Ouch !!

Yes - this was the one that had a high speed accident in norfolk and resulted in at least one fatality a year or 2 back after a rear suspension collapse... I can't remember the name of the owner offhand... Just check the state of the rear suspension occasionally on your car! As you can see this was a nice one....


Rich.
 
Wow, looks can be deceptive. Very sobering.

Even if your elbow was perfect, would it still be a good idea to reinforce it with a plate anyway before galvanizing?
 
First time I've seen photos of the accident damage. Interesting to see how little intrusion there was into the drivers footwell, considering the front end damage. Looks like the driver kept a good hold of the steering wheel too.

Dave
 
That rip in the drivers seat back is a little sobering though I suppose that could have happened after. Is that box pleat leather? That is my favourite interior colour as well, shame the car is in the UK.

Graeme
 
PeterZRH said:
Even if your elbow was perfect, would it still be a good idea to reinforce it with a plate anyway before galvanizing?
When I've sent items for galvanising it's been necessary to have them grit blasted first. The blasting process is good at showing up any weaknesses, sometimes blowing through areas that had looked sound. So that's the time to inspect and strengthen where needed.
 
Dave3066 said:
First time I've seen photos of the accident damage. Interesting to see how little intrusion there was into the drivers footwell, considering the front end damage. Looks like the driver kept a good hold of the steering wheel too.

I agree. That's bad, and had a terrible outcome, but I can't think of another car of the same era and type that would have held up as well as that did, most of them would have been far more seriously damaged, and the passenger compartment on that looks pretty intact bearing in mind the frontal damage, and without the sunroof it would have held up even better. Still a sobering reminder of what can happen though.
 
Crikey. Scary stuff. I remember seeing that for sale on Car and Classic and marvelling at how nice it looked.

Puts me off having a webasto a bit too.
 
Hi,

We’ve talked at length in the past about this car, its crash and the tragic consequences. This needs to be more than just a sobering thought; it needs to be more of a call to action. What happened here should have every one of us closely scrutinising this hidden killer within our cars.

Don’t rely on the MOT, this car was MOT’ed and I’d argue that without prompting NO MOT examiner would give this critical area of the car the attention that it requires to spot a defect.

Failure in this area is clearly unpredictable and not linked to mileage (this was a low mileage car according to the salvage ad) or overall appearance of the car.

Put checking this area out, yes I know it will require work and some small expense, on your 2015 “to (must) do list”. If you’re driving about without checking maybe thinking things like, my cars in pretty good nick, I only do a few hundred miles a year, surely the MOT would catch this sort of things, etc…… then don’t, it’s quite frankly reckless.

Tim
 
Kman1600 said:
I only do a few hundred miles a year, surely the MOT would catch this sort of things, etc……

Most of the time they can't even spot totally shot ball joints, so, like you say, not much chance of them spotting rusty elbows...
 
I had no idea about the accident or the tragic consequences.
Presumably the photo of the car with it's rear end up on stands and the complete De-Dion and elbows missing was taken during the investigation?.
It must have been re-fitted as the photos of the car in the salvage yard now show all wheels in place.
It's a bit strange that this photo was included.
I guess perhaps the car was stored at Copart's yard during the investigation perhaps?.
 
No idea. For a car that crashed head on into another car at 60 mph it does look better than you might expect...
 
The whole de Dion elbow thing buts the fear of good into me, even more so having seen them pics.

Watching the video of the owner is heart breaking.

Replacement elbows, blasted, strengthen and galvanised are the top of the to do list!
 
I'm inclined to think that the roof panel lends very little rigidity to the P6 structure - it's only screwed into place.
Obviously it must have some effect, but I feel that even with an uncut panel this roof would have deformed in much the same way as the base of the drivers A pillar is about a foot back with the dash etc displaced correspondingly. It was a massive impact. after all.
 
The thing that gets me is you look at the car and you know the owner loved it invested in it and it was his modest dream, it's not the work of a negligent owner cheaping out; in short it could be anyone's story here given nothing more than bad luck.

This issue has troubled me for a while now and I'm now getting this done regardless of cost before the car is driven in anger again. My car was stored for 11years, I know next to nothing about its past and I bet that's many or most people's situation also. I have no realistic way of assessing this without doing the job fully but I do know I needed both bump stops done recently so the rust demon isn't far away. Like people have said here without blasting, you'll never be completely sure what is there.

Without wanting to sound melodramatic, I need to be able to look my family in the eye and know I haven't put them or myself at any more risk than is necessary for what isn't even an essential means of getting around, its just a hobby. It's supposed to be fun, not a risk to our wellbeing.

Perhaps one of the clubs can look at re-manufacture of a strengthened component. I'm guessing the tubes and complex shape and it being a stress critical component make this uneconomic. Does simply copying something and making it a gauge or two thicker constitute "adequate engineering" or does this merely shift the stresses elsewhere in an unpredictable manner?
 
That crash happened 4 days after my own head-on collision - just from looking at the terrible photos I can see that the speed was much higher in the Norfolk smash.

My crash was caused by my poor judgement in the way I overloaded the vehicle rather than a sudden failure - even though my car was rotten on the inside it still did an excellent job of protecting me and I stepped out unhurt and thankfully the other driver only had very minor injuries.

I lost very few panels - Tom even managed to rescue one of the front wings. The engine and gearbox were ruined.

The roof wasn't reused but only because we had a nicer one in stock - if there'd been a Webasto I don't think I would have been so fortunate because both front doors sustained some damage - the solid roof acted like a shock absorber.
 

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Just seen the image - disturbing -
In a case like this with a severely damaged vehicle and fatalities - should the car be offered for salvage at all ?
Surely better that it be destroyed.

Mark.
 
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