Last week was bad for everybody but especially bad for Ruby.

I was coming home from work Wednesday night when a huge piece of
junk flew out of an 18 wheel trash hauler and landed on Rubys nose
causing maybe $2k or so in damage.The truck wouldn't stop, so I had
to follow him to the dump to get insurance information.

Friday morning I was on the way to work before sunrise on the Pennsylvania
Turnpike, when I ran into a heavy downpour and slowed down to about 50
mph. Suddenly the car felt like it was being pushed around by a heavy wind
but the steering seemed ok. I hit the brakes a little and the front end went
crazy. Felt like a tie rod was broken. Suddenly everything stopped squirming
and seemed ok. I thought the accident 36 hours before had I done something
to the front suspension.

About 100 yards later, the car started being pushed around again, but this
time it felt like a tornado. I tried the brakes and the front end wobble came
back much worse and the car began being pushed back and forth accross 2
lanes and then the steering no longer worked. The car suddenly did a snap
4 wheel spinning slide. We ended up in a ditch. I was ok, Ruby is a total
loss. Cop gave me a ticket for "driving in the wrong lane".
Actually I' glad to be alive

Put the car on a lift for the insurance adjuster and could not find anything
wrong with the front suspension. The rear SO-2's have about 12k on them.
I now suspect the rear tires hydroplaned and I lost valuable time trying to
figure out what was happening. When I applied slight braking, the ABS
probably fought it out with the LSD making the car go unstable and start a four
wheel lateral slide and then a snap spin.

The dealer told me they now suggest tol anyyone who buys an s2000 to take a
performance driving course. I'm getting a yr 2002 in a couple weeks.
Any insights would be appriciated.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by windowpane
[B]The dealer told me they now suggest tol anyyone who buys an s2000 to take a
performance driving course.

 

do you know if there was any tread left on your rear tires? i have 11,000 miles on my rear tires, and have very little tread left.

...and i'm glad you're ok.

 

Im sad for you.
Hydroplaning is not always a condition you can recover from.
Just watch your speed and have good tires in the rain.

 

Did the cop witness you drive in the wrong lane? If he didn't, I would fight the ticket. Good chance you can win.

 

Fifty to 55 is the maximum you should be driving in rain. If it's a downpour and there is accumulations of more than a 1/2 inch of water on the road --- you will hydroplane even with new tires!

Search the net for a study done by Popular Science or one of the car mags. It shows the patch that is on the road at various speeds --- and you start to loose contact at 55mph; and have less than 1 square inch on each tire at 85mph on a constantly wet road even with run-off.

When driving in the wet, look for the dull areas on the road, this is where you'll have grip. This might even mean staddling the lane dividers because the road has been depressed by all the heavy truck traffic. I know it's fun to see the spray from the tires, but you have to re-train yourself to search out the dry areas.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. I'm glad that you're alright. I was always taught not to hit the brakes when sliding. You probably should've just let off on the gas, but if you were hydroplaning already, it might not have made a difference anyway. Be careful out there in the rain.

 

Sorry to hear about Ruby but I'm glad you made it out ok. From your remarks, the loss of control was definitely due to the tires. When I first ran into the problem I had to drop to 40 mph to avoid loosing control.

I don't think a performance driving school would have helped. Once the tires loose traction in the rain, the car does what it wants.

 

Thanks for your comments everyone.

I realize now that the problem started by hydroplaning and fish tailing
of the rear end while I was heading down a 1% grade on a straight
and well drained good highway in a downpour. The car was just inspected
and the tires had about 30% of tread remaining. I had no idea that was
possible below 50 mph.

I had a 5 to 10 second window when I could have done the right things
and avoided losing control, but I got tied up with information overload.
I just couldn't process the alternatives fast enough.
wind shear ? ............... nah, trees not moving
broken tie rod ? .......... why just now?
hydroplaning ? ............. nah, steering still works
oops, time up, game over

As the car was spin-sliding, I was still thinking that about 50% of spin-outs
end well and about 50% end badly and maybe I would get lucky.
The time from entering the downpour to impact was about 50 seconds.

Anyway, $16K body and frame damage with unknown mechanical damages.
Insurance will probably write it off, but it's taking them long enough to make
it official. I'll be washing dishes at Nationwide for the next 3 years.
I'm suprised my wife is asking me to buy another s2000. Who would of thought?
..............

 

It's always nice to have an understanding wife.