*LONG STORY*
Yeah,I almost lost the car and possibbly my and another life last night.I am writing this because this was one of the only times that this car has EVER gotten away from me .We were all at a friends house last night for a cookout/party and One of the my Stang buddies was telling another stang owner there that my car would own his Foxbody.The guy didn't beleive us and wanted to go for a ride in my car to see what it had.Keep in mind that we were at a cookout and HAD been drinking.I know,I know....Dumb move on my part,but listen.I had probably only had three beers ,which for me is like a drop in the bucket.I have a very high tolerance and usually will drink 15-20 by myself at a party and still be reletively cool...so I didnt see this as a problem.Anyway they ask us before we leave if i am ok to drive and I say yes...There was even a cop there that said I was fine so this was not an issue...he is a friend of ours.So I went to take him on a ride...and boy ,we both got a little ride.Within two blocks of his house is a 4 lane street with a nice double back sweeping S curve.It is a 35 MPH zone not curve..I have easily taken this set of curves at 65+ and I know the road.We get out and from the light about a block from the curves...I lay into it when the light changes and i am off like a rocket.Needless to say ,my passenger was impressed.....This is where it gets scary.
I come into the curve a little too hot but i didn't realize it until it was too late..The curve starts off left then back right and is nice ,long and sweeping.I hit the first corner at about 80 and as soon as I turn into it...the ass end immedately breaks loose and comes sideways to the right...which is OK.I tried to stay with it and realized there was no way to get it back into line without shifting the cars momentum the other way.So i tap the breaks to get the ass end back into line but at the same time I have to break for the right hander we have now transitioned into.This is where all hell breaks loose.The brake tap combined with the direction change and the speed sent us into a flat sideways slide with all four loose.It slid us across 2 lanes into the left oncoming lane where there was about 8 cars heading for us.I was still in a slide at this point but decicded I had had enough...to the floor it went i am getting this thing back in line now!SO i hit it ,tap the friggin brakes again to try to straighten out like the last time as i nail the throttle to try to power us back into the left lane of my direction of traffic.I got the car back after a few little squiggles of the rear end and jumped it into my lane of traffic.Keep in mind ,as we entered this corner there was 0 traffic in either direction and but by the end,we had traffic coming at us.1 car going the other way swerved to get out of the way thinking i was going to hit them.I had the car back under control before i would have hit them if they had not moved and back into my lane but if I was them I would have done the same thing.As soon as I got the car back into my lane my passenger had the death grip from hell of the arm rest handle and asked me if that was Normal...I said HELL NO! I have never had that car get away from me like that EVER!I didn't know what went wrong.We continued on with our little test ride and need less to say he was impressed with the speed and my interesting driving.I am no newb at driving...It is one of things that i feel most confident at and I beleive i am very,very good at.I totally kept me cool through the whole thing and dint over react or over compensate for any thing and I think that is why i am here today to tell this story.I know for sure with the combined speeds of the vehicles,and the angle at which we were heading ,I dont think either of us would have survived that crash at all.We were both wearing our belts as well,and I dont think they would have helped at all.I am sure we were at a combined vehicle speed of over 100 MPH. That ride last night truely scared me a little.
I guess I can stop rambling now ,but the speed is OK, and more importantly we are both OK.It did make for a killer story when we got back to the cookout though.The stang guy talked all night about how he had never seen a FWD car get sideways like that ever.
The only thing i can contribute to causing this was was the fact that I just had all of the bushings replaced and this was the first time since that i really took some corners hard.Before the bushing replacement,the ass end would roll slightly and plant the tires where as now it doesn't roll at all,pplants the tires,and then breaks the grip thresh hold at a quicker rate.
Hell i dunno,but i am glad to still be here today.
It could have been a horribble holiday weekend for a lot of people and it would have been my fault!
Matt
Yeah,I almost lost the car and possibbly my and another life last night.I am writing this because this was one of the only times that this car has EVER gotten away from me .We were all at a friends house last night for a cookout/party and One of the my Stang buddies was telling another stang owner there that my car would own his Foxbody.The guy didn't beleive us and wanted to go for a ride in my car to see what it had.Keep in mind that we were at a cookout and HAD been drinking.I know,I know....Dumb move on my part,but listen.I had probably only had three beers ,which for me is like a drop in the bucket.I have a very high tolerance and usually will drink 15-20 by myself at a party and still be reletively cool...so I didnt see this as a problem.Anyway they ask us before we leave if i am ok to drive and I say yes...There was even a cop there that said I was fine so this was not an issue...he is a friend of ours.So I went to take him on a ride...and boy ,we both got a little ride.Within two blocks of his house is a 4 lane street with a nice double back sweeping S curve.It is a 35 MPH zone not curve..I have easily taken this set of curves at 65+ and I know the road.We get out and from the light about a block from the curves...I lay into it when the light changes and i am off like a rocket.Needless to say ,my passenger was impressed.....This is where it gets scary.
I come into the curve a little too hot but i didn't realize it until it was too late..The curve starts off left then back right and is nice ,long and sweeping.I hit the first corner at about 80 and as soon as I turn into it...the ass end immedately breaks loose and comes sideways to the right...which is OK.I tried to stay with it and realized there was no way to get it back into line without shifting the cars momentum the other way.So i tap the breaks to get the ass end back into line but at the same time I have to break for the right hander we have now transitioned into.This is where all hell breaks loose.The brake tap combined with the direction change and the speed sent us into a flat sideways slide with all four loose.It slid us across 2 lanes into the left oncoming lane where there was about 8 cars heading for us.I was still in a slide at this point but decicded I had had enough...to the floor it went i am getting this thing back in line now!SO i hit it ,tap the friggin brakes again to try to straighten out like the last time as i nail the throttle to try to power us back into the left lane of my direction of traffic.I got the car back after a few little squiggles of the rear end and jumped it into my lane of traffic.Keep in mind ,as we entered this corner there was 0 traffic in either direction and but by the end,we had traffic coming at us.1 car going the other way swerved to get out of the way thinking i was going to hit them.I had the car back under control before i would have hit them if they had not moved and back into my lane but if I was them I would have done the same thing.As soon as I got the car back into my lane my passenger had the death grip from hell of the arm rest handle and asked me if that was Normal...I said HELL NO! I have never had that car get away from me like that EVER!I didn't know what went wrong.We continued on with our little test ride and need less to say he was impressed with the speed and my interesting driving.I am no newb at driving...It is one of things that i feel most confident at and I beleive i am very,very good at.I totally kept me cool through the whole thing and dint over react or over compensate for any thing and I think that is why i am here today to tell this story.I know for sure with the combined speeds of the vehicles,and the angle at which we were heading ,I dont think either of us would have survived that crash at all.We were both wearing our belts as well,and I dont think they would have helped at all.I am sure we were at a combined vehicle speed of over 100 MPH. That ride last night truely scared me a little.
I guess I can stop rambling now ,but the speed is OK, and more importantly we are both OK.It did make for a killer story when we got back to the cookout though.The stang guy talked all night about how he had never seen a FWD car get sideways like that ever.
The only thing i can contribute to causing this was was the fact that I just had all of the bushings replaced and this was the first time since that i really took some corners hard.Before the bushing replacement,the ass end would roll slightly and plant the tires where as now it doesn't roll at all,pplants the tires,and then breaks the grip thresh hold at a quicker rate.
Hell i dunno,but i am glad to still be here today.
It could have been a horribble holiday weekend for a lot of people and it would have been my fault!
Matt
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