My Cadillac

In 2001 I bought an old Cadillac Sedan Deville in Miami and drove from
Key West to San Francisco (and eventually on to Seattle) over 8 months.

In June I was driving from Detroit to Chicago with my friend Steve,
taking him to the airport after a friend's wedding in Bloomfield Hills.

Steve was driving and as we were nearing Gary, Indiana the car
started to rattle violently at 70mph. Seconds later the front right tyre
exploded and the car went out of control, swerving towards a semi
truck in the next lane. Luckily we then swerved back towards the
grass verge in the middle of the freeway. Unluckily Steve slammed
on the brakes (which we later found out was exactly the thing you
shouldn't do with a blowout). The wheels locked and we slammed
head on into a barrier. This photograph was taken seconds after
the crash. I was in shock but managed to get a snap.

The car was towed to a wrecking yard in Portage and Steve hot-footed
it out of there in a cab, got on a flight and flew back to London. I was
not best pleased to be left alone to deal with the situation.

I was stranded in Portage for 3 days whilst the car was worked on in
an auto repair shop. Finally I managed to limp towards Chicago,
with pieces of car falling off along the way. The car started to belch
black smoke as I drive through the city and I was towed again to
another auto repair place. Finally I managed to drive to Madison,
Wisconsin where I stayed with an old work colleague's brother
before driving to St. Paul, Minnesota the next day to my Uncle and
Aunt's. My Uncle ordered spare parts from Cadillac and then
winched the chasis back into shape using the winch from a Jeep!

Amazingly I drove another 15,000 miles in this car after it was mended.

I received notice that I was to be sued by the State of Indiana for the
damage caused to the freeway barrier! Luckily Geico, my insurance
company covered the costs. Sadly the guy who sold me the policy
was fired for not checking that I had a US driver's license (which
I didn't I had a UK one which he informed me was OK) and my
policy was cancelled after the crash. Nightmare!

Photo taken on a Ricoh GR1 35mm camera.