Quote:
Originally Posted by LunaZ
The OP shows great honesty and humility in his account of his incident (e.g., "ran out of talent') while his critics... not so much.
I can't believe the righteous soapbox that some people stand on when they get behind the keyboard. I'm willing to bet it doesn't match their attitude behind the wheel. Otherwise, why buy a Z other than to look at it being pretty in your driveway?
The OP's use of track terms to describe his off does not indicate "racing moves" being performed on the street. Instead, these terms indicate that he knows the proper line through a turn, where the apex is, when to brake and when to be on the gas.
In my opinion, EVERYONE who drives anything should know those things. I'm pretty sick of people carving into my lane as they cut through a corner, or watching them run wide because they've turned in too early and they're pointing the wrong way at the exit of the corner.
Of course, putting down the mobile and the coffee and driving with two hands would help, but that's another story.
Personally, I'm a fan of the VDC.
As others have mentioned, when you're smooth, you know the system is working, but you don't feel that it's interfering; it actually feels like it's helping you go faster by aiding in car control.
Just this morning, I was raving about how nice the system was as I trail braked to set the nose into a left-right series and started applying the power slightly before the apex as I got the car pointed towards the next turn.
VDC FTW!
I'm a former motorcycle racer, trackday instructor, and SCCA solo driver.
I enjoy my version of a Sunday drive. Take that anyway you want to take it.
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Ummmm, Luna Z. Before you went on a rant, did you realize this thread is from december 12,2009, the op was a member for a month and had a total of 10 posts. One thing you gotta learn quick is this. "Terminology is just terminology". You might get easily impressed with people using track terms here and there but honestly it can be picked up on any forum so, your perception of this op being knowledgeable based off of one or ten posts is moot.
One quote you didn't catch on to was " Live another day and drive a ford". Ok what did that mean? Did he mean he feels safer mustang? Or did he mean? Live another day drive a ford focus or anything ford without horsepower. Either way fords are beneath nissans in overall saftety features and ratings so I really don't get that comment?
Honestly, what I see is an op with a not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of skill set and an underestimation of his vehicle. I also see his experience doesn't lie in high tech import sports cars and has more knowledge of driving american vehicles which have a totally different set of driving dynamics. So he underestimated 270lbs of torque, which sounds weak compared to american high torque muscle. And he wound up spinning out. Yes he's most likely was right about his tires. But that was only part of the problem.
The Z is a short wheelbase sports car and unlike a longer wheelbase GT, the Z has a sort of unstable nature which most underestimate. The car's overall design is for lower speed high handling sports, like autoX while packing the power of a GT racer. The turning radius and lane change cycle of the Z in higher speed and aggressive maneuvers need a certain amount of practice to master. And truth is, most of you buy this car and after the car is broken in, y'all think its mario andretti time. That's why Z forum has more new car accidents than any other car brand forum.
Let's face it, truth be told, a pretty large portion of you on here are underskilled for the cars.you drive. And I'm not saying you can't buy a Z... what I'm saying is take the time to...
A. Learn traffic laws, and common driving etiquette.
B. Acquire sports car driving skill before attempting maneuvers.
You can drive several years and if you never drove, RWD, manual and or a high horsepower vehicle or even just a vehicle of a much different size. I would give myself 5k to 10k miles before I start trying aggressive maneuvers. Id set up track days as much as I can afford to or learn my cars potential in an empty lot.
At the end of the day it sucks that the op had an accident. But by saying he'll live another day in a ford. He admitted that he just disdnt have enough skill in his car to take that turn at that speed, and lacked knowledge of his cars dynamics till after the fact.
Finally, I understand what you mean about members playing the self righteous role when someone makes a lesson learned confession, there's is a lot of blind leading the blind goin on in the forum as well. But the op didn't exhibit anything but honesty and using a few choice descriptive words but he still voided himself enough time to learn his vehicles dynamics.
And you being a scca, track day driver blah blah blah on Sunday, I would think you can see where the op went wrong. Obviously, he applied gas in the turn, in a fwd, that would make you go extremely wide and make the car extremely hard to straighten. On a RWD it will cause the rear to slide out then the wheels will start to spin. If you don't let go of the gas and start to calmly direct your steering wheel back in line while applying 0 to light pressure on the brake you will wipe out. Once you regain stability, immediately press the brake firmly and slow your car down. That's the safest way to fix that problem and that's NOT what happened. He wiped out and vdc couldn't correct it cuz he applied too much gas. Unless this is a toyota and it accelerated on its own? Lol.