Ok first off, im going to admit i was speeding like an ******* and i am extremely lucky to be here right now. If you wanna bash me for speeding please dont post i really dont wanna hear it.

I was going home for the weekend on friday night doing approx 105-110 mph on a straight away on 17 (4 lane highway that kinda goes from buffalo to poughkeepsie ny) All of a sudden i hit a bump and my car dived to the left and hit the divits in the road. Trying to gain control i hit the brakes. The wheels lock up and hte car turns 90 degree. So now im facing the shoulder of the road my car is still moving very fast at this point. As i come off the road, i hit a mile marker and drift at least 50-75 feet down a ditch on a diagonal. Finally the car comes to a stop and ended up doing a 180 facing back. Wow i get out collect my self as some kid and his gf stop to help me.
I inspect the damage, luckly the only thing fucked up is my sideskirt got some paint knocked off it, the bumper is scraped adn the driver fender is smashed from the milemarker. The intercooler has a bunch of grass stuffed in it along with a couple bet fins. Where my car stoped in the ditch i was around 20 feet below the road, it was a deep ditch, i stoped before i went up a steep hill that i could of flipped over.
Well i had to raise my car up, gotta love coilovers, and i was able to drive up on the highway to look at the suspension/engine for damage. The floor pan was a couple bumps from hitting rocks and my 3" thermal was dinged up, no big deal, my oil pan has a gash in it but was slow enough leak to drive on. I ripped the tread from the cord on my one front tire, but the kid that stopped had a spare adn there was a junkyard where i bought a 15" steelie for 15 bucks.

After all this i was able to drive home 3 hours with no real problem except my alinement is shot and i tore my ball joint boot. I feel lucky that im alive, i didnt total my car or break it so i couldnt drive. It sucks when **** happens let alone when your 3 hours from home. Im also lucky that this kid stoped and "hung out with me " for at least 2 hours until i got everything set.

Finally my question is, why is my crx so squirly. Why when i hit hte brakes it spun out so easily. I have a st rear sway bar but its set on the middle knotch. How could loosing my car so easily be prevented next time? Other than not speeding, i want to improve its handling.

BTW i think because of messing up my front end im going to do a SiR conversion with the VIS knock off mugen Sir bumper

 

short wheel base, and once the wheels lock up you have zero control over the car.
stan

 

so true, the best part of a CRX can be it's largest downfall.

 

its because you HIT THE BRAKES when you were already out of control going 100+mph. thats what happens man. would have happened on any car going 100mph.

youve got only yourself to blame. nothing to do with the car.

 

Man, you're lucky no one got hurt. People's lives get ruined because of **** like this. You're in a small lightweight car, short wheelbase, no ABS etc. At those speeds lift is making the car even lighter. Of course, locking up doesn't help either. At least you made it thru with little damage and didn't roll or flip.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Reelizmpro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Man, you're lucky no one got hurt. People's lives get ruined because of **** like this. You're in a small lightweight car, short wheelbase, no ABS etc. At those speeds lift is making the car even lighter. Of course, locking up doesn't help either. At least you made it thru with little damage and didn't roll or flip. </TD></TR></TABLE>
be happy your alive

 

shift to neutral, countersteer, hang on, brace for impact

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Reelizmpro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Man, you're lucky no one got hurt. People's lives get ruined because of **** like this. You're in a small lightweight car, short wheelbase, no ABS etc. At those speeds lift is making the car even lighter. Of course, locking up doesn't help either. At least you made it thru with little damage and didn't roll or flip. </TD></TR></TABLE> Yup I lift on the track in my car and kissed the guardrail. Lesson learned for me not to lift in a bump in a curve. Glad you learned your lesson though man. We all go through them. Keep it between the white lines and don't leave this world for the thrill of speed on the street.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ace$nyper &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
be happy your alive </TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sleepy_Red_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">shift to neutral, countersteer, hang on, brace for impact</TD></TR></TABLE> WRONG! look where you want to go and modulate the throttle, if you keep your eyes up and fixed on where you want to go you have greater chance of pulling it out. Rather than just setting back and hanging on. Making your car neutral will make it worse and you loose total control. Unfortunately this is poor advise to get completely out of the throttle and just hang on. You <U>always </U>always look where you want to go never give up until the car stops even if you are 180 from where you want to be keep looking where you want to go even if it is through the rear window.

 

I got the ST front and rear sways and have it on the middle setting myself and also got upgraded brakes in the front with battery moved to the back. The time I almost died was merging on the freeway top of third gear. Well A semi truck changed lanes into the merging lane and I thought I could pass him since he had run me allready halfway on the shoulder but at that point and then saw Death and slammmed on the brakes and my car braked so hard the front end dipped down and the back end seemed like it was barely on the ground then began fishtailing left and right about 4-5 times right next to the middle of the front and rear wheels of A 18 wheeler then finally came back straight and was A bit shaken up to say the least... be safe people...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its because you HIT THE BRAKES when you were already out of control going 100+mph. thats what happens man. would have happened on any car going 100mph.

youve got only yourself to blame. nothing to do with the car.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I already admited my fault, i just was trying to see how i can improve the car, so if a event similar to this occured, the car wouldnt overstear to hell. And by similar i dont mean high speed, maybe a deer jumping out ect.

I am truely lucky and thankful to be here and still have my car. I have alot and alot of work done to it and i wouldn't want to lose here

plus my benson b16a only has 1500 mile on it and i havent even dynoed it yet

 

Also after this happened and i got back on my way, i called my Girlfriend then my father (who is 1300 miles away in mississippi), he told me he was sick and had some fluid drained from his lungs. The doctors are testing it right now and think it may be carcoma (sp). that made this whole thing even worse.

 

Boosted Chemist glad that you learned your lesson safely without any harm. Keep you head up on your dad! He will pull through. It would have been even worse for your dad to get a call saying that his son was in the hospital due to a one car accident. Keep it safe and that is directed at everyone including myself.

 

When moving at such a high speed in any street car, little things like a bump, ditch or a rock have ridiculous impact on the car itself.

 

did u have any damage to the body...if so post some pics

 

from my experiance with my crx its hard to keep the rear under control with a sway par in the rear i feel it just makes the rear too solid but progressive when it giges away i've lost the rear with my stock suspension too and thats scary because its not a smooth trasition to oversteer and if you try to countersteer it only snaps back the other way harder.

 

^^^Listen to this. No matter what happens, KEEP DRIVING. You're not going to make it worse, and you always have the chance of making it better. And like Todd says, look where you want to go. If you focus on what you don't want to hit, you're going to hit it. Know that it is there, and focus on where you'd rather be. It really does work.

 

damn, i'm just glad your okay justin, thats all that matters

 

Glad you are ok man! I have been driving CRX's for several years now, I have gotten somewhat accustomed to the squirrely nature of them. The CRX I have now has pretty severe toe-out and no front sway bar, it oversteers like no other but I kind of like it.

 

Same thing happened to me last november.....iposted on here and was flamed for liek 5 days straight.....The fact is listen to toad.....everyone speeds....and some people get unlucky .....its a game....you almost lost but got lucky......i guarantee that from now on you wont be as confident driving.....im still not,,,,,scared the **** outa me,,,,,hbut congats and good luck with your dad sorry to here that

 

You had the rear setup too tight........awesome on the autocross track becasue yuo can rotate the car in a flash....but makes for aweful squiirly driving at speed and unsafe highway handling.

Glad you walked away from it. much less drove away from it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Toad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Boosted Chemist glad that you learned your lesson safely without any harm. Keep you head up on your dad! He will pull through. It would have been even worse for your dad to get a call saying that his son was in the hospital due to a one car accident. Keep it safe and that is directed at everyone including myself.</TD></TR></TABLE>




REally sorry to hear about your dad justin, hope he's ok and be safe man please!!

 

The crx has a short wheel base to begin with, and when you were do 100+ since it a fwd car once you slammed on the brakes the front tires locked up and the weight goes forward and pushes it a lil sideways. the rear end continues to go forward and then you start spining out of control. So for your question what can you do- slow down. and if you do start to spin out strait the wheels out and give it more gas so the front end stays in front of the rear.

 

Thanks for the suport guys. I hope i can learn from this, and improve my handleing by adjusting the sway bar for more understeer.

 

There is really nothing wrong with the car . you just need to learn what to do in a situation like that . thats why when i hit speeds like that its on a nice flat california freeway .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drdisco69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^^^Listen to this. No matter what happens, KEEP DRIVING. You're not going to make it worse, and you always have the chance of making it better. And like Todd says, look where you want to go. If you focus on what you don't want to hit, you're going to hit it. Know that it is there, and focus on where you'd rather be. It really does work.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like the same advice I got at the MSF course for my bike. Look where you want to go, steady throttle, dont brake. Now go spin out and practice.