fhturner
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2003
- Messages
- 218
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
- Corvette
- '00 Torch Red Cpe, 6spd, '90 Red/Saddle ZR-1 #279
...I've injured my baby. :cry
After 12 years of desiring a Corvette of my own, and only 2 1/2 months of actually owning one, I've managed to screw up everything with a simple steering mistake. Here's what happened:
Friday night, I was out cruising with my buddy, who owns a white '96 LT4 coupe. We've done this several times recently, and have tended to go kinda fast at times, but not insanely or recklessly so. Early on in our drive, we both accelerated aggressively side-by-side from a stoplight where we'd been sitting. The 4-lane highway had a slight, gradual curve to the right, with a tiny bit more of a bend at the end before it straightened out. At the end of the curve was another intersection, probably 3/8 mile from where we started accelerating.
As we approached the intersection (still going around this gradual curve), I was ready to back off the gas, because I thought we had "goosed it" enough for the time being. Also, there was a car in my lane just beyond the intersection that had just started off from the green light, so I wanted to slow back down to avoid any problems there. I had focused my attention up ahead on this car to get a feel for our "rate of closure", if you will, and how much braking I was going to need to reduce this rate. When I looked back left towards my buddy's Vette, which was to my left (I was in the right lane), I realized that the "tiny bit more of a bend" that I mentioned above had caused me to drift toward him in his lane without my noticing it.
To keep from crowding or running into my buddy's Vette, I jerked the wheel further to the right. As soon as I did this, I felt the back end break loose, and I started sliding sideways at about a 45° angle to the right. I don't remember which gear I was in, but my buddy was in 3rd, which would put us at probably about 80-90 when all this happened. So, although we had taken off aggressively and built up some speed, I didn't (and still don't) feel that we were on the "ragged edge". Anyway, my point about the speed was that I had quite a bit of energy to try to dissipate while sliding sideways. If I had managed to slide it straight down the length of the highway, things probably would have worked out.
Unfortunately, my path took me at an angle through the intersection. I first went over a triangular island that served to guide cars turning onto the highway in the direction we were going. After next skidding across the merge "lane" created by this island, I then went over the curb on the side of the road. Next came a breakaway "Yield" sign that I impacted on the driver's side between the front wheel and the leading edge of the door. The sign tumbled down onto my windshield, causing spider-web-like cracks to propagate throughout the safety glass.
At this point, I was off the road in the grass, sliding down off the embankment beside the highway. Parallel to and about 20 feet to the right of the highway was a side road. About 20 feet off the other side of the side road was a row of trees preceded by kudzu. I got even more worried when I saw the trees approaching and still didn't seem to be slowing down rapidly enough. Fortunately, once I hit the side road, the back end slid back to the right, just past center. I finally came to rest angled off the left of the side road, partially back in the grass between the highway and side road.
Luckily for my dumb ass, I only had a scrape on my left knee (and a broken heart :cry). That, and a bit of a headache from the targa top coming free of its supports in the back and slamming into the back of my seat. My baby was not so fortunate. I'll be taking it in tomorrow for the official rundown on what's broken, but there are many obvious things wrong:
These body panels are damaged: nose, hood, left front fender (this is where the Yield sign did its work), rocker panels scraped underneath on both sides. The radiator or hoses are damaged, as all the coolant drained out after hitting both beveled curbs. The front end is significantly damaged, both on the body panel, and behind it. The right front tire is ripped all way from center to edge through the sidewall in two places, and the right front wheel has a large chunk broken out of it. The left front tire seems okay, but the wheel is damaged, and the tire isn't flush against the outer edge of the wheel in some spots. The rear wheels and tires are okay, but are noticeably out of alignment. The driver's door is sagging at the rear edge, and the window is off its track. I think the belt tensioner broke away from the right front side of the engine block. The rearmost part of the left-side exhaust (where it connects to the crossover (?) pipes just forward of the transaxle) is no longer connected. There are chips of metal out of the silver crosspiece that the lower control arms connect to in the rear. Basically, the underside and suspension are probably all screwed up. Of, and of course, the windshield is toast.
I'll know more about the damage tomorrow, of course. What's still puzzling to me is how the back end could have broken free so easily with what I thought was only a minor, if abrupt, steering input. The road was dry, the curve in it was gradual, I spotted no patches of oil the next day when I looked, my tires are the Firehawk runflats with plenty of tread left, Traction Control was on, and I didn't feel that I was anywhere near the edge of vehicle's capability until it suddenly broke loose.
I was cursing and calling myself a complete idiot when I finallly came to rest, but as I think back now, I wonder if there could have been some other contributing factor(s). I just don't see how such a high-performance vehicle could have gone out of control so easily. If the behavior of the car in this circumstance is indeed expected and normal, I wonder if Active Handling (which I do not have) would have made a difference. I realize this post is way too long, and nobody could really say anything definitively without actually being there and seeing it, but if anyone has any feedback about this horrible event, I'd be interested to hear it.
Anyway, whether entirely my fault or my fault aided by some other less-than-ideal condition, the simple fact remains that I've wrecked and mangled my most prized possession.
:cry Dealing with that is most depressing...
Fred
After 12 years of desiring a Corvette of my own, and only 2 1/2 months of actually owning one, I've managed to screw up everything with a simple steering mistake. Here's what happened:
Friday night, I was out cruising with my buddy, who owns a white '96 LT4 coupe. We've done this several times recently, and have tended to go kinda fast at times, but not insanely or recklessly so. Early on in our drive, we both accelerated aggressively side-by-side from a stoplight where we'd been sitting. The 4-lane highway had a slight, gradual curve to the right, with a tiny bit more of a bend at the end before it straightened out. At the end of the curve was another intersection, probably 3/8 mile from where we started accelerating.
As we approached the intersection (still going around this gradual curve), I was ready to back off the gas, because I thought we had "goosed it" enough for the time being. Also, there was a car in my lane just beyond the intersection that had just started off from the green light, so I wanted to slow back down to avoid any problems there. I had focused my attention up ahead on this car to get a feel for our "rate of closure", if you will, and how much braking I was going to need to reduce this rate. When I looked back left towards my buddy's Vette, which was to my left (I was in the right lane), I realized that the "tiny bit more of a bend" that I mentioned above had caused me to drift toward him in his lane without my noticing it.
To keep from crowding or running into my buddy's Vette, I jerked the wheel further to the right. As soon as I did this, I felt the back end break loose, and I started sliding sideways at about a 45° angle to the right. I don't remember which gear I was in, but my buddy was in 3rd, which would put us at probably about 80-90 when all this happened. So, although we had taken off aggressively and built up some speed, I didn't (and still don't) feel that we were on the "ragged edge". Anyway, my point about the speed was that I had quite a bit of energy to try to dissipate while sliding sideways. If I had managed to slide it straight down the length of the highway, things probably would have worked out.
Unfortunately, my path took me at an angle through the intersection. I first went over a triangular island that served to guide cars turning onto the highway in the direction we were going. After next skidding across the merge "lane" created by this island, I then went over the curb on the side of the road. Next came a breakaway "Yield" sign that I impacted on the driver's side between the front wheel and the leading edge of the door. The sign tumbled down onto my windshield, causing spider-web-like cracks to propagate throughout the safety glass.
At this point, I was off the road in the grass, sliding down off the embankment beside the highway. Parallel to and about 20 feet to the right of the highway was a side road. About 20 feet off the other side of the side road was a row of trees preceded by kudzu. I got even more worried when I saw the trees approaching and still didn't seem to be slowing down rapidly enough. Fortunately, once I hit the side road, the back end slid back to the right, just past center. I finally came to rest angled off the left of the side road, partially back in the grass between the highway and side road.
Luckily for my dumb ass, I only had a scrape on my left knee (and a broken heart :cry). That, and a bit of a headache from the targa top coming free of its supports in the back and slamming into the back of my seat. My baby was not so fortunate. I'll be taking it in tomorrow for the official rundown on what's broken, but there are many obvious things wrong:
These body panels are damaged: nose, hood, left front fender (this is where the Yield sign did its work), rocker panels scraped underneath on both sides. The radiator or hoses are damaged, as all the coolant drained out after hitting both beveled curbs. The front end is significantly damaged, both on the body panel, and behind it. The right front tire is ripped all way from center to edge through the sidewall in two places, and the right front wheel has a large chunk broken out of it. The left front tire seems okay, but the wheel is damaged, and the tire isn't flush against the outer edge of the wheel in some spots. The rear wheels and tires are okay, but are noticeably out of alignment. The driver's door is sagging at the rear edge, and the window is off its track. I think the belt tensioner broke away from the right front side of the engine block. The rearmost part of the left-side exhaust (where it connects to the crossover (?) pipes just forward of the transaxle) is no longer connected. There are chips of metal out of the silver crosspiece that the lower control arms connect to in the rear. Basically, the underside and suspension are probably all screwed up. Of, and of course, the windshield is toast.
I'll know more about the damage tomorrow, of course. What's still puzzling to me is how the back end could have broken free so easily with what I thought was only a minor, if abrupt, steering input. The road was dry, the curve in it was gradual, I spotted no patches of oil the next day when I looked, my tires are the Firehawk runflats with plenty of tread left, Traction Control was on, and I didn't feel that I was anywhere near the edge of vehicle's capability until it suddenly broke loose.
I was cursing and calling myself a complete idiot when I finallly came to rest, but as I think back now, I wonder if there could have been some other contributing factor(s). I just don't see how such a high-performance vehicle could have gone out of control so easily. If the behavior of the car in this circumstance is indeed expected and normal, I wonder if Active Handling (which I do not have) would have made a difference. I realize this post is way too long, and nobody could really say anything definitively without actually being there and seeing it, but if anyone has any feedback about this horrible event, I'd be interested to hear it.
Anyway, whether entirely my fault or my fault aided by some other less-than-ideal condition, the simple fact remains that I've wrecked and mangled my most prized possession.
:cry Dealing with that is most depressing...Fred
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