Accident...

[Jan van de Wouw <Jan@xxxx>]

Hello everyone,

I had hoped it would never happen to me, but unfortunately it has;
I've been in an accident with my DeLorean...

There was no personal injury, that's most important,
but my beloved DeLorean HAS sustained damage.

I was driving home from work in my D, which I had taken to show to some new
people at work, going about 75mph on the highway when the car in front of me
suddenly slammed the brakes for no apparent reason.
In an attempt to not hit him I slammed my brakes too and steered to the left
as he was going right, but as I did so my rear wheels locked up, causing my
car to spin 225 degrees.
I attribute it to me taking two drivers courses that I didn't hit any thing
or any one; I was able to "control" the car somewhat which resulted in the
car stopping in the median only 2 inches from the center guide rail, with
the nose pointing to where I came from.
The *%^&@!$^%T&* that slammed his brakes in front of me didn't even stop!

Unfortunately the RR suspension is heavily damaged due to the sudden
sideways forces applied when the wheel slid from the asphalt into the soft,
grassy median. The mountingpoints for the brake caliper broke off of the hub
carrier, taking a piece of support for the bearings with it.

I had to call the police to block the -now oncoming- traffic, so I could
point the car the right way round again because of the large turning circle
our cars have.

When I was on the side shoulder we went round the car to check for damage,
everything SEEMED OK, so the cops left for another call, and I got in to
drive home.

Well that was not such a good idea; as I tried to get up to speed the car
made weird noises and didn't feel right. This made me decide to stop at the
next park/rest-place, about half a miule from where I spun.

Safely at the side of the parking I checked underneath and saw my driveshaft
pointing down instead of out and I could SMELL some burned stuff.

To make a long story a bit shorter; I had the car flatbedded home and have
been making arrangements with my insurance and workshop to get everything
fixed. I'm glad I have good insurance; every thing is damaged, even the fan
cowl! This is kind of funny; the ONLY damage I have at the front is that the
support for one of the fans snapped a piece, probably when being pulled up
onto the flatbed...

As I said up above; most important s that I'm OK, my car can be fixed, but
it will be expensive; I'm still researching the parts cost, but so far I'm
up to about $2800,- in parts only (OUCH! Thank god for insurance!).

I put some pictures in the Photo's section at yahoo groups, see them at:

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/lst?.dir=/Suspension_Damage_%23
05141

Let's hope I can have my car back on the road before X-mas, if not I'm
afraid it's going to take even longer due to the holidays then.

Greetings from a somewhat sad

JAN van de Wouw
Thinking Different... Using a Mac...
Living the Dream... Driving a DeLorean...

#05141 "Dagger" since Sept. 2000

------------------------------

I will be changing E e-mail adresses soon; please use <jvdwouw@xxxx> from
now on. <jan@xxxx> will cease to work in the near future.