Interesting M1 experience

It's good to have new experiences and to see things that surprise the
jaded mind.

I was proceeding up the M1 between Sheffield and Leeds early yesterday
afternoon on 4 wheels when the owner of a rather souped up Evo VI
appeared. The road was surprisingly empty and bone dry so we
investigated his 3rd gear potential. Pretty impressive, the equal of
mine, though his engine may not last long. His stability in <cough>mph
long tight sweepers was not inspiring though so, as we had been chopping
and changing and he was ahead, I fell back ~30 car lengths.

We were both allowing for other traffic and not overtaking at excessive
differential speed, so when looking ahead we saw 3 cars bunched, 2 in
the middle lane and one in the inside lane, both of us slowed. The rear
of the two mid lane drivers was a little MG sports car behind a last
model Mondy and the MG moved out to overtake. At this point, I guess he
hadn't checked his mirror, he saw the Evo closing at around 20mph more,
but with *plenty* of room. All the MG had to do was complete his
manoeuvre, but no, he panicked.

I've seen this kind of thing on TV but never in real life. The MG moved
in left too sharply, unsettling his suspension. He then realised his
speed relative to the Mondy was too much to loose and a Puma was
blocking the inside lane. He stabbed at the brakes, further unsettling
the suspension but the EVO whipped past him so the MG dived out around
the outside of the Mondy, just missing the rear offside wing. It was all
too much for the little British sports car and as the suspension
unloaded (again) the rear wheels went light and he did a kind of car
highside. In an instant and for an instant he was doing 80mph sideways,
smoke pouring off the tyres, then in that highside sort of way the car
corrected, violently

It all went into slow motion for me at this point. I was still a good 10
car lengths behind, sitting on brand new 295 Rosso rubber with the
Active Suspension on Sport. The MG's jive had given me time to move my
foot from the loud pedal onto the brake and just put the pads in contact
for a moment, letting them drag (and warm). The car type highside
overcorrection slammed the MG into the offside of the Mondy and off into
the Barrier, ripping away the front body shell and lots of engine
looking stuff. My brain was in full on avoidance mode now. There was no
obvious way through and I was pinning the monster brembo's just off the
ABS point and moving to the right limit of the outside lane to avoid the
spinning wreckage. The seatbelt was crushing my ribs and I had my head
forward just in case of impact.

The Mondy was heading left now after the blow and caught the rear
offside wing of the Puma which took a 50deg path into the central
reservation. On the way it caught the spinning MG and Mondy and they
literally shredded each other and slammed into the barrier. I moved
sharply to the left straddling the middle and outside lanes, avoiding
more debris. The brembos were hot now and biting like a rabid terrier
and the active suspension had the car flat and low on the road. I
flashed a glance in the mirror and could see the following traffic had
been well behind and was going to stop in plenty of time. I could also
tell by now that my stopping distance had been ample. It was incredible
how far the three crashing cars had travelled forward. I eased the
brakes and pulled up 3 car lengths from the wrecks, then went through
them and ahead when I thought of fire.

In more slow motion the driver of the Mondy was able to release himself
and dived for the hard shoulder, probably fearing fire and closing
traffic. Behind us the three lanes were already stopped. One asshole,
another Mondy, just couldn't wait or had been closing too fast however
and he came up the hard shoulder missing the running driver by a hair
when he flung himself sideways to the ground. That **** didn't stop and
I couldn't get his number.

Everything jumped back into real time, those travellers not immobilised
were pulled out onto the hard shoulder. The risk of moving neck
injuries seemed less than the whole shebang going pear shaped, there was
a lot of fuel and oil around. Emergency services must have been close by
for they started to appear in moments.

The passenger cells of the three cars held up amazingly well despite the
brain numbing violence of the movement and impacts. Everyone was removed
without cutting. Three of the 5 people were able to walk although
bruised and shaken with sprained necks, the other two didn't exhibit
life threatening injury. I reflected for a while how it would have gone
had in been in the same position on a bike. I might have had more space
to get through and past them. I doubt the Ducati can stop as quickly
from 80odds as the C2S, though one might be surprised, I don't know what
the relative stats are like. The age old habits of leaving plenty of
bike><**** distance certainly stack up though.

The driver of the MG is definitely up for a Courtroom kicking and nice
Mr Plod has already taken my statement. Someone has to pay for some new
Barrier after all!

 

<reads post thrice just to make sure>

**** off with yer fucking cage threads to somewhere where someone gives
a ****.

Although having owned and operated a number of MG type vehicles over the
years I am surprised there were no deaths.

 

steve auvache says...

If it's a modernish MG, like a TF, then it has Hydrolastic suspension,
just like the foul handling Morris 1100 had.

 

Then it is not a *real* MG.

 

I take it the statement was highly selective in its content, or did it
include the sentence "If the Evo and I hadn't been racing, none of
this would have happened"?

 

steve auvache says...

What was an old MG, just a warmed up slightly restyled version of an old
Morris. That's pretty much what a modern MG was.

 

Heh. I wondered about that, too.

 

We weren't racing, we were just keeping up with each other and not above 3rd
gear speeds, otherwise I would have been miles beyond them all. At the time
of the incident neither of us were driving above usual M-Way speeds or
faster than other traffic in the 2nd overtaking lane. Above 70 yes but Plod
showed no interest or surprise.
As I said, MG owner could have completed his overtaking manoeuvre. Evo owner
would not have been surprised or have braked excessively hard and I was well
back out of the melee.
The only reason for the accident was the MG attempting acrobatics not
usually seen outside an Alabama Police Camera Action video.

And in any event, doesn't faster traffic always take precedence inside or
outside...

 

It was one of the recent ones. I think the correct name might be MGF.
Usually seen as a ragtop but it seemed to have a hardtop fitted. Like this
www.bmh-ltd.com/hardtop.htm

 

Then you didn't read it through. We were overtaking at normalised traffic
speeds.

 

TF had coils.... the original F was on hydragas.

 

I don't think any conventionally sprung car would have survived the double
manoeuvre, or possibly any vehicle at all. Cheeky sod in the MG tried to
wriggle off the hook saying the Evo had shunted him, a lie.

I just looked up the specs of the Evo VI, interesting beastie.

 

Hm..mmm.. 20mph faster than the other traffic.... Depends, really.

 

Did the Evo stop?

 

A pretty normal margin between lanes IME, for cages

 

I suspect he doesn't even know it happened!

 

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate

Er, no.

The MG F has Hydrospastic suspensiotn, the MG TF was on coils - that's why
they renamed it.

 

Hog says...

I know the kind, the last of that breed were called MG TFs. My sister
had one of the first of them, piece of shit that it was.

 

Pete M says...

I stand corrected. Did the TF handle as badly as the F?

 

So you were racing on The Queen's highway and you slowed to around 100mph.
If Mr. Plod reads usenet, you're going down, you slag.