It's been a bad week for one of my business Partners. He's one of the senior guys in the Firm I work for and his passion has always been cars and wine.
Over the years he's been building up his car collection (XJS V12, Ferrari, Aston Martin) to the point that he's reached the point where he's got what he always wanted - a Virage Volante and DB7 V12 Vantage. His company car is (was) a Jaguar XJR 400 odd brake horse supercharged job - claims it's the best company car he's ever had.
Last week he was leaving a meeting in the pouring rain, came off the roundabout onto the dual carriageway and the tail spun out, as usual he had it in sports mode so the traction control wasn't on. He corrected then went skiting across the carriageway, on to the grass verge and careered into the retaining post of a very sturdy fence. The car slammed into it on the driver's door, A and B frames bent, floor buckled up and the roof a few inches lower than it was previously. His driver's seat was half the size it was before. Luckily he's only 5'5" and the only injury was a severely bruised hand. His pride and joy a write off but thankfully he was okay.
Then on Monday he gets a phone call at the office. His wife had somehow driven through the garage doors and ended up at the back of the garage through a 6 foot gap between his two Aston Martins.
It seems his wife in her Volvo V70 4WD turbo thing (automatic) had drawn up just outside the garage, foot on brake, released brake forgetting she was in drive and not park, car lurched forward, she stamps on brake, hits accelerator and ploughs through doors and into the small gap between the two Astons.
The Virage Volante is a near write off with one of the rear wheels sheared right off the axle. The DB7 has been pushed under the steel workbench to the side to the extent that the bench had to be jacked up to get the car towed out.
His poor wife is shaking more with the thought of wrecking his cars than her own safety. He is remarkably calm about the whole thing.
A week ago he had a pretty nice collection of cars to drive, this week he's scrabbling around the fleet for pool cars to drive.
Such a shame, they were his pride and joy but we can't help having a giggle in the office, not at him but at the irony of the whole thing. Going from having so many nice cars to driving about in abeat up Astra with 120,000 miles on the clock.
Thing is, these things come in threes......
Over the years he's been building up his car collection (XJS V12, Ferrari, Aston Martin) to the point that he's reached the point where he's got what he always wanted - a Virage Volante and DB7 V12 Vantage. His company car is (was) a Jaguar XJR 400 odd brake horse supercharged job - claims it's the best company car he's ever had.
Last week he was leaving a meeting in the pouring rain, came off the roundabout onto the dual carriageway and the tail spun out, as usual he had it in sports mode so the traction control wasn't on. He corrected then went skiting across the carriageway, on to the grass verge and careered into the retaining post of a very sturdy fence. The car slammed into it on the driver's door, A and B frames bent, floor buckled up and the roof a few inches lower than it was previously. His driver's seat was half the size it was before. Luckily he's only 5'5" and the only injury was a severely bruised hand. His pride and joy a write off but thankfully he was okay.
Then on Monday he gets a phone call at the office. His wife had somehow driven through the garage doors and ended up at the back of the garage through a 6 foot gap between his two Aston Martins.
It seems his wife in her Volvo V70 4WD turbo thing (automatic) had drawn up just outside the garage, foot on brake, released brake forgetting she was in drive and not park, car lurched forward, she stamps on brake, hits accelerator and ploughs through doors and into the small gap between the two Astons.
The Virage Volante is a near write off with one of the rear wheels sheared right off the axle. The DB7 has been pushed under the steel workbench to the side to the extent that the bench had to be jacked up to get the car towed out.
His poor wife is shaking more with the thought of wrecking his cars than her own safety. He is remarkably calm about the whole thing.
A week ago he had a pretty nice collection of cars to drive, this week he's scrabbling around the fleet for pool cars to drive.
Such a shame, they were his pride and joy but we can't help having a giggle in the office, not at him but at the irony of the whole thing. Going from having so many nice cars to driving about in abeat up Astra with 120,000 miles on the clock.
Thing is, these things come in threes......
But the XJR is definately automatic, the Vantage is most likely an automatic, and the Virage could be automatic, but is proabaly a manual, so one out of three I suppose is not to bad. 
