Q's??
 

Glad to hear there were no injuries. I've done a couple repairs for Mercury, all I can offer is "Good Luck" Some insurance companies are better to deal with than others. Mercury???????? Make sure you get estimates from a shop other than their DRP.
Did you get any information from the 18 wheeler involved? Or are you going to claim this as a single vehicle incedent?

Single car accident.... we hit the truck...no damage to his trailer (or anything that could be seen by him and the officer)