Today's offroad excursion.

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willimo
Erythrophiliac

Registered: Jan 2003
Location: mediocre apartment
Posts: 2634

Today's offroad excursion.

So today I'm going to work. It's a dry day, having rained last night but it's gone by now because it's the afternoon. I figure fifty degrees and dry means I need to push my car a bit because when winter comes, I won't get to play again until April.

So I'm gettin onto the interstate. It's a cloverleaf ramp turning to my right. There is a RAV4 in front of me that is blocking my entrance to the ramp so I wait as patiently as I can. When he finally inches out of the way, the ramp is all mine! So, naturally, I gun it.

Now, the ramp circles down to the right (clockwise), but I use the term "circles" loosely. It starts out as a circle, but due to construction it straightens out and when the curve resumes, it's a decreasing radius turn. It's also a ramp I've used a dozen times already so I'm prepared for this. Oh, and also due to the construction, there's a bit of an elevation change right at the middle of the straight portion, and the change is greater on the left (outside) of the ramp than on the right.

So, naturally, I gun it. I crest the bump and it unsettles my car since it's bigger on the left, but that's no big deal, I'm as far over to the left as I can be on this straight so I'll have a broader line when I get into the curve. I've done this a dozen times already. My car starts to oversteer, as I've set it up to do for autocrossing (harder shocks and springs in the rear than the front, sway bar out back none in front, and ever so slight negative camber on the rear because 1. I can't afford to straighten it and 2. it is kind of useful when racing) and this is a perfectly natural, predictable thing that my car does. Besides, my sticky Azenis will make it easy for me to straighten out by throttling a little bit even if my back end does slide out too far. Which it does.... Crap, I've not had it come out this much on me off the track.... I better straighten out.

Except that I don't have Azenis anymore. I've just changed them to all season tires.

So when I apply throttle, my car doesn't ease back into line, it snaps around the other way. Where was my predictable moment of traction loss? Somewhere in Massachusettes' tire recycling program no doubt. So now I'm oversteering still, but to the inside of the turn, which is really unnerving, not to mention the inside of the ramp is blocked off by concrete barriers. The other side would have been much nicer to slide into; opening out into a dirt field with a backhoe in it and only seperated from me by barrels. So I mash the gas. My 100hp really makes its presence known and instead of just oversteering I begin sliding sideways, completely out of control until, finally, my porker of a car bleeds enough momentum for my front tires to hook up and pull me off the ramp and safely into the dirt and even between some avoiding barrels (I aimed between them, I swear).

Except that the ramp and the dirt are seperated by two feet of nothing. I jump.

Now, this isn't a good Dukes of Hazzard jump where my car is all perfectly balanced and I've got so much power behind my liftoff that I'll get over top and back down on all four wheels. No, this is a crummy "Whoops I'm about to smash my Honda Civic to bits and this is my only way to avoid it" jump with barely enough power to squeak a spare that lands me right on my nose.

Now my hood won't close. And I popped a shock. My bumper is fucked. And I think I bent the lower radiator mount.

Drives ok, though. Beantown is hell on wheels, friends. If you live here, get a beater until you can move again.

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