Perfect car for when you aren’t sure which way to go

I don’t read German, but it looks like the car sold on eBay for 6716 Euros. Both eBay and the link to the story have more pics.

Unbelievable Car Accident

Crazy thing about this is that the driver walked out of the car almost with no injuries and phoned the emergency services himself.

Eye-witness says: “What you see is what you get, i.e. there was no cutting of the vehicle prior to the pictures being taken.

It is my brother-in-law that you see holding the mobile phone, he honestly doesn’t know the speed that he was going at but wasn’t near as fast as he has done in the past on that particular part of the road.

Although the road was completely dry he said that it felt he was on ice and the car just careened into the tree.



  1. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    This is the only way that some fools find out nothing but common sense (i.e. knowing when you must slow down), not even AWD, as wonderful as it is, can deal with black ice.

    I can’t help but wonder why none of the auto tech leaders – M-B, Lexus or BMW – have made a move toward some form of black ice detection

  2. John Paradox says:

    Okay, someone’s gonna ask:
    Was he ON the phone when he crashed?

    J/P=?

  3. ECA says:

    TREE!!!!

  4. bill says:

    #1 they do have ice detection… One of my cars flashes Ice! I think it’s the BMW.. Nevertheless… that person is very lucky!
    wow!

  5. GregA says:

    My Nissan has an ice detector. It is called a thermometer. If its below 32f and wet out, I just assume there is probably ice on the road.

    One of the main features in my life causing cynicism is the first snow each year. It seems about 60 percent of drivers on the road forget that when the road is slippery it takes longer to stop, and a maneuver may cause you to lose control (at highway speeds). It seems like you see an extra helping of cars in the ditch after that first storm. After that it gets better. I don’t understand why people seem to forget that year after year.

    Just my observation

  6. Brew Kline says:

    Know why a tree has no eyes?

    ’cause it wouldn’t do it any good if it saw a car careening its way.

  7. hhopper says:

    Wait a minute! The road was DRY. He just said he FELT like he was on ice. Sounds pretty fishy to me.

  8. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #7 – hhopper

    By Jove, you’re right – and I would agree except for this: notice the thick fog in the upper pic and by the time the lower pic was taken, it’s pretty much gone… so if we extrapolate back to the time of the incident, it’s conceivable that there was frozen dew on the road that evaporated very shortly thereafter… and of course, the road exhibits the lowest friction ( & highest likelihood of hydroplaning) at the point of (almost) least moisture on the road surface, since it lifts, but doesn’t wash away, the film of oil deposits.

    Or, of course, then again, maybe not, as the case might be. Maybe the guy’s just a lyin’ MF. Like Laurie Anderson said, “Wouldn’tbethefirsttime.” 🙂

  9. flares says:

    Bear in mind this car has 450bhp. With that kind of supercar power and 4 wheel drive, if you put down too much power on a bend you can come unstuck. A rear wheel drive car for instance will give you a little bit of warning before it steps out. This car has supreme grip right up until the limit. Once you step over that limit, its curtains for you, and without warning. Nearly happened to me.

    Don’t boot it into corners, it will chew you up and spit you out.

  10. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    Examining the full set of pics, it seems that curve is quite mild, and more importantly, both flat and constant-radius. He says the car “careened” but either direction he was going, if that pavement was truly dry, and he didn’t provide any abrupt steering input – and I’ll be first to admit I’m just ballparking here – but I guestimate that even at, say, 200k/h, which admittedly would demand full, 2-handed attention to the wheel, he still wouldn’t have been pulling more than .6 to .7 lateral gs, tops. And that in turn tends to pursuade me that if he wasn’t doing 250+, then he only thought the pavement was dry.

  11. Auto says:

    Two words:

    Buick

    Ford

    Then, there’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqLw2q_dsd4

    Moo!

  12. noname says:

    #5 has it right.

    It’s amazing his genes are still in the human pool. For everyones else sake I am not sure that a good thing. Someone else is very lucky they weren’t on the road at the same time. This fool would have probably still walked out ok after killing someone then just shrugged it off, to do it again.

    But then again, does the species really evolve. Cars have been around for a century now and squirrels still are running out into traffic. Darwin theories doesn’t work fast enough.

  13. osmodious says:

    #9 – um…you are a bit wrong there. Actually, you are totally wrong. An AWD vehicle has a natural inclination to understeer, or push, especially if it is front engined. The RS6, like most quattro Audi’s up through last year, had a 50/50 torque split which also tends to promote understeer. Many manufacturers have actually started to bias the torque split toward the rear, to provide better ‘balance’ and a more sporting character (Audi does this on the latest RS4, which has a 40:60 split f:r). Why do AWD cars understeer naturally? The same reason FWD cars do…you are asking the front wheels to not only steer the car, but power it as well. These two can independently impact traction, together they have an even greater effect.

    The main reason most manufacturers leave a lot of understeer in the handling, is because it is supposedly safer…the front tires break away first and tend to do so progressively, whereas many rear wheel drive cars tend to ‘snap’ into oversteer (where the tail comes out).

    There are four main limitations in all driving…and conditions can modify the limits on each. Always stay inside these limits:
    The limits of the vehicle…
    The limits of the roads on which you are driving…
    The limits of your tires…
    YOUR limits.

    Most people neglect the last one, ignore the middle two and are thoroughly unaware of the first one.

    Os.

  14. N8rs0n says:

    #13, actually, you are totally wrong. The fact that most Audi’s are tuned to naturally understeer is obvious to anyone who knows anything about cars. The assumption that you can’t make an Audi oversteer is just plain dumb and ill-informed – which makes this rather funny because you’re trying to correct someone.

    Here’s proof. Take a Quattro-equipped Audi into a banked down-hill corner way too fast (or in this cast, round a crest), and while all the load has shifted to the front, back off the throttle suddenly and jab the brake. I’ve done this loads of times on the track, and recovering an Audi from lift-off oversteer something I doubt most novices could do.

    My best guess is that he rounded a crest, over-braked, and lost the tail. Simple as that. Let’s remember the car has 450hp – I doubt he was driving like a granny.


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