I went to Best Buy to pick up a new router. It was a pleasant enough day although completely overcast.
Top down, windows up, and the freeway was fine at 80+, as everyone has decided to up the normal travel speed since Covid struck.
Anyway, I stopped before the trip home to raise the roof as I saw some lightning down the way towards home, and boy am I glad I did.
This clip shows the second collision I saw, the first was a single car into the fence on the right. The road surface got REAL treacherous, I even used my Snow Mode for the second time ever. The butt still wiggled a bit though, even at 30 mph.

 

Glad you got the top up in time.

 

I hope you didn't have any hail damage. If you did, a good PDR tech can work miracles. Ask me how I know.

 

been caught in rain about this hard only once, thankfully only 5 minutes from home, but it wasn't on the forecast at all. it stopped almost the minute i pulled back into my garage (of course)

 

A smart person would pull off the road and find cover (such as an overpass bridge etc.) and wait it out for the 10-15 minutes.

 

Guess I'm an idiot then, huh?
Oh, and by the time I got TO cover, I'd have already been out of the mess anyway. Utah squalls only last a couple minutes.

 

When I leave town headed north the next overpass is about 140 miles away. And that is the closest one. South, East and West are much further.

 

Ha, I wouldn't stop either, that strategy is only when I am on a motorcycle. Plow forward at all times.

 

Same here in north TX. Once it starts hailing, it's usually too late (unless you're conveniently approaching an overpass or a covered lot). Then it's over in a few minutes.

 

Thanks captain obvious. Never been out west apparently.

 

Looks like you unknowingly entered a wormhole that took you directly to England I don't think we have had a single day without rain this May.

 

Rain I can deal with, it's the hail that is a concern. Three years ago we got a hail storm that damaged my house's roof and put holes in the house siding. Insurance paid out over $48,000 for those repairs. The entire Zip Code for here had roofers at nearly every house for over a year.
I certainly did NOT want hail damage again, especially on an aluminum-bodied convertible.

 

Too right. We get hail of course (had some last week) but the really big stuff is rare, thankfully. I have a friend whose very nice Nissan 370Z was badly damaged by hail. Fixing it was a nightmare. We complain in Britain all the time about our weather, but we are generally spared the really serious stuff - tornadoes, hurricanes and so on. Our problem is that the weather is rarely really bad, but also rarely really good. This year, we are approaching midsummer's day and we've barely seen the sun shine yet. It's almost the end of May and my XKR has hardly been out of the garage. IMO a convertible here is pointless - you get maybe half a dozen days a year you can enjoy it. If I lived somewhere that the sun shone regularly, I'd go for a 'vert like a shot.

I enjoyed your video (especially the "Holy **** my ***" which gave me the real sensation of being right there

 

Oops, I forgot about that part.

 

That was the highlight! I can just imagine myself shouting the same (or at least a British version of the same). Made my day!

 

I love the 2 in the left lane being jammed right up on top of each other! Nice that no matter where you go, few seem to know that there are travel lanes and passing lanes.


If you'd have put the top up, you wouldn't have had to *** your ****!

How did your top survive, anyway?

 

Everything perfect! There is zero damage on any glass, aluminum, paint or canvas. I don't know why not, but I'm okay with it.

 

Wow. Those wiper blades got a workout. Were you white knuckles at all

 

Nah, everyone around was going a reasonable speed, as was I. I had one moment of a loose rear end, but just a wiggle. I was mostly worried about metal or glass damage. It sure was loud inside with a canvas top though.

 

We get some crazy damaging hail here on occasion. One time I got caught in a hailstorm on the highway. It sounded so bad I thought the car was gonna be totaled. When we arrived at the destination, not a single ding. Seems in the car, it can sound worse than it actually is.