something similar hapened to me in December. Car was not totaled but cost 17k in repairs. I cant really put my finger on what made it happen. black ice, cold tires, high torque shifting, lack of experience....probably a little of all.

 

Had the same thing happen to me after two weeks of my driving my S2000.

 

Anyone can hydroplane in the rain. Wide summer tires don't help. Once you have had a few close calls in the rain, then you may consider rain performance as a primary criteria in your next set of performance tires. RandT or CandD, I cannot recall which, had a performance tire shootout recently and the winning tire (Goodyears) had great rain performance.

 

Not if you ever plan on racing your car.

 

ouch....glad your ok

 

That's very true! But for the 99.99% of Z owners that do not track their car, VDC is a great safety system. And, if you ever do decide to take your Z to the track, turn VDC off. Simple.

Back on topic, in this case, the car hydroplaned through a puddle. With VDC, the likelihood of losing control to the degree that the OP did would have been substantially reduced. And with better wet traction (tires) in addition to VDC, this incident may have easily been avoided.

 

Just curious if you don't mind - where on I45N did your accident occur?

 

WOW! That is one terrible accident. Glad to know you are ok and didn't hurt yourself or anyone else. I am somewhat amazed as I have driven countless times in heavy downpour with 0.5" water on the highway at 70+mph and never once felt any instability.

Life is irreplaceable. Nothing else is. Here's to a new Z!

 

You know what I noticed most totalled models, are base, without VDC

 

I couldn't agree more!!! I spend a lot of my day driving and some of the crazy, totally nuts driving I see during the course of the day, some days absolutely astounds me. No one is perfect though.

This is not directed at the OP or anyone else.

 

I WAS supposed to p/u my new 07' 350 Touring on monday... but the idiots at Mossy ordered me an AUTOMATIC, wtf?! so i gave them the entire day to find a ppw touring 6 spd or im walking... make a long story short, took my deposit and bailed. Which allowed me to think about my choice and i decided that getting back into the same car isnt what i wanted and should use this chance to change. I like being in different performance cars since im a car nut... Soooo, instead i picked up a new Evo IX black w/ the special edition package. Funny thing is i used to rag on these boy racer toys all the time, but i cannot deny its fun to drive. I'll be in this for a while... i still love the Z though and miss it dearly! especially my work wheels!

 

Good for you walking out on Mossy!
They are the worst dealership I've ever
dealt with,because of them, I'll never buy
another Nissan period.
Going into a lancer...from a Z

 

You still ended with a nice car! :-)

take care with AWD just because sometimes is also more dangerous than RWD.
btw.. when you had your accident I went at work 1 hour later to don't drive on that rain... (I work on I45 N too... and live in west side)

Matteo

 

Has anyone ever noticed that cars look dirty as hell after bad accidents? Even if the crash isn't in a dirty area and you don't hit anything with significant dirt on it. Supposedly, I've heard from a cop, when a major accident happens a cloud of dust will stay in the air for quite some time. It's nuts, really.

Also, EVO is good choice.

 

I saw on court TV that its from dirt stuck under the car in your wheel wells and other areas. They used it in court to show where an impact acured because all the dirt/oil and other crap drop to the ground (and fly into the air) just about instantly apoun impact.

 

I saw the barrier you were talking about on my way home from houston today. Scary ****.

 

The cop's story was that he stopped a woman who was clearly drunk. She was really pretty and he was new, so when she told him she was two blocks from her house, he told her to go home and let her leave. He was then circling about an hour later a few blocks from the scene and drove through a dust cloud. His first thought was "I'm f*ed."

 

Be glad you survived that one and with only bumps & bruises.
have fun with the Evo!

 

These poor Z's im glad your ok i just cant believe how many people have wrecked thier Z's