S8 dead!!!
 

Well, as some of you know, but not all as not been long, but I had Mikes old S8. Did an engine repair and have been thoroughly enjoying S8 ownership for three months (and covered 11,000 brilliant, effortless miles in the process).

Really got attached to the car in that period but on Saturday it met its end, although, it prevented mine and that of my 2 little girls!

I was at a junction when a fella in a new Passat slammed into the '8's front corner at 45-50mph (no braking attempted, by his own admission!)

I had a concussion as I was slammed into the side window and the car is a write of but my kids were scratch free and I was fine 24hrs later. I know that in a lesser car things would have been different!
I'm gutted that my pride and Joy (and Mikes!!) is no more but I'm eternally grateful to the car and Audi's build quality that my kids are fine!
The engine and gearbox are ripped clean from the car but it was still running and managed to drag itself out of harms way from the carriageway, and if you ignore the front damage, the passenger cell is in touched! The front is 11inches out of line with the centre of the passenger cell tho! What a car!

Shows how much design and build of the car come into play when it REALLY matters! Won't be replacing it with a Fiesta I can assure you!

Glad youre all OK Ben, as you say its a testament to the build strength of these cars, I bet the passat was more properly muller-ed. Heres to another 8 to protect you all again soon. . . best wishes

Cheers mate, and thanks for the text!! +++
The Passat was bad but not as bad as the S8 as it was head on, whereas the S8 was sideways at front corner if that makes sense......? Still bad enough tho!

Bloody hell!! My worst nightmare is having some numpty hit me when I'm carrying my son in the car - glad your nearest and dearest weren't hurt at all - bet they were shaken up by it though?

Any pics of the damage and which of Mike's fleet was this?

Plenty of quality A/S8s coming out of the woodwork at the moment, if budget allows +++

Adrian

In accident report terms that's a front to offside front (or nearside front if he came from your left!)

I have a pic and will pop it u tomorrow. Doesn't do the damage justice tho!
It was R510 PJB. Had it after he got the Murple

Very bad news glad you're all well tho +++

He was from right, so O/S - bloody hit hard! I thought he was having a hear attack once I got to him in his car! Not nice experience!

Thank you! All OK in end - all parties safe and now well but makes you think!

Glad you and more importantly the girls are ok mate.
Such a shame i liked that car, it's what mine should look like.

Glad you're all ok.

Glad to hear you're all OK Ben. Shame to see then end of such a nice '8, but it did its job and kept you all safe. Another reason not to step down a level of car, fuel economy means nothing when someone's picking bits of you up from the roadside.

Cheers fellas! Definitely a testimony to the cars strength! Makes u think!
My wife was being a crash last night, almost exactly same circumstances and it took fire crews 2hours to get the badly injured woman out of her Pug 207!!!!!

EEK... Glad you are all fine.

Glad to hear that you are ok after that, very scary situation.

Thanks guys. Apreciate it!
Insurance inspecting car tomorrow! :(

glad everyone OK+++

I think the only reason I got away with buying my S8 was the "safety" argument.

But then SWMBO had walked away from being rear-ended at 60mph while static at a red light, due to being in a big, strong car. It literally had a bend in EVERY panel and the boot lid was well into the back seats; luckily she was alone.
(confession; it was an Austin Ambassador, and we got more from the insurers than we paid for it!)

I'm glad everyone's OK Ben, sorry about the car though....

Bill Blank's experience is yet another testament to the safety/ strength/ build quality of these magnificent vehicles.

I hope you don't mind Ben but I thought I'd illustrate the post with your pictures of the car...

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