WOW definately puts things into perspective, millertown 15 when i first signed up to s2ki i remember seeing your s2k and thinking, DAMN that is one NICE s2k. Sorry about what happened, it has happend to me too but i wasnt as nearly hurt like you are now. Your gonna love your new setup.

 

You all know what's coming out of my mouth next:

AFTERMARKET TRACTION CONTROL!

So sorry for your loss. Glad you're (relatively) ok.

The Honda is built pretty well, not many other roadsters could survive a rollover with that little cabin intrusion.

But back on the TRACTION CONTROL pitch:
1. I get really steamed when people post: "don't drive like an idiot and you won't have a problem."
2. All it takes is a split-second pause or slight overcorrection to have an accident. How many people are 100% on their game all the time? Not me.
3. Compound this with variable grip on variable road conditions (leaves, standing water, ice, etc) and that one little bobble can set your nose pointed sideways... only to regain grip while pointed off the side....
4. If you hit a road condition with variable traction, the slide has to be corrected perfectly or else you'll be out of control. If you stay on the throttle too long, you'll continue rotating... if you let off too quickly, it can overcorrect and snap the other way... leading you off the the side.

I'm not good enough to be perfect all the time.

AFTERMARKET TRACTION CONTROL ON AP1s = <$1000.

The best mod money I've ever spent (and I've spent way too much).

 

To the OP, good to see you're alive & (relatitvely) well. It's also good to see how well our car protects its passengers in crashes.

Re traction control, I can't see how it would have helped in the situation the OP described.

 

Sorry to hear Bro, glad you made it out okay to share this tragic.

 

Sorry to hear...glad you are on the mend

 

Sorry to hear about this. At least you are alive to tell the tale.

Unfortunately I had a little spin on the road last Thursday night myself. Back stepped out (my fault entirely) and over correction got me over the median (4-5 inches high) onto the opposite lane. No one else was involved and the only damage is the unseen type - something important and expensive is bent. Air bags deployed too.

CKIT - I really was looking at some TC for this very reason. This would have been avoided if I had TC - over zealous application of gas coming out of a corner. Which one do you have Race Logic?

 

 

Good to here your around to talk about it Sorry for the loss

 

I can tell you that it prevents this exact scenario from happening.

He wasn't going into the corner very hot with excessive rotational speed.

When you start hydroplaning, it's the foot on the throttle that breaks traction preferentially in the rears... this starts the rotation of the vehicle (tail out).

Now when the rear starts slipping, if you have your foot even lightly on the gas... the loss of traction + gas = rev'ing --> more slip. It's a vicious cycle.

Even the best human reaction time will take 100s of miliseconds to detect this. Meanwhile, there is increasing time spent without traction and the car continues its rotation.

By the time you detect the slip, it may be too late to correct it.

If you're really, really skilled and you have excellent judgement and technical ability, you will make the appropriate "counter-steer" while letting off the throttle jusssssst right. If you over-correct the steering, you'll regain traction while you're pointed in the wrong direction (what happened to millertown, I'm assuming). If you lift off the throttle too aggressively, you won't regain traction and the rear will continue sliding in the original oversteer.

The Racelogic traction control cuts ignition timing when it detects slip. You can set it to 0% slip in the wet. If the rears even hint at breaking free, it cuts ignition progressively (not abruptly) to slow the rears to the point where they regain traction. You don't rotate because you don't spend more than 10s of milliseconds with less traction in the rear compared to the front.

That's the key. It keeps all wheels spinning at the same rate and it modulates the throttle to do so.

The scenarios that it WOULDN'T work:
1. You go into a turn hot enough and you hit such low traction conditions with all tires that you'd 4-wheel drift even in neutral or with the clutch in. That would be the "driving like an idiot" behavior. That wasn't the case here.

2. You go into a turn and very, very aggressively engine brake in a turn, losing traction that cut ignition timing couldn't help. This is really rare. The Honda VSA with individual wheel braking would help in this situation.

Most of the "spinout" S2000 threads are when people have some level of throttle input and the lower traction conditions make the powered rears slip more than the neutral fronts. We joke about "no torque" but it's enough to overcome static friction... if you're FI... this is especially poignant.

 

RIP to your car and I'm glad you made it out alive.