Unplanned things that happen to expensive cars

No time to stop and take a photo yesterday, but by the LiDL on the Uxbridge Road,
in what can just about be termed (further) Hayes,
various services were attending to a burnt out rear engined supercar,
probably a modern Lamborghini, rather an Audi R8.

https://youtu.be/S8HvohABpII

This is it, looks like the driver left the road at speed.

Thanks. Here's the corresponding article:

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/hayes-car-fire-lamborghini-bursts-22080315

Golf club chat

1 Attachment

Oh my god fam how am I going to get to Lidl innit?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/russian-model-ps270-000-swarovski-crystals-lamborghini-aventador-crash-b967181.html

Underrated comment

Might be a setup but amusing nonetheless

https://mobile.twitter.com/YPLAC/status/1463103458786095106?s=20

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/new-malden-police-chase-smash-b967711.html

The worst of this isn't even the crash, in which no-one was hurt, but:

As he was being detained the driver allegedly assaulted the officer who suffered serious face injuries.

"massive skid" is my pick

Jesus Christ, that article. It blows my mind that people like that walk this earth and enjoy boasting about shoes and shit

https://i.imgur.com/0VKou8i.mp4

The structural integrity of the Jaguar is impressive. It took a mighty impact but the safety cage stayed solid.

good quick reactions from the guy on the crossing.

repost -saving your bandwidth

thanks @eb

Posted above

WAYNE Rooney’s £150,000 Land Rover was daubed with giant penises and
the word “w****r” after he parked it in a busy Christmas market.

The street had been reserved for stalls for an annual Christmas
market.

But Rooney left his luxury motor in a space meant for church bell
ringers.

Sources claimed he then refused to move it when asked by organisers
and instead spent the evening drinking with two friends in pubs just
50 yards away.

Furious locals retaliated by daubing the Land Rover in obscenities and
drawing giant penises in the dirt on the bonnet and sides, as well as
inscribing “w*****r” on the rear windscreen.

• The Sun
  

If it had been reserved lawfully surely it would have been uplifted and charged as such.

Otherwise this is vandalism and the Church Bell ringers/ Organisers should rightfully be charged as such.

Told off, at least.

The car was unwashed and the denizens of Prestbury in Cheshire simply drew in the dirt. A quick jet wash will erase all obscenities on the outside and the only prick left will be behind the wheel.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/27/policeman-shocked-by-state-of-car-driven-with-rear-end-hanging-off

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-continues-driving-porsche-miles-m25-crash-damage-b973915.html

This is really quite an incredible story. What I'm most interested in is the role that li-ion batteries are said to have played and apparently continue to play:

Felicity Ace, a specialist cargo ship carrying more than 4,000 cars, caught alight near the Azores on Wednesday evening. The vessel’s 22 crew members were evacuated but the fire continued to burn for several days, fuelled by lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles on board.

[...]

João Mendes Cabeças, the captain of the nearest port in the Azorean island of Faial, told Reuters over the weekend that lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles were “keeping the fire alive”, adding that specialist equipment was required to extinguish it. It was not clear whether the batteries sparked the fire.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/21/abandoned-burning-ship-had-400m-cargo-of-luxury-cars

I don't know if it's possible to remove batteries from cars like these easily, but it would surely seem sensible to do that if it is during such a voyage, and then re-insert them at or close to the destination port? Or are there reasons why that wouldn't work at all?

I think they're mostly batteries.

I hope whoever else had cargo on board took out their general average insurance...

Hah yeah it’s a battery with a car built around it.

The batteries sit as low as possible in the chassis as they are very heavy items and mounting them as low as possible makes for positive handling characteristics. Normally to remove a battery pack you need to completely separate the body from the rolling chassis and then lift out the battery pack.

You may have noticed that many electric cars have a higher roofline than their Internal combustion engined counterparts, this is because you are sitting on a 125mm(ish) pillow of highly flammable lithium-ion batteries. Its also worth noting that the batteries cannot be easily put out once ignited. Current thinking is to let them burn and minimise damage to the surrounding area in development is a shipping container that can be transported to the scene of a fire and filled with burning car + water.

The clever idiot Musk is openly talking about integrating the batteries into the chassis of the next generation Teslas because y'know its a great way of guaranteeing built in obsolescence.