It took me a while to admit this, but I think the people who are blaming me are correct...
I have decided to man up and admit my bad. Flame me all you want if it makes you happy.
I was driving on slight downhill on a wet road at night, yet my TC was turned off. So this was my first mistake.
Secondly, like I said, I was not driving quickly. However there in lies the problem, because when I drive slowly, I don't expect the tail to break loose, I don't want to go over the speed limit etc... When you drive quickly you expect things to happen.
So there is a big flaw with my thinking right there, accidents and mistakes can happen at any speed.
In this instance, I was driving slowly, just wanting to get back home and I didn't want to speed (perfect example of when TC should be ON), so as I went around the corner, and shifted into 3rd gear, I noticed that I was creeping up to the speed limit, but you could say I was not paying enough attention to my surroundings because......
At this instance I suddenly lifted off the accelerator to slow the car down, but went over a slight dip in the road at roughly the same time. Combined with the low grip of the wet road, this caused lift-off over steer to occur.
While I do not recall counter steering, I do recall looking at the direction where I wanted the car to go (several driver training courses), and this is show by me instinctively counter steering to try correct the slide. Now the biggest mistake here was that I failed to get back on the power, this resulted in the rear end doing a snap back. Looking at the data it seems like I also counter steered for this snap back but because it happened so violently steering alone was not enough and the spin continued thus sending me flying backwards off the cliff.
So in conclusion the series of mistakes were:
- Turning TC off, but more importantly keeping it off even though I slowed down the pace and was no longer driving in a sporty manner so there was NO reason to even have it OFF.
- Driving too fast for the conditions, (even though I thought it was slow, but doubt this would have happened if I was doing 40km/h)
- Lifting off the gas at a critical moment (Not paying attention to the road)
- Not stepping back on the gas (Not expecting the end to go out)
FYI, 0% alcohol, no fatigue, just the fact that I was in a state of mind thinking hey, if the car is stable at higher speeds why should anything happen when I am going so slow. <<< BIG MISTAKE!
So have I learnt my lesson?
Well, for one, it has been 2 months to the day today and I still haven't received my new 86
. Insurance gave me a firm warning and said that they seriously thought about not re-insuring me (even though I was under the speed limit etc etc). I drive my current temporary car now only when I need to and keep all the electronics ON at all times. I have also reduced my speed overall, but I still have a burning desire to go fast... So I cant wait to get my 86 and hit the race track, autocross events and the lot, things which will fulfil my desire for speed, but keep me safe on the road.