Well said, Paul.

Gromit is proud to have mods pioneered by Nano.

 

As I sit in waiting for Cab to arrive, I reflect on your good fortune. You created a truly one of a kind mini, which was among my favorites on NAM. You also walked away from a potentially fatal occurrence. I am saddened by your loss, relieved that you and your family are safe, and anxious to see your next creation.

 

I so glad to hear that everyone is fine and I feel your pain about Nano.

I only met you for a minute at Tapoco Lodge as you pulled in behind me.

 

Wow guys - Thank goodness everyone is ok!
Does this mean we'll see NEW mods from you guys on the next Mini? (tryin to keep optimistic!) Also, I suspect many of the mods can be removed and brought to the new one right? or sold? You know there are a ton of ppl who've admired yer work on Nano!

 

I was sad to see this thread. Through Matt's work, Nano became a great resource for us on NAM. The important thing is that everyone came through safely.

There is a chance that Nano is not totalled. It takes a lot of serious damage (engine damaged, frame bent, etc.) to total the car. There been a few nasty looking rollovers on NAM that ended up being repaired rather than totalled.

 

Oh this makes me so sad! Nano is my all-time favorite MINI, next to my own. Many mods that Clara has were sparked by inspiration from Matt and Nano.

I'm so glad you guys are safe.

 

Sorry to hear this , glad everyone is ok.
As a fellow HO MCC Ohio owner to another Nano will be missed as a great mule for new products and some very cool mods.
That is very sad that the dragon took one of our Hot Orange convertibles from the road. The MINI did its job and you are all safe.

If you buy back the car from the Insurance company I am allway looking for parts.
Since its almost Halloween..
Maybe I could reserect Nano and use some of her parts for My MINI. I am allways looking for a doner.

-alpinamike

 

First of all, let me say that I appreciate everything (well, almost everything) that's been said in here.... I had no idea that so many people thought highly of Nano. Being a bit of a "different" kind of MINI, it inspired many... well, let's just say "less than kind" comments from the more "purist" set that any car seems to gather over time. Thanks for all the kind words, and I'm really, really glad that Nano made a favorable impression on the community.

And YES, it can't be said enough... The cabrio roof kept us all alive and almost completely unharmed (just a few minor scrapes), even though at one point the entire car was upside-down and scraping across the tarmac/gravel verge. The A-pillars are bent back a bit, especially the driver's side pillar (the side that the car was flipped up onto by the cliff wall), but the top still stayed well clear of our heads. I'm incredibly grateful to the safety engineers at BMW/MINI for all the hard work and effort that they must have done to reinforce these areas - they kept me and my family not only alive but safe, and I'm, quite frankly, in awe of the MINI even more than before. As a classic Mini owner, I read quite a bit of negative (sometimes downright nasty and hateful) posts online from the classic set, criticizing the MINI's "gigantic size", but I now realize that the car is really just a bout as small as it could possibly be while still retaining the classic Mini "wheels at the corners" look and a full rear seat, and incorporating the plethora of safety devices that we really must have in a modern car. I shudder to imagine the same kind of crash in my "tin box" classic Mini...

As for what happened... We departed Robinsville on Sunday morning, just before dawn, headed via Rt. 129 for home. Kara had never driven the Dragon, and wanted to take a single stab at it. By the time we arrived at the Crossroads of Time there was sufficient light in the sky to see the road without headlights, and there was absolutely no traffic (I think we passed one car the entire time).

Kara was doing well - not going too fast, decelerating early enough to maintain admirable control, staying squarely in her lane - all the things a good driver on such a challenging road is supposed to do. I was concerned about some of the decreasing-radius turns that I know the road has hidden, but given Kara's driving up till then I was not worried.

Kara had just passed (I believe) the area called "Gravity Cavity" and was approaching the first of the downhill decreasing-radius turns I mentioned when I realized that she was going just a bit faster than she had previously (but still slower than many people traveled the same area during the Midinght on the Dragon run in May I want to point out). Not wanting to distract her by "side seat driving" any more than I already had, I kept my mouth shut. I was still not worried...

Kara started into the sweeping left-hand turn, then saw the radius tighten up. As anyone that's driven that road knows, right at the tight spot, the road banking actually turns outwards at the worst possible spot. All I can figure is that Kara felt the car "go light" as the banking diminished, but even then she kept her had and stayed off the brake. She did, however, just at the apex, take her foot off the gas, probably hoping to scrub off a bit of speed on the curve's far side. This, unfortunately, given the now negative-camber road, put her into a gentle understeer slide. Not much. On any other road, it would have been a ten-foot error... a gentle skid onto the berm, easily correctable.

But the Dragon is no normal road. Ten feet might well be a mile when there's a cliff wall 48 inches over the side yellow line.

I remember her saying... something.... maybe a surprised little "Oh, God...". Then the passenger-side corner of the car ramped up the 45-degree slope of dirt and gravel padding the bottom of the stone cliff and literally flipped onto it's side. There was that sound, the noise that anyone that's been in a car crash knows so terribly well, the sharp, infinitely complex "BANG!" of metal crumpling (and, in our case, of the side-curtain air bag explosively deploying, thought I did not know it), a moment before the tinkle of safety glass.

Momentum carried us over onto the roof. My stomach did that roller-coaster thing as gravity spun around me and the seatbelt dug into my shoulder as I hung from it. I remember seeing the painted line passing in front of the glass. Seeing the spiderweb cracks crazing the surface as the material surrendered to the pressure of the weight of steel resting on it. I wondered, oddly calmly, if we were pointed towards the drop-off on the other side of the road by now, and if I would soon see trees rushing past as we plunged over the precipice.

Then we flipped back the way we had come, bouncing the tires off the rock face and rocking us firmly onto the driver's side door. I'm not sure how long I hung there, wondering if we'd finally stopped, smelling the odor of explosives and talc from the air bag mixed with the flinty scent of dirt and rock dust. I do remember running feet, upside down from my vantage, hurrying over and helping Kara out of the torn-asunder convertible top. Thank God it was cold that morning and we had it up.

After that it was the usual chaos of people asking of we were alright, searching for bloody wounds (thankfully none except a scrape on my son's forehead). A very nice man, Robert, an ex EMT who was headed home form his job on the third shift, directed traffic when people approached the blind curve. Sounds like others directed it from the other side, though I did not know it (and thank you for doing so). The county sheriff officer and state trooper that showed up were the very model of Southern politeness and professionalism, and they, too, deserve my heartfelt thanks.

So... we are still waiting for the insurance to determine whether Nano can be salvaged, but given the bent structural members I saw on all sides of the car (even the botom), I doubt it. I really hope they can, for Nano is and always has been more than "just a car" to me... As was said, people are the only irreplaceable thing in life, and I agree with that, but I still feel that pang of sadness every time I imagine Nano being sold for scrap and parceled out as parts....

Here are some pictures...





The last beauty shots of Nano, taken on the Cheohola Skyway the day before the accident, at sunset.

After the crash, the car came to rest on the driver's side. How the passenger door came open like that is a mystery to me - I honestly don't remember it opening, and I can't see how I would have been able to push it up into that position...






The wrecker, come to take away the ruin...



Anyway... thanks guys for all your kind words, and especially thank you to Chuck and Barbara who totally and completely saved our bacon by giving us a ride to the wrecker's and the rental car place, to the MINI guys that helped direct traffic, and to Paul for the very touching "eulogy".

 

Besides the MINI's durability in crashes, God was certainly with you that day!

 

Ouch, Matt....those pix are painful to view. I am so happy that I had a chance to meet you and your family, if only briefly, at Tapoco on Thursday, while NANO was looking so beautiful. It is really quite impressive how well you all made it through such a traumatic incident!

What is the process now? When do you learn if NANO is totalled? Hug Kara and Grayson for me.

 

Matt, I'm soooo sorry to hear about Nano but glad everyone is ok. When I met you at the Dragon in May You gave me ideas for my first mod in my new 07 that I replaced after totaling my 05 earlier this year. I hope you either get Nano fixed and back motoring or I can't wait to see a new creation from you. Keep us posted.

 

I can't imagine what it must have been like to live through that... your account of what happened already gives me chills :(

Glad to hear you and the family are OK, though! I'm sure you will all be motoring in good time.

 

.

 

You are an excellent writer, and photographer. The event was like slow motion in retrospect? Even though I'm not into blingy mods, you had some cool stuff on Nano, the next MINI will be better, I'm sure.

*That sentence got me... bad.

 

Mega-bummer.
I saw the picture on Killboy and posted it on AtlantaMinis to see if anybody knew who it was...
So glad that you're okay.

 

WHOOOOA. Good to hear you guys are all okay!! I had no idea this had happened...and yes the car does look a 'total', although a very cool looking MINI. While we were all eating donuts at MINI Mornins you must have been dealing with this headache. Good thing Chuck and Barbara were there to help.

What will you next? Surely the classic Mini will not be up to being a daily driver for very long?

 

Just heard from Kara... It's totaled. I was really holding out a shred of hope that Nano could be fixed but... (sigh).

I'm so incredibly bummed... I can't even put it into words.

 

Matt,
Glad you are all fine and okay. Sorry about your misfortune.

I remember well our first conversation at the Dragon last year and am happy that I got to meet you and learn some great mods to do on TWISTER.

Remember, everything works out in the end.

 

Sorry to hear this Nano was a great MINI. The loss of any MINI is a bummer.

 

Sorry about your loss... but you might be able to save some of your customized bits for PICO (or will you call your new mini MICRO?) before the insurance company takes Nano...

The important thing is that everyone is OK, everything else can be replaced or rebuilt!

 

Wow, that is chilling. I am so glad all of you are OK. This is kind of hard to read as I am headed over to the Dragon next weekend for the first time, I'll sure keep this information with me and err on the side of safety.

Again, I'm gald everyone's OK. I was in a collision (got T-boned by a Honda) right at 2 years ago, I can still hear that crunch and get the same sick feeling in my gut. That one totaled my Volvo and reinforced my driving cars built under German/Swedish safety specs( the toughest in the world).

 

Yes, please DO be careful... Nobody can "slay" that road - the best you can hope to do is ride it safely. The pictures show the price of even a moment's hesitation or distraction, and as bad as it was, I literally can't imagine how much worse it would have been if it had been a RIGHT turn that we slid on, sending us over the drop-off... Do yourself a favor and stop at one of the larger turn-offs and just look down that slope - it's so steep that you can't even walk down it, and the police have to repel down on ropes in most places to fish out dead motorcyclists.

We'll be back in May with whatever MINI/Mini we have then, but driving it will never be the same for me.

 

Poor baby Nano I know you guys will have another cool MINI whenever you are ready to move on.

 

OMG! Poor Nano. :( He was a cool car and he will be missed. Thank god you and your family are ok.

 

It's probably too soon to think about replacing Nano -- but there's already an HO on the marketplace. (granted they're asking more than I paid for my MINI with the same packages and 1/4 of the miles -- but they're out there)

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=117960

Like everyone else, I see this as an opportunity to see what else you can do with a new project --- whether it be an HO or something different.