Nigel Farage's car wheels 'were sabotaged in an assassination attempt' (UKIP leader)

The London Daily Mail ^ | January 3, 2016 | Glen Owen

[Pontiac]

If ALL the frog's lug nuts had been "unscrewed," he

Farage is a Limey

[Carriage Hill]

At some point, it might harmonically balance itself, but above/below that balance point, it would be seriously noticeable.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’d think any highly visible, controversial person would put lock nuts on all four wheels to prevent this sort of tampering?

[BwanaNdege]

If it was recent just about all court house parking lots have security cameras these days.

If you had reported this today the culprit would probably been identified and caught in the act.

This was at least 10 years ago. Probably no cameras out there in our small county.

I thought very seriously about dropping by his place of employment and, with a smile, suggest that any lug nuts he is around should be double checked to ensure proper torque.

"After all, the owner might be a Marine who spent some of his time in Vietnam crawling around tunnels, armed with a .45 & Ka-Bar, hunting VC."

(SMILE) "Have a nice day."

I guess #5 applies to me. Hopefully, my inaction did not embolden him to try other dumb stunts.

[FreedomPoster]

I’d have gone to the judge. If nothing else, I bet it would have resulted in the plaintiff being read the riot act by a Marshall.

[BwanaNdege]

You are probably correct.

[roadcat]

At some point, it might harmonically balance itself, but above/below that balance point, it would be seriously noticeable.

Correct. I had that situation, harmonics at certain speed ranges can be relatively smooth, while at a lower speed the harmonics work against a stable ride. That happened to me in an old Chevy, when it started vibrating like crazy after slowing down into the 40mph range. It was fine in the 50mph range. When I checked the front wheel, three of the five lugs were completely gone, and two remaining lug nuts were loose. I'm talking about the bolts sheered off, not just nuts missing. Had to have all the lug bolts replaced by a machine shop. A similar situation happened to my sister's car, although the wheel came off causing expensive damage to the car's undercarriage.

[Carriage Hill]

“three of five bolts sheered off, not just nuts missing”...
Wow, that’s amazing.
That would mean either massive impact trauma to the wheel assembly, metal age fatigue, a bad batch of bolts, or... sabotage.
Scary in any case.

[Mastador1]

All I’m saying, when a putz loosened all the lug nuts on one of my wheels i didn’t know until I was getting off the freeway, I had enough speed the rest of the time to keep the wheel in balance and on the car.

[Carriage Hill]

I don’t doubt it; you’re very lucky it stayed on while you were in freeway traffic.

[Mastador1]

Well it was over forty years ago and freeway traffic then was a far cry from now.

[ExCTCitizen]

Trump and Cruz, check your cars...

[roadcat]

Scary in any case.

It happened decades ago in my case, when I was younger and wilder, I didn't scare easily. I had a souped up Chevy and put a lot of stress on it from racing. I think it was on my 57 Chevy, with offset spindles in front and big wheels. Same happened to a friend who was actually on a race track, whose rear wheel fell off with all bolts sheered off when he spun out on a turn. But it can happen to anyone with regular driving if the lug nuts are not torqued tight. My sister's car was an ordinary Buick, and I don't what caused her wheel to fall off.

[Oztrich Boy]

Careered is correct.

Yes career comes from "racecourse" hence both the speed and path meanings

careen is a ship's keel. and it's orientation.