Pushing too hard in the wet and hit the concrete gator entering 5 and lost the back end, spun into the outside tire wall. Live and learn. Good news was that the only major damage was to my passenger tail light and the exhaust. Fritz was good enough to hook me up with another exhaust in exchange for picking up an engine/trans and misc parts he was buying from a kid in NC so I got back on track tuesday

Anyway, here's the vid

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bJUNSNFcxhE


Here are some pics






The rest of the saving grace


car with the new exhaust on


back on track




the rest of the pictures are here if anyone is interested:

http://imageevent.com/section8/hpde/april2008vir

 

That's an owwie.

What tires where you using at the event?

 

Ouch!

 

V700s. I bought them last year unshaved, did 1 day of a two day event at Summit Shen on them, then a two day event at Mosport, but that's all they had on them. I really think that if i hadn't hit that concrete curb I would have been able to keep it on track, but I was still going too fast for the conditions. Live and learn eh? Good news is the car is still completely driveable, just some cosmetic damage and a bruised ego

 

Glad you are ok and the car is not too banged up. IMO, if you are going to damage your car, at least do it at the right place: the track.

I've done a rain session in the past, but I had street tires (Goodyears at that) so there was plenty of wet grip. I've been contemplating with the idea of keeping a set of wheels with something for just the rain as I only have the Victoracers now. However, I need a tire trailer first before any of that will even work.

 

Yeah, i actually had my street wheels/tires in the back of the suburban but just didn't put them on the car. But honestly, i'm not sure they would have helped me with the way i made the mistake.

 

Well, not to play sideline driver, I think the street tires would have made a difference. Granted, in the wet, how you get on the gas needs to have a little more care. But I think you could have caught it with a decent street tire. Now if you had something like Falken 615's in the truck, I don't think they would have made much of a difference over what you were running in that situation.

I'm really thinking of getting 2 sets of Rota Slipstreams at 17x8.5 for the track. Put some slicks on one set and then something for the rain on the other set. Yea, they aren't the prettiest rim, but they are cheap and easy to replace if needed. I have 2 other sets of pretty rims.

 

That sucks! At least there wasn't any extensive damage and you got to drive it on the track again. IIRC if you don't shave the V700's they should be pretty decent in the rain from what I've heard. I haven't tried it since mine are shaved. I'm going to probably do what Mahjik is doing for my FD's setup, V710's for dry days and I'll use my street tires (PS2's) for rainy days. Those tires have crazy good grip in the rain.

I couldn't help but chuckle at this... sorry:

"I broke your handle..."

"I think that's the least of my worries..."

 

When I read turn 5, I was thinking you meant the curb on the right just before that (had a very close call there myself, fortunately it wasn't wet).

Glad you're okay.

 

oh boy that had to be a bummer but like others said at least its minimal, it could have been so much worse.

yeah you should run some basic street tires for wet sessions, they keep your speeds lower and give you some water shedding tread, both would have helped you out that day.

nice of Fritz to help with an easy/cheap solution to that mangled exhaust.

 

i am sorry to see that, but glad that no one got hurt. good luck getting it back together and getting back out there.

like you said, we live and we learn.

 

Aww that's a bummer. My condolences. But you survived to track it another day which is good because T5 can bite and bite HARD.
Keep your chin up.
regards,
Crispy

 

victoracers on wet is extremely scary. street tires felt way better on the track when it was raining.

 

Wet conditions, over exuberance, talking while driving, nailing the paint and throttle = crash. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you were kinda asking for that one.

 

you didn't burst my bubble - i already stated the reasons i crashed but thanks for telling me again since i obviously was unaware.

 

Aww that will buff right out.

Thanks for sharing, that's a good reminder that tracking your cars is serious business .

Paul

 

:hs:

 

Keep up the work tho...the car sounds sweet and you seem to handle it very well. Nice Vette pass BTW...

 

haha i plan on headin up to ViR there after i get my T2 running, hopefully i wont make the same mistake, and if its raining ill just stay home, haha, like how those plates expired last year too, nice

 

wow thats scary, the rear came around quick. Good luck with the repairs.

 

Nice video Joe

Technically speaking you lost it in T6 which is a really sneaky turn especially when you're a little early at T5a. It's REALLY important in a high HP car to go into 5a late get her pointed then roll in to the throttle easy. I think I go in later than the cone and get the car parrallel near or on the pilings before turning into 5a. I see so many drivers trying to make one turn from 5 to 5a going out and brushing the piling but not really squaring up to the curb/piling on the left side before entering 5a but you really need to square both wheels to the piling straighten the wheel for just a beat to give yourself lots of room for a late smooth turn in which will set you up for virtually a straight drive through 6 and 6a.

Thanks again for helping with the parts and glad I was able to help get you back on track both literally and figuratively There's is no better learning experience than going off track and whether you hit something or not is just the nature of the beast.

Regarding the tires; the rain was never really heavy so Joe was using the right tires.

 

Oh and if you need some rear quarter panels let me know hehe

 

Man that sucks. I'm sorry to hear about the crash, but glad the damage is only cosmetic. It seems like traction just went away because I hear the RPMs shoot up right before the rear end comes around. Almost the exact same thing happened to my car (but in the dry) with similar damage. If you need any bodywork tips I may be able to offer some advice and/or bodywork tools. Also, sorry to hear about your handle.

Will you still be making it out to the Trackdaze event next month? If so I'll see you there with my still-mashed-in rear quarter panel too

 

Yeah, the plates expired and since I never drive it on teh street (except to bed pads and cycle tires) i never bothered to renew them

Thanks man - I'm not even sure if I'm going to have it fixed right away, but I don't have time to get it fixed before the next event anyway. I'll let you know.

We're still coming to Trackdaze next month wife is going to do that event in her RX8 too. We can both represent the battle scarred RX7s!


The door handle comment really cracked me up - in the first session i had warned my instructor who had never been on track in an FD that the passenger door handles were known to break. So of course he held on to it during the spin and you hear his comment on the vid

 

Fritz did a really nice analysis, so I won't comment on the "why you ended up there". I just wanted to add that the whole 5a->6->6a complex is especially nasty in the rain. It is narrow and there is no where to go. The gators will toss the back of that car around and even in light rain you can get small puddles on the apexes.

So if it's any consolation, you aren't the first to go off at that exact place, and you won't be the last.

Good to hear that no one was injured and that the car is reparable.

-b