nct510

Thanks to every one of you for the honest sympathy and support.

Here is a clip of the incident...feel free to comment

Mal,,, First off, glad to hear you are well and the car can be repaired. I often hate reading the comments after an incident like this as an analysis doesn't always take into account what your were thinking as far as car positioning in the turn, weight shifts, wet/dry spots, etc. However, on your invite I will offer my thoughts as I wish I had cameras and data acq turned on in my similar incident.

I put the right side of my .1 GT3 into the tire wall at Thunderhill in N. CA, exact same type of impact as yours, same results, sheet metal damage only (one cracked rib) same safety equip, etc. I feel your pain. It is such a frustrating, disgusting feeling to hit like that. I went over it a hundred times in my mind and with witnesses to try to preclude that mistake from happening again.

I am not an expert. Here is what I heard/saw on your video. From 1:50 on in the video you have some nice smooth steering input (to driver's right) throughout the curve. At 1:59 to 2:00 you unwind a bit but importantly, as you crest the hill at the last apex and become unweighted, it sounds like you lift a little (speed also drops) AND there is still steering input to the right. Two things here: 1) in your previous lap, at this point you steer straight and track out to drivers left, using more of the pavement..but on this lap you have steering input to the right as if hugging the apex all around to exit on the right side. 2) as your car settles from the crest and finds steering input your front wheels are pointed slightly to right instead of straight. Front wheels grip pointing to the right, your **** end is already headed the other way,,,very tough to correct.

I apologize if this sounds too critical but from experience I am glad that some pro's helped me figure out what I did wrong. Gonna keep those camers rolling from now on. Get back on that horse asap.

malmasri

Thank you Dave....and hope the MOH event to be eventless

ace996

So sorry to hear, and then see, what happened. Thankfully, I've never hit on any of my "offs"...at least in a car...not so lucky on my prior Ducati...

With the video, I watched several times (phenomenal driving BTW) and I seem to lose sight of your left hand...once the countersteering started. My only critique, and I'm sure you realize this already, is that the counters appear to be a little overdone. I bet if you could hit the 'reset' button on that, you'd pull out of it 9 times of 10 or more.
Take it as a learning experience and be thankful that you had the right safety equipment. Glad to hear you are OK. Put 'er back together and dance again real soon.

Be good,
TomK

early_grayce

Jeez.... sorry this all happened. Cosmetic damage only and no injury thankfully.

Thank you for sharing the video... it's helpful to all of us.

Here's to a speedy recovery

MJones

The car will get really "light" over the hill and it will evoke PSM
What you need to do is free-up the steering input a little at the apex and track out over the second seam almost to the grass and don't lift.

One thing you don't want to do is "crab" that corner at the apex for the car is so "light".

Thanks for posting the video...Your cornering speeds were not that high but it is an unforgiving track

firefisher

Dam that sucks. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I hope it all works out.

audiophilitis

That was a nasty crash -- glad you were not hurt. Cars can always be repaired or replaced.

mobonic

good post.

when you drive a car on the track at speed, its not IF.. its WHEN.

I know this so I have mentally prepared for an incident in the future.

Glad you are ok, cars can be fixed, there are no spares in life.

texasviany

I hate to see this happen to anyone. I am curious...parts of the track look dark on the left as you exit...was it damp in spots? Inputs need to be shorter and sooner....unless you want to be more aggressive with the throttle. I hope that you are back soon.

CRex

Malmasri, thanks for the post and the courage to post the details for all to learn. Am glad that you're okay and the car will hopefully be good as new after repairs.

My home track (Zhuhai, China) has a very similar corner as your T5 where undulations can unsettle the car but drivers often take the corner full throttle from turn-in thru track-out. It was eerie watching your video since this past Saturday a Cayman S totalled itself in the same manner. If I could offer my two cents, I'd note the following:

1. The consequences of understeering in T5 are running off into the greens on the far side--much less onerous than snap-oversteering into the armco. Like you said initially, your gut-feel might've been to unwind ahead of the crest but the heart wants to hug the apex. IMO this is one of those situations where 90% of the time you'd go faster doing what you did (i.e. driving the "right" line) but the remaining 10% may lead to bad outcomes. It's clearly a real-time choice and personally I have to force myself to override my animal spirit and do what's only appropriate for myself.

2. You're clearly a better driver than I am from the intial two minutes' worth of video. That said, there was a LOT of clockwise steering input at 2:04 (your yellow stripe was at 3 o'clock) which I think was the immediate cause of the incident. Fatigue, perhaps? I know it's easy for a forum guy like me to watch videos in safety and comment after-the-fact. I may not have been any wiser if I had to face the same split-second situation.

Afterall what we do involves a bit of animal spirit and we only progress thru experience. We have the benefit of learning from your datapoints and for that I genuinely thank you. Do feel better and I trust you'll be back on the track with a fresh (and possibly upgraded) car in no time!!

savyboy

1. Whew! That was a hard hit. Very lucky you did not get hurt. And very glad to hear you say you are ok.
2. Did you have track insurance? (Lockton Affinity for the win)
3. Now you have a perfect track *****! rebuild it or buy it back as a salvage car if totaled.

Been there, done that, as you know and it is a searing learning experience.

Again, glad to hear you are ok!

docdan

First of all, I'm glad that you survived relatively uninjured. Secondly, I thank you for having the courage to post your account of the accident, and to even post a video. For me, this is a sobering reminder of the potential dangers we face every time we head out on the track. Maybe I'll run with TC on next time it's wet.

Once again, I'm glad you're okay.


Dan

Bman

Sorry!

Thanks for having the guts to post the clip. It helps keep things in perspective and gives us an oppurtunity to learn from it.

I've driven Barber and that turn reminds me of T11 at Mid Ohio.

996toomey

Really hard for me to watch. I am glad you are ok.

jshudson

Thanks for posting the video, again glad you are Ok.