Ok, so some already have heard what is happened and some have just heard that something did happen...so here is the official thread about it!!!

It was Sunday morning, about 2 or so, a friend and I had just finished a nice run up a NC80. After reaching the parkway, we chill out and enjoy the ~30 mi trip back to town...i'm just cruising along, not even pushing the curves because it just not how i drive the down hill on the parkway. A few miles away from town, I start to go into a long sweeping curve to the right, i didn't feel like i'm going too fast or anything, but without warning, the rear of my car decided it wanted to exit the curve first!!! So, as it some around, i counter steer and after the car passed the 90 degree mark, i knew i wasn't going to be able to correct it. I just relaxed and hoped i would stay off the rock face....that didn't happen, my front dropped and i tapped the rock face, but the impact spun me around and i ended up doing a complete 360 and parked just off the side of the road, about 2 feet from the rocks...only damage was to the front corner!!!

While spinning, i was waiting to smash the entire side of my car, but i missed it! Damage done is hood, left head light, front left fender, front bumper cover + support, tie rod end is bent and steering rack is mostly likely trashed. It does not appear to have gotten into the frame....

here is a link to the pix the day after...when i got the car home...i will get pix in the next few days of just after it happened....

the pic of the tail lights shows where the rear bumper and spoiler (white speck on the edge) brushed the rocks...i was VERY VERY LUCKY!!! this could have been alot worse...

http://cs.wcu.edu/~thouston/5-27-07/

if u want the pix to be displayed in the thread, u can post them urself...and then all the 56K dial up people can hate you, and not me!!!

ok, so u may begin the flaming now...

 

well to tell you the truth I was expecting a lot worse than it looks.

 

so did u find out what caused the rear to get loose, a tire go flat?

 

Sorry to hear that, glad you are ok. Time to get rid of that spoiler anyway!!!

 

It was the V8 engine.




Just kidding

That sucks, are you paying for the repairs out of pocket? If you are be sure to save what you can that little plastic vent in the fender alone is 280 IIRC

Good luck getting her back on the road!

 

glad you are ok! Sorry about the car, but you know as well as anybody, the car can be fixed. Good Luck!

 

already talking with a forum member about front end parts...looks like he has a front bumper + support and head light assemblies!!! i can get the tie rods from advance for around $30 (probably replace both sides just for good measure)...

the vent in the fender is UNTOUCHED!!! i can salvage it! so now it looks like i'm down to hood and fender and wheel...i do have two stock wheels in the basement i'll probaly just throw on the front to drive the car for now, she wont look pretty, but she will be drivable, once i fix the tie rod...

as for why it happened, i have no clue! no flat tire, wasn't even giving it gas goign into the curve, it just came around on me...

and yeah, i'm paying for it out of pocket...so once she's pieced back together, she will be multi-colored for a while...

 

Bring her on down. If you want to keep her red and there is minimal body work, we can have you sprayed in a long afternoon. Price of paint will be between $100 - $1000 depending on quality. I've got $845 in paint on mine, but needs to be cut and buffed out. Decent paint, base and clear would be about $300.
Call me if you want us to help you out; I could give you some pointers that you could do up there to minimize your time down here.

 

good thing nothing major but was that with the stock suspension??

 

That's the part that disturbs me.....and it should disturb you too. If, as you say, you weren't pushing it, then the car shouldn't have gone into the snap oversteer you describe. In fact, such unpredictable, and possibly disastrous, behavior should scare you off driving the car until the cause is found.

I don't think I'm alone in suspecting that some excess speed may be involved.
If it isn't that, then I'd be afraid some mechanical or suspension malfunction has made your car dangerous.

The only other thing I can think of that would send you veering out of control like that is black ice, an oil slick, or some other pavement condition that caused your rear end to suddenly lose traction. But you didn't mention anything like that being a factor.

 

I take it back. The fact that you lifted off the gas may have caused you to spin out. A quick Google search produced the item below:


" lift-off oversteer

Lift-off oversteer (also known as snap-oversteer, trailing-throttle oversteer, lift-throttle oversteer, or drop-throttle oversteer) is a form of oversteer in an automobile that occurs when the vertical load on the tires shifts from the rear to the front quickly due to throttle release while cornering.

This decrease in vertical load causes a decrease in the lateral force generated by the rear axle, so the axle starts to accelerate towards the outside of the turn. This steers the car more tightly into the turn, hence causing oversteer.

In layman's terms, this means that easing off the gas causes the rear wheels to break away suddenly, with the potential for the car to leave the road tail first.

The famous American attorney Ralph Nader described this type of handling in his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed.

This oversteer is often more pronounced in rear-engined cars and cars with swing axle rear suspension. Rearward centers of gravity (such as older Porsche 911s) enhance this effect, though technically any vehicle can experience lift-off oversteer. Various suspension enhancements, such as a Weissach axle, Passive rear wheel steering, or a multi-link suspension, can limit a vehicle's tendency to oversteer in this situation. Even the handling of the Chevrolet Corvair improved in final years of production through the use of enhanced anti-roll bars, according to John DeLorean's book, On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors. ....."

 

damn tray... glad your ok. it could have been a lot worse. but luckily you got out of it w/ minimal body damage and nothing happening to you.

 

id check to make sure all suspension components are 100% and drive it carefully. you dont know, something could be wrong you dont know about. next time you might not be so lucky...

 

I'm glad that there isn't any more damage than that. It looks very similar to the accident I had in Deal's Gap, with just about the same damage. Just be happy that you didn't go off the wrong side of the mountain.

I also hate rocking the multi-color car, but getting the car drivable is more important than making it pretty, and luckily you don't have a whole lot of work to make it drivable.

 

your car makes me sad but at least your ok and you didnt go falling down the mountain it could have been alot worse alot alot worse so look on the bright side i see a scoot hood and a 99 spec front bumper coming your way : P

 

Sounds to me that the accident was caused by the imbalance weight distribution of the car caused by the fat heffar of a power plant that you current have in. So see, it was caused by that LT-1. Had you had a rotary in there this would have never happened!

But seriously, glad your OK!

 

only if you learned to drift you would of been ok....... jk

 

alright! flaming begins! i love it...

trickshot, thanx for the info on the lift-off over steering...that sounds like it was a contributing factor

thank you everyone for the opinions and advice about the reason why this happened, I've been back up to the location it happened, didn't see anything on the road and i will be checking out the car's suspension completely before i attempt hard mountain driving again. i do have trailing arms and toe links to put on the car...and plan to get new tires all around as soon as i can.

to answer the question about if its stock suspension, as far as i know it is, the previous own did say it might have lowering springs, but he did not put them on (his claim was "it sits lower than my buddy's 3rd gen") i do have the new diff bushings in from the rx7 store launch kit but thats it. (as i just mentioned, trailing arms and tie links are sitting in the house)

 

i try not to break traction around a curve any higher than 3rd gear right now i'm not comfortable with 50+ mph drifting...

 

Of course, what did you expect? At least we waited until we knew for sure that you were okay... and we DID give you a 6 hour mourning period.


So, it sounds like it's not the fault of the motor... it was just Operator Error? Naw, I don't like that at all... it's the motor's fault... I'll tell you why....

Those big V8 do not like to maintain RPMs by nature, unlike the rotary engine... (must I explain why?) so, this caused the rear axle to slow down at a much faster rate, thus causing the vertical load to decrease at a much faster rate then expected causing lift-off over steering. Again, it's all the fault of that big fat heffar of an engine you make your FD lug around.

 

Yes, that big heffar of an engine will slow down much quicker and accellerate much quicker too. Please do try to tell us that having a smaller engine in a sports car is a good idea. If so, you'll be welcome here.

And if having a bigger engine is a bad thing, you might wanna pass the memo to this guy.

 

Size doesn't matter... it's all about Rotary vs Piston....

 

oh man...now we are getting back into the piston vs rotary debate!!!

and if u do notice in my opening post, i did say let the flaming begin...

 

Dude! I saw this thread just going to check our Crossroads thread. Holy crap. Glad to hear your ok though. I had the same thing thing happen to me in Turbo FB a few years ago. I lifted the gas going into a curve, and bam, she come around with me. Scared the poop out of me. Cost me my body kit (which I never replaced) muffler, right rear tire (tore it of the rim), and replacing the drivers seat cover which I just crapped in.

 

who gives a **** anyways its fast as ***** thats all that maters right. And as for paint Greg how much you think it would cost for you to repaint my FD I just cant stand the dings and scrapes in the door and what not anymore.