So far, Goodwood has been a blast and I feel like I’ve seen so many fascinating things. “Fascinating,” by the way, is a wonderfully vague word, and I think the boundaries of that word are vast enough to include such things as varied as the design and engineering glorious madness of the Mercedes-Benz Blue Wonder or the Lexus LFA successor or, yes, even the sight of a Renault Trafic van completely upside-down in the media parking area. It’s that last one I want to talk about now.
This is something we saw yesterday as we were returning to our trusty and deeply homely SsangYong Rodius, which was parked on a grassy hillside in the large field designated for media parking, a convenient walk of an (estimated) billionty kilometers from the main show.
We made our way though the parked cars, many of which were interesting and required stopping at and scrutinizing, like, say, this MGA:
What’s going on with that extra round intake at the front there? Must be something fun under that hood that enjoys gulping air.
Anyway, when we finally made it back to where the Rodius was parked – it’s always easy to find because you just need to listen for the sound of every car around it getting devalued and the sobbing of any children who may have happened to look directly at it – and noticed something mildly unusual:
A Land Rover Defender emergency vehicle! How cool! We certainly don’t have those in the States!
Oh, wait, there’s something else:
Now, I’m not familiar with how everything is done here in the UK, but I’m fairly certain that’s not how you park a van.
Yes, there was a Renault Trafic violating the old CB-era rule of keeping the shiny side up, yet otherwise looking in pretty good shape. All we really know is that this seems to be a 2023 Renault Trafic diesel and no one was hurt. I’m glad to hear no one was hurt for multiple reasons, but at this moment because then I can write about it with less guilt.
What fascinates me here is how this happened? There’s no room to drive crazy fast in this area, so I don’t think this was because of reckless, high-speed driving. There’s no huge skid marks or long gouges in the turf, either.
This part of the field was a pretty noticeable hill, and I suspect that had to be a factor here, though I’m not entirely clear about how. I can imagine doing just the right wrong kind of turn at just the wrong angle and giving it just the wrong amount of brake, throttle, or both, and the tall, top-heavy van just sort of pitching over?
But I’m still not clear at all how one does a low-speed full-van-inversion like this, especially one that seems to have caused pretty minimal damage to the van.
What I’m saying is I’m impressed, and I’d be delighted to hear your speculations about how one accomplishes turning a Trafic into a ɔᴉɟɐɹʇ.
Someone was having a wild and crazy nooner. Maybe it was Cheech, maybe it was Chong…….
6-8 strong humans with a weird sense of humor flipped it on purpose to make you wonder what happened. This is my theory.
Probably driven by Wes Mantooth’s British cousin. The current state is a result of a media turf war that Channel 4 News out of San Diego would definitely have the scoop on.
This used to happen a lot in the 80s, when small cars were light as a feather and could be lifted by a handful of young bucks. People would come out to find their car turned sideways between two other cars (so they couldn’t get out), or on a side, or even on the roof if it was a beater and the prankers were particularly feisty.
Not just the 80s, Three of us were leaving the bar one night in 2003 or so, and some git parked my friends car in. It was a FWD GM econobox or something, so my big friend, a former paramedic and I relocated the rear end out of our way. It may have wound up between a pole and the long unused parking attendant shed.
I was picturing something more like what happens any time a Philadelphia sports team wins a championship.
In the college I attended every spring there was a parade for a large college festival and the fraternity and sororities would team up and build floats for the parade.
Early morning hour (like 5 am) of the parade the floats would make their trip from the fraternity to the parade staging area…
Days of warning and Lots of temp. ‘no parking signs’ would always be placed around the parade route + streets between the fraternities and the parade staging area.
Every single year, there would be at least a handful of cars parked in along the street where they temporarily shouldn’t be bc the floats needed all the road to make it to the parade staging area.
So… any cars that were parked along the route would be literally Bounced out of the way. i.e. lots of mostly college age guys would bounce the car up and down while pushing the car sideways (on the upwards bounce) into the grass.
At least 9 times out of 10 at least no visible damage was caused by the movers…
When I was in high school, a guy drove a gmt400 Tahoe and one day while parking, his friend inexplicably reached over and cranked the wheel. They weren’t going fast or anything but it turned sharp and fast enough to tip it over, perfectly landing on the roof in between 2 lines. He left it there like he’d parked it upside down on purpose and went to class until a tow truck came to take it away. Made for some really funny pictures
Asbos.
It wants a belly rub and a treat.
Google Maps
I’m thinking alcohol and a good dose of physics, or possible the other way around. Could be they loaded it up heavy to one side, then drove around the hill just right causing the tumble.
It’s on a 23 plate, so it might be new enough to be on the press fleet, in which case this is just pretty average journalist abuse.
Maybe an inventive way to return it with the fuel gauge pointing to full without having to buy fuel on expenses (you have to get a receipt and everything, so sometimes it’s just easier to flip a van).
There is an oil drain plug, ya know.
I once owned a 91 Husaberg with a stuck drain plug, this was the PO’s preferred method also before I rebuilt the motor.
The van was rockin’ and someone came knockin’….
Well to do football hooligans. They wanted a Sprinter instead of a Trafic. It’s bad enough with the Rodius. But they can’t tip the Rodius because literally any other vehicle would be an upgrade and our shameless writers would spill many bytes about how rolling the Rodius improved it.
Someone was so enraged by the sight of an Odious at Goodwood that they wanted to roll it down the hill. However, it was parked in, and if Top Gear has taught us anything it’s that French vehicles should probably come pre-damaged from the factory, so they settled for that van instead.
Not crashed. Just waiting for a mate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wqzZOFOcYo&t=3s
The Rodius has entered the chat!
Well, I won’t be the third one to make the antipodean joke, but the glass is in good shape and the cross-section is still more square than round, so I’m gonna guess it was either a van-tipping prank that went a few degrees to far, or just a low-speed attempt at hooning that didn’t make it very far.
Booze.
It’s an Aussie van. When back home, it’s right side up.
They do sell those vans down under as well.
Vogons
Van would have just been eradicated then no? Unless this is the effect of poetry…
Renault Hitchhiker post poetry. It will never be right side up again
Oh no! The hooligans are loose!
Yesterday, some hooligans knocked over a dust bin in Shaftesbury…
https://youtu.be/mA6hMFZ-gx0?si=Ml62veO414gXvULQ
Upon seeing the SsangYong Rodius the Renault Trafic fainted from beholding the vision it couldn’t believe.
The ghost of Rémy Julienne has arrived.
Took the van for a joyride along with Erik Carlsson?
Renault Tragic
That’s not a van. That’s a transformer. He’s doing a handstand
Please welcome our Australian friends to Goodwood.
They actually thought Aussie-spec just meant RHD.
I do hope someone shouted ‘You can’t park there, mate’ as is traditional. Even though I guess in this case you probably could park there, just not in that orientation.
Theory 1 would be some drunken guys turning it over twice. Like a Rubik‘s cube. But would need to see more pics if the sides are damaged.
I’d guess alcohol was involved somehow.