JLUDE

As long as cops don't see you doing it! It was actually the back parking lot of my office so I technically was not breaking the law by playing back there.

XtianDobbZockOn

no matter what car i have if the driving conditions are poor i take it easy on the car. there are already enough crazy drivers on the road, and i don't want to contribute to that.

trancerz

Thanks for all the replies guys, its helpful knowing that I'm not the only one concerned about hydroplaning. I will update on damage tomorrow when I have it lifted up in my shop. I know I am one lucky sob, as I escaped with my life and no body damage, except for scratching a bit of the front bumper when I hopped the curbs. I know for a fact there is going to be a few bent rods on the front suspensions, but it looks like the rear axle is also going to need replacing. Just guessing though, I'm hoping for the best when I take a closer look tomorrow.

I have never auto crossed in my life(ap1 was suppose to be a daily driver) but I can guarantee that one whole practice day in a wet track would have immensely helped in my situation here. You can place the most skillful driver in the world in the position that I was in(after the tail decided to go crazy) and he wouldn't have been able to avoid the first curb as I was on the right lane of the street, close to the curb. However, when I counter steered as quickly as possible to avoid running into a brick wall on my right side, I ran over an island on the left side of the road. During this sequence of events, I decided not to push down on the brake and just control the car using the steering wheel because I have heard that braking would have just completely lost traction and slam me into the brick wall. Did I make the right decision in not using the brake? My friend mentioned I should have feather throttled while counter steering away from the wall, doing a semi drift and straightening out afterwards. I told him I'm no Keiichi Tsuchiya, just some guy that was trying to salvage his life and car.

trancerz

Wow man, I hope you are ok, best of luck. What happened to your ankles? And what exactly happened in your situation, if you don't mind going into details?

As for the guys who feel they are safe on the road in certain conditions, that's exactly how I was before this incident. I was very confident in driving my car and did not expect anything to happen out of the norm.

Armend17

I ran over some black ice, i hit a wall and a tree, and i wasn't near vtec, i shifted from 1st to 2nd around 4rpm and the back end spun, you could counter steer as much as you want once it goes over a certain point your done, anyways i fractured both my ankles, car was totaled, but now i've had my 01 for 5 months lots of miles and lots of drifting so that doesn't happen again, but i never push it if the road conditions aren't perfect.

BoleCailey

I guess I should have said I have done a lot of karting in the rain, went to some famous racing school in Arizona for my 16th birthday, have done a fair amount of autocross, and a few track days. Though I doubt it is really relevant to driving in the rain LOL.

Ape-x

I think all governments need to take a leaf out of the finland school of driving. Over their learners are practically taught how to race before there given their license.

I think every one should go through skid pan training before receiving a license.

In Oz there placing more restrictions on young drivers everyday, 100hrs log bog training, 12months on learners, power,cylinder,induction restrictions.
And yet no advanced training is provided. Your not even required to drive over 60kph (35ishMPH) or learn how to overtake on a single lane hi-way, It's insanity.

It needs to be accepted that we're going to drive like nutters, and need to be provided with the means to do this as safely as possible.

Or at least give us some where to practice driving. All the money spent on preventing accidents and the after cost, could be spent on a massive slab of tarmac and some kitty litter. somewhere it is almost impossible to hurt yourself, others and most importantly your car. And just in case have an ambo and a firey on stand by, there's always one on stand by at the stations anyway.

Of coarse bureaucratic red tape and insurance would prevent this from ever happening. Di-spite the amount of people willing to line up pay a fee and sign a waver.

I could go on, but most of you have probably already glazed over this post due to it's length.
But trancerz I can totally sympathize, about a month ago I had a similar experience.
I think mine ended a lot worse though.



Remember people it only takes a split second, and the the best of us still crash.
Drive like a nut if you want just remember there are consequences, and don't endanger others.

captain_pants

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm a perfect driver (you've seen videos showing otherwise in this thread!), but the best driver in the world wouldn't have got into that situation to begin with. Ckit nailed it, looking ahead for changing conditions would have led to your brain saying, "Umm, how about if we get out of the throttle before we drive through that puddle of unknown depth? Maybe even slow down to avoid hydroplaning? We can always floor it again after."

Again, I'm not harping on you. Crashing sucks. But single car accidents are almost always the driver's fault, usually not noting the road conditions before it's too late. A famous quote from a race driver goes something like this:
"Getting hit by lightning is an accident, everything else is the driver's fault."

I've raced in wildly changing conditions. You just have to plan ahead for surface changes by looking WAY down the track and making educated guesses. The guys that get it right win, the guys that don't end up in a gravel trap/tire wall/snowbank saying things similar to what you did above.

punchdrunk

Wise words indeed, especially so for he S2000.

A car with a bhp/ton of less than 190 shouldn't oversteer in a straight line in the dry with ambient temps above 10C

Every other car I've driven or owned would never lose the back end - driving in a straight line - just because I forgot there was a puddle in the way.

If the S behaved in this way without exception peeps wouldn't get caught out, they'd learn to expect the back end to step out under certain conditions and prepare for it or at least be wary of it. They get caught out because the car didn't react in that way the last time they encoutered similar conditions or drove the car in that way - any car.

The Torsen diff has a mind of its own when it detects slip. If the torque is being spread between the 2 wheels at an indeterminate rate how can one have any hope of predicting what will or wont happen? If the diff decides to split the torque 60/40 for a split second then 50/50 you'd have to have the relexes of Michael Schumacher to catch it. It's the surprise factor that catches most people out.

I've had mine for a year now and tricked up the suspension with coilovers, braces and 255/40 rear rubber. I drive it hard, but I'm under no illusion that the S is predictable under wet/slippery conditions - it is not. Period.

flas2k

The S2000 isn't dangerous in the rain or wet if you don't drive like a jackass. Sorry the OP had to learn the hard way. I'm guessing he's on the young side. Glad you're OK