Managed to total the car last night folks, one month to the day since I took delivery.

Lost the back end at about 60mph on a bend, I felt it going and took my foot off the gas.
Car then snapped back round and we ended up going sideways into field.

Don't think that my speed was excessive, I think that the nearside rear lost traction on the crud on the inside of the bend and that the LSD pulled the car round. Probably me just trying to justify my bad driving though!

Really lucky that the car didn't roll as the field was 4 feet below the road height.

Result was
rear end really f***ed up. bumper off.
offside real wheel sheared off, the lower wishbone snapped.
both rear wings mashed
lower front end pushed up into the engine bay
nearside sill pushed in about 2"
don't know what damage underneath

Car slid for about 100 feet and was a real pig to get out of the field.

Waiting for the insurance to assess the wreck.

What's the chances of a write-off?

 

Sorry to hear this. Way too many problems with this now.

Good luck with the insurance stuff Iain..... and everyone else........take note

Noony.

 

Sorry to hear this Iain.

Good god theres been far too much of this going on. Glad you are unhurt, but still not an enviable situation. Hope things go smoothly with insurance and suchlike - will you get another S2000 or has this put you off ?

Best of luck

R.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident!

Any photos?

 

Another one ? This is very worrying.
Sorry to hear about your accident - glad you're OK.
Not sure whether it'll be a write-off, sounds v. bad though.

Once agian, glad you're OK.

 

Sorry to hear about your off.... and glad you are ok. Also sad that you only got a month in the winter out of yours, at least I have fond memories of 2 summers.

Your car sounds pretty messed up, I guess a lot will depend on if the damage is cosmetic or whether you've bent the chassis.

I hate to be the harbinger of doom (I started the "oooops I'm in a field" craze a couple of weeks back), but my insurance company have started getting REALLY picky about the incident. It's pretty open and shut as far as I'm concerned, but they've had people out to interview me, crash investigators at the site, team of specialists going over the car - the works.

I think the recent spate of S2000 claims will only serve to make them more pedantic.

The sad thing is that I'm coming back round to wanting another S - they look so good and go so well - but now I'm half expecting the insurance guys to say "due to XYZ, we will not be paying you" and I'll be out of the market for years.

 

Oh dear, Iain, I am really sorry to hear this

Thank God you and your passenger (you said "we") were both unhurt; the car can be fixed or replaced, you guys can't.

You say "I felt it going and took my foot off the gas". This is a classic S2000 situation, in fact there was a video on the board last year of an American owner going off on a public road in much the same manner (except he went through a barrier and into a ravine).

It's too late for you I know but, for the benefit of other new owners, you must be aware that the S2000 has 50/50 weight distribution and that it is very sensitive to "weight transfer" when cornering. The classic situation is :

The driver takes the car into, say, a l/h corner slightly too quickly for his own peace of mind. He instinctively reacts by lifting off and/or touching the brakes. But by this time the car is already in the corner and, as a result of the laws of physics, the r/h rear corner of the car is lighter than normal (and the front l/h corner heavier); in this state the S2000 is extremely vulnerable to anything which will alter the weight distribution further. Even just lifting off will instantly transfer more weight to the front l/h wheel, making the rear r/h corner even lighter and, at this point, the car is very prone to let go with a quick snap and it takes very fast reactions to catch it.

It takes a lot of breath-holding and lip-biting not to to do this (i.e. do NOT lift off and DO NOT brake) because this is in conflict with your natural instincts and not what most people are used to. Indeed, it may be the opposite of what they've experienced in a similar situation in a FWD car where the car is perhaps "under-steering" and where lifting off will make the car "tuck-in" more and so manage to get it around the corner successfully.

It has only happened to me once on a public road but, depending on the speed you entered the corner, IMHO the only solution is to keep the car balanced, either by keeping the power neutral, or even applying a little power to bring more weight from the front back to the rear, sensing what the steering wheel and your arse is telling you, and "drive" the car through the corner. IOW, you are in the one in charge of the situation, not the car. Like I say, this takes some courage to do, but it's better than lifting off or braking which, unless you are very quick to react, will probably have you off the road.

I honestly feel that too much is made of the LSD being a cause of accidents except in exceptional circumstances (like those recently experienced by MarkB)

Sorry is this sound like preaching to someone who's had a nasty fright and seen their "baby" ruined in an instant, Iain; it isn't meant that way,honestly (because I don't know excatly what happened in your circumstances). I'm just saying that this scenario (lifting off or braking whilst in a corner), together with the scenario where too much power is applied on damp roads (especially exiting roundabouts), probably account for close on 90% of S2000 accidents and, whilst we "board elders" have learned this now, many newcomers will not have seen the long and detailed discussions we've had here on this subject in the past.

cthree has pm'd me today apologising for not being able to get the new UK "Front Page" up and running, but says he's now looked at my suggestion to get a basic version started and promised to crack on with it as soon as he can. When that happens, we will have an FAQ section and, I think now also, a "Safety in the S2000 - what can go wrong and how to avoid it" type section is called for too.

Best wishes, and again, I'm glad you're safe.

Pete

EDIT:
I will try to find that video clip this weekend so that more recent owners can see what I'm saying actually happening

 

I opened this thread thinking it was going to be about the PS2 game.......

Bloody hell - ANOTHER one?! For those of you who have been on the board long enough to have seen more than this winter, I assume that this kind of loss rate isn't the norm......? I suppose it could just be that there are more S2000s being sold now.

Glad you managed to walk away unhurt, Iain. Fingers crossed things get sorted out quickly for you.

 

Glad you are OK - that is the main thing!
Cars can be fixed | replaced.

I guess the insurance assessors are pretty busy at this time of year.
Don't see many S's round here - but there seem to be a varied selection of bent and broken cars - and we didn't get too much of the freeze.

 

No!!! This is getting crackers!

Glad you're OK Iain. If there's any damage to the engine that could be the clincher for a 'Write Off' if it's borderline otherwise.