Even though luck might have played a role in what happened here, it’s mostly because the camera car was lucky there was a skilled driver behind the wheel of that Audi TTS.
This video was shot more than a month ago somewhere on the Autobahn, and shows a fast approaching Audi TTS (just minding its own business in the fast lane) nearly crashing into a car that clearly shouldn’t have changed lanes right there and then.
Yes, there are quite a few variables that we don’t know. We’re not aware if this was a section of the Autobahn with no speed limit and we don’t know exactly how fast either car was going. The TTS of course, can really fly thanks to its 310 PS 2.0 liter turbocharged engine. It can hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 4.6 seconds and reach an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph).
Is it possible that it was already maxed out when he started braking?
Anyway, when driving in Germany, people generally tend to respect the motorways and stay out of the fast lane as much as possible when there’s no speed restriction. They also learn not to get in the fast lane without making damn sure there’s nobody charging towards them at speeds that would be considered absurdly illegal in pretty much any other country.
So what happened? Well, odds are the guy driving the camera car simply didn’t check his mirror when he decided that it was OK to just change lanes all of a sudden. This could have arguably resulted in a horrific crash had the driver of that Audi TT not managed to go around without yanking on the steering wheel desperately trying to avoid the impact.
The fact that it looks like the TTS missed the camera car by an inch, is a good thing. Had he swerved like a mad man, he might have lost control of the car at those speeds.
What I don’t get is why he wasted so much time flashing his headlights. Maybe it wasn’t clear enough to him that it was too late for the other car to get back in the middle lane, and needed to make sure before going around.
Also, as one user said in the comments section, if the camera car had moved into the fast lane in order to pass a slower car, the TTS would have crashed into that slower car – and that’s really scary to consider.