custom8

I was not aware that he was asking for drifting and performance driving techniques... hmm i must have overlooked it, my apologies Raz, and btw im not ignorant

BlueEyes

Well, to be fair. I asked people about drifting and performance driving techniques when I was 16 too, didn't mean I was going to do it on the street (except heel-toe). You won't learn if you don't ask, and there isn't a much better place to ask than a car forum.

But yes, if he is doing this **** on the streets, then there is something wrong with him.
Although, I haven't looked into his history, so maybe he was asking so he could do it on the street.

Razpewton

Didn't mean ignorant as derogatory, simply as it is defined...."not knowing." I didn't mean to jump in your ****. It's just that nobody "expects" tragic occurances to happen. His "wake-up call" didn't seem to do the trick.

azzaboynt

Ah i remember the days when i was young, learning to drift on dirt tracks in the state forests. Got the damage to my car to prove it too. At the time I thought I was cool. 15 years on, I look back at myself thinking "yayoungrecklessbastard"

Being both a better driver and having the wisdom of a few years under my belt means if my car gets busted, it will be because of either a mechanical fault, or the fault of some other driver...

Very lucky to get out of it in one peice, no injuries. Very bad luck to your nice 8.

BlueEyes

Because you're perfect???

custom8

Yeah i see your point quite clearly, having a wreck then asking drifting and performance techniques don't go too well hand in hand i can see why you acted the way you do and i tend to agree your standpoint on him not waking up, if i had hit a curb and fubar'd my wheel and stuff i think i'd be driving like grandma for awhile until my nuts dropped back in my drawers because i know it would scare the crap outta me, but that's just me, and like i said i have had no accidents other than a fender bender that was not my fault <rear ended at a stop light>

RenesisRacer

Your posts are peppered with wanting to learn how to heel-n-toe, doing 180's, "revving through the gears" and meeting people for some drifting.



::Shameless Plug::
If you're really interested in performance driving, and you (or your parents) are wealthy enough to drop $30k for a car of this calibre, it would defenatly be worth another $3,000 (little more than the price of the nav system) to sign up for a Skip Barber 3-day school. Trust me, you'll have the time of your life and you'll much better appriciate the skills necissary to keep a car under control.

I've never understood why someone would test the limits of thier car on the road. Sure if there's a windy open road that you can see far down, it's fun to drive 'spiritevely,' but theres a reason Formula 1 drivers get paid big bucks to keep their cars on the limit. Take it to a lapping day at a racetrack. You don't have to worry about police, people knocking into you or killing pedestrians, and you can get the pure feeling of speed and control.

BlueEyes

Sure it does. If everyone had to take performance driving schools, the roads would be much safer. I am a safer driver than the average person because I have attended numerous car control and racing schools. It makes you better able to handle driving situations. Had he known not to shift mid corner, he probably wouldnt have had this accident.

That said, driving like a fool on the street is a no no.

custom8

I was referring to the driver of the car that hit the curb in that asking for performance shifting and drifting techniques after his accident was not the wisest choice to make unless the accident had occured on a track and not on some public road

irish8

Ah...except for the bumper hanging off and the rotor on the ground!!!

- Irish

azzaboynt

No not perfect. Not even by a long shot. But more along the lines of knowing a little more of where my limits are, and being a lot more aware about my own mortality and those around me.

I'm a firm beliver of keeping "pushing your skills" on the track, and off the roads we all have to share with other drivers and pedestrians.

BlueEyes

I was referring to that too. He had an accident, decided he isn't a very good driver and was asking for some tips on car control. Seems alright to me.

custom8

Yeah that's a different perspective though, tips on car control in sticky situations could be related to performance shifting in some ways and drifting also <fishtail regain of control i suppose> but i was under the impression that he was asking about how to drift which is of course keeping the car sideways for the longest period of time which is a nono on public roads :p but i see your standpoint in that he's trying to learn more on car control and not just drifting, i getcha man :D

dmp

I can't think of anything Razpewton hasn't already replied with...Right-on, Raz.

rotten42

you should know! :D

JM1FE

I started off feeling a little sympathetic, but got over it when I read that. You turned off TCS and/or DSC? Then you got what you deserved and I'd vote for insurance not covering it as a result. This gives me another thread to add to my list of people who've lost control and f'd up their cars by thinking that they can 'handle' the car better than the computer can.

I know there are some people on here who think they're too sexy for TCS/DSC, and who actually are highly skilled drivers. Those people may *like* how it feels without the computer assistance, and they may be able to safely engage in various maneuvers with it disabled, but in the situations where TCS/DSC was meant to keep the car under control, they cannot do it better manually than the computer can. Most people aren't that good at all, and definitely aren't as good as they think they are. For the 99% of drivers here who aren't so highly skilled, if you turn off TCS/DSC and you whack your car, I have absolutely zero sympathy. Suck it.

StewC625

I agree with whoever said rather than worry about $3000 worth of mods, buy a trip to driving school.

Having done the Skip Barber two-day track school twice, the Bob Bondurant school of high performance driving once and a two day stint of driving at BMW's performance center, I can tell you there's no substitute for good training. It makes a difference EVERY moment of driving anything, not just my RX-8. And it makes track days that much more fun.

SC

JM1FE

Shouldn't that be "getting your dumb *** killed"? The other way would imply that some other "dumbass" besides the poster would be the one killed, which is what we'd like to avoid, right?

(Sorry; I've been reading "Eats, Shoots and Leaves") :D

Jaisin

I turned it off because someone told me it would save gas. I didn't know what it did. No one explained to me that it had that much involvement in how he car handles. The dealer sure didn't mention it either. In fact my dealer told me it wouldn't have saved me. They said it only works when you are just going straight? What sense does that make.

I don't even know how to drift. People keep brining up drifting. I have no interest in doing that. I don't have the money for tires for one. I was just asking questions because I've seen other people doing things and I don't understand how they do it. It seems like it comes natural to them.

I was not drifting. The place where I had my accident makes no logical sense for drifting. It has two 6 inch+ curbs on both sides and it is very narrow. Skip Barber would be great, but there isn't one any where near me and I don't have the time. I have to wait till the summer.

The time in which I fishtailed in the curve was so long. If I knew anything about correcting, I could have prevented it. Instead I just made things worse. The only thing I did do right was not brake. The place is a very bad place for accidents. There is an accident there almost everyday. I try to avoid it now if possible.

The wheel came of so smoothly you guys just won't believe. I never felt it. The driveside side airbags came out, but they didn't touch me. Nothing else deployed.

G8rboy

Reason #374 teenagers shouldn't get handed $30k performance cars to learn on... geezus.

Rhawb

Agreed. I think even if I DID learn on a $30k sports car, I probably would have been a bit more inquisitive about the whole "Turning off the TCS saves you gas" thing. I definitely would have been curious as to why the engineers would have the "waste gas" toggle defaulted to "on."

Gomez

This car comes with an owners manual. This forum comes with a search button. It's about time you sat down and did a little reading.

Rhawb

That reminds me of another thing. The dealer was definitely mincing words with that TCS thing too - sure, the TCS may only really work in a straight line, but our cars have DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) as well. This should have kept your car in line reasonably well unless you were really out on the ragged edge of traction. I'm also inclined to believe there would be a rather noticible impact if your airbags went off - especially since nothing hit the body, the only input to set off the sensors was shock from the impact!

RotaMotion

Okay, I can’t stay out of this one as I also have an 8 that underwent carnage—thanks to an uninsured drunk driver. With regard to some of the “Public Service” posts on responsible driving, I think being sick-to-your-stomach about messing up your 8 is more than enough. I don’t think kicking someone when they are down is going to get the point across more than a busted up 8. Nobody got hurt, and I think a lot of learning took place.

When I was a teenager I did a lot of “cool” things, or so I thought at the time, while driving my cars. Now, I look back on those years, and I’m lucky to be alive. Nobody got hurt. I was lucky and the motorists around me were lucky. Its funny how your perspective on things like this changes as you get older. I won’t post specifics, as I don’t want to get flamed up one side of this forum and down the other. What I can say is that I’m a very responsible driver now and I cuss when teenagers blast though my neighborhood at 45 mph

All I’m saying is that I don’t know any car enthusiasts, who as a teenager didn’t take unnecessary risks while driving. Being a teenager is about pushing boundaries and making mistakes. Also, most of us don’t really get how permanent this death thing is until we are in our early 20s or loose someone close to us. At 16 most of us think we’re immortal. Hence the police showing up at the local high school much more often than the local Senior Center Do I wish the world I lived in were different, and do I try to make a differenc? Yes. But, as a teenager, I, like a lot of other teenagers, was also sometimes part of the problem. And, like many others, I learned, I grew up.

I think if someone is willing to post and learn, some of us Veterans can hopefully pass along some of the wisdom we’ve gained over the years from the mistakes\wreckage of our past and, hopefully, save someone else from headache & heartaches. But as for kicking someone when they are down, I don’t know many teenagers or adults who respond and learn well from that. My experience has been that the message gets just gets lost and you’ve done is pissed off someone.

Jaisin, sorry to hear about your misfortune, glad neither you or anyone else got hurt. I’m willing to bet you’ve learned a lot from all this and don’t have any road racing plans in your future

BTW, this thread kind of reminded me of a story a friend of mine told me back in college. His dad was driving his classic corvette convertible from Sacramento CA to a Physicists convention in Los Vegas. Out in the middle of nowhere, he decided to really open her up. Well somewhere north of 120 MPH, a tire blew and he rolled. The car was totaled and he should have been dead, but he was okay. Well, actually he was extremely rattled and got the $hit scared out of him. Anyway, the cops showed up, took a bunch of measurements, figured out how fast he was going and gave him a ticket for something like $500. You know, just to make sure he got it. As if almost dying, widowing/orphaning his family, and loosing his prize possession weren’t enough. But, then again, I’m sure there are people out there who think that ticket made him a more responsible driver in the future…

AQA101

Damage done, everyone alive, OK, that's most important.

Now, would you mind to ask your parents if they're really sane to let their son get his hands on a RX-8 five days after his sixteenth birthday? In some ways you're not even to blame, because you simply didn't know what such a car can do, but someone should know and that's your parents.

Cars ain't toys and performance cars are weapons.

That's why a full insurance for this car would cost around 8000 € (that's $10.000) a year in Germany if you're a teenager and have no driving experience.

Glad you're alive, but please tell your parents to get you a responsible car and some security driving courses, because that's the better package if they like to see you alive a few more years.