medic165

iTrader: (2)

Say whatever you want about street racing, it's illegal, irresponsible,dangerous, stupid, and fun, yes, it's fun . Whether you want to do it and actually do it, are two different things, but please don't sit here and BS us that you have never done it on the streets. (for all of you that say...take it to the track) Remember, you don't have to be doing 100mph to be "street racing", it could be your "friendly" take off the light to the guy next to you and you don't even have to exceed the speed limit! Anything can happen.
RIP and my simphathy to the family.

The HACK

Just want to point out a few things.

1: Car control skills. Go take a few classes. BMWCCA offer car control clinics that shows what NOT to do in an impending spin or when you've had an unexpected blow-out on the street. I can tell you right now I know exactly what happened. The driver was travelling at triple digit speed, something poped in front of him or in swerving around another vehicle, got scared and LIFTED. At this speed, lifting off of the gas on a rear wheel drive vehicle is almost the same as slamming on your brakes and cocking your steering wheel on an oil-slick road. You no longer have ANY control over what the car will do. You can have the BEST R-Comps out there, you will still spin and meet your maker faster than you can say "don't lift".

2: It is actually MORE dangerous to be travelling at 85-90 mph at the top of 3rd gear, than say doing 120 mph in 6th gear. Due to gear multiplication, you are laying down 2-3X more HP on the ground at 85 mph than you are doing 120 mph. At that kind of RPM/HP/Speed, any small mistake will be magnified, any little problem like a tire blowout will be 10X harder to correct vs. 120 mph.

3: I've travelled regularly at triple digit speeds, especially on the tracks here in Southern California, and I can tell you that at 120mph at Buttonwillow Raceway the 350Z is as freakin' stable as a rock on OEM tires. At "racing" speeds, it is all about making your input (steering, gas, brake) as smooth as possible, any abrupt movement of your hands or foot means you'll be cleaning **** off of your seats along with dirt from the spin for the next 30 minutes. Honestly, if you want to drive a rear wheel drive car and drive it well, take a few high performance driving classes and learn how to handle these beasts before you wrap one around the tree at 65 mph, because you can and will do it if you don't know how vehicle dynamics work.

I don't condone street racing. It doesn't take much skill to go fast in a straight line. It doesn't take much skill in getting the jump on another driver on the street. It does take an incredible amount of STUPIDITY to do it around other drivers where you can endanger not only yourself but the people surrounding you.

Too bad, I hope this young man's death will serve as a grim reminder for others who think they're hot sh*t skillz will get them out of trouble on the "street" and save someone else's life. I know I needed those reminders when I was 19-20 driving my Acura Integra. Luckily I survived a pretty horrendous crash with my father, my brother, and his friend in the car.

Clapton9286

No, i've done it. But never at that speed, and never where you can be severely hurt very easily (ie none of those monster guardrails, 4 lanes, stuff like that).

dmoffitt

iTrader: (4)

thanks, that's what i thought

ONEDVSMOFO

Sorry bro, I'm not trying to start anything...

I just wrote what I knew about it. Witnesses said there was another car (BMW) which was "racing" with the 350z when it crashed... I have no way of knowing if they were or not.

It could have just been two guys in a hurry to get some where at the same time... I didn't know for sure so thats why i said "may have" and "apparently."

aalzuhair

iTrader: (2)

I’m not trying to be insensitive about this, but come on... 105 post… people die every day … You can join the army at what 18!!! … and there is a high probability of death guaranteed … and that solider is going to kill another solider/person ???!!! that’s sound really screwed up!!!



I mean, its like two guys have a fight … thousands die for it !!!!! What for ?????



.. did anyone post about that !!!!






The guy raced and died for it … let’s not discuss the $ex of the angels

ZlleH

iTrader: (7)

Sorry, could you write up a list on what we can dicuss and not dicuss. And also can you provide a number for how many posts this kind of thread should have. I must have missed the memo.

Yes, they post about it on political forums, on blogs, on news forum, on IRC, on MSN, on columns, hell, they post about it in the "off-topic" sub-category on this fourm.

Let's not also make a witch-hunt on an assumption that he raced from a 2nd hand account or even a 3rd hand account.

PS: There are more deaths from car accidents a day then there are soldiers killed a day.

jrod1014

In fact, I believe motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of deaths from age 16-25 and kill more than drugs, violence, etc... combined

Kanyon71

iTrader: (2)

If he where thinking the same thing as I was he wouldn't have been racing and he would have done the same thing I did which was go to a highspeed driving school. I just have never really been into street racing, I have always preferred to go out on a course with other people who I'm pretty sure know what their doing. Again maybe thats just me.

Ztalker

admit it.....most of us are guilty of exceeding 100mph on the freeway at one time or another....i once hit 125mph on the way back from Vegas dusting a black Mazda RX7.... also saw a Corvette went airborne after hitting the gravel turned upside down on the same freeway......

"In a "mad" world....only the "mad" will be sane."
AKIRA KUROSAWA

Alberto

iTrader: (14)

That is sad, only 20 years old....

Anomaly460

iTrader: (6)

Its sad when anyone dies for any reason so RIP to him. We all do dumb stuff but it really sux that he had to pay the ultimate price for a bad judgment call. I would call him an idiot but that could very well be me or the majority of the guys on here. The urges are always gonna be there but they need to be satisfied in a safe controlled enviornment. And when the temptation gets the best of you (and it will), you need to pick your spots and definitely leave yourself alot of room for error.

and BTW +100 on the guys who thouhgt 100 mph isnt that fast....The Z seems VERY solid and controlled at those speeds especially in a straight line. Im very interested to find out what happend...any of you local guys see anything in the paper???

350zQ45a

Let's make this clear...

It wasn't the speed that killed him. It was either his lack of car control and overall driver skill, or just not knowing where the limits were, or doing something that violently exceeded those limits


I really don't like people saying 100 is not a responsible speed. Just because we here in America have outrageously low speed limits doesn't mean we are right.

I've been a passanger and drove on the Autobahn as I'm sure other members here have. Here is a brilliant stretch of road so well engineered that cars are allowed to perform like they really are meant to. The whole thing is on a 4 inch grade, can monitor and adjust the speeds its self, requires virtually no input from the controllers.

You combine all that tech with the actual education of German drivers, not to mention the high up front cost of obtaining a license, and the severe penalities for not playing by the fools, and you have a system that can handle those speeds.

The driver was the problem here, not the speed. We own cars that can travel at 100 all day.

He violated the #1 rule of motoring and what I was taught the first day I ever went to a racing school

Don't upset the balance of the car, and it will do anything you want it to.

350zQ45a

I would also like to add people just don't frequently consider the consequences of what may happen if it goes wrong.

I used to drive aggressively on the street and would race at any hint of interest of another driver.

Then one day I had my friends in my Supra one in passanger and one in what they called a backseat.

On bald tires I spun the car at 80 and unlike this poor soul I was stricken with incredible luck and the least possible bad outcome happened.

I considered for the first time I was taking more then my own life in my hands, and I didn't want to be responsible for my friends deaths, or have to confront their parents or anything terrible that would result from that, let alone the guilt.

It just isn't worth it, even if it's only yourself involved, you can't guarantee only you will be involved in your demise, you may very well bring people down with you.

Taking your friends or just an innocent victims life for your own reckless behavior would probably ruin your life for a very long time if not ever.

ONEDVSMOFO

I'll see if I can find the article on it and post it...

need Z

+1 Unfortunately


RIP

Lohan

sad to see... may he rest in peace

Vash350Z

iTrader: (9)

Darwinism got another turd off the road, good riddance.

ZON

iTrader: (2)

So who won the race?


R.I.P

The HACK

He lifted. Simple as that.

Anyone here who's taken a few car control clinics or done a few high performance driving school will know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, you need to take a car control clinic or a high performance driving school.

Vehicle dynamics is a simple concept. A tire's grip on the tarmac is proportional to the size of your tire's contact patch. A tire's contact patch is proportional to the weight/pressure in tire being exerted from inside the tire. More weight put on each tire, the larger the contact patch grows thus better grip/traction to that particular wheel/tire.

Now, when your car accelerates or decelerates, weight of the vehicle gets transferred from one end to the other. You know the effect. The front lifts up when you gun the car. The front dips down when you clamp down on the brakes. This action results in the front tire becoming less grippy upon acceleration and rear tires becoming less grippy upon deceleration.

What happens in 100% of the high speed accidents, is that the driver often lifts off the gas pedal to brake to try and slow down while swerving to avoid the obstacle/danger on the road. While this may seem like the logical thing to do, doing so abruptly causes an abrupt weight shift from the rear to the front, the rear of the car becomes unloaded, and if theres ANY momentum in the car to pivot around the center of mass, this is the most likely time it'll do it.

So in this scenario, said driver was probably weaving around a slower car, at 100+ mph the car became unsettled and instead of keeping a firm, even throttle, he panicked and lifted off the gas pedal while in the middle of a lane change maneuver at triple digit speeds, and the driver immediately lost control of the vehicle and spins out. 99 out of 100 driver on the road would react the same.

A little on my "incident" with my Integra. I was driving my dad, my brother, and his friend to Irvine from UCLA, when I missed an interchange to one of the major freeways. My brother yelled out "YOU MISSED THE EXIT!" and I promptly slammed on the brake while travelling at ~90 mph, while jerking the steering wheel around to try and make the exit. What promptly ensued, was the car going into the beginning of a terminal oversteer, I for some reason instinctively countersteered, the car snapped back and blew a front tire, and LUCKILY FOR ME, I managed to wrangle the car back from a 15 ft drop off of the off-ramp onto the icy plants on the side of the freeway, and that scrubbed off enough of my speed and momentum that the car came to a stop INTACT with nothing more than a blown tire and 3 very shaken up passenger, and a driver that just got taken for a long ride.