DE, Before and After

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 06:23 AM

Session One:

Session Two, after introduction to tire wall:

No regrets, had HUGE fun, excellent instruction and learned a LOT, repair is relatively painless.

euro911sc · euro911sc's Garage

What was the postmortem on your visit to the tire kingdom? It doesn't actually look like you have any dents?

-Michael

jurhip · 04-12-2010, 06:42 AM

awesome - glad you had fun and nobody/nothing was seriously hurt.

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by euro911sc

What was the postmortem on your visit to the tire kingdom? It doesn't actually look like you have any dents?

-Michael

Couple of very small, shallow creases, but definitely a fold behind the rear wheel opening. Plan A is remove the white paint, see if PDR will do the sheet metal (I have an amazing guy who probably can do it), then hope the buffer will fix the paint. If not, right side respray.

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jurhip

awesome - glad you had fun and nobody/nothing was seriously hurt.

Thanks! I was very relieved I didn't hurt my instructor or damage anyone else's car. Cause was impatience on my part, worked on that the rest of the weekend.

tobluforu · tobluforu's Garage

Good for you to keep going with the event as I think I would have gone home after that.

mickey356 · 04-12-2010, 07:09 AM

I'd leave it as a badge of honor. You can tell the chicks "Yeah, thats form when I went into the wall at the track."

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 07:20 AM

I'll tell you what, my initial reaction was to pack up, go home and return the car to stock. But I had an amazing instructor who said "Cool off, we'll talk after lunch". Then he and another instructor and a couple of my buddies convinced me to stay at it, and it's the best thing I could have done. Kind of takes the wind out of your sails though.

I've found chicks dig shiny clean cars, and guys who don't run into things. But I may leave a scrape here or there so I don't forget and have to learn again.

JeremyD · JeremyD's Garage

That will buff out

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 07:36 AM

Ha! Heard that about 50 times yesterday. I hope, but I'm afraid it's wishful thinking.

white85carrera · 04-12-2010, 08:38 AM

I like your attitude. (Now your quarter panels match your name.)

MikeD930 · MikeD930's Garage

Sorry to hear you had a little incident. I see that you're from st.louis area. Was the DE at Gateway? If so I wished I knew! Not that I'll participate since my car is somewhat apart.

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by white85carrera

I like your attitude. (Now your quarter panels match your name.)

Funny guy, funny guy...

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeD94

Sorry to hear you had a little incident. I see that you're from st.louis area. Was the DE at Gateway? If so I wished I knew! Not that I'll participate since my car is somewhat apart.

Yes - at Gateway. You would have enjoyed it - perfect weather. If you know the track, incident happened in Turn 5. Too fast, braked HARD, turned in, still too fast, instinctively lifted (BIG MISTAKE and one I have practiced NOT doing) and swapped ends. First time I've looped it in 9 years and about 50K miles. Unfortunately there was little runoff there. I did miss the concrete by about 2 feet, so it's not as bad as it could have been.

Christien · Christien's Garage

I agree it was probably a good idea to get back out there, tough as it may be. The one time I met the wall at the track everybody encouraged me to get right back out there and drive some more. I took a long lunch break and cooled my head, then went driving. I was driving like a pussy, but I still got back out there. It took me a full season to completely exorcise my demons, but I did, and damn glad I did!

The phone call to my wife was the worst part.
"Hey, I crashed"
"What do you mean?"
"what do you mean, what do I mean, I crashed! I spun and hit the wall"
"you're kidding"
"no, i'm serious""
"are you ok?"
"yeah, I'm fine, it was minor"
"you've got to be joking"
"no, i'm serious"
"no really, this is a joke"
"would you stop f#$king saying that? I'm serious!"

Cmick · 04-12-2010, 09:11 AM

Your careless attitude and childish actions exhibited by remaining on the track after "kissing" the tire wall mean only one thing...........

........you're hooked, sir.....HOOKED!

Sorry to hear about your off track tour but glad things turned out the way they did.

Enjoy the ride.

KTL · 09:38 AM

Jeff Spicoli: Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.

Sorry to see your incident Dave. That's no way to start off the season, but the fact that you shared it with everyone means you're okay with it, despite the sting.

I feel your pain. I slingshot myself at our LeMons race 2009 at Nelson Ledges exiting the carousel turn 9 across the track surface, in the middle of the night amongst a pack of cars and parked the car in the infield tire wall HARD. So I know what it feels like to think, "OH @#$%......... I just totaled the car!!!" Granted our car is a POS E30, but the feeling is still the same.

Glad nobody was hurt, you got back out there and will continue to do so, learning from your mistake

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 09:50 AM

Christien, that's almost identical to my experience. Your phone call was hilarious!

My wife's response was "Well, it's your baby", not meaning the car is my baby, but the responsibility to pay for the repairs is my baby. She's so sympathetic. Not.

Kevin (er, Spicoli) - thanks! I have no qualms about sharing my stupidity - it helps me learn the lesson even better. I screwed up. I got impatient, I got too fast too soon, I damaged my car which was the one thing I was determined NOT to do.

I'll tell you what - those guys that hung around and pushed me back out were invaluable. Especially my instructor, what an exceptional guy.

04-12-2010, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavey

Christien, that's almost identical to my experience. Your phone call was hilarious!

My wife's response was "Well, it's your baby", not meaning the car is my baby, but the responsibility to pay for the repairs is my baby. She's so sympathetic. Not.

Kevin (er, Spicoli) - thanks! I have no qualms about sharing my stupidity - it helps me learn the lesson even better. I screwed up. I got impatient, I got too fast too soon, I damaged my car which was the one thing I was determined NOT to do.

I'll tell you what - those guys that hung around and pushed me back out were invaluable. Especially my instructor, what an exceptional guy.

Wavey--sorry to hear/see that. Happens to pretty much all of us if we keep at it long enough. Your willingness to go back out is great.

Wavey · 04-12-2010, 10:26 AM

You know, I should mention the GOOD part! The car performed flawlessly. Very well balanced, stable, predictable, no brake problems (however there's only one massive braking area on this track and plenty of time for cool down). Still running stock sways so they're the next thing to consider but all the rest of the suspension felt great. I don't care for the new tires (Toyo T1R) but that's the ONLY thing I could get in a 16" in 245/45 for the rears. They've got weaker sidewalls than the Yoko ES100s I used to run, so the response is delayed. And it compounds front-to-rear; the fronts take a split second to respond and set, then the rears do the same, so there's a disconcerting 2-step going on there. Hard to get used to and hard to compensate for. Other than that I loved the setup. The air dam and tail have really stabilized the car at speed, just feels completely solid.