Virginia International Raceway HPDE:
A WET track
+
Suspension dialed-up to FULL HARD
+
COLD Kumho tires
=
Recipe for DISASTER
I was very careful to drive less aggressively & much slower because the track was wet & the tires were cold. But it didn't help. I left the track at ~60-65mph. (You can see the speedometer on the original, uncompresed video.) You'll need Windows Media Player9 to view the video.
This is what my Instructor had to say about what happened:
"Your R-compound tires had insufficient grip for the ambient track temps -- so low grip. The adjustments to the shocks reduced the grip further because it made the tires skip over the bumps. Your left rear tire struck the concrete berm on turn 6 which pushed the rear of your car to the right and most likely your turbo kicked in at that moment thus adding about 50 extra hp at exactly the wrong time. This sequence of events led to a counter-clock-wise spin. Your car's short wheelbase coupled to such a large amount of torque would make such a spin very difficult for even an expert driver to counter-steer out of. This is my best guess on what happened."
Besides the obvious cosmetic damage, there's:
| differential carrier "wing" on passenger side is cracked in half |
| upper & lower control arms are bent |
| muffler is cracked & the tailpipe is bent |
| rear assembly is bent |
The car has been totaled by the insurance company.
