Hey thanks Bill. Man, what a day and it's only 3pm. Check this out.

I have an appointment at 10am, so I'm on the 404N to go up there. I am not even sure what the car is, the guy was a referal. So anyway as I'm driving, left lane doing about 120kph the semi in front of me has a blow out, both rear left tires... he's about 50 yards in front of me (I never tailgate semis) but within 2 seconds of hearing the loud pop/seeing the tires disintigrate the rig tips and skids into all 4 lanes. Thank god the G is a responsive car; I mashed both the brakes and the e-brake and pulled the wheel hard left and managed to avoid the rig by maybe 10 feet. The car has some rock chips from going on to the median and I have a big rubber/dent mark thing on my hood where part of the tire hit me. I am also fairly certain my foot brake is destroyed, but I am fine so I don't care. Two of the cars behind me hit the rig; everyone was ok but one of the cars was totally destoryed. Modern car safety comes to the rescue...

So I stick around for 30 min and wait for the cops to arrive & give them my statement then I'm off to my appontment. I get there and the guy shows me the car I'll be detailing:



Ferrari Challenge Stradale, 0-60 in 3.9s. Yes PLS! Made it all worth it.

Cheers guys.

 

Wow Kevin, that is quite an experience. Glad you're okay and the G largely survived the day too. Nice job on the driving to avoid the truck. Can you explain why your foot brake is destroyed. Post some pics of your car if you get them

I have the same strategy when it comes to those big rigs. Stay away. I even hate passing them.

At least it was a small reward for you later in the day. Have fun with the Ferrari. BTW any clients ever give you the benefit of a little drive?

 

Damn Kevin, that sounds like it was a close call. Glad to hear you are ok and came out of it unscathed.

I am looking forward to the detailing pics of that Ferrari.

 

Heya - my foot brake now depresses but the car will move freely when given gas; there is no resitance at all anymore; so I assume whatever mechanism the foot brake uses to stop the car has been snapped/broken/abducted/absconded/etc... I totally lucked out though, the guy right behind me in the celica hit the rear of the rig dead on. He seemed like he was in shock but he was moving around and said he felt ok; both his air bags deployed.

I'll try to take some pics of the car this weekend; I have tomorrow free so I am going to fill in some of the chips and wetsand/polish them and see what I cna do about that rubber mark. I am thinking clay will remove it (I hope, anyway).

And yes, the Ferrari was fun! I will post pics asap.

 

Im glad you and the G are ok, those rigs can be scary sometimes. I'm sure the Ferrari made your day.

 

damn, glad to hear you're safe and sound!

 

Thanks guys, it sounds a lot more dramatic than it actually was.

First pic I pulled off the camera!

 

^^^^^ drool........

 

That's incredible that the brakes actually appeared to have failed and that explains your use of the handbrake. Again good driving.

G/L with your car. It's certainly in good hands.

Gotta love that Ferrari and that classic colour; I never tire of seeing on a car like that.

 

Sorry to hear of that mess on the 404......ugggg. and yes thanks for the safety and performance of our rides......

That's some b'day you had yesterday, Kevin.......
I think you had the Big Guy upstairs riding along with you.......
That could have come out a whole lot different..

I would guess that warranty will fix the e-brake.
G/L
Colin

 

I called Agincourt and they said they would fix it as a warranty repair. I was prepared to shell out some money to have it replaced so that's good news. My brakes still seem fine, just the e-brake that isn't providing any resistance.

And yes, when I got out of the car the guy in front of the truck had stopped and said "damn man, someone's looking out for you!", I think he was right.

Deane - my brakes did work during the accident, I hit them first but I wasn't stopping nearly fast enough so I hit the foot brake too. I think doing that at like 80kph is what killed it. I'm clearly mechanically dumb about how our e-brake works, so I just assumed that now that it isn't providing resitance (and my regular brakes seem ok) that the e-brake is a seperate mechnism?

 

im not 100% on how e-brakes work on a 4 rotor system, but i know that on a front-rotor and rear-drum system, the e-brake is connected to the 2 rear drums, so maybe its the same way with the 4 rotor set-up.

 

Man, I hope that doesn't mean my rear brakes have failed. I think probably the connection between the e-brake and the rear brakes (if that's how it works) has been compromised in some way. I have an appointment Monday, so I will let you guys know.

 

Sorry my bad. I thought you were saying your regular brakes had failed and you used the e-brake as a last resort. Yes, your ebrake is a separate mechanism. On our cars I believe there is a small drum on the inside of the rear brake rotor that operates inside it mechanically with small brake shoes. Pretty much a low duty drum brake set up. At that high speed /heavy pressure you could have worn that small shoe out or possibly broken or dislodged the cable that goes from the ebrake to the actual brake mechanism at the rear wheels.

Good news is will be covered under warranty.

Deane

 

Ah gotchya. No, my brakes, bless 'em, stopped remarkably quick - but I don't think any brakes could have stopped me fast enough, so I jammed the ebrake down too and just started turning the wheel as quick as I could. I actually ended up giving it a little gas as I was slowing down to help pull the rear in, I think maybe thats what killed the ebrake. Oh well.

Picture time!













Oh one more.. think these'll stop ya?