Owning a fast car can save your life.
Discussion
On Sunday, a highway tunnel 80 kilometers west of Tokyo collapsed. A section of concrete 50 to 60 meters long and 20 centimeters thick fell down and onto traffic. As of the time of this writing, several cars were still trapped underneath the rubble. Obviously, this is a sad story all around.
Eagle-eyed car enthusiasts watching the news footage saw a lone Subaru in the marque’s iconic blue paint scheme. Much of its passenger side was damaged from the falling debris.
Well, it happened to be owned by an NHK (Japan’s national broadcaster) employee. He and his wife were in the tunnel when the ceiling started to collapse. He was already in the passing lane so he floored it, passing about ten cars. He made it out. Nothing followed him out of the tunnel, other than a plume of smoke and dust. His wife in the passenger seat was injured.
The Subaru lover in me is sad that such a nice STi RA had to die, but it did its job and held together while getting its users to safety. Hopefully the other cars have held together while emergency services try to extract the people.
I found the story at the Hooniverse (http://tinyurl.com/caff36w) and thought I should show it to you guys, so all props to them
Eagle-eyed car enthusiasts watching the news footage saw a lone Subaru in the marque’s iconic blue paint scheme. Much of its passenger side was damaged from the falling debris.
Well, it happened to be owned by an NHK (Japan’s national broadcaster) employee. He and his wife were in the tunnel when the ceiling started to collapse. He was already in the passing lane so he floored it, passing about ten cars. He made it out. Nothing followed him out of the tunnel, other than a plume of smoke and dust. His wife in the passenger seat was injured.
The Subaru lover in me is sad that such a nice STi RA had to die, but it did its job and held together while getting its users to safety. Hopefully the other cars have held together while emergency services try to extract the people.
I found the story at the Hooniverse (http://tinyurl.com/caff36w) and thought I should show it to you guys, so all props to them
PSBuckshot said:
Costs me £1700 to insure my Scooby.
£800 on my Mini.
They will not listen!
If you don't do a mega mileage on your Scooby and haven't just started shaving, and your licence/crash history don't read like War and Peace, try a specialist insurer like Mannings. There are others. Find an insurance thread in the TVR section for more names. Adrian Flux is another. All TVRs are group 20, many drivers get away with between £200 and £400 a year on limited mileage policies. You won't find these insurers on a search engine. £800 on my Mini.
They will not listen!
I am probably older than you, but my 4litre Chimeara does 161 flat out and 0-60 in just over 5 seconds, and costs me well under £400 to insure for 5000 miles a year, including track days. No NCD required, as it's a classic policy. It was under £300 without track day cover. I have no points, but did have a total write off in 2009.
For what it's worth - the late much missed editor of Motor Sport magazine Bill Boddy once used this analogy in court.
He had been involved in an accident, but pointed out to the court that things would have been much worse if he had been in a low-powered car. Acceleration will get you past and away from a collision much more reliably than braking hard. He had put his foot down and nearly avoided a prang, causing minimal damage instead of something far worse. He couldn't have achieved this in a slow car.
Fast cars are safer if driven responsibly.
He had been involved in an accident, but pointed out to the court that things would have been much worse if he had been in a low-powered car. Acceleration will get you past and away from a collision much more reliably than braking hard. He had put his foot down and nearly avoided a prang, causing minimal damage instead of something far worse. He couldn't have achieved this in a slow car.
Fast cars are safer if driven responsibly.
tinkertaylor said:
Well not to sound sanctimonious but 10 people could very well have been killed...the Subaru dying isn't that important..
But I agree with your sentiments about having some extra speed/power when needed
the human in me is very sad about the people. I even state at the bottom I hope they all get out. the little bit of my brain that likes cars is sad about the car.But I agree with your sentiments about having some extra speed/power when needed
sorted, k?
PSBuckshot said:
I always say this. Its good to have the power and not use it instead of needing to use it and not having it.
Tunku said:
A lucky man and wife. He will be eternally grateful he reacted the way he did.
Both of these. A sobering thought that this time, a quick thought and a turbocharger were all that stood between two people and a painful death.Nedzilla said:
Fast cars are safer in many ways as they usually also come with huge grippy tyres,monster brakes and superb suspension set ups.
+1Ive always said fast cars are very safe at normal speeds as they are designed and engineered for much higher speeds. If i have to take evasive action at 70mph my god please let me be in the m3 rather than the wobbly company laguna
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