Hi, this is my first posting and off the bat I'd like to say how great and informative this forum, I think, has become. Unfortunately my contribution to this board starts with a warning!

PLEASE, re-read the message thread titled "***Tire Warning***" started by SkitZo on October 19, 2000 in the Showroom.

I think this is exactly what happended to me yesterday. It was a perfect sunny day with not a single cloud in the sky but only about 5 deg C (41 deg F) outside. I was doing an innocent 80-90 km/h (53 miles/h) (around 4000-5000rpm) on the highway and stepped on the gas to take over a car in front of me. This was not 'flooring', just enough to accelerate and pass the car. My curse was that he decided to change from the right to the left lane at exactly the same time as I, and so I switched to apply the brakes a little to slow down and corrected my steering wheel to stay in my current lane. Next thing I feel is my rear loosing grip with the road. I'm not a pro racer so I probably turned the wheel instinctively to correct for my end going sideways. But there was not enough room for me to let the tires find their grip again and I plowed into the concrete barriers on the side of the highway, spun 180 degrees and rolled backwards to a stop.

As I'm rolling backwards there is only one thought in my mind: "Please God, let this be my old car I'm driving today." As I was sitting on the side watching the cops write the accident report, I was trying to figure out what went wrong - the road was dry, it was cold but not so cold that you can see your own breath, and I wasn't even speeding at the time!! I couldn't believe that I lost grip, I drove harder in the summer without a problem. I started thinking that maybe my brakes malfunctioned and locked up for some reason. And today morning I found SkitZo's old message.

I know that there is a lot of you who race and know what to do and not to do. But there is also a lot of people like me who enjoy this awesome car for their everyday commutes etc. If you can, keep your S2K in the garage in the winter, otherwise drive with care and save all the thrills of really 'driving' to the warmer months.

One good thing I can tell you is how safe this car is I think. I refused to look at the damaged front side of the car until I got it towed to a car shop. To say the least, the front crush zone was 100% effective and the damage got only as far as the corner of the engine hood. Yes, I came out of the accident without even a headache but I think you know how I feel seeing my S2K 's front crushed. This car is so stunning that seeing it damaged I almost can feel its pain. Hopefully the guys can fix it up nicely, I told them to take all the time they need to bring it back to normal.

Anyways, be careful in the winter and for the regular joe's like me out there - get yourselves to a performance driving course real soon. This car is unlike any other and requires respect from the driver.

If someone can point out what to do with the pics of my damaged car so that I can post them here on the board, I'll do that as soon as I scan the photographs next week at work.

Please keep posting all your experiences with your cars (malfunctions, fixes, improvements etc.) because this information is a great benefit in our S2K owners family.

Cheers.

 

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Glad you are OK.

When you hit the brakes with the wheel turned you transfered a lot of weight to the front end of the car. The unloading of the rear wheels combined with the cold tires and the steering angle caused the rear to come around.

This car is very responsive to weight transfer both under braking and on throttle.

 

Wow, I'm glad you're OK too. Hope you get the car back soon and looking as good as new. Look at how Larry of Bodywerks restored Greg Steven's Scarlet I.

Which highway were you on? You must have been really lucky not to have been crashed into by the car(s) behind in the overcrowded roads here in the Lower Mainland. Which repair shop did you bring your stook to? I've heard of a few good ones...Tom's in Burnaby/Coquitlam, and Mark's in Port Coquitlam.

My stook is (and will have to be) a daily driver, so I've just changed to Pilot Alpins a week ago. They already feel grippier in the rain. I'll find out about the grip in the white stuff soon.

Post some pics, and share the grief...you'll feel better. And good luck with the repairs.

 

Forgot to mention that my mishap happened about 5kms (3 miles) into my trip (about 1 mile of highway) which would seem to support the cold tire theory.

Can you guys tell me if in the summers with outside temperatures in range of 20-25 deg C (73 deg F), tire warmup is an issue?? I may be paranoid now for a while and carry a thermometer with me around to check the state of the tires!

 

AP,

Thanks for the info on the car shops - hopefully I won't get a chance to see how good they are.

I was on the #1 highway going westbound and lost control between the Capilano river overpass and Taylor Way exit. If you happen to be in West Van watch for the bulge in the concrete blocks just before the Taylor Way exit sign. I don't think the city has the budget to reposition these blocks back and so they and the paint marks on them from my car might stay there forever. :-( I think I will never again drive on that piece of highway.

Instead of towing my car to the nearest North Van shop we went straight to Van-Burn Collision located over in Burnaby. The service manager at Happy Honda recommended the place. I have a good feeling about them since the tow truck driver knew instantly who I'm talking about and the place looked clean and the manager there went very professionally about his business. We left the car outside, and an hour later when I came back with my camera, the car was already inside, raised and the whole interior was protected with covers. Seeing the attention from them already, I think I'll also ask them to cover over the softtop since these car shops get very dusty and I don't want to get all that fine chalklike dust into the canvas.

If someone in BC had their cars repaired and needed new parts, can you tell me how long the shop waited for the replacements to arrive in Vancouver? Back in March when I was getting a car alarm installed, the passenger window swich burned out and we had to wait 3 days for the only spare one in Canada to come from Toronto. I have to make sure I give the guys at the shop all the time they need to repair my car properly.

 

Speaking from some level of experience, I can say that the biggest enemy of the S-02's is not rain, but cold. These tires simply must be up to temperature and the distances that you said you traveled and the nature of the distance indicates to me that you just didn't have warm enough tires. Bieg is correct, coupled with the weight transfer to the rear, what happened happened....

The important thing is that you are OK...trust me, your car, just like almost every other car out there is replaceable. Body parts (as in YOURS) are not!

The moral of the story is to get those tires warm...! I don't drive my S2000 when it's below about 52 degrees. It makes me very nervous. The other option is to just replace the S-02's with something a little more forgiving...they are not cold weather tires.

Glad you're OK, get your car fixed and follow my advice, trust me, you wouldn't want to go through what I did almost a year ago...

Happy motoring!

 

That sucks about your car and it goes without saying we're glad you walked away from it.

I have switched to S02PP on the rears and have found a big improvement in bad weather. It doesn't really get that cold here so I don't know how they do in that condition.

Being the snap happy fool I am and just happening to have four different types of tires in my garage, I've taken some pics of them. They all have about 500 miles on them. You will see a marked difference in tread pattern.

First, there is the venerable Honda OEM S02

Notice the narrow grooves and unfeatured surface. Lot of rubber on the road.

Next the is the standard S02 you would get at any old store

Notice the wider grooves but not much deeper.

Next is the S02 Pole Position

Much deeper and wider grooves still.

Lastly are my Hoosier A3S03 Autocross tires

Notice there is no tread at all

Sorry, this new camera has made me whacky

 

Re:Bridgestone tyres
I race a ITR in sprint and hillclimb events here in the UK.The best commonly available tyre(and the one almost all sprint/hillclimb people use) is the SO2 pole position.
We compete on cold tyres and i can say from experience they grip like no other tyre in their
class.The tread is apparantly a dual compound,so as the tyre wears the compound gets softer!I have mine shaved down to 4mm to expose the softer compound.....needless to say they dont last very long!

 

CptBob,

Thanks for the post. I'm very happy that you're ok, but feel awful for you about having smashed up your S2K.

Your story is enough to give pause to any who drives the S2K in cold weather. Based on your post and others earlier, I've odered Michelin Alpines (after a lengthy discussion with the folks at Tire Rack) to go on the stock wheels. Between November and March, they'll be my operating tires. When the weather gets warm, I'll change to 17" wheels riding on summer tires with better wet weather performance than the Bridgestones. I'll lose a little performance, but frankly, I don't care. I'd rather have the extra margin of safety.

So when my S2K finally comes, I'll have an extra set of stock Bridgestones for sale immediately (they're already committed to CoralDoc).

 

CptBob, very sorry to hear of your mishap. You have to take comfort in your safety because I know it will be a bummer to get your car back in condition.

I learned early about the cold S02