Thats her!

Pictures dont do it justice though. I'll post pics of with bonnet up - engine and box are ripped from the car! Even snapped the steering rack from it's mounts!! Been looking around it this morning and shes a mess.
If you look at the front, the front panel is still in line with the bumper as it bent the chassis legs - it's 9" out of line with centre of the passenger cell! Even though shes that twsted, all doors open fine and the engine, that was sat on the floor, was still running!!

What a b@stard looking at that! :(

Glad you are all okay :)

Amazing how the properties of aluminium result in a totally different pattern of damage to a steel car. Looks like the whole front end has shifted across so it doesn't align with the rear? On a steel car I'd expect more damage to translate up and across to the A pillar and screen etc from the longitudinal members taking more load backwards into the structure of the car. On an ali car the whole structure crumples more and absorbs energy that way.

Ali is great in cars until the fire brigade have to cut the roof off, then they really struggle as the cutters just crush the ali like a coke can and don't actually cut it without several goes! Seen a virtually brand new Jag XJ-R cut up at a demo to make the point.....

[edit - for the 2nd time today I'm posting in a thread on different sites where the previous posts weren't visible till after I submitted my reply - must be a glitch in Firefox or something......]

You're absolutely right,nthe whole front has shifted. As you say, it just kept the impact away from us in the car very well. The entire front has literally twisted. I'm sure a steel framed car would have just buckled up! The type of damage means its much worse underneath than it seems on top. It's the chassis legs that has deformed, and obviously the mounting for the subframe. From A-Pillar back though it's un touched!

WTF? :eek: I didn't know the damage was that bad. Glad you're okay bud.

+++

Hmm, I know how fast I was going when I ate that clio so to see visible damage, 40-50mph impact easy. That's why I'm still allowed mine. It's weird looking underneath what looks relatively straight and realising that one wheel is an inch or two further back than the other and there are all these funny wrinkles everywhere. Still drove ok though :).

Happy to see you and yours in one peice.

Bill