nine-44

Yup, wrecked the daily car tonight, my fault, flame on... Everyone is ok, car should be multi colored but fixed by tomorrow night. Headlight, pass fender, hood and nose pan are all hit. All damage is above the bumper luckily, looks to be no structural damage, no coolant leaks.

Ok, here's the details, down hill and semi-blind corner going right... I'm not a big fan of this corner because of other people cross the yellow going up on a tight laned road in the corner. I saw headlights before I got to the corner, I get into the brakes moderately, as soon as I turn the slightest bit, the car goes straight, I cross the lines and slide under the front of a Dodge Dakota that was able to stop before impact. Neither of the two cars were really hurt bad and none of the people were hurt at all. I was probably doing about 30MPH in a 25MPH turn, nothin major except for the dew on the road that I didn't expect in the wooded area. DAMMIT!


I have all the needed parts and insurance, life goes on.

Dave

Sorry to hear it, I had my own incident today (my own fault for overdriving the conditions) so I know what was going through your mind at the time (I was waiting for the roof to smack me in the skull but got lucky and landed on all fours, nothing a carwash won't fix. OTOH I guess I have to stop reminding Z-man of his spin, at least his was at LRP, mine was on Rt 80).

nine-44

I was thinking something like, why the **** am I sliding, I'm not into the brakes that hard, I barely even turned the wheel and didn't snap the wheel and nothing felt broken but traction?? I was fairly hard into some other corners just before that, felt fine, I guess just the valley and woods made the dew drop heavier on that strech of road. I missed the exact corner before that one about 6-7 years ago in the rain in my Nova murdering a guardrail, the car faired much better in that incident, along with my insurance rates I'm sure.. Bye Bye good driver rate.

Zero10

That's just the ****s. Sorry to hear about that.

I'm just trying to imagine why the car would understeer like that. I would say it was a combination of the dew on the road, and braking/steering. The braking would make the car unstable, and if there was too much steering input, it would exceed the available traction. And (being a physics student I know this) the coefficient of kinetic friction is much lower than that of static friction. Meaning, once you get sliding, it really doesn't take much to keep going. Even after you break free, you have to really reduce braking and steering input, far beyond normal levels, to regain traction. In a situation like that, it's usually too late by the time you can get traction. =(

Perhaps it is possible to not go through insurance? Happens up here all the time, our insurance rates are just insane (but they're about to come down), so it's pretty rare anybody puts anything through insurance.

Well, at least you have the parts to fix it. Best of luck getting everything straightened out (no pun intended).

Yabo

Sucks. Also, some turns just have certian grades of tar, and certain specific angled (hill on the way into, hill on teh way out of, hill horizontal to the road, etc.. Even your tires happening to hit the yellow lines can cause a slide.

NeedPorscheSpeed

I'm sorry to hear about your accident, Andy. However, I'm glad that you and the others involved were not injured; that's most important.

xsboost90

hm, i say better tires and heavier springs are on the list....

hoffman912

oh man that sucks. which one has been the dd since the 300k monster died?

pete944

How did I miss this thread.
Sorry to hear it Andy. I'm glad you're ok and I know you can whip the car back into shape.
I agree with Dan, get some good tires on that thing.

Harry, his DD is the 300K car. It's still running good.

hoffman912

really? i thought it was doa after the oil preassure went to nil.

pete944

Nah, he replaced the rod bearings the next day. It's been ok since.

hoffman912

you mean he just up and split the case, and replaced the rod bearings, like that. didnt do anything else with the bottom end or have anything checked or magnafluxed before selaing it up?

Rock

Its ok Andy. You always have me to go buy more parts or something

tifosiman

Maybe better tires, but heavier (front) springs would only exaggerate the understeer issue .

Andy, if you need any front end parts that you don't have, let me know.

horsepowerfarm

Hey Andy,

I'm glad you are ok!