Ask Goodwin - Have you ever rolled a car?
Colin Goodwin's driving history is long and varied. But has he ever ended up on his roof?
Have you ever rolled a car? Tom Narcissi, Bromley, Kent
Yes, during a rally in 1995. In the good old days car companies had so much marketing cash that they could afford to blow it on daft stunts such as letting Goodwin take part in a rally. The event in question was The Kerridge, a rally that fans of the slippery and gravelly will remember as a national rally held in Wales and sponsored by the eponymous Kerridge, a computer firm. Skoda came up with the car, an immaculately prepared Felicia. My navigator was colleague and old friend Paul Horrell. Paul has a brain the size of Cornwall, where he is from, and had rally experience. I have a brain the size of a pea and had no rally experience. What could go wrong?
Well for the first few stages not a lot. In fact we were flying along in quite a strong position and I was beginning to think that I might have some Scandinavian blood in my veins that I didn’t know about. Surpreme over confidence allied with lack of talent is as dramatic a mix as a barbecue and petrol.
It was hot and dusty and just as Paul said to me ‘Don’t go mad because the end of this stage [a 17 mile one] is very near.’ He said this as I was lining up the next car to pass which I did as I entered a dust cloud. When we came out the other side the road had decided to turn left and we went straight on down the side of the mountain, hit a tree stump, rolled and ended up the wrong way up next to a tree. Horrell hit the roof for the second time in about 10 seconds. He’s a placid chap but he wasn’t then. Several observations on rolling cars: it’s noisy. It’s disorientating and afterwards you can’t find where your Trebor mints have gone.
I’ve never rolled a car on the road and I don’t intend to. Your turn readers: Tweet me your upside down moment if you have one.
Ask Goodwin is a weekly column on evo.co.uk by Colin Goodwin, one of the UK's most popular motoring journalists – and one of the early contributors to evo magazine.
You'd like Colin – he drove an amphibious vehicle across the English channel (it caught fire half way) and he held the Guinness World Record for the highest speed in reverse (104 mph in a Light Car Company Rocket). More recently he drove from England to the Geneva motor show… in a Caterham 160.
Oh, and when he visits the evo office he does so in a plane that he built in his shed…
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