Wrecked my car last Wed night :(

bdmski · Post by **bdmski** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:24 am

Was driving over a large overpass that had about a 65 degree bend to the left. I was probably going around 85 around it when my tail end swung out to the right. Then it fishtailed about 3 times as i tried to correct it while hitting the brakes. I never recovered from the fishtailing and hit the concrete sidewall probably at around 40mph at about 45 degrees on the front passenger side sending my car into the air for a few seconds. I actually drove along side the wall for a second or two. Next thing I know my wheel goes flying bouncing down the road in front of me at 100mph and I land on the road. No airbags deployed and I didn't have a scratch on me aside from a sore neck right now.

I was driving along side my friends 2gn neon who was going even faster in the inside lane! I had actually slowed down to make the turn.

The day before, i had gotten my car aligned to ACR specs and was not used to how the car handled at all. I'm thinking that this was a large part of it. It just seems like I would have normally made that kind of a turn. Am I talking out of my ass, or could this be a real possibility? It felt like I was almost driving on stilts.

Monday they are supposed to begin the estimate of the damage. I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I am fully covered with a $500 deductible, and luckily rental insurance.

Looks like the k frame, fender, strut, axle, headlight, and rotor will have to be replaced at a minimum. Hopefully they do not discover any frame damage.

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:19 am

Wow, for what type of accident you are describing that doesn't look that bad at all. Holy shit on the wheel snapping though...apparently that style/brand of wheel has a weak point in the center. I don't know if the alignment would have anything to do with it, but as I see it, if the car isn't an ACR and/or doesn't have the parts of an ACR then it shouldn't be aligned that way as it wasn't meant to be. So maybe it did have something to do with it. It will need to be aligned again and I would simply put it back to the way it was before.

lilnicko11 · Post by **lilnicko11** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:14 am

TNK · Post by **TNK** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:24 am

that sucks man, that was such a clean ride too

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 2:59 pm

Damn, any cops show up, you get written up? I had the car break loose on me one time, just as a cop was coming the other way, got a ticket for marked lane violation.

03wingswestR/T · Post by **03wingswestR/T** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:21 pm

that sux man but if you were on the brakes hard and turned at the same time it was all your falt, that would throw all the weight to the right front wheel and taking weight away from the ass of the car.....

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:55 pm

That really sucks man... You might want to find some stronger wheels though. that's scary.

jake_tim · Post by **jake_tim** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:08 pm

From reading you post it seems like the wreck was your fault.

..85mph around a 65 degree curve...in a dodge neon. Not to mention that you slammed on you breaks as you were correcting. I know that it is a basic instinct, but you shouldn't have been going that fast around the curve in the first place.

Hopefully, you'll get your car fixed and learn not to do stupid things in your car anymore.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:45 pm

^We live and learn...

Glad you're alright man! From the sounds of things that was a hell of an accident. Your buddy must have been scared shitless.

Mopar_Korean · Post by **Mopar_Korean** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:52 pm

03wingswestR/T wrote:that sux man but if you were on the brakes hard and turned at the same time it was all your falt, that would throw all the weight to the right front wheel and taking weight away from the ass of the car.....

Yup! You my friend experienced something similar to lift off oversteer. All the weight transferred to the front making your ass end lift and lose traction. But its glad to hear your ok and the car is always repairable.

rushtom2 · Post by **rushtom2** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 11:50 pm

happened to me in my srt once. Wasn't a very sharpe turn, and while I was driving with enthusiasm, it didn't feel like I was taking the corner to hard. It just happened to be the right road conditions, descent, etc etc. I had been warned about it, happens a lot to stock srts. Lowering the car and a rear strut bar will help a lot. Front makes it worse IMO. I had a front on, and it pushes the car to much.
All I did was stay calm, and keep the front wheels going where I was going. Guy behind me told it looked bad ass, and said it looked like I ment to do it, as if I were drifting.
Nonetheless, its not a fun thing to happen. Every corner I take that vision runs through my mind.

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 12:59 am

Damn that sucks! Alignments do matter. When I had my car aligned right with the coilovers it was night and day difference. No body roll at all. More response in the steering. You probably turned your wheel too fast and your car followed. You tried to counter steer and it was all over. That wheel pict, is crazy, the way it broke. Wow.

bdmski · Post by **bdmski** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:24 am

My car is lowered and I have a 22mm rear strut bar in the rear too. I left the front strut bar stock. Thanks for all the replies guys. We called the police. He said he could have gave me a reckless driving ticket but didn't, he was really cool. He didn't give me any kind of paperwork or tickets what so ever.

I don't think I started braking until the car began to fishtail.

blue demon02 · Post by **blue demon02** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:59 am

bdmski wrote:I have a 22mm rear strut bar in the rear too. I left the front strut bar stock.

I don't think I started braking until the car began to fishtail.

That right there is way you spun. You set your car up to do that. Get a bigger front swaybar before you kill somebody next time.

And braking once you start spinning is not realy a good idea. All it will do is help prevent you from being able to pull out of it.

But sucks that you wrecked. I can't tell you how many times I spun my cars and should have wrecked.

supertrick_05 · Post by **supertrick_05** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 11:13 am

Wowzers...poor wheel! Glad you're okay though!

contagious18 · Post by **contagious18** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:50 pm

damn ur car was clean too. sux that u wrecked it

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:51 pm

rushtom2 wrote:happened to me in my srt once. Wasn't a very sharpe turn, and while I was driving with enthusiasm, it didn't feel like I was taking the corner to hard. It just happened to be the right road conditions, descent, etc etc. I had been warned about it, happens a lot to stock srts. Lowering the car and a rear strut bar will help a lot. Front makes it worse IMO. I had a front on, and it pushes the car to much.
All I did was stay calm, and keep the front wheels going where I was going. Guy behind me told it looked bad ass, and said it looked like I ment to do it, as if I were drifting.
Nonetheless, its not a fun thing to happen. Every corner I take that vision runs through my mind.

Thats what happened to me, my buddy was behind me and said it looked like a perfect drift. The cop wasn't happy about it, I saw him spin around and throw on his lights, so I just pulled over. He went back to the station and told the other cops I did a full 360. I found that out after talking to one of the other cops(family friend), he said the guy was new and was juts trying to get some excitement.

Post by **racer12306** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:13 pm

I think the problem happened well before the turn started.

that is all.

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 11:44 pm

blue demon02 wrote:
bdmski wrote:I have a 22mm rear strut bar in the rear too. I left the front strut bar stock.

I don't think I started braking until the car began to fishtail.
That right there is way you spun. You set your car up to do that. Get a bigger front swaybar before you kill somebody next time.

And braking once you start spinning is not realy a good idea. All it will do is help prevent you from being able to pull out of it.

:

First of all "when you spin both feet in" 90% of the time you arent going to save it before you run out of road. Lock it down, spin, and if you are lucky you will simply come to a stop soon afterwards.

To those of you who did your handling all with sway bars do you see how it winds up? Bars are not predictiable eneough to base the set-up around them.
Everybody remember the second most important thing you can do to make your car fast is tires, learning to drive is the first.

Crystal: acr settings arent all that agressive and honestly a stock-ish neon isnt going to oversteer no matter how it is alligned unless the driver does something really really stupid(ie jumping out of the throttle after turn-in at high speed)

bdmski · Post by **bdmski** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:00 am

Now that I think about it, I think I braked before the turn because I didn't want to go too fast around the turn thinking it would be the safer thing to do. That's when my friend flew past me not braking at all. Braking probably lifted my ass end up enough for the car to loose traction in the rear for a second sending my tail end out. Maybe none of this would have happened had I just went around the turn without braking.

sxtdude · Post by **sxtdude** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:40 am

That sucks man at least you aren't hurt.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:29 am

i highly doubt it, but see if there's a special type of defensive driving school out your way...they literally teach you how to drive to the max, including how to recover from things like fishtailing, going sideways, obstacle/object avoidance, things of that nature...

if you can get into one of them, DO IT...

if you cant...find an autocross event you can run in...it will help you learn the limits of your car.

case in point...i was going down the highway a few weeks ago, and PennDOT had a bunch of those orange/white striped lane markers standing, but a jerkoff a few cars ahead hit one of them....with it laying on the ground, the minivan ahead of me ran it over and it actually bounced up in the air, high enough to hit the hood/windsheild of my car...

with no time to react, i nailed the brakes, jerked hard left, felt the car 3-wheel it, heading for another marker that was still standing, so i jerked hard right, barely going around the still airborne marker and almost skinning the standing marker...

had i not known how to handle the car, or had i still had stock sway bars...i would have eaten one or the other. knowing how to truely handle your car can be a life saver.

oh, and i have hotchkis bars on my car...

anyways </threadjack>

hope the car gets fixed man, glad you're ok though

blue demon02 · Post by **blue demon02** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:18 am

bone-yard-racing wrote:
blue demon02 wrote:
bdmski wrote:I have a 22mm rear strut bar in the rear too. I left the front strut bar stock.

I don't think I started braking until the car began to fishtail.
That right there is way you spun. You set your car up to do that. Get a bigger front swaybar before you kill somebody next time.

And braking once you start spinning is not realy a good idea. All it will do is help prevent you from being able to pull out of it.

:
First of all "when you spin both feet in" 90% of the time you arent going to save it before you run out of road. Lock it down, spin, and if you are lucky you will simply come to a stop soon afterwards.

To those of you who did your handling all with sway bars do you see how it winds up? Bars are not predictiable eneough to base the set-up around them.
Everybody remember the second most important thing you can do to make your car fast is tires, learning to drive is the first.

Crystal: acr settings aren't all that aggressive and honestly a stock-ish neon isn't going to oversteer no matter how it is aligned unless the driver does something really really stupid(ie jumping out of the throttle after turn-in at high speed)

It is very possible to save a full spin if you know how to do it and do so with verry little road. Doesn't matter if the car is front rear and or AWD there is any number of things you can do to pull yourself out of a spin. If he had hit the gas and turned into the spin it would have corrected its self. But doing that takes a lot of practice. And the only way to practice that is to lose it a lot. (not recommended) One of the first things I did when I bought my neon was spent a lot of time plowing around a parking lot making it spin and or slide and learned how the car reacted to different inputs. And in effect saved me several times when the cars rear end got happy on me.

Adionik · Post by **Adionik** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:40 am

dibs on tails

oh and on rims

bdmski · Post by **bdmski** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 8:09 am

lol there are only two left...

sullivan · Post by **sullivan** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:26 am

epic fail on your part bro... calculated risks, but hey we all make mistakes. as long as you learn

rushtom2 · Post by **rushtom2** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:58 am

Locking the brakes is probably the worst thing to do in that situation.

thttxboy · Post by **thttxboy** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:12 pm

sorry about ur car bro I love that color almond pearl FTW.

I got stuck with a crazy ass ticket in MD one year when I was 17 And they forced me to enroll I a defensive driving class and Ill tell you what It was probably the 2 funnest days of my life. the stuff you learn will change how you drive forever and Has definitely saved my ass a few times.

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 1:02 am

Damn. Glad you're alright, but that's what you get.

srtjesse · Post by **srtjesse** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:31 pm

hey thats my leg in the first pix lo i got some more pix of the car at my house