Had a bad case of stupid, but perhaps a miraculous outcome.

Was on an off-ramp. Got distracted and all of a sudden, was at the end.
Now I'm not sure why the rear end broke loose, maybe throttle lift while going tighter turn?

Car starts rotating clockwise. I counter, but when rear end caught, it thew me into an anti-clockwise spin until I was simply crossing the 2 lanes of traffic.

Gone are my snide comments about just locking the brakes. I totally failed on this.

After crossing the two lanes in my direction, I kind of jumped the center ditch (scooped up some dirt and grass) and stopped basically in oncoming traffic lanes.

Puilled into the median. Then drove away.

By grace of God, there was no contact with other cars, and no loss of fluids. Car remained fully drivable.

All damage seems superficial, save the FMIC, plastics, and bolt on stuffs.

Pictures of damage on my build thread.

Set-up:
1) No rear bracing because I had MSM ladder, and a high-centered rock bent the low, front brace such that it was pressing hard on the PPF, so I had removed it.
2) Pinch welds 4.625 front, 4.874 rear.
3) FCM with 325#/in front and 275#/in rear
4) 195 Direzza II
5) Camber -1.2 all around

After I put it back together, I'll likely move the rear to same height as front, and try not to be stupid on the street again.
Any other suggestions?

 

Thats pretty epic.
Did your butthole pucker?

 

 

Glad you weren't hurt and glad it wasn't worse! My poor 10AE met it's demise in my hands in the mountains in September 2016 and also by the grace of the Lord, a heaping helping of good luck, and a possible guardian angel we weren't hurt.

 

It happened so fast, and, yes, I puckered everywhere I could.

 

Glad you made it out ok.

I wadded up one before, and it was no fun.

 

Probably has more to do with tires than anything. Shitty old camaros tend to have shitty tires that really telegraph to you when theyre going to break loose. High performance summer tires tend to be more like "grip grip grip g-GOTCHA BITCH"

 

No, there's more to it than that. A longer wheelbase is more stable, all else being equal it won't rotate as quickly as a shorter one. This is why Miatas make for lousy drift cars.

Lifting will definitely make the car spin.

--Ian

 

^ this.

But if its not intended, its so damn hard to not panic-lift the throttle.

i think i'm not a bad driver at all, have experience in driving 200hp+ RWD cars for nearly 10 years and riding motocross twice as long,
but on the street in a shock moment - thats the **** i'm afraid of

great that no one got hurt!

 

Happened to me last year in my BRZ. Going down a very familiar road, probably a bit too quickly, blind near hairpin as I got to the Apex the rain hadn't washed the sand off this part of the road yet.

Lock, Lock, Lock, backwards into the ditch. $1000 deductible +$1200 rental car since I didn't have rental insurance like I thought I did. All damage was bodywork, think the insurance paid out $7500. If the airbags had gone off it probably would have been totaled.

 

Glad you're OK, and kudos for being willing to talk about it.

Keith Code calls it a 'survival reaction' in his books and schools on road racing motorcycles. I've been riding bikes all my life, and was pretty serious about tracking them for a few years, and it took me a long time to completely train out the natural tendency to close the throttle when things get scary. I'm still working on it in the car... it takes a lot of repetition and muscle memory to discipline yourself to not completely lift. I'm pretty sure an 'unconscious lift' contributed to my gravel excursion from T10 at Laguna last October... fortunately I didn't damage anything. Things do happen quickly with a Miata's short wheelbase, so it's a good skill to work on...

 

95% of the time more throttle is the answer.
5% of the time it ends the suspense.

 

The more track experience you get, the more you drive like a granny on the street. On the track, this would have been a simple keep your foot in it and accept going 2 or 4 off -- maybe lose a position if racing. On the street, you just don't have options.

 

That is my goal.... to get onto the track, settle down on the street. Well, I'm going to settle down on the street regardless.

 

Just curious what the weather was when it happened? Performance tires + cold and rain + Miata = spinny. I looped mine coming out of turn 7 at Road Atlanta last month. I actually made the turn without issue, but tried to get clever and throttle steer the track out. It was surprising how easily the car let go, and how difficult it was to stop it once the spinning started. I was really glad to be on a track instead of on the road. Oddly it wasn't scary at the time, my heart rate probably didn't go up. In retrospect, it was very scary and I'm worried it will happen again.

 

It was not cold (mayby 55F) or rainy. There may have been gravel, but I think the lifting of throttle was the root cause.

 

Glad you made it out ok.

Reminds me when I did a 180 in my msm. I was going through a left turn through a light with moderate throttle... In the rain... on near bald rear tires (woops)

I was able to hit the brakes, stop and turn around.

 

Thanks.

Thing is, I countered the first CW skid, but don't know how to control the swing-around to the CCW. Maybe let go of the wheel like Six did in Atlanta in the wet?

I have my new parts, just waiting on quotes for used parts locally.

 

It's last-ditch, but nothing corrects more quickly than the car itself. I've managed to catch some fantastic counter-swings with the "I give up!" method.