Yesterday, me and my family returned from a family trip in our X5 M.

The Autobahn was pretty empty at that time, it was sunny and dry, perfect driving conditions for driving fast. I was able to drive at Vmax most of the time.

After Munich, there is a part where the Autobahn has four lanes in each direction, going straight for a couple of kilometers. The perfect place for doing Vmax under safe conditions.

Now imagine this: I was traveling at around 290 kph on the speedo on the far left lane, xenon lights on (the X5 xenon lights are pretty bright) as I always do when I drive that fast.

Around 500 meters ahead of me, there were only two cars, both on the far right lane. Both cars were traveling at a speed of around 150-180 kph, I can't determine a precise speed.

When I was around 300 m away from these cars, the car in front of those two cars moved to the next left lane. The car behind him suddenly started to move to the left too, without blinking...and right into my lane (yes, he crossed two lanes and came to the left lane). No blinking, very sudden. I was aprox. 50 (!) meters away at full speed. 

The "funny" part: while crossing the two lanes right into my path, he lost control of his car. I don't know what happened, maybe he wasn't paying attention while driving but his car started to strongly move it's tail left and right at a speed of at least 130 kph. His crossing of the two lanes right into my driving path was just too sudden and he was too fast.

At that time, he apparently saw my lights and moved to the right, with his tail coming to the left.

I braked hard and now everything what happened was pure instinct and probably driving experience because it happened everything in one second or so: 

The strong braking destabilized my X5 M a little bit (MDM being active) and I was moving at around 180-200 kph between the guard rail in the middle of the Autobahn (separating the traffic lanes) and that out of control car in front of me. I don't have a clue how I managed but my wife told me afterwards that I managed to avoid the other car by not more than 10 cm or so. On the left, next to the guard rail, there was only 5 cm (no kidding) room left. 

The "fun" part was: because I didn't know if this guy is going to stay on the left or move back to the right, I was aiming (steering) for the right and in an instant to the left...at over 200 kph.

After that, being no traffic at all, I slowed down immediately and looked into the rear view mirror to get the license plate of that idiot.

Now guess what he did: he crossed, again, two lanes to the right and exited the Autobahn (there was an exit). I was so mad at this son of a bitch, I was ready to call the police. I guess he knew what he did and wanted to avoid trouble.

I usually drive only that fast when the streets are completely empty or when there is only one car on the right. I always slow down when I see two cars on the right lane because there is always an idiot who doesn't look into the rear view/side mirror.

Who could think of some crazy guy who moves from the far right lane to the far left lane on a four lane Autobahn in a second ? Also don't forget that I had my full lights on, he could see me from a great distance. I don't know if this guy was drunk or just plain dumb but he is lucky I didn't catch his license plate. It was a family car too and a woman was sitting next to him according to my wife, who looked to the side when we passed them.

Morale of this story: no matter how good of a driver you are and no matter how careful you are, there is always going to be some idiot who spits into your soup.

This was the first dangerous situation I've ever been in on a public street because I really adapt to traffic a lot and I usually count in the others too, so just in case if somebody makes a driving mistake. 

However...this situation was just plain crazy...so I'm going to go with "crazy" too in the future.

Meaning: I have to slow down most of the time. I can live with that but it proves to me that no matter how much experience you think you have, there is always going to be one of these situations where you just need...luck.

I'm also impressed on how the X5 M handled the situation, the braking, the chassis and the steering were just perfect, I never had the feeling that I'm loosing control because the car lets me down. The X5 M did exactly what I wanted it to do, it was like a direct connection from the brain to car because everything happened so fast. Wonderful piece of technology.

 

 


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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 997 Turbo, BMW X5 M, BMW M3 Cab DKG, Mini Cooper S JCW