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This is a question Lucky Escapes

Freddie Woo says: Looking back on it, the moment when we left the road because I was trying to get the demister to work, regaining control just in time to miss a tree probably wasn't my finest bit of driving, nor my cleanest pair of pants. Tell us about your lucky escapes

(, Thu 4 Jul 2013, 15:44)
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Yes, it's that story - AGAIN!
The A5
Some years ago I was the proud owner of an Austin/MG Maestro turbo (fairly rare, I later found out) a truly mental car with far more power than the stone-age chassis and suspension could safely handle.
I was driving along the A5 on the straight bit just west of Cerigyddrudion at about 6 am on a fine, clear june morning when I decided to see just what the car was capable of. Silly, I know, but there was no traffic about, and this was before the advent of GATSO cameras (bastard bastard bastard things).
Pedal to the metal etc and I was flying! As I hit the 119mph mark I spied a couple of lorries in the distance coming the other way. "No prob", thought I, "the closing speed is fairly rapid but they're on the other side and I've got lots of time to slow down".
As I got within about 400 yards of them I eased off the throttle. All was well.
Then the front offside wheel blew into a million bits.
According to the marks on the road, I pirouetted three times, swerved BETWEEN the lorries and back to my side of the road before coasting to a stop, facing the wrong way and shaking like a freshly raped whippet. I don't remember the accident itself, just the aftermath of incoherent babbling and crying to the two rural coppers that turned up. I was mentally going through the rest of the route through the mountains in my mind and picturing all the places I could have plunged to my death. The shock took me weeks to get over and I was very close to jacking in my job.
It seemed that there was a casting fault that had caused the wheel to crack between the bolt-holes on the wheel, under the paint, which meant that it could have come off (leaving the centre of the wheel still attached) at any time.
On examination by the dealer, three of the wheels had the same fault, albeit to a lesser degree. I'd done over 12,000 miles in this car, transporting my then wife (pregnant with our first child), my parents, her parents and loads of mates on various jaunts.
Never drove it again.
(, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 6:34, 2 replies)
So that's what the noise probably was
I had an MG Montego Turbo for a couple of years.
Anything over 60mph and it made a fair noise, despite being quite a new car.
On the M4 keeping up with traffic my speed crept up to about a ton, but the rattling was the same as ever. I overtook a car then glanced down to see I was doing 140mph. :-O

The bastard went like stink, but was so noisy you didn't realise how fast you were really going.

Had a blowout the next day. Sounds like I'm lucky the wheels even stayed on.
(, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 13:11, closed)
have a click for
shaking like a freshly raped whippet
(, Mon 8 Jul 2013, 15:48, closed)

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