Um, is it just me?

What he was doing wrong had nothing to do with throttle, clutch, brake, or other driving technique. His critical error was SPEEDING INTO A BLIND CORNER ON A PUBLIC ROAD!! That's a judgment problem, not a driving problem. Public roads are just NOT an acceptable place to be pushing this car to its limits!!

ace039, I don't mean to be too harsh. In fact, 6 or 7 years ago I pulled the *exact same* boneheaded move you described, and ended up like you, spending some quiet time on the roadside followed by a silent drive home, very shaken up. Fortunately, like you, no one was hurt.

I'll echo the others here and recommend some driving classes and autocross/track time -- NOT so you can go back to that corner and "do it again right this time", but so you won't feel the need to do it AT ALL. Besides, the driving classes are more fun anyway, and they're surprisingly affordable.

Cheers,
John

 

What pressure are the stock tires rated at and what would you recommend running in them?

 

Of course it's a cheap shot, but one could read your post and then look at your avatar, and suggest"

"get your head out of your..."

 

skorpion,

I run mine at 2 bar (33lbs) as per the manual. I drive on a variety of road surfaces quality wise and at speeds around town (30) to high speeds between towns around 80,90,100 (where I live there are no speed limits on open roads ). I've found those pressures work well and don't see any need to experiment to find something quicker - that would start getting silly and dangerous.

twohoos,

BTW, I agree with you completely - these are public roads Ace is talking about, not the race track and I don't think anyone here can condone what he's done. We must remember none of us are perfect either and with a S2k to drive, there's always the risk of overexuberance popping up every now and then. Ace's trick wasn't overexuberance, it was plain dumb, but I think he knows that.

 

Ace039:

Whilst I admire your honesty in posting this, I 'm alarmed at your admission that you're probably going to do it again. Let's be honest none of us buy cars like this to drive like clergymen but the point that you are doing this on public roads and risking other peoples necks as well as your own has been well made.Without trying to be a smart arse,your post betrays a lack of understanding of the forces acting on a vehicle under high speed cornering. Concentration is all important. Your braking and gear changing should have been accomplished before you entered the bend. You should have been entering that bend in the right gear and at the right speed with sufficient sustained acceleration to DRIVE through the bend.Once you are commited to a line the last thing you want to do is remove the acceleration. Think about it ,, centrifugal force is trying to throw you out of the bend. The only thing preventing that is that the centrifugal force is being overcome by the forward motion of the vehicle exceeding that force due to acceleration. Remove that force by lifting off the accelerator and you are in big trouble. The weight of the vehicle shifts forward, effectively lightening the back end grip and you're spinning out before you know what hit you. Once committed to a bend and a line think of it as walking on eggs.. You don't want to do anything suddenly... braking, harsh steering wheel imputs and gear changing can all throw that back end out. Think smooth is the name of the game.

As people have said track time with a good instructer is probably the cheapest and quickest way to grasp this principle.I did an advanced driving course years ago where these principles were hammered home. I would probably greatly benefit from doing it again. No matter how long we drive I think the truth is we all fall into bad habits left to our own devices and without regular practice.

I'm glad you got away with your neck intact. Make sure you learn from this experience.

 

As a group of us S2K owners were made very aware on Saturday at a Defensive Driving course, taught by the Sheriff's department in San Bernadino, you have exactly 12 degrees to correct a rear-end breakaway (by turning into the direction of the skid) before you can forget about recovering. We proved this many times on the skid pan. As soon as you feel your a$$ start twitching to the side, you've got to crank that steering wheel over straight away, and take your foot off the accelerator and brake. If your reaction time is too slow, or you forget to take your foot off the controls, you definitely end up doing a nice 180. This principle holds true for any road conditions - wet, snow, sand, or dry.

 

i agree with the general sentiment of your post but this statement is incorrect. the force counteracting the vehicle's tendency to go in a straight line, i.e. "centrifugal force", is the braking friction created by the tires, i.e. traction. acceleration has nothing to do with it...in fact, it actually reduces the available traction budget.

 

Go to a racing school. Then you will avoid these situations. I learned the hard wya myself and did what you did about 5 times. Know the limits of your vehicle and how to handle it.

 

Curious...

Do you know the speed you were at going into the curve? I just went through a similar situation going at about 60 into a stiff curve, and am wondering if I f#$*ed up (most likely) and had the clutch in or no brakes or throttle, or if the car just gave out. I managed to get the tail of the s2k back behind me in no time, luckily.

What do you guys think? (other than me being a lousy driver)

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ace039
[B]Today I did a very stupid stupid thing.