This doesn't look too bad, especially considering the speed.

 

wheel turned while hydroplaning...when car leaves water the tires are heading in the wrong direction..voila

 

well, now that i see in the daylight that’s a big hit … i mean like a full ricky bobby. i think because of that wheel arch it may have gotten to the frame and if so you will want that totaled. the frame is made of different materials and it would be a mess to fix.

i was t-boned in one of my older cars years ago and while the damage just barely missed the frame of the car and despite every effort the car just was not the same.

but maybe you live in an area that has decent body shop guys. where i live they all died off and those left do a 5/10 job at best.

but it is an accident and as the wise man says … “it never rains everyday!”

 

I don't understand folks thinking he needs driving classes. You're assuming it's his fault when he clearly stated the car hydroplaned. If you've ever been in a car that hydroplaned, it's very unnerving and the only thing you can really do is keep it straight and let off the gas. Basically, don't upset the car. It happened to me once but luckily no accident.
15K miles for summer tires on a 911 is a lot. Mine almost needed replacement at 10K and I don't drive too hard (no track).
Lastly, AWD or wet mode wouldn't help once the car lifts off when hydroplaning. Wet mode basically turns all the nannies to high (or super high). Doesn't matter when your gliding.

 

At that speed, when you hit a large enough patch of standing water, you are hydroplaning and not even touching the road. Really unfortunate and really hard to recover from. I truly feel for you because this would suck regardless of why it happened or what you might have done differently. And I'm not sure "wet" mode would have saved you. Less speed or more luck maybe the only things.

 

There have been 911s for decades before “wet mode” came along. I had a 991.1 C4S and it was a blast and very predictable to drive in heavy rain and snow.

As said above by others, speed to conditions.

When you get it back, or a new one, take some time and do a track day or two in lousy weather. I started doing track days with mine to help get a better feel for how it drove close to the edge. I’m sure you’d find it helpful to get some seat time in inclement conditions, where you get to play with edge of grip.

Hope it’s repairable and everything works out.

 

As someone already mentioned up above, what happed to the OP had nothing to do with his driving skills per se, or lack thereof. And certainly nothing that either a track day or even an hour on a wet skipd pad would have prevented, or even "driving lessons" (whatever that means).

The OP was the unfortunate victim of hydroplaning. Could've happened to anyone, including folks like Randy Pobst, Chris Harris, Ken Block, etc.

Maybe the OP could learn to be more careful generally and perhaps defensive driving lessons (the stuff you read about in your DMV brochure) may help, but track day driving lessons in and of themselves would not have prevented this from happening, and will not prevent it from happening again in the future.

 

but it does help you stop.

 

No, it doesn't.

Perhaps you're the one that needs driving lessons.

 

Dude gets in an unfortunate accident and half the thread is about possible causes, fault and remediation. More than anything I feel for the guy because I have no idea what led to the incident and whether different driving/awareness could have changed anything. While he's at driving school the rest of the group should take sensitivity training.

 

OK @ipse dixit .. I read it as he is a newer driver who might benefit from additional time in inclement conditions.

 

How about don't go 80 miles per hour when it is raining and you are driving a sports car with extra wide tires on all corners just looking to turn into water skis.

 

Maybe, but a track day will teach you nothing about driving in inclement weather.

I think most people could take a few lessons in driving in inclement weather (myself included), but going to a track day will do nothing to reach that goal.

 

We don't know all the circumstances so it's silly to make assumptions on how much it was raining, How straight/curved was the road? What was the speed limit? How many other cars? etc. etc.
Anyone who has had an unfortunate even always can say 'I should have, would have, could have...'.
I'm sure whatever lesson was to be learned, has been learned by the OP.
I agree with having some empathy.

 

@Alex911_992 ,

Don’t let these guys scare you.

Sometimes bad things happen. It is devastating when your expensive sports car gets into an accident. You will blame yourself and replay the event in your head, thinking what you could have done differently. What’s happened has happened, and you can’t change that. But you are OK, and that’s the most important thing (as some have pointed out).

Your car will be OK. It looks like your suspension components, rear axel, rear wheel, and rear bumper with tail lights need to be replaced. The crinkle in your wheel arch is just cosmetic and will be hammered out.

I do not think your frame was damaged because the lower area of the quarter panel, in front of the wheel arch, is flush with the door and does not look bent or deformed, and this implies the frame was not bent. Your tire, wheel, and suspension components dissipated most of the energy. The crush zone in the rear bumper would have easily absorbed any rear impact without transferring it to the rest or the unibody.

I’m no expert, and I’m just going by the pics you’ve shared. Car will be fine. Things happen. Good luck.