I am a fairly young person (17), and I just got my base last night, prior to getting my Base Z I drove an 84 diesel 190E Benz 5mt. I have been taking it easy and getting used to the way the car feels, but today I did something that I regret doing and got lucky to get out of..

I was taking a back road with one of my friends, and there is a really wide left turn leading to a curvy road that is usually deserted, So i was cruising along put it in 2nd and then got in the turn. Immediately I felt the back coming out but I didnt realize how much until my front end went into the other lane. I honestly didnt think it would drift like that after having done it with my old car. After I corrected the car I went along, but now I feel really bad because I know I could have lost it.

I know what I did was really irresponsible and I regret it, but I'm just really glad I didnt crash.

I dont think iwas going top fast either, since I dont take my revs past 4krpm(and it was in 2nd gear)

Im not sure how exactly I should test the limits, but I'm suprised I lost traction going so slow

 

A couple of comments:

1. Going into a corner in 2nd is a bad idea from road speed unless you're only doing 20-30. It sounds like the downshift got to you. Also, when you downshift like that, be sure to get the shift completed prior to the turn, and feather the gas through the apex. This should serve you much better.

2. The best places to find out limits are in wide open parking lots, with no light poles in the middle of them. You can drift to your heart's content, and learn the precise limits of your Z. Be careful, and considerate.

Enjoy your car, but PLEASE be careful. Too many Z's are being crashed and overdriven, and it's going to cost us all in insurance.

 

You have no LSD. You have no TCS. You have no VDC. That is not an indictment but rather a plea for you to find the limits of your car in a nice safe area with nothing hard around. Your car has a lot of power and nothing to help you in case of traction loss or cornering difficulty. The base model is highly driveable but requires excellent driving skills on your part.

 

Something similar happened to me in my S2000. I was kind of slowing for a turn and down shifted to 2nd just as I was turning I let the clutch out mid-turn and fishtailed a little. No accident thank god.

Another time (I am telling you this just to beware), it was raining pretty good. I was going straight so I thought nothing could happen to upset the balance. Well I did a redline shift 1st to 2nd and my back end started to boogie a little. I was still going straight but I was not in control of the car 100%. Just be careful especially in the rain.

 

Yow Rai. Yeah, definitely a bad idea to let the clutch out half-way through the turn. Especially if you don't match into it. Extremely easy to break free like that. Like Z33fan said, you should be in the lower gear just before you enter the turn, so you can accelerate through the apex.

 

Good start by (a) acknowledging you screwed the goose and (b) looking for advice.

Certainly a large parking lot is a good idea. How about a driving class...like a car racing course. Not to teach you to race but to learn how cars perform.

Personally, it sounds like you geared down to much but who knows.

 

actually Id say your lucky you dont have LSD. I use to drift in a dodge ram all the time, it was easy, but Ive learned there was a reason. in the ram there was no LSD, or live axle, so when I "drifted" I was just dragging the outside tire, and the other tires still had a fair amount of traction...

in the Z with LSD, both tires will spin away, and it gets NO traction at all. not easy to control.

but still 4000 in 2nd is... *whips out calculator* 37mph. a pretty fast speed, now the Z is designed for understeer, so you had to give it a bit of gas to get over steer. all of this contributes to your slide. just take it easy, the base doesnt have the biggest of tires on it. no traction control, and your new.

and not to tell you how to drive your car, but there are multiple reasons not to be redlining a brand new car... and breaking the engine in is only one of them, it takes atleast 1200 miles for the car to break you in... if you want to crash, go out and do what you did. I still remember a story of some asshat that got into his dads brand new eclipse and decided to go flying through the mountains. a few rolls and a gaurd rail later the car was totaled. learn the cars limits before you push them.

 

Man I've done the same kind of things like you just described...I felt bad like you as well...I mean you don't ever want to crash...

The closest I've come to being a jackass was when I got the idea with a friend of mine in the car to spin a few rocks at the person behind the car who had pissed me off.. and my 300 started to spin easily in the dirt and when the tires contacted the pavement I spun the steering wheel and the car riped a 180 and started sort of back the way I had come...around the corner in front of me...anyways the guy in the car thought I was somekind of stunt driver with the smoke pouring into the cab of the car...Meanwhile my heart was going about 200 BPM because at one point in the burning spin I was way out of shape and almost hit the ditch...this was a very narrow place to be pulling crap like that...I've never done dumb stuff like that again...Like you I'm learning that a car is no toy to be throwing into corners and doing 180 burnouts...unless I get some lessons from a race school or something!!! And then do it on the track not the street...cheers

 

I hope you never learn the hard way like me in my Z. I totaled it.
It was my first car, a 1973 240Z which had far less power than our 350's. But she was beautiful until I killed her. It was so easy to do to. I mean it happens so fast. I think that was the only car I ever totaled, come to think of it.

 

I second Rat's suggestion of getting some instruction, but a full blown race driving course might be premature.

My local track has an "accident avoidance course" that's specifically intended to teach young drivers the basic physics of driving. It goes way beyond standard driver's ed, but doesn't get into high-performance driving, which I think would be a distraction at this point.

See if there's a local track that offers something similar.

If not, see if you can find a local autocross competition. That'll teach you a lot about car handling in a safe environmentm and be a lot of fun as well.

 

What's with the kids and the moderately expensive sports cars? Are the parents buying them, or what?

It doesn't "bother" me, or anything... I'm just confused is all. At that age, my parents (if they were to have actually bought me a car.. ) wouldn't have even taken a car like the 350Z into consideration. And I most certainly wouldn't have been able to come close to being able to afford one.

As a kid I would drive larger, more clumsy vehicles like trucks and/or SUV's... That way I was able to learn the limits (and they definately have limits!) of vehicles like that with higher centers of gravity, more weight, difficult handling perspectives, etc. So when it was time to get a nice little car, it was an absolute breeze to drive. IMO, not only was it so much easier - it was so much fun, and I was able to appreciate it just that much more.

~B

 

I think that it is irresponsible for parents to provide young drivers with high performance cars. My objection relates to three significant problems that affect road safety- experience, judgement and a propensity for risky bahavior that results in lots of car crashes. Look at insurance rates for the proof of the theory. I wouldn't mind to much if it didn't affect others so much, but these drivers sometimes take other people out with them in these crashes. And even when they don't hurt other people, they are contributing to increased insurance premiums for all who drive sports cars.

Seems like we have had several examples of 350z and non-Z sports car crashes related on this forum recently. It is sobering.

 

what do you consider young drivers? I am 19. do I have the experience of a 30 or 40 year old? no. am I immature? no. WAS I immature? hell yeah. 16-17 was some tough years for my car. Id be dead if I had a Z. but you grow up pretty fast, and now to this day I can say Ive never been in an accident.

anyway, I hate how older people stereotype all young kids all into the same category. many of us are quite capable of driving a car on a road without hanging the tail end in a tree. in a few years we could start talking how you have experience, but you lack the vision, and reflexes nescessary to drive a high performance car. would that be fair?

 

Dont think your car is this super-bad-*** GT race car that you can toss it into anything and survive.

first off if it was your first nite with your car, then you're stupid. who the hell does that? espeically if you're not used to the car yet and the way it handles.

a lot of people have to calm down, and take the car to some auto-x or driving school to learn the limits before they attempt some crazy Gran Turismo style drift or drive irresponsibly.

as for age. i DO thing age has ALOT to do with it. i mean. sure Ares, some young adults are a bit more understanding and mature than others. but breakerboy learned his lesson. no biggie


i still dont get why people post the stupid **** they do on the internet. so they can get yelled at more? perhaps the only thing that matters is the breakerboy himself knows not to tempt fate with such a new/expensive car right?

 

wow .... funny you should mention being a jackass in a vehicle ..... about 3 or 4 weeks ago i was with a friend in his BRAND NEW mini cooper with 86 miles .... we took this tiny backroad and it has a left turn at the end of it (this is behind our school) he hit it ... we were going 55 in a 20 and i noticed he forgot his braking distance ... i figured hes older and probably a better driver than me .... well guess what? he wasnt ... . we hit the curb ... went up a hill hit a sign, went through some bushes and into a tree ..... $6100 dollars in repairs for his 3 day old car .... im getting a new 350Z for my first car ..... however im not gonna have to learn my own lesson, we could have died in that accident because we missed 2 trees prior to the one we had hit that if we HAD hit .... it would have been over. so now when i get my Z ... ill make sure to know my limits WELL and not take the thing to a point where i cant handle it

 

Rather than hammer Breaker, or his parents, I think he should be commended for his post here. He acknowledges he screwed-up and by posting here maybe will save another "youngin" from doing something similar or worse.

The thread itself shows a fair amount of maturity.

 

I've always wondered the same thing. Rich maybe? Dunno. I came from a poor family and $30-$35K or so was enough to get me a bachelor and masters degree...infinately more valuable than a car when someone is coming out of high school. But when was the last time an education got you the hotties?

Hell, I'm 38 and just now buying my first "new" car, then again I'll also be retired at 50.

Enjoy the car and hotties breakerboy.

 

Well, like I said before - I'm not trying to hammer this kid - or his parents. I'm just curious, that's all. He is to be commended for realizing that he is uninformed, and came to the forum to admit that and seek information that can help make him a better driver.

When I was a kid, my parents made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. So not buying me a car was a moral issue, if anything else. Not only did I have to earn the cash to buy my own car, I couldn't afford some high performance machine when it did come down to buying it.

I've grown up in a small town in the prairies in Canada, with PLENTY off "backroad" driving experience (gravel, dirt, etc.) .. I would NEVER in a MILLION years consider taking a brand new car of any sort - *especially* a 350Z on a backroad, regardless of how confident I was feeling at the time. Not only is the risk of disaster to great for my liking, I wouldn't want to subject the car to that kind of environment anyway.

It's great to hear that you have taken the initiative to mature and take driving seriously... Does that mean that we should lump every teenager into the same category, and assume that they have, or are doing the same? When we talk about teenagers driving, in general, we're talking about the ones who aren't responsible, and aren't mature. Because it's those guys that count. Trust me, if the insurance companies took the GOOD drivers as examples, not only would you be happy - so would I. My insurance would be quite a bit lower.

Considering that real degradation in driving skills won't typically occur you're in your late 40's, at the earliest - I'm decades off of losing my driving skills. So didn't you just categorize me?

Anyway, that's my opinion.

~B

 

I can appreciate how you feel about steroetyping and agree that not all people are the same. If you consider it for a while, you may easily conclude that this process of sterotyping is just an extension of how we process life. In other words, we predict future outcomes based on information and experiences gleaned from the past. Admittedly, the information is usually incomplete and often does not apply to specific individuals or future situations, but we do it to put order into our lives. (What else can we do?) Seems that the great 'generalizers', the insurance companies, have decided that on average, young male drivers under age 25 are more likely to crash a car than those older than 25. I assume that this is based on experience.

You don't need to wait a few years to start talking about my vision and reflexes- they are not what they once were. That is fair. The real question is whether I act within the limitations of my abilities or do I do like the recent post by Black Out, entitled "scary situation" in which a couple of young guys crashed their Trans Am into a Honda Civic, splitting it in two and killing the young woman driving it. It's horrendous, but perhaps indicative of the concern I express.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys,

First thing to clarify is that my parents did not buy me this car, they helped me with it. Instead of buying a civic or so I got a job so I could afford the monthly payments of a car like a 350z, for you that are curious my parents put down 10k, I put down 5k, and I am financing the rest. My parents trust me, and I trust myself.

You guys don't know how bad I felt when I got home after I did that insanely stupid turn. I know that its a new car, and I really did not want to mess it up the 2nd day. The first thing I did was tell my parents and the second was to post it up on the forums, to both get advice from you guys and to get feedback.

I agree with you guys when you say I dont have as much experience as most of the rest of you guys, but I'm trying to be as careful as I can until I get used to the car

I really wasnt pushing the car going 100mph and taking a turn at 50mph, I was taking a turn that I thought I could easily handle a little too fast

And understand this, I am really into cars and I am interested in all aspects of cars. I am much different than a 16 year old kid with 0 driving experience that gets an automatic corvette and doesnt really car about anything but the looks of the car and some occasional acceleration.
-thanx guys