On Sunday a mate and I went for an hour-and-a-half's drive north of London to watch the last-ever display by the Avro Vulcan bomber. It's doing a farewell flypast around the country next weekend, but this was its last 'proper' flying display, and I just had to be there.

We didn't have tickets to the sold-out airshow, so decided to park up & walk to a good vantage point. I was driving along a nearby road, past loads of other parked cars, when I saw an empty bit of roadside verge which seemed to have "Jaguar Parking" written on it. Typical country verge, slightly raised, long grass, ditch on the outside, but quite wide enough to park on. So I carefully pulled onto it and was just trying to get a bit further on when I felt the front end drop and we stopped abruptly.

Turns out, there was a small drain dug across the verge at right-angles to the road, and the front wheels had gone into it. Not only did that dig the front splitter into the ground on the other side, it left the car completely bellied on the raised centre of the verge:



Although it doesn't look that stuck, it really was properly beached. A few backward/forward attempts, and some exploratory pushing by my mate, and we decided that it was going nowhere. So we decided to head off to see the show, and sort it out later.

Well, later became a lot later. At one stage we had 6 people pushing, but the car wasn't moving more than a cm. So I called the AA for assistance, and we waited. Unfortunately, the XKR doesn't have a 'proper' towing eye on the back, just some sort of bracket that's tucked up under the rear diffuser. I guess if you have the right widget, it hooks into the bracket and goes down under the diffuser. Without the widget, you can tie onto the bracket, but the towing strop will pull upwards on the diffuser and probably break it.

So I had to decline the several nice people who stopped to offer help, including two guys in a pair of ex-army Land Rovers that were more than capable of dragging the car off the verge. Restores your faith in human nature, though - everyone from the Land Rover lads, to a farmer with his truck (who saw us, carried on home & came back with a rope), to two young blokes & their girlfriends in a tricked-out custom van.

Anyway, AA man turned up with his low-loader, and he didn't have a widget either. He decided to loop the strop around the rear wishbone and pull it that way - not ideal, but it was getting dark and we were running out of ideas. Unfortunately, his truck was parked mostly on gravel, so there was a bit of a tug-of-war initially, with the XKR winning and the ruck gently winching itself backwards. With the truck repositioned more on tarmac, it worked fine, and we were out and away.

Moral of story: stay on the black bits. And I'm going to investigate what the widget is...

 

Good to hear you got out with no damage. Even better to hear that multiple people stopped to help. Nothing better than a low level fly by.

 

Thanks for sharing and duly noted on the "no off roading" advice!

 

Just an FYI. A few years ago a friend of mine who is a volunteer fireman told me about a Ferrari that burned up. There was a car show in the area and this guy parked his car in a field near the show. Grass was dry and about the same length as this post field. He said the catalytic converter lit up the grass under the car and the whole thing burned up. Not a pretty sight.

 

Actually, there were a few wisps of smoke from underneath, curing up out of the wheel well, so I made sure my extinguisher was handy! I've seen photos of cars on fire at the Goodwood Festival of Speed after they were marshalled to a parking area in a field of long dry grass - a mistake that is no longer made. In this case, the verge was mostly green, but there was sufficient dry material to smoulder when a cat belly-flopped onto it.

Yeah, think I'll be staying away from country verges in future.

 

Glad I read this thread yesterday. I was stuck in traffic for a few hours today, and saw people crossing a grassy median to turn around and find an alternate route. I was tempted to follow suit, but remembered your story and decided against crossing the grassy area. It would not have saved any time, as it turns out, major highway was closed and all local roads and other highways were congested as a result. Any damage would not have been worth it.

 

I guess going across the rough is OK provided you can see what's in it. In my case, the grass was way too long to know what it was concealing and I shouldn't have tried it - or I should have asked my passenger to get out & check. After all, there could have been a rock or lump of concrete in there, and I'd have some proper damage rather than a mildly displaced front splitter that I'll fix myself.

 

Good
Story

 

Glad you got away without damage to the car. Bet that it just took your breath away when you felt the front and drop...

 

scary stuff Ngarara, hopefully damage is minimal?
Definitely an experience NOT to be repeated

 

Yeah, the initial response was "Oops, no problem, we'll just back out gently". Nuh-uh. Both rear wheels spinning, we're going nowhere. Bollocks...

The damage is trivial - the front splitter comes in 3 parts, with the end pieces slotted into the centre section. One end piece has popped out and its 'tongue' now sits under the centre section's 'socket'. I'm gonna have to get physical on it to push it back in, and probably run some sealant along the join between the splitter and the bumper (there are traces of the original sealant visible).