I have the ticket to prove I redlined it! Written up for "Driving at a Safe Speed" with a note saying I was driving at a speed that was greater than safe or reasonable. Court date is Nov. 8th to see exactly what the heck that means.

 

Don't discriminate on age, my old man is 62 and he rides his CBR at 300kph.
he also had a near fatal accident a few years back.

I argue with him relentlessly that age has nothing to do with it. Look at professional racers, most of them started out really young. Valentino Rossi world champ 3 times by the age of 18 (don't quote me on that I know it's at least 3, it maybe more).

I'm 29 now a borderline youth, but I know I'll always stick up for the young fella's. I think it's more the fact that we take more risks more regularly, that increases the likelihood of accidents.

Don't forget you old bastards, you where young once too. And how did you learn, by f**ing up.

Sorry to sound like I'm having a go at anyone, I'm not. It's just ageism really gets my goat.

 

It's not age as much as experience.

You can't make good decisions if you don't appreciate the impending threats.

We've been autocrossing and tracking a lot these last few years.

Even trying our hand at rallycrossing a little.

IMHO it goes like this:

1. Learning braking and acceleration zones
2. Learning car balance and weight transfer (both front-back and side-side)
3. Learning how to avoid abrupt inputs and "seeing" the theoretical line

AND THEN, AFTER ALL THAT...

4. Learning how that changes with differing road conditions (elevation, bumps, gravel, ruts, mud, rain, snow).

We're just getting to number 4. this year. It's taken spins downhill at Laguna Seca in the corkscrew in the rain, pushing through the braking zone into the "marbles" at Nats, cresting a hill a little sideways at a local road-course autocross and going a little "off road" and blowing my FTD by getting sucked into mud ruts rallycrossing when I didn't alter my theoretical race line for real world conditions.

So IMHO again, it's:
Learn the theoretical line.
Learn the car.
Learn how to modify the theoretical line for real world conditions.

The street isn't the place to do it as the consequences for yourself and for others are potentially catastrophic.

Our local club offers "teen driver schools" where we do wet skidpad drills and threshold braking / cornering exercises under our watchful eyes.

If you're not a teen, I think organized motorsports is the way to go. It adds a whole additional level of enjoyment (and safety) to daily driving.

 

user error

 

The S is my first RWD car. I like to drive quick, and I usually go like in a hurry. On my other cars (fwd) I learned to go fast in the wet, but also learned how to minimize hydroplaning and stabilyze the car on tail swings.

But when I got the S it was a different approach. I never skid the car, never done a Burnout ot a donout. I do redline it but I have a lot of respect for it.

Recentely I took it to the SOLO Session and learned alot about its limits. I got some tail wiggles and learned to hold them all, In my first session (it rained) I had no tail outs!!!

Also few days back it was soaking raining. and I went to a already closed mall parking lot. Under the heavy rain I locked the steering wheel and put easy a 1st and started doing a circle Slowly hitting harder and intermittenly the gas, the car stated a donut, and Finally I felt how the car starts to go out and how to stop it. (it's a really easy and fun excercise, and the point is to learn how to stop it safely)

I think wet roads are not our enemies, unknowing your car is.

 

I wish it was that easy nearest track is 250 miles away. Wait I lie we have a monster 1/8th mile drag strip, WAHOO (Oozing with sarcasm).

So the streets are the only place I can experiment, I didn't buy this car to drive like Grandma Mavis. I always keep it as safe as I can though, no traffic, no passengers. I wish there where no curbs or trees either. There are no decent parking lots either. I think they've cottoned on to that to, now they stick trees everywhere.

And it would be awesome if my local government would provide advanced training. I have though about going to my local member of parliament and making this suggestion. But I'm pretty sure of the result. After all they can't make money if we're all behaving ourselves.

Wow these posts can go of into their own little tangents quickly, Sorry OP

 

We routinely trailer 250 miles to go to events. Anything can be an excuse if you let it.

 

First time at redline and wrecks.

 

In all honesty, don't blame the car - it didn't do anything wrong. Was it your fault? Yes. Was it due to inexperience? Yes. Do even the most experience drivers wreck? Yes.

Learn to control the car and be smooth and speed will come in time. Hate to hear that it happened, glad to hear that you are taking responsibility.

You've never redlined the car before? It's quite fun. And you can drive quickly in the wet if you know what you're doing. Many accident happen because people try to correct when the car does something they don't intend for it to do. If you just let the car do what it's going to do, many times you'll end up better than had you tried to save it or correct it.

 

When you work close to 60 hrs a week every week, does that count as an excuse?