well put.... and good pointers for folks not used to the turbo FD! lemme tell you this though. the first day i had the car i spun it going around a corner (didnt hit anyting and i was going slow.... i was just surprized (this was when i was 20). this was due to lack of knowledge (and therefore lack of caution with the gas pedal). but ill tell you, age does not have everything to do with it... my dad took the car to drop my sister off at school a month or two later. i told him to be careful cause the power really increases a second or two AFTER you hit the throttle. he was doing the same thing... going around a corner, having a little fun, and he gave it some gas before the corner.... no increase in power so he left it down.... then in the turn the turbos kick in and he does a 360 in an intersection. no accident... just scared my sister and himself.

the point is... age is not the deciding factor...its driving experience with high HP (and especially turbo) cars.... but that is usually correlated with age so you see alot of young inexperienced kids obviously. BUT.....ill have to let you guess who was the safest driver that has driven my FD........... of all people it was my SISTER (who is a senior in highschool)! she is the safest driver in that car, because she has experienced what it can do first hand and respects it. she also LISTENS TO ME when i explain HOW IT WORKS... and WHY IT CAN GET OUT OF CONTROL so easily. she may not understand the rotary engine and turbo charger system 100%... but she was willing to listen to me explain it and, and understand when you can, and cannot go full throttle as a result of how the machine operates. not once have i ever told her not to floor it, but i HAVE explained to her what it will do in particular situations... and she takes my advice. i have been in the car with her most of the times she has driven it, but i would have no problem giving the car to her for a day, or even a week to go to school.

i think people get frustrated with the newbs, because they dont bother to do what my sister does.... LISTEN! listen to what experienced people have to say, and drive accordingly... untill you fully understand the operation of this complex machine you wont know what it will do when... so please listen to advice. if my 17yr old sister can drive an FD safely, so can you noobs. -heath

 

I still dont get it....Why do people do this to themself? when you wreck your car and come back here and say "i'm 16 and I just tried to make love to light pole with my FD" what kinda response do you expect? Don't post anything or you will feel even worse when they all come down on you like the plague.

 

there goes another FD....our car's are turning out to become an endangered species...lol...

 

Im 17, you do have to be of a certain level of maturity to drive one of these cars. I see friends of mine in thier SUV's, and old pickups driving like maniacs, and i know that if they had a car like mine they'd be dead by now.

 

Well at least you came away without injury. It sucks another FD is gone for good. I would say at this rate in 5-10 years it's going to be impossible to find any FD that hasn't had some kind of frame damage.

 

lol. im not gonna lie and say i saved up since i was 10 blah blah. but i did put down 2,500 and my dad put down 6, i got it for 8,500. It was bone stock then. Ive put alot of nice goodies since then on it now =D, it didnt end up a piece of **** like ud think it would have



nice fd tho bricke

 

Its all about responsability. Im about to turn 18, and i got my FD about a year and a half ago. You need to realize that these cars arnt all too expensive, when you think about it most evey kid (i live in a wealthy part of dallas i guess you could say) drives a $40,000 tahoe, or some sort of brand new SUV. Granted most 16/17 year olds will drive like mad men/kids. Weather to show off, or to up thier friends it doesnt matter. I havnt wrecked, ive gotten a ticket, but that was in my old car, but it didnt take some huge near fatal wreck for me to realize i need to slow down. Sure there are late nights when il romp on it for the hell of it but you tell me you dont do that yourself. Belive me, my car is like a god to most kids at my school. Being a senior with an FD is all you could imagine it to be, and everytime somone gets a new sports car, im the first they come up to asking to race. But you know what i dont. You cant, its not worth it. Ive been motocrossing my whole life and that belive it or not in my opinion made me a better driver but i know that most everyone in this forum has much more experience and skill at driving. Autocrossing has taught me alot but i still dont do it anywere but the track. What im trying to say is, its not right to say a kid cant have this car because he cant handle it, its just kids need to know what there dealing with and just know when to test your skills, and when to NOT show off.

p.s. This is coming from seeing some brat with a totaled S4 right out front of my school after lunch. No one was hurt but damnit he deserved it. The kid everyday gunned it out of the parking lot (and in) and nearly hit 10 people including me a few times. Not to mention almost everyday he'd hunt my FD down to rev his automatic at every stop light i stoped at.

Its all about the kid... not the car.

 

yes, i got voted best car at my highschool (irvine, which aint poor...considering jenna jameson has a house there.) I should take a pic of the year book and post it up

 

You obviously havent had the FD long enough to see it takes alot of time & $$$ to maintain the Rx7. This is a REAL sports car. Not a honda.

 

The reason I think this thing is posted is the same reason this place exists..... to share experiences with fellow lovers of this car and to inform people of what can be dangerous etc etc.

Virtually no car out there has the same p:w ratio as the fd this is why I think its so not justified to say you have to learn on something else. OK OK granted yes driving experience helps out ALOT. Nothing prepares you for the power of the fd. OK people are going to say buy a 400hp fwd car..... Ok this does not say it prepares you for a fd.... why is that b/c fwd understeer MAJORLY so when you are used to driving with understeer you neglect the fact the FD does not have understeer so when you compensate like a fwd its not going to act the same. Second is the p:w I mean you can have a 400hp fwd car that weights 4k pounds it does not make sense to say that driving this is going to compare driving a 400hp that weights in at a amazing 3k or less pounds.

 

I need a black passenger side headlight cover and a driver's side exterior door handle.

And real sorry to hear about the accident. I bought mine when I was 18 with my own money, but I'm glad I started with an s13 then went to a TII before my FD, it helped out a lot

 

I spun my car on the second day I owned mine. I was around 1/3 throttle and I hit the 3000 rpm hesitation just as I hit a patch of sand on the road while driving in a straight line. The car spun left immediately and I slid up a gas station driveway. I had autorcrossed for two years before I got the car. My pride was the only thing hurt that day.

It was spun a month later when a friend drove it home in the rain while she followed me in a pickup. Through my rearview mirror, I watched her make a right onto a 55 mph highway with 4 lanes. She ended up spinning a 180 degrees and was stopping pointing with traffic in the third lane over. She never drove the car again (it was her choice).

I'll stop there.

 

I think a new engine, and a good slew of mods has taught me that...

 

"In the rain in 5th gear at 70 mph an hour you can roll on the gas about half throttle and spin the rear tires"

You show me a stock FD will spin tires in ANY gear at 70mph on a wet road by "rolling the throttle", and i show you britney spears bobbin upon my wiener. Seriously, I put 290~ down in the FC and i've never been able to do that. Jeez FD's aren't the planetary rotation altering powerhouses some would like to think they are.

 

I rather agree with this. Stock, they aren't monsterous, though again the way the power comes on can "catch" you when you aren't prepared. In long sweepng corners, I NEVER, and I MEAN IT, I never shove the throttle. Begging to be driving with the rear view. Tight turns are a bit different, but you only nail the throttle when the suspension has mostly unloaded (after the apex, prior to the exit, the body tilt has about 10% left before straight, give moderate, steady shove to wake the turbos and get power going, and be ready for just a bit of opposite lock. Good times...). You'll get a little sideways, but again, stock hasn't enough power to do loops unless you jumped it too early, IMO.

If you are stomping it at 70 in the rain, well, you deserve what you get. Sorry, but it's true..

Max still hasn't given the play by play. I'm always curious to hear the details about where in the corner power was applied, which way the rear went, when (if ever) it hooked back up, and just how gawdawful FAST that suspension loaded the other direction (honestly, try just turning loose the steering wheel after the first rebound. It's not graceful, but often effective...).

Anyways, not ripping on the guy, he feels bad enough. Best car to get a feel for RWD is a mid 70's Duster or Nova. Can be made to oversteer naturally, have enough power to break it loose, and every thing happens MUCH slower, especially with solid rear and leaf springs. I like the Chryslers due to the front torsion bar. Urethane suspension, stiffer rear springs, and you can turn pretty damn hard AND catch it when it goes horribly wrong. These are the cars to learn on, NOT front wheel drive. Understeer will promote compensation techniques that can kill you in rear drive at the edge...

Just my worthless musings....

 

That sucks man

 

I wasn't stomping on the gas at 70 mph, but accelerating about 1/2 throttle around someone on the highway. It's not about the power of the car, but the car propensity to break traction at unexpected times. Maybe because of the sequential turbocharging system builds boost very quickly at 3000 rpm. This was on a worn our cement highway in Oklahoma, not some new stretch of concrete with nice water grooves.

 

On my car you can spin the tires on anything slightly wet at nearly any speed mentioned at half throttle. Granted I have nearly double the horsepower of a stock FD and nearly bald tires, but it's certainly possible. The FD is A FAIR WEATHER VEHICLE. Treat it as such...

 

another good vehicle to learn with is a early 90's ranger. i've driven one since i got my licence (19 now). light (i think like 3200 pounds), 3.0 V6 and a five speed, no limited slip so it's kinda hard to get it sideways, but when they go, they snap real fast, but are pretty easy to get control of when they do snap (then again, i purposley slid my truck alot so i could figure out how to catch it in the winter). good luck fixing the FD, and get a ******* (like a ranger, or something from the '70's) with a manual, and drive the **** out of it while you're fixing your FD.

EDIT: personally, i'd get a truck so you can work on the side doing yard work and the such on your days off...you can make a killing doing stuff around the house for people who are too lazy/ritch to do it themselves.

 

What happened exactly is, it was a small side street wil very little to no traffic and i was going about 70 down it, it was dark and the turn, i say turn, i do not mean a 90 degree turn, i mean more of like a curve, came up way too fast for me, i was steering through the turn fine when i slightly turned the steering wheel and then tried to compensate by slightly turning the other way, big mistake. I steered back the other way and the back came loose and i spun out counter clockwise, the back hit a tree and the front whipped around and hit a fire hydrant, after i hit, the car slowly died, therefore i assume it was fuel cut related. The first words out of my mouth were very lound and profane. I was devastated.

I have not decided whether or not i will try to fix the car, try to sell it, or part it out. For all of you that PM'd me i will let you know what i decide. If you do not hear from me you can assume i am not parting it out.

Whitey - That is part of what i do for money, things other people are too lazy to do. That and i have my own computer business, which makes me a good 35/hr

 

Damn, glad you're ok man. When I was 16 I was driving my dad's 87 4x2 Toyota Pickup..and then only when he let me! I still managed to roll that bastard when a dog jumped out in front of me. Thank God for seatbelts.

 

I named my Rex, Zsa Zsa. Because she was mean, hateful, prissy, high maintenance, and classy yet not. Plus she used to slap down cops trying to do their lawful duty. LMAO!!!!

 

HaHa, I named my Chevy Sprint Zsa Zsa. Because it used to be a cheap import (Suzuki with 3 cylinders) who’s many purpose in life is to be used. Also the damn thing has a 6 gallon tank and I can get upwards of 35 miles to the gallon. Damn.

 

Some pics, you might have to change ur contrast for better viewing, sorry about the lighting.

 

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