On Sat, 07 Jul 2012 20:09:26 +0100, steve robinson wrote:

A car outside my house suddenly revving to the limiter, white smoke
billowing from thev exhaust and the occupants scrambling out , any
ideas what likely to have caused it

Was it a diesel?

Had this on an old Fiat Uno diesel once that had been overfilled with
oil. Changing down for a bend, the revs went up, and it threw a load of
oil into the filter, then sucked it down into the cylinders. It revved
uncontrollably, even with the ignition off as it was fuelling itself off
the oil. Revved for about 2 mins, smoke everywhere. Then it stopped.
Seemed ok afterwards, once we'd had the AA out to find out what the hell
had happened and he explained it to my friend, who's car it was.