How NOT to drive on the track

[ZionsWrath]

5th gear at 106. If you time it perfect 107

Sad day 😞

[ChrisD]

Glad to see you're all enjoying my mistake lol and thank you to the people who actually appreciate everyone makes mistakes and that going from a fairly long throw gated shifter to a short throw shifter just a few minutes later makes it easy to mess up a gear shift.

No the car isn't totalled, I repaired it all myself and everything has been running fine ever since.

I can't be bothered to reply individually to some of the "experts" that are telling me I don't know how to drive - if it makes you feel better about yourself then cool, but you weren't in that exact situation so you can't say what you would have done. Easy to judge and say you'd do better when you're just watching a video of someone else messing up. Plus I've done about 20 track days before and never had any crashes or even near misses before, so I don't think I'm a moron who has no idea what they're doing, as some people are quick to assume.

[Summerwolf]

Since this got bumped, and I was actually looking for a rebuild thread I went to the youtube channel and found the update videos.


There are four.


Here is number one.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2elxbHxgC0"]GT86 Crash Update #1 - YouTube[/ame]

[ChrisD]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Not wanting to be a backseat driver, but he spent way too much time in 5th gear on the R8 and he was in fifth before he wrecked the twin. But he was only doing 90MPH.

If you've tracked a twin you'll know that you shouldn't be anywhere near 5th gear at that speed. You've still got plenty of room in 4th. I wouldn't even think of going to fifth until at least 100MPH and only then if there were a lot of straight away left.

So in summary, his gear management sucks.

I know I said I wasn't going to reply to individual "expert" opinions... but this one annoyed me because you're assuming so much.

The R8 is supercharged, it makes peak power before the red line and starts dropping off towards the top end. Its better to shift earlier than rinse it out until the red line. Plus, with it having over 700 bhp it is easier to manage wheel spin in higher gears so that's another reason I sometimes shift a bit earlier than you might expect.

The GT86 has a stage 3 AVO turbo, and whilst I haven't had it on a dyno, again it feels like you're getting back into the meat of the power by shifting slightly early. Plus on a track day I did a while ago we had an issue with it hitting the overboost cut out when you got it to real high RPMs, and that has not been completely sorted out yet, so that's probably the main reason I shift into a higher gear a little earlier than might be necessary in a stock GT86.

So yeah, stop judging people's driving and saying that they suck just from seeing one short video where you know nothing about them or their cars. Oh and if you are going to pick faults with someone's driving, find something more substantial than "he shifts up a bit too early". Jesus christ...

[Clipdat]

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by ChrisD

Oh and if you are going to pick faults with someone's driving, find something more substantial than "he shifts up a bit too early". Jesus christ...

Point taken, I could have worded it better.

[bababooey]

so that mis shift wasnt enough to pop the motor?

[ChrisD]

Originally Posted by bababooey

so that mis shift wasnt enough to pop the motor?

Nope. Contrary to all the Internet experts saying "idiot thinks his engine is OK he's obviously blown it"... it was absolutely fine. Drove it for another couple of thousand miles after repairing the bodywork damage. Took the engine out to get forged internals installed recently and the guy who did the engine build said all looked fine and no signs of any damage from the over revving. I think the fact that I had the slippery stock tyres on helped, as they started losing grip faster than most tyres would and therfore didn't force the engine to speed up as much

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by bababooey

so that mis shift wasnt enough to pop the motor?

Mechanical over-revving an engine does not necessarily mean the engine will blow up.

Usually what fails are valves hitting the pistons because the valve springs aren't working fast enough at over redline... I am not sure if the FA20 is an interference design or not.

-alex

[Mr.ac]

Eh, shit happens. Guess that's the out come when you been driving one car all morning then jump on another.

[ChrisD]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

Eh, shit happens. Guess that's the out come when you been driving one car all morning then jump on another.

Exactly. I really don't think it warranted a thread titled HOW NOT TO DRIVE ON TRACK, making it sound like I was just driving terribly the entire time. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best driver in the world but I know I'm also far from being the worst.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by ChrisD

Glad to see you're all enjoying my mistake lol and thank you to the people who actually appreciate everyone makes mistakes and that going from a fairly long throw gated shifter to a short throw shifter just a few minutes later makes it easy to mess up a gear shift.

I was a little over the top. I can easily imagine doing it myself 20 years ago. Still, I stand by my lessons-learned comment. Can't go wrong being deliberate with every move, especially in switching between drastically different vehicles.

Thanks for sharing this with us. I'm glad you got her all fixed up.

[FRSapex]

Originally Posted by jegglz

This is exactly how i blew my old turbo mr2's original engine up. Luckily i had no crash but it did spin the engine way above its redline. Got lucky on the crash though with no airbag deployments.

I once down shifted in haste on my RD400 entering a turn - fish tailed and hopped like a bucking bronco. Grated the left side of my hip.

[justatroll]

Originally Posted by UFO

Thread title is a little harsh, ....

Originally Posted by ChrisD

Exactly. I really don't think it warranted a thread titled HOW NOT TO DRIVE ON TRACK....

If I had posted "Whatever you do, dont do this" would that have been better?

I would say the video is a perfect example of something to show at drivers school of "what NOT to do".
I was not making fun of anyone, or being cruel.

I have various videos of me overcooking a corner, spinning my car, or flying of in someones oil and I would feel honored if someone used my video as an example of "Here's what NOT to do".