[QUOTE=nastinupe1,Jan 7 2008, 08:05 AM] The AP1's are difficult to drive.

 

Happened to me too. On New years Eve, trying to make it home from a long day of work. shifted into 2nd and . Had to have an alignment done. But more respect for the car now.

 

I've been humbled too and that's why I'm on my second S2000. My previous S2000 didn't have VSA but my current one does and the irony is that I drive my new S2000 more cautiously in the wet despite it having VSA.

I drove my non VSA S2000 harder in the wet and was happy to try and get the back to slide at junctions and on roundabouts. I even accelerated around a corner in 2nd gear in damp conditions to see what would happen, I was expecting a nice as the rear slid, instead I got and had to give it right-left-right on the steering wheel to sort it out. I then continued down the road like it was a usual occurrence

Apart from that one hairy moment I'd never had any problems with the car whilst driving in wet conditions no matter how fast I was going. However, the moment I was humbled was on a straight stretch of road in damp conditions driving normally at around 40-50 mph. I still can't explain what happened, all I know was I was not driving like an idiot. Something happened causing the car to lose traction, either at the front or the rear and then after that I was just a passenger. It seemed to happen in slow motion but once traction was lost it never came back. The back-end did not kick out, it would have been better if it had because I would have automatically applied opposite lock to try and recover things, instead something caused the rear to veer every so slightly to the right causing the front to then veer to the left and at that point all traction was lost. The front of the car hit the crash barrier at around a 40 degree angle before spinning twice about 35ft down the road. It wasn't a big impact, no airbags deployed but the car was written off.

I don't believe the accident was caused by just one thing, rather a combination of things; wet surface, road surface, driver and perhaps the dipping of the clutch as I went to change from 3rd to 4th

Anyway, it happened and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm just glad my new S2000 came with VSA as standard because even if I don't drive the car hard enough to get the VSA to engage on my daily drive, I have the reassurance that if anything similar happens again, the outcome shouldn't be another written off S2000.

 

I recall a guy on this board a few years ago that went into a slide (and crash) on a dry road, cruising straight and suddenly the rear end kicked out. He was in total shock over it. He described it as it feeling like the rear end just locked up for a split second and then sideways she went.

There is a pattern here folks. There ain't that many cars made to have this many stories.

I can understand pulling out on a wet corner with too much throttle.

I cannot understand the car deciding to kick out on a flat line cruise.

UPDATE:

I went and did a quick search for that post. I did not find it, but I found this in the first set of matches....hmmmm.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=467893

 

I've had the rear drift a little sideways on a hydroplane.

When just cruising, not accelerating.

One of the things that happens:
Driving straight... foot lightly on the throttle. Hit a little bit of water and the rears start slipping. The same pressure on the throttle, now is too much... the car starts revving up and the rears slip even more. The spinning of the tires has angular momentum (remember the "right hand rule" and / or a gyroscope) and the rears can kick with just spinning.

I know people say "AUTO-X." That's useful and important, but as we've seen from threads this year... even experienced auto-X'rs still get bitten.

I almost sold my S2000 for something with traction control before discovering the Racelogic unit. The whole winter here, there is water or ice in patches on the roadway.

 

Crowned and banked roads are another culprit.

 

Yup. That's one thing that most AutoX courses don't have -- on- and off- camber turns.

Most road courses have a few off-camber turns but tend to mostly have on-camber. It seemed like every corner at Thunderhill was off-camber, though! (Not quite, but a lot of them are.) But pretty much all of them have turns where camber change through the corner has a big effect on the grip.

So reacting to on- and off- and changing- camber corners is a major skill for road racers, and not one that AutoX usually teaches you.

On the typical crowned road (LHD countries), a left turn will be off- camber and a right turn will be on- camber. Untrained drivers who are "driving spiritedly" (ie. like fools on a public road) often get caught by this. They try to take the left turn the same as the right turn and get surprised.

 

Again, thanks everyone for all the support and posts!

On my way to get the car aligned today, I went to the intersection where this even occured. The road there is smooth, I didn't see any oil spots or big potholes. The most shocking thing I saw when i got there was the curb i went over straight on with my passengers front and rear tire was *EXTREMELY* low for a baltimore curb. It measured approximatedly 2.5 inches in height. Last night I think i thought it was much bigger because of the huge bang I felt when I hit it. But in retrospect the fact that the ap1 suspension makes so much noise while driving on roads with even small imperfections and the fact that I saw no damage on the bumper, wheels, or tires should have made me realize that this was a low height curb (as in where you cross the street). I feel even luckier.

Getting the car up on a lift - the alignment was not out of whack and the suspension had not been damaged. The car did have negative camber which was out of spec but it was setup that way. No scratches no dents ... lucky.

Drove the S around today slightly timidly but dropped the top (65F today!) and had a great time .

 

i am glad you found respect for the s early, it's not a easy car to drive fast.

some people called it snap oversteer but the more i experience it the more i found it brillant. The car is tail happy, it's made to be rotate and turns like few car can in the price niche.

trust me, you'll do it time and time again. The best advice to you is take it easy and learn where is the fine line between peak of ahedision from loose tail.

some people spun around once and scare to drive it hard, the solution: get a miata