We’re back and we’ve got photos. Everything from a few action shots to even some dragon induced carnage. I’ll be writing a brief summary in the next few days but first, some sleep is in order. So in the meantime, click on the MF/Flickr logo to the right and enjoy. We certainly did.
Access Denied!!! Damn this work firewall!!!
And before you all ask, yes, the driver’s fine. Another MINI takes one for the team.
I wonder if he is selling those rims? Ill take them in a heartbeat!
Way Motor Works is trying to buy the car from insurance now. He might gets the rims. Thanks Gabe for posting it and thank you blalor for updating the news. I am the one who rolled down the mountain…
I still cannot believe many of those photo’s came from your phone. Pretty fantastic.
10,000 miles in how many months? I got my car August ’04 and I’m just over 19,000 miles now – you obviously take way more road trips than I do.
> 10,000 miles in how many months?
10,000 miles 11 months. It was 8800 miles this time last week. So if you take away the dragon I probably would have been a touch over 9k in one year.
>I still cannot believe many of those photo’s came from your phone. Pretty fantastic.
I had my normal camera with me, I just kept forgetting to grab it.
>Thanks Gabe for posting it and thank you blalor for updating the news.
Glad that your just hear to let us know about it!
Wow, Henry. Your car is a mess, but I’m glad you’re okay.
Thanks to all the folks who stopped at the accident scene to help out and especially to the couple in the Hot Orange convertible who drove to the nearest pay-phone to call 911 and to the guys from Pittsburgh who braved 80 feet of Poison Ivy to help Henry out of the wreck! The local deputy told us someone lost his life in the same spot two years ago. She also said the locals hate the car clubs disturbing the peace and they will dump oil and glass on select curves. Be careful out there – The Dragon bites back!
<blockquote>10,000 miles in how many months? I got my car August ‘04 and I’m just over 19,000 miles now – you obviously take way more road trips than I do.</blockquote>
I hit [19,000 last week](<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blalor/139079681/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.flickr.com/photos/blalor/139079681/</a>) and [20,000 5 days later](<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blalor/142064843/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.flickr.com/photos/blalor/142064843/in/photostream/</a>). That’s in a shade under 12 months. Might need to spring for that extended warranty… 🙂
<blockquote> She also said the locals hate the car clubs disturbing the peace and they will dump oil and glass on select curves</blockquote>
Hrm. I bet they like the money we dump into their economy just fine. I bet a manslaughter conviction would put a stop to that activity, however. Hope it doesn’t come to that.
>Hrm. I bet they like the money we dump into their economy just fine.
Took the words out of my mouth…
Wow Henry, that must have been quite the ride.
Does anybody else think the roof caved in a bit too much? It did to me. I suppose a non sunroof would have done better.
I’m so glad you’re ok Henry – I wish I could’ve met you there – I would’ve taken you for a few spins around in my MCS. Dragon kicked butt!
Thanks RichSwan for taking me to the hospital and riding me home. And thanks Drew from Pittsburgh got me out from the car. Also the couple in the Hot Orange convertible MINI, thank you for calling the police. I appreciated everyone’s help and warm care. THANK YOU ALL!
Ran across Henry right after the accident, was glad to see he was OK… Would you want any of, or mind if I posted my (rather bad) pics too?
<blockquote>Does anybody else think the roof caved in a bit too much? It did to me. I suppose a non sunroof would have done better.</blockquote>
It’s really difficult to say this was too much crush, without knowing with how much force the roof was crushed. Remember he was moving when he left the road and hit the tree/trees mostly with the passenger side A-pillar and side of the car, that’s a lot of energy and a small area to be taking it all. I cannot say with any absolute certainty, but I think it is typical if not actually better than most cars.
WOW………………
Henry, you are one lucky person. Gotta ask, did all the airbags deploy, including the side units?
Charlie
Gabe,
Thanks for the photo album. It’s great for those of us that weren’t there.
Also, speaking for myself, it’s good to have you back and running the show.
Dave
> 10,000 miles in how many months? I got my car August ‘04 and I’m just over 19,000 miles now – you obviously take way more road trips than I do.
I hit 19,000 last week and 20,000 5 days later. That’s in a shade under 12 months. Might need to spring for that extended warranty… 🙂
Rookies 😉
I think I’ll be hitting 120K this week (since March ’03).
Killer pics! Glad to hear nobody was hurt. I’m also guessing there wasn’t a passenger in that MINI when it rolled down the mountain?
I would like to amend my comment actually to say, I was VERY glad to hear you’re (still) doing well.
Let’s not also forget about the guy whose MINI tried (apparently) to eat some sort of small bear while we were there… No word on the condition of the bear.
And overall, I think about 600+ people and maybe 400-ish MINI’s (with exception of at least 2) had a great time…
It’s hard to live outside the laws of physics, and it doesn’t take much to end up dead in a ditch, so Henry is the luckiest motorer alive right now. Glad he wasn’t in a vert, it might not have had such a happy ending.
Like the cell phone shots, Gabe, they have spontenaity!
Other than the cliff diver, it looks like a fun time all around. Glad you kept the rubber side down, Gabe!
Thanks to Dave for keeping things under control at Motoringfile Command Central while the boss was off screwing around – job well done!
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
OK, my last try disappeared…
I was also going to say let’s not forget the guy whose MINI apparently tried to eat a bear of some sort. Humans OK, no word on the condition of the bear…
And don’t forget the actual fun things that about 600+ people and 400-ish MINI’s had for a great weekend. Hope everyone did make it home safe.
henry, so sorry to hear about your accident. i’m glad your okay. i can sort of sympathize with you, i wrecked at last years dragon, but unlike you, i didn’t even make it down there. my wreck was due to construction debris on I75 near the Michigan-Ohio border. i know your pain, it’s a horrible way to spend your vacation. hope everything works out for the best.
OK, now that I’ve seen the photos of the car’s interior, it shows that the side airbags did not deploy. MINI tech-types: Why didn’t they open if the impact was a sideways one—slid off the road into trees, etc. ?
Good question Charlie.
> 10,000 miles in how many months? I got my car August >‘04 and I’m just over 19,000 miles now – you obviously >take way more road trips than I do.
I picked up my MINI on April 1, 2006 with 14 miles on it. This past saturday I was up to 3350 miles.
I am almost 100% positive that the reason the airbags didn’t go off is because the crash was of a relatively long timespan compared to a “normal” crash. It was probably more a series of multiple smaller crashes than one larger crash. Your car has about 0.01 seconds or so to detect if you’re in a crash or not, and if it shoudl deploy the airbags. This is based usually on an acceleration measurement either at several locations on the car or frequently now through the airbag control module of the vehicle which is obviously mounted at one location within the vehicle.
Henry did not have one major accident and come to a stop, he had a lot of relatively smaller (yes, I know that sounds crazy to say smaller) crashes before he came to a stop. He went through a lot of woods and down a hill before he coming to rest. While a car running into a fixed object usually stops in about 1/10 to 1/8 of a second, his crash was probably a much longer duration… I’d have to guess well over a second in duration. Compared to him sliding into a tree and coming to a stop, his acceleration was much, much less… so anyway, I’d nearly guess that was why they did not deploy.
Fortunately, for all of us, this is probably why he was also able to get out of his car relatively unscathed. It looks very dramatic, just like an F1 car hitting a wall and rolling down the straight, but you almost always want lots of smaller impacts rather than one huge impact.
Sorry Henry for all of us making your loss a lesson for all of us, obviously we’re all glad you’re OK…
The natural instinct upon hearing of this accident (especially in the first few turns after leaving Fontana Village), is that it was alcohol-related. I myself am guilty of making this assumption. However, since I have now seen Henry’s forthrightness about his experience, I am rethinking my judgement.
Henry, if you indeed were not intoxicated, I apologize for prejudging you. I’m terribly sorry to know of your loss, but I am glad that neither you (nor anyone else!) was seriously hurt.
Thank you all again for the comments. I am glad my lost could be a lesson for all of you. I am also glad the beer in my trunk was fine for the next day party. ^_^
Edge—it wasn’t relating to the alcohol at all.
Man, I love how these things get twisted in the tellings. Before long, he’ll have catapulted over the edge with a semi hot on his tail while chugging Wild Turkey.
Henry was not — I repeat NOT — drinking! And the accident occurred on the first turn heading TOWARD Fontana from the Crossroads of Time (intersection of 129 and 28).
For what it’s worth, I led the caravan from Indy and Henry was #3 the entire way. I feel horrible that he crashed and that I was the leader, and worse that I didn’t pick up on there being a problem. I’m just glad he is ok and that others were there to help him out.
Glad you’re OK. I was at the Dragon also this year. Could have happened to anyone. There is such a fine line between normal driving and a serious accident there. It’s a blast to drive, improves your skills, but that car could have easily belonged to me or anyone. Makes me shudder at how messed up I might have been with the top down on my MCSC.
I would not have wanted to be in the passenger seat 🙁
SLOW DOWN, PEOPLE!
Henry, Blalor… that’s why I posted what I did… I had adjusted my thinking – and I’m very relieved to hear the truth. I will surely be correcting anyone else that made the same assumption!
And thanks also for correcting the location – I was told (you know how second-hand info is) that it was on 28 departing FV towards CoT, not the other way around.
Henry – I just hope that now that you’re OK… that you will be able to get another MINI before too long!
Thanks Edge! I am okay and I probably won’t get another MINI until end of this year. I am going back home (Taipei, Taiwan) next month for a while. Hopefully by the time I came back to the US the 2007 MINI is here.
>SLOW DOWN, PEOPLE!
Not a bad idea for some out there. However the root problem isn’t always speed…
We went to the crash site yesterday afternoon and pulled the bumper and lower grill back up.
Now hanging proudly on the tree at Deal’s Gap.
Glad YOU are ok!
Yucca… any pics of the tree with the MINI pieces added? I hope the bikers don’t pull them down before next year… the “Tree of Shame” shouldn’t be only for bikers!
Photos were taken. I think AZWilliam and/or Aesthetic Creations Mike took the photos.
this morning a went by and somebody had tagged the bumper with MOTD stickers and an inscription saying
“Watch out for that Tree” 5-5-06
Could have been a MCSC …….. now that would have hurt some… makes ya think.
Bad side of this accident is, the more of these type things that happen the more regulations and prevention measures will be demanded by the local folks.
It’s also the bad side of the internet. I have a twisty road I have been driving since high school, 1965, it’s now listed on a site. Then [1965 – 86] it was open except for the infrequent CHP, now you had better be running a detector and have luck on your side! So far I have had both but it’s now a weekday only fun road.
This was not a condemnation of anyone just noting how things change. It can also bring up some dreaded legal issues with the Dragon promoters.
My Thoughts……. :¬)
I didnt see it first hand, but Konky told me about it as we were waiting to do the midnight run..
Very lucky to walk away from that, if anything I think this is just another in a long line of testaments to MINIs safety.
Anyone remember when Ductape flipped his converible over with the top DOWN on the Hudson Bay Run and also lived to tell about it?
Also a two bikers bit it while we where there. One was bleeding from under his helmet and had a concussion.
Be careful. Glad your alright man.
LTZMTOR, I almost blew beer out my nose. Henry, from now on you’re known as “George”. Sing it with me, people:
<blockquote>
George, George, George of the Dragon
strong as he can be
George, George, George of the Dragon
WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!
</blockquote>
BTW – it was nice meeting you Gabe (finally).
blalor… that’s an odd hobby. WTF are you talking about?
Which hobby is odd, blowing beer out my nose or singing the lyrics to classic cartoons? The former’s an acquired taste and the latter is what happens while preparing for the former.
Uh, just ignore me.
You’ve never heard of [“George of the Jungle”](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_of_the_Jungle" rel="nofollow ugc">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_of_the_Jungle</a>)? That’s where the “watch out for that tree” comes from.
I have kids in their 30’s so George was a must back then.
10,000 miles in how many months? I got my car August ‘04 and I’m just over 19,000 miles now – you obviously take way more road trips than I do.
in just over two months on a 06 jcw
Feb 24th recieved
today the 9th of May 06
miles and smiles equals 7,098
I am planning a family trip out to MOab Utah in the month of june leaving from the chi. area
I am the single driver 🙂
Working the doors for both the Welcome and Farewell dinners I had to make sure I gave Gabe a hard time. Although he got off easy compared to Mike from Aesthetic Creations, we at DCMM got him good at Sweetwater Barbeque in Robbinsville.
Overall I had a great time (even if I was running around alot making sure things went off without a hitch).
I like many of those previous posters are wondering about your mileage. We were in the same production group (nearly the same specs too) and I hit 20K on the Dragon. I was thinking you must not drive that much. 🙂
I didn’t make the trip this time but I enjoyed the photos. I was happy to hear that Henry walked away from that crash, but I can’t believe the air bags didn’t deploy. That’s kind of scary. If Henry had been injured it would have been a good lawsuit for some lawyer.