E30 Zone

Pictures speak louder than words:









So that's the end of that one. 4 weeks ago, driving home from work, had a little woops on some spilt diesel on a right hand bend and met a chap in a van coming the other way.

A big hello to all those I haven't spoken to in aaaages, I got a new job in Jan and old motors have kinda taken a back seat...

that looks a nasty one, hope you were all ok!

I remember losing my iS on some Diesel, scary moment indeed as you know it's well out of your control! Good job nothing was coming the other way as i'd have been t-boned and probably wouldn't be here now. Luckily i just ended up facing the wrong way in a handily placed layby!

Oh, what a shame. That was in lovely condition too. A real credit to you.

That looks a narrow lane aswell,so nowhere to go!

I have 2 incidents with spilt deisel,both on round abouts,one roundabout was quite big so was able to miss a few cars whilst doin a 360!
The other one was tight,i ended up on the fookin island!

I fookin hate spilt deisel!!!(especially in an e30)

Glad yr ok tho!

Got out fine, young lad in the van I collided with fine too, as were the two dogs he had in the back of the van (!). I nearly cried when the world stopped spinning though, it felt a bit like losing a pet. Keep saying 'it's just a car', but the sad truth is I loved it a little too much.

Been getting insurance quotes for other stuff, but I'm going to get most royally rimmed with the claim on my record. What I really want is a 2-door 325 chromie in as good nick as the brown moredoor, but I'm not holding my breath as it was pretty damn good....

Have got my Dad's 325 cab to play with, but it's not on the road yet, and I just don't feel old enough for a slushbox!

What a shame!

Long time no read. Glad your ok

Had my first slush box at 21, wasn't the choice at the time, just what the 528i I bought came with.
Grew to enjoy it, prefer manual when trying to get somewhere in a hurry, but in traffic / town it's great. On the motorway it makes no difference anyway.

Could of ended alot worse, Hopefully van driver doesnt stick a claim in for whip lash

Long time no speak!

Don't worry, I now have a slushbox too, glad to hear you made it out ok

Gortour wrote:Had my first slush box at 21, wasn't the choice at the time, just what the 528i I bought came with.
Grew to enjoy it, prefer manual when trying to get somewhere in a hurry, but in traffic / town it's great. On the motorway it makes no difference anyway.

I've had my eye on e39 530is, much greater choice of instamatics as compared to Manuels... Went to see a manual 530 this morning as it goes, described as 'immaculate' - it was a total shed! Ahhh, the joys of folk selling second hand beemers...

Anywho, I'm gonna be 30 next year, I'm trying to cling to my yoof.

That was a tidy smack Doug, glad you're OK

bab-91 wrote:Could of ended alot worse, Hopefully van driver doesnt stick a claim in for whip lash

Well, nothing I can do about it if he does I guess. Bit annoyed with the insurance company tbh, they are obsessed with asking me to 'accept responsibility', without telling me what I would be accepting responsibility for . I can't really claim it's anyone else's fault, but I'm not being held responsible for 'psychological trauma' or any other such guff.

E30BeemerLad wrote:That was a tidy smack Doug, glad you're OK

I just can't handle the tyre shredding 320 powaaaaaz!

Your chromie's looking good, need to have a nose on your piccie thread.

Rav335uk wrote:Long time no speak!

Don't worry, I now have a slushbox too, glad to hear you made it out ok

Good to hear from you fella - slushbox fail though. Did you get your e21 project together?

That front end took a hel of alot of the damage though! Windscreen looks okay aswell as the pillars!

They dont build them like they used to lol

Did plod turn up and is there a record of diesel being on the road?

djk wrote:

Rav335uk wrote:Long time no speak!

Don't worry, I now have a slushbox too, glad to hear you made it out ok

Good to hear from you fella - slushbox fail though. Did you get your e21 project together?

Nope, that's still in the Lockup, got a "Chromie" now.

Bad luck mate, manual conversions are not out of the way you know

Caught me side on. Think I was pretty lucky to be honest, was a heavy impact, but ahead of the front wheels so I think a lot of the energy kinda 'glanced off'. The whole car's bent like a banana though, big crease in the spare wheel well and nearside c-pillar, even though the rear end just brushed up the verge. Was definitely a good un - when I got the car recovered to my house, I found the other dude's wheeltrim, mint, sat on top of the inlet manifold .

E30BeemerLad wrote:Did plod turn up and is there a record of diesel being on the road?

Well, they pointed it out without my prompting, but I'm not sure they made an official note about it. They seemed pretty disinterested once they'd recorded no-one injured, didn't even breathalyse me which I thought was pretty much automatic these days... I don't think they were pukka traffic plod, just two bumfluffs sent out for a joyride. Trouble is, my sump was smashed to smithereens and quite a lot of traffic passed dragging oil hundreds of yards up the road, so I don't think there was much proper 'evidence'. It is a bus route though, and the way it went was so sudden and unexpected (and at low speed, I wasn't driving like my hair was on fire by any stretch, just cruising home) I'm certain there was something on the road other than just water.

I'll be back soon... MOTD!

So did they have to call the council out to put down some sand/ clear up the oil and possible diesel?

Id say its well worth your while to get the old bill that were there to put something in writing about diesel being on the deck

I wish i had thought of that when i wrote off the red wrong door.

Instinct took over and i just did one

Dezzy wrote: Instinct took over and i just did one

Quality mate, I remember you telling me it still had the arse end beached on the barrier

I was rocking backwards and forwards in my seat. Thinking come on, come on, lets go. I need to be somewhere else

Thats bad news, glad your ok!

Dezzy wrote:I was rocking backwards and forwards in my seat. Thinking come on, come on, lets go. I need to be somewhere else

Bet your legs were shaking too wernt they Dez.

I was sh1tting it mate.

was there diesel really? you can tell us you ran out of talent!

Simon13 wrote:was there diesel really? you can tell us you ran out of talent!

Si with the best will in the world it's impossible to run out of talent in a spazbox 320,

it must have been diesel on the track or ditchfinders?

e30topless wrote:

Simon13 wrote:was there diesel really? you can tell us you ran out of talent!

Si with the best will in the world it's impossible to run out of talent in a spazbox 320,

it must have been diesel on the track or ditchfinders?

All 3 I reckon! If I'd been pressing on, I'd hold my hands up and say it was all me getting my ambitions mixed up with my abilities, but I was doing about 30 in 3rd gear, touched the throttle and it went spastic. Rear tyres were pretty old and hard, but no more so than the previous day when I did exactly the same thing and didn't lose it. A better driver might have caught it a bit better though.

did any other drivers have any problems beside yourself?
was there any sand or anything do recover the split diesel?

I remember some years ago on this tight bend on a A road just off the A4 i understeered straight on nearly hitting the armco/barrier/wall but thankfully missed it in my E46 323Ci with ASC ON. It was a quiet road no other cars seemed to have any problems. I stopped and had a look at the road and had another go to see if it was a fluke and the car did the same thing going wide. I dont know if it was any fuel/oil spillage or what.

My mate when he was about 25 about 5 years ago crashed his second hand BMW E46 M3 Coupe claiming it was spilt diesel and he was in hospital. He had a different BMW M car every year and now has a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Saloon and he is 28 there about.

The mighty 320i can indeed be a bit tail-happy at times. I spun my first 1984 B-reg L-Jet 320i at a wet roundabout and ended up demolishing a 'VAUXHALL ROAD' sign. It took the council years to put up another one to replace it!

Looking at the pics, has it warped the roof?

Roof isn't obviously warped, it's the shadow of overhanging trees in the pic. The door shuts are all out to lunch though, so the whole car is banana'd.

Regarding the fuel/oil on the road thing, I'm not going to do anything about it - I don't think it would get me anywhere and would be a whole hill of aggro as it's not as if I can prove it - was just trying to explain what happened. Just one to put down to experience I think - the argument could always be that one should be aware of the potential for the road to be slipperier than expected, so in the end I think that's probably on me. At the end of the day, everyone was all right, and the world has only lost one brown moredoor e30 and a shagged out old Citroen van - there are worse things.

Whatever else, it's worth remembering that however experienced you are with rwd or e30s in particular, they still have the potential to catch you out - the accident wouldn't have happened in a fwd car. Not to say we should all go out and buy Astras, but you just have to accept it comes with the territory.

Any BMW E30 demands respect in the wet.

This made me think now that most modern roadcars have electronic stability control systems e.g. ASC, DSC, PSM etc were drivers actually "better" in the 1980s and before that as they had to cope with these roadcars WITHOUT any electronic stability control systems or ABS?

Be good to here from drivers with plenty of experience driving in those years 1980s and before????