FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

I honestly can't see anything man. I'm having a hard time telling what's what, not just cuz of the accident, but cuz it's so damn dark!

Madmax670

i will have to take some more, in the day, sorry about the quality

RotorMotor

iTrader: (5)

take some more in better light.... and pull all that broken fiberglass crap off so we can see the extent of the damage to the frame

oorx7

iTrader: (2)

Man that rear quarter looks FUBAR. But the front doesn't look as bad as expexted.

Madmax670

well due to the fact that the rear bumper is completely off, it does look pretty bad, its mainly the rear right

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

My thoughts exactly...

frenchfries

- Gibenstein

Thats messed up, I have a probe and I have fun. It might only be 155hp at the wheels, it isnt stock, but it is fun. Don't hate on probes because they arent twin turbo stock.

Sled Driver

iTrader: (9)

**** PROBE????


& I get called a homophobe on this forum.............

PVerdieck

Hopefully not.

Gibenstein

iTrader: (2)

I am of all things not hating on probes. My point being pushed across is that you dont have to have a high hp car to get in a accident with it. It just takes a mistake to end all things... God knows what that kid did though(the one in the probe ).

Jedon

I do not agree that the FD is a good first car. The best first car is a peice of crap that is okay to get dented up and is safe in bad weather, perhaps a 90 subaru or something.

As for insurance, I recenty "totalled" my FD by t-boning a guy who ran a stopsign. I was going <25mph. The insurance companies are now requiered to give you ACV (actual cash value) by averaging the sale price of several comparable vehicles in your area. This is tricky for our cars of course, I FAX'ed the insurance company printouts from autotrader of cars with comparable mods and a new engine like I have. They gave me $18K.

Having been in two accidents in FD's though I do think they will give thier life to protect ours. I rolled at 70mph and lived to tell the tale and I barely felt the 25mph collision into the rear axle of a honda. I was wearing a 5pt harness and have a rollbar though

To learn how the car handles I recommend autocross. It's cheap and it's okay to spin out and hit some cones.

Here are some pics of my rollover: http://nopro.com/wrecked_rx7.html

ps. I need a hood and fenders and probably some other stuff.

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

DAMN man. And some other stuff? I'm surprised you walked away from that crash, looking at the damage on the car. WOW. I think that car would be a challenge to repair...simply cuz there's SO MUCH that's gotta be repaired. You might as well start fresh w/ a straight chassis IMO

Jedon

No no that's the one I rolled a few years ago. The recent accident was a 25mph front end collision... The frame in front of the front suspension is bent but fixable.

Stevey629

Jedon - where and when in San Diego did you crash? And I know this is sort of off topic but how did you reduce your seat height? My head is no further than 4-5 inches from the sunroof, and just thinking of being in my car in a roll over crash after seeing accident damages like that makes me second thought things.

I can't remember who wrote something about their dad driving the car and getting a bit more "racer inspired" for a split second, but my paps did the same thing, only he did it on a freeway, and spun across 4 lanes of traffic, AMAZINGLY, managing to dodge EVERYTHING. He never drives the car now. He wanted to just test it out to see how he liked the ride, and was thinking of getting one. That seems to have changed his decision, and now he drives a Scion XB as the daily, but weekend drives a Boxter. But he drives like he's got ms. Daisy in the passenger seat with both cars due to his freeway jetwash with the FD. My first car was an old 86 manual nissan pick up truck. No Tach, No Air Con, No Radio/Tape/CD, and a non functional piece of plastic masquerading as a cigarette lighter. Fun first car, took it off-roading a few times, just messed around with it, got a feel for a manual transmission and oversteer at slow and predictable speeds. That truck was rock solid and entirely controllable in every manner. My last year in High School, I got a 2000 Civic Si. Very different car, power was much higher. FWD is good for the psychological comforts that understeer provides with predictability and its ease of correction. Consequently, stepping up to an FD from my previous cars was a much larger step. Anticipation of some sort of "difference" in handling was something I wasn't quite grasping, and from researching the car, I decided racing school and training was where I'd find my answers. I Went to Bondurant's Racing School out in Phx, and got a genuine lesson with racing situationed seat experience. I wanted to be ready to control this car, and if nothing else, drive it safely.

To this day however, I still feel as though the car takes control of me in some sense of the word. It is an extremely difficult car to drive, and although fun, fast, sexy, yada yada, respecting its abilities will render the best results if the car is treated with respect while being driven. I think all of the owners on this forum do realize the potential of an FD, whether you're a full seasoned autocrossing veteran, or the 16 year old tootin' to school with it. Whether or not the FD is the best thing for a first car? second car? third? fourth? Aren't we all on here this forum just enjoy the car purely for driving experience? I'm not saying "peace on earth, love everybody, be a hippie," just, KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

If theres anything that I learned at Bondurant aside from the tons of valuable information regarding how to effectively "race" a car i.e. technique, its to drive within my level of comfort for speed (this speed increases with practice). Who cares if someones rippin ur *** up, driving 3 laps as you complete one. Just as long as you're safely enjoying your driving experience. People learn at different rates. Some haev a knack for controlling cars at high speeds, because as physics has it, all sorts of things start happening when you get a car going faster and faster and faster...and with that being said, I was the safe one and gave the brain a chance to soak all the information in just in case I decided to zone out going 90 mph into a hairpin. However, holding a 3rd place among 14 (I thought I drove slow!), going on lap 3 of 10, and a 16 year old kid rear ended me at 70 mph... Gosh. I don't know where this post is going, but just be safe. I feel like I'm about to write a novel.

Jedon

Stevey629: The rollover occured on the offramp from 805S to 52W at 7pm in the rain. There was several inches of standing water right at the merge and traffic was going 70mph. I took it real easy around the turn then had to accelerate to merge with the faster traffic. Right when I hit the standing water, the second turbo came on and caused the rear to kick loose to the left. I did the wrong thing: put the brakes on, further reducing rear end grip and I spun. That would have been it but I spun into the steep embankment and it flipped me over. It came to rest on the roof, I was glad to be alive but scared that someone else was now going to hit me since I had no idea where in the road I was. My neck hurt and I managed to crawl out the window, see that I was on the shoulder, and lie flat to keep my neck stabilized. A few seconds later an EMT getting off work happened to show up and help. I ended up in the critical care section at the hospital on C Spine alert which reallty sucked, getting CAT and MT scans and being dosed up with morphine. I had a badly sprained neck and had to wear a brace for 6 weeks and my neck was sore for 6-8 months after that. I was very lucky. I kept the car wanting to make it into an autocross E-MOD racer but never had the time. I did cut the roof off and drive it around the block, got some funny looks! In the end I parted it out and cut the carcass up and took it to the recycle place.

Stevey629

One hell of a crash. I am familiar with that exit as well. If it happened recently, I'll go look for site damage and place a rotor housing as a headstone in your name. Do you have a picture of the car with the roof hacked off?

hondah8er

a 16 year old should not drive and FD period.

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

I would even up that number to 18. 2 years' experience is not nearly enough. You should never see this car in a high school parking lot.

-s-

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

While the point's already been made several times, I just wanted to put my $0.02 in. It's not that younger people are always immature, and thus shouldn't drive powerful cars. It's that their experience - which is very limited at such a young age - limits just how mature they can be. You can be a very reasonable, sound, and well-rounded 18 or even 21 year old, but simply with a lack of *experience,* you won't have the tools to make the correct decisions in certain situations. And that's really what I think it boils down to. You really don't *know* how to drive until you've driven for 5 or 6 years or so, experienced a variety of traffic situations, close calls, weather incidents, crazy drivers, etc etc. After that point, you start to really understand what it's about, and that should hopefully make you a safer driver.

Having said that, I can PROMISE you that if I had an FD when I was 16 or 18 or so, I woulda not only wrecked it, I probably woulda REALLY hurt myself...and I'm STILL a pretty aggressive/dangerous driver right now. It just really helps that my fear of the FD tones down my driving a bit

1RedR1and1RedPEP

I was fortunate enought to meet Max the other day, we were discussing what to do with his car.
Now, this is the view from someone almost 40, and I found Max to be a very mature 16 year old.
Max has his own small business, does all the work on his FD, looking to get right back on the horse and build another FD. Max spoke to me with intelligence and in a manner most 16 year olds cant and dont. My guess is that he will become a better driver from this unfortunate error and this summer I will be giving him track instruction at www.cgimotorsports.com

rfreeman27

iTrader: (5)

Just because you are young does not mean you arent a SAFE driver. When in the FD on the road I drive like a grandma. Why? Because i dont want to become another "stupid 16 year old that wrecked the sports car"

Dont assume that all young people are stupid unsafe drivers. I would like to think that there are OTHERS out there that can handle the same kind of responceability. Ive been driving and racing fast cars sense i was about 13...we are out there...

Too bad there are the ones like this that go and do stupid things with their cars.

-bobby

rfreeman27

iTrader: (5)

Dont flatter yourself! I am willing to bet that there are hundreds of FD owners on this forum that cant drive worth a ****! The cars are becoming so cheep that anybody can pick one up....

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

Bobby, look at the post right before this one (that has a quote originally written by me). You'll see it's not that young people can't be responsible, it's simply that they don't have the exposure NECESSARY to be SAFE. You may know how to drive YOUR car very well, but in all honesty, that's prob one of the top reasons teenages get in accidents (other than simply not knowing how to drive well). That's that you think it's all about what YOU do and what YOU can and can't do. That's only 50% of the game. The other 50% is being able to judge road conditions accurately, anticipate other drivers' next move, being in compromising situations on the road in traffic and learning how to deal w/ them, etc...all these can never be taught. They have to be LEARNED. And I gotta tell ya, it took me a while until I learned to anticipate other drivers' next moves. I've saved myself a LOT of close calls, as well as my friends and relatives, because a lot of people simply don't have that skill because they haven't driven in such situations long enough, or simply don't pay enough attention to it (again, being focused on their OWN driving, and not realizing what's going on around them).

rfreeman27

iTrader: (5)

I understand your point. Anything i say as a rebuttle on my own part is just going to make me sound cocky. Ive been driving for a pretty good amount of time. My father has been letting me drive since i was about 13 or 14. He would take me out in the shitty conditions so i would learn, and often just let me drive for him. (he also tought me how to drag race, launch, do burnouts and the like. But he also tought me to KEEP IT AT THE TRACK!!) Being a safe driver takes more then controlling your own car. You said so yourself. I wouldnt consider myself a safe driver if i didnt always pay attention to the road. Again i know anything i say in my defense will sound cockey or just come off as "im young and know everything" so it might be a loosing battle...

On another note, Sometimes accidents happen. There are differences between Accidents and Crashes. Crashes IMO are due to driver error and COULD have been avoided, wether it was the driver or somebody else's mistake or road conditions or whatever. Accidents are when it is simply out of your control. I hate to think that when i drive my car something might happen to me that i cant prevent. But this is the risk we all take when driving anything...

I'm not claiming to be the best or most experienced driver in the world. I just hate to think that people judge me on my age.

saburo

iTrader: (1)

open your eyes, welcome to the real world. hahahahaha.