Just kidding, but seriously, all it took was a good bump. No more rattles.



Fairly minor damage, mostly front bumper and radiators.



Driver and passenger airbags deployed, Something hit the windscreen and that is also cracked.



Porsche dealership organized assistance and recovery just 30 minutes later - despite the late evening. Excellent service.

We could not figure out how to take the car out of emergency mode so the lights are all on and the hazzards are stuck on flashing.

What happened ? Still not sure. Was on my way to a restaurant for supper with my wife. Accelerated onto the road from narrow driveway (sharp turn). Unknown to me there was some road damage. The road is dry but just after the point of turning several cracks and water plus fine white sand seeping onto the road surface.
All I remember was massive (unexpected) wheel spin, high RPM and the car slewing wildly. Two seconds later I was on the other side of the road with a rather suprised look on my face. Nobody hurt.
I guess it went all 911 on me in a moment of weakness...

Porsches quote for repairs are around $70.000 (don't ask). No, no major damage, chassis just fine. Bumper, radiators, windscreen, airbags, driver side sil and rear fender (minor damage there). Some odds and ends I guess.
It's with the insurance but they have not yet given the go-ahead. Cost is above what the Brokers can authorise so head-office is in on it. Porsche has ordered the parts in the meantime.

Rainier

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Glad you are ok and hopefully the car will be back in pristine shape soon.

 

Glad you're ok !
Psm failure ?

 

Thanks, appreciate it. Porsche will replace all affected parts (no repairs) so it should be as good as new.
Interestingly, when I went back to the road a day later to have a closer look (when I noticed the road damage) -much to my surprise I could not see any rubber on the road whatsoever - I expected some nice elevenses ending in the ditch - but nothing. This means the rears where floating and not in contact with the tarmac (which also confirms by memory). The impact speed was really quite low. The airbags deployed mainly due to impact with the opposite wall of the storm water drain you see in the picture. Deployment was not really needed.
I would have thought that the traction control should have killed the throttle but that did not happen. I obviously do not understand the traction control and exactly when it does what. Porsche tells me they can extract some data that they can send to Germany for analysis so we can find out exactly what happened (What I did and what the car did).

Rainier

 

Rainier,

Glad that you're both ok.
Could have been worse because of that rather large trench!!

It is very interesting that a spin out did (apparently) not initiate the traction control system.

$70,000 what? Rand, Italian Lira, Nigerian Naira??

 

I don't think so. I think it more likely that the particular set of circumstances caused some decisions that in this case where not the best. The traction control does not have eyes. From the point the wheelspin started to the point I left the road is a straight line despite the car widly slewing in both directions. It's quite possible that between my wild steering inputs and whatever the traction control was doing we both got it wrong.
No, I blame myself. It's different if you are on a track or even dicing up a mountain pass - then you are focused and ready for anything. In this case I was neither. I was relaxed and not expecting anything except a nice dinner.
All I had to do is take the damn foot of the throttle. I got such a fright that never occured to me. There just was no time to react.

Rainier

 

In terms of US currency.
No, I do not understand either. I have not seen the quote, only spoken to the mechanics and the insurance. I presume the front bumper is actually plated in 24 carat gold. I bet you did not know that either.

Rainier

 

In that case I'm parting out my 911s today and selling them on ebay.

Apparently the sum of its parts are worth so much more than the car itself.

Keep us posted and let us know if this was a desperate attempt on your part to order a Turbo

 

For those interested in such things, here is what it looks like with broken bumper removed.

You can see the bent radiators (they leaked fluid after this) and also the trunk box which is aluminium and needs to be replaced. You can also see a very nicely constructed metal bumper to take care of things like this - just it is in the wrong position in this case and did nothing at all.

You can also see the drivers side sil (our drivers side is on the right). It's a bit dinged in and there is a small dent in the rear fender you can see. The sil and rear fender appear to be a single pressing.

Rainier

 

Yes, you're not the first to suggest this.
But no. After this little episode all thoughts of a Turbo or GT3 are banished for good. I have learned that the 991 C2S is quite powerful enough to get me into trouble in the blink of an eye.

This happended about two weeks ago. I did not post anything until I could think about this about ten dozen times to try and figure out just what went wrong. Still don't really know so my trust in myself and/or the car is somewhat dented at this point.
This also was my first accident ever in over 35 years of driving...

Rainier

 

Rainier - Sorry to hear and glad you and the wife are OK. For $70K, they will have it as good as new.

 

Rainier, glad you are OK!

This same thing happened to my neighbor. She had a quick AWD vehicle and she accelerated smartly out of her drive. It goes onto a 50 MPH road and is at a right angle to the road. Little did she know, there was a quick hail storm a few minutes before she walked out of the house. There was no hail on the grass, and the trees must have sheltered her driveway. She launched out with great acceleration, tried to turn right, and only made the car go 45 degrees to the road. She went over the crest, down the oncoming side and wedged into a drainage ditch. Both airbags went and she had lots of sheet metal damage. We all thought "what the hell did she do?".
Her explanation made total sense. The stability control did not help because the start was on good pavement. So it let her launch. Then she had zero-friction on the ice *****. At that point, physics takes over and the car and driver are now passengers.
Scary stuff indeed!!

 

Well. since your airbags deployed, your car is marked. Value goes down a lot.

 

True words Rainier!
Traction control and other nannies can have a "dark side".
My wife's mercedes has "lane departure" control. If it senses you going off the road, it uses the brakes to pull you back into the lane. Well.....when you are trying to give bicyclists a few more feet of room while you pass them, the system senses that you are crossing the middle line and tugs you right back towards the bicyclists!! Yikes. Overall, a good system, but can have a dark-side.

Same thing with stability control. You may need to avoid something in the road, so you jink to the side and the stability control dumbs it down and gives you understeer. Bang! Right into the object. Not so bad if it is just a bit of road debris....but what if it was a tree!

I once forgot to turn my PSM off for my next autocross run. I plowed down the entire slalom! I was doing some instruction and the guy next to me was like, "huh?"
The car decided that straight ahead was a safe direction. Ugh.....

Overall, these systems are great and save lives. Every once and a while though, they are a liability. Especially if you are capable of managing a bit more of the "slide and grip"!!

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. Do you think the car would have handled the situation differently if it was a 4, since you were accelerating would the front wheels have prevented the slide?