whoops

Correction:

Wet road, ran out of talent.

woops, what happened?

Quite right.

Mike P

Serious suggestion - if you get another, book a couple of airfield days.

It'll cost you a set of tyres plus about 100 quid a day and your fuel, but it'll save you putting the next one in a ditch....

After a few 'oh shit' moments in the 2 RWD cars I've had, I got myself onto a track - the wet day I did was especially useful - had 3 spins, including one that put me into the infield, backwards....

Got a bit too confident on a moorland road up north. You know, the ones you've driven 10,000 times at least. Totally my own fault. Think I clipped a white line or something and it just swapped ends on me, hit the grass banking with the drivers side, dug in - I got a broken door mirror(!) then landed on all 4 wheels with the exhaust missing, and a flat tyre. Other than being covered in mud, the only visible damage is that the slam panel's taken the brunt of it from underneath. The bonnet popped up and is a bit bent. The rad has been pushed back about 1" from vertical at the bottom. Probably a write off, though it'll be close unless it did horrible things underneath. I did put the spacesaver on and drive it back to my brothers and it didn't feel too bad.

Mike P

Borrocks? Sky ground, Sky ground?

Oh I intend to. Hasn't put me off. I've done a skidpan course in the past but.. well, f*ck it I make no excuses! Obviously trying too hard in an unfamilar car.

It's never happened to me before which you thought it would have as I've had

2 Capri 2.8s. They were pretty easy to catch.

Mike P

Thankfully it's got a nice low CofG so it was more Grass Banking.Grasss banking. OOOFFF! Grass banking, road. Start engine, three point turn, drive to nearest safe place.

Mike P

But you've had a string of FWD stuff since then, no doubt? - and you'd have been going a hell of a lot quicker when it stepped out than you would be in a Crapi!

Problem is that FWD desensitises you to how much respect a relatively powerful and light RWD car needs.

MAy I suggest you get a MK1/2 Escort with a rollcage?

it's a 60mph bend safe in the wet in the Capri, plenty of visibility, long left hander. I wasn't going that fast. You can't go that much faster as there's a cattle grid 200yds away. I've driven it 10,000 times and never, ever had a problem in anything. I just got surprised and complacent today.

Yes, I noticed. I know it's a different kettle of fish, but I simply didn't expect it to do step out at a comparitively low speed, even in the wet.

So, PeteM's got that Eunos he'd had waiting for you. What do you reckon the chances are of him slipping out with an oil can in advance of you :-)

Dude gutted :-( No injuries I hope? What's the damage like, think it's a write off? Who are you insured with as a matter of interest? Hopefully it'll all go nice and smoothly for you :-)

I nearly did the same with the Vee after only a few days, coming off a roundabout so luckily as it was a tight one, quite low speed, so just lifting off (and using the wrong side of an island a bit..) fixed it. After a while, I guarantee you'll get used to it though, and then after a few months, you'll start getting a bit cocky and scare yourself - hopefully without a prang - then you'll calm, and only kick it out where there is no real chance of hitting anything. I'm just tryin to a roundabout way to say, don't get put off MX5s by this, and don't let it drag your confidence down either and put you off RWDs. Just chaulk it up to experience and move on :-)

Then after all that, Winter will come and you'll accidently find yourself in a big open, kerbless, trolleyparkless car park accidently. Then you'll learn that powerslides at low speed an grip are great fun - because you feel like Colin Mcrae (RIP) and can get mental angles but really, you're doing

5mph in 2nd hehe! It took a bit of practice to do it in the Vee, cos it just span out really easy - but it was great fun learing :-) Then, don't crash on the way home...

I tried to refrain in the Vee, as it was my first RWD, and it had such a bad rep for being hard to control, even by pro's. But it was ok as long as you weren't going way too fast, and weren't trying for a huge drift. Cheeky little sliding the back end out of roundabouts was fun though - and when the tyres were shagged the inside wheel, if you got the revs right, would spin up and leave a cloud of smoke hehe - of course, this wasn't a slide, just a monster amount of wheel spin. They were much less scary with brand new Goodyear F1s on, just seemed to be easy to control and it all happened in slow motion. Dunno why that is...

Anyway, that's the second time tonight I've rambled on where only a few words were needed... Good luck dude, hope it's all a dream :-)

Do you mean it flipped over...? And landed on all fours, whilst knocking your mirror off...? If that's how it went - holy shit that's awesome dude :-D It's only a car at the end of the day, but if you look at the silver lining, you've got an awesome pub and social story for life! If that's not what happened, then back to d'oh and I hope it all works out ok :-) Well actually, I still hope it all goes smoothly, and I'm glad no one was hurt by the sounds of it :-)

Sounds like you were lucky.

Does it have a roll bar? - might be worth making sure you get one if you get another....

Scary shit. Glad you managed to drive away from it!

Ignore all that newbie experience stuff heh, I just saw your post detailing Capri's etc :-) Here was me thinking you were the only person that hadn't had a RWD car in the whole place! Actually has Dervy ever owned a RWD? I don't think he has, or at least, has mentioned it...?

Foiled again, that Ski lodge would have been mine if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

That sounds mental! Godd job on not getting hurt!

I've never rolled a car; my dad did though, when he was young and although he walked away from it unharmed and managed to drive away (with all the glass smashed, the steering colum held on by string and somehow the fuel pump bust so he rigged a gravity feed off a fuel can, reckoned he got about 3mpg and slightly rich running lol)

Hmm.

Something sounds a bit odd here (no offense, keep reading). As long as you have enough reaction time, they're normally really easy to catch, but they are a little puppy-ish in the sense that they seem to like waggling their tails. But swapping ends sounds a bit omnious - I've had that on mine on a very wet trackday but that was when I was pushing it too hard for the conditions.

That said, if you do get another one or get this one fixed, spend the money on getting the suspension set up properly. All four corners are fully adjustable on these and it did make a massive difference on mine.