Wrote off my MR2 last night.....

[Anonymous]

hey mate, i also had the similar crash. my air bag did not came off too which shocked me as well. I rang up toyota and they said that the force was not sufficient for computer to launch the air bag. I was like WTF are you talking my car got wrote off and u said not enough of Force?. I cannot do anything as the toyota said that i should rang them just after the accident for them to understand the situation. It was all bull****. Better becareful on wet road mate, on my opinion i reckon the MR2 is not good on wet road

[mod] aaronjb - edited for language [/mod]

[Anonymous]

on my opinion i reckon the MR2 is not good on wet road

What make/makes of tyres were you running? Was it the same make on all four corners or a mixture of brands? Were the front and rear sizes staggered?

Was this your first mid engined rwd car? How long did you have it before it was written off?

[freak_in_cage]

on my opinion i reckon the MR2 is not good on wet road

What make/makes of tyres were you running? Was it the same make on all four corners or a mixture of brands? Were the front and rear sizes staggered?

Was this your first mid engined rwd car? How long did you have it before it was written off?

good questions m8- i wait to hear the results of this too!

[Anonymous]

I personally think the MR2 (Mark 3) is a pretty good car in the wet. What's its not good at doing is puddles.

My brother had a similar experience in his S2000, where it aquaplaned on the M3.

I have often wondered if its worth putting a heavy block in the frunk during wet and icy weather.

[Anonymous]

hey mate, i also had the similar crash. my air bag did not came off too which shocked me as well. I rang up toyota and they said that the force was not sufficient for computer to launch the air bag. I was like WTF are you talking my car got wrote off and u said not enough of Force?. I cannot do anything as the toyota said that i should rang them just after the accident for them to understand the situation. It was all bull****. Better becareful on wet road mate, on my opinion i reckon the MR2 is not good on wet road

[mod] aaronjb - edited for language [/mod]

The airbags will only go off in a frontal collision.
Side swipes, rear shunts etc (even hitting something at an oblique angle wont set them off)

[kanujunkie]

The airbags will only go off in a frontal collision.
Side swipes, rear shunts etc (even hitting something at an oblique angle wont set them off)

even a hit dead middle at the front but the energy heading at a slight angle wont set it off.

and Salom, the 2 is excellent in the wet, but if you have tyres like the stock yoko's on then it can get twitchy in the wet, but thats the tyres and not the car. Other question you have to ask yourself is do i have the skills to drive at anything other than a snails pace in the wet

[Anonymous]

I have noticed Salom back on the forum, and he has not posted, i doubt very much we will get the answers to my questions, which leads me to believe his tyre set up was incorrect and therefore contributary to the accident

[freak_in_cage]

1 theory i have on this is if your driving in wet and suddenly hit standing water- you should of course not alter the balance of the car by braking, accelerating, easing off accelerator etc etc

HOWEVER, suppose JUST before hitting standing water you let go of accelerator, foot on clucth- weight initially moves towards front of car (relativly speaking) and then stablaises as you free wheel into the water. this means the car remains balance, but offers the advantage that if 1 rear wheel regains traction before the other- the car will not spin???

or perhaps the above is only worth doing if you dont have LSD???

[enid_b]

freak, we covered this on my course.

the official line for aquaplaning is to

1, remove acceleration,
2, do not brake,
3, do not apply any steering input.
4,  (it also recommends depressing the clutch)

however, as our 2's are RWD depressing the clutch will not have any effect on the front wheels - so i would recommend ignoring point 4.

i have aquaplaned in the 2 a couple of times, and that is with excellent tread depth on all four tyres.  best thing to do is stay still at the controls, and do not panic.  any subsequent inputs on the controls should be smooth and progressive.


E   s:D s:D

[freak_in_cage]

freak, we covered this on my course.

the official line for aquaplaning is to

1, remove acceleration,
2, do not brake,
3, do not apply any steering input.
4,  (it also recommends depressing the clutch)

however, as our 2's are RWD depressing the clutch will not have any effect on the front wheels - so i would recommend ignoring point 4.

i have aquaplaned in the 2 a couple of times, and that is with excellent tread depth on all four tyres.  best thing to do is stay still at the controls, and do not panic.  any subsequent inputs on the controls should be smooth and progressive.


E   s:D s:D

cool- thanks man! i wasn;t too far off then! congratrs btw m8- just noticed you answered my Qs about your course

cheers dude   s:D s:D

[Anonymous]

To say the 2 is not suited for wet condition is utterly nonsense to me.

My sympathy goes to Drew for having to go through such unimaginable experience that one can only begin to realise how life-changing such event can be.

However that said, 90% of road accidents are credited to drivers' fault, and by no mean I'm implying Drew or anyone here who have had similar accidents are faulted, but my thoughts are that many drivers are not well equiped with knowledge on handling a car in a wet condition. They rely on their instincts on this condition, and our instincts are many times flawed.

Like Rich said earlier, never brake while or just before you get into a paddle of standing water. We have a tendency to do so but it's not the proper way. That's because even though while your brakes are engaged, your tyre will lose traction anyway, and if one doesn't lock the steering or counter any swaying of the car due to an abrupt deceleration in conjunction with a lost of traction, you end up in big trouble.

Maintain throttle, or increase a little if you must. Never brake abruptly.

[ChrisGB]

4,  (it also recommends depressing the clutch)

however, as our 2's are RWD depressing the clutch will not have any effect on the front wheels - so i would recommend ignoring point 4.

i have aquaplaned in the 2 a couple of times, and that is with excellent tread depth on all four tyres.  best thing to do is stay still at the controls, and do not panic.  any subsequent inputs on the controls should be smooth and progressive.
E   s:D s:D

I found depressing the clutch helped to sort it out when wheelspin set in at 50 in 2nd on a very wet surface and the car was snaking around. To keep the power on would not remove the cause of the problem and to ease off the gas quickly enough to be useful may cause weight transfer forward. The key is depressing the clutch and changing gear while you are at it so you can get back on it in third as soon as the plot comes straight. (Disclaimer: Technique not recommended for road use)

I think it is a case of sussing out how it feels before acting. My usual is to keep everything neutral if all four wheels are aquaplaning and hope for the best. Just ask for as little from the tyres as you can and don't panic. If you do have to make any inputs, be gentle.

Being mid engined, the car does not share the front engined car's general property of behaving like a dart (ie travelling heavy end first) so will never be as stable as your average front engined car. However, it can be made to go very fast on track in the wet, just as fast as four wheel drive stuff with a little practice, as I found out at a soaking wet handling day last year.

Chris

[Anonymous]

on my opinion i reckon the MR2 is not good on wet road

What make/makes of tyres were you running? Was it the same make on all four corners or a mixture of brands? Were the front and rear sizes staggered?

Was this your first mid engined rwd car? How long did you have it before it was written off?

Hey, sorry for keeping you guys waiting. I am having exam at the moment. Do not get me wrong guys i reckon it is not good on the wet because i spun out a few times in the wet with new high end tyres and balancing done. The crash i had was because i was doing 45km/h for a 135 degree right turn. I did not notice the hairpin corner and hold on my break ( emergency break ) 10-20 metres before hitting the road barrier. As soon as i hit the break hard the tyre locked up and ski ahead into the barrier.

I am sure the tyres were correctly placed. 15' front and 16'rear. I asked the tyre shop to get me the best quality tyre and they reckon Bridgestone potenza s03 to me. I've driven my parents 330Ci bmw and toyota camry. For some reason i never spun out in my parents car before.

Yes, the mr2 spyder i had was my first mid engine car. I still like Spyder and will buy another Mr2 Spyder after the exam.

I had been driving for 1.5 years and still considered myself as inexperienced driver.

Sorry for the language, english is my second language. I'll post some picture of my car

[Anonymous]

Salom im sorry about your car. The main question was were your tyre sizes staggered? i.e. are the rear tyres wider than the fronts?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I bought a 2001 model MR2 but i did change the rear wheel to 16' when i got my first spun out. After that i realise it doesnt fix my problem so i did a balancing and tyre change for all 4 wheel.

[Anonymous]

I think the main point in all this is please Be careful!  I also am a member of the 'spin, spin crash big walet emptying club' and the lessons I learnt are SLOW DOWN!  I also lowered the pressure of my rear tyres (I'm running 17"s)  Just take care guys especially if we get all the rain we're promised over the next few days.

[Anonymous]

The crash i had was because i was doing 45km/h for a 135 degree right turn. I did not notice the hairpin corner and hold on my break ( emergency break ) 10-20 metres before hitting the road barrier.

Do you mean you pulled the handbrake up?

Surely thats never good when in motion whatever car you drive.

[Anonymous]

na, not hand break. i hit the break at full. i am not really sure but i think the tyre locked up.

[ChrisGB]

A case of there is only so much car control will rescue you from. The key to avoiding this sort of accident is to match speed to visibility. Limit point analysis and all that.

Chris

[FireFury]

Odd beast the '2. Took mine on a soaking wet handling day and had absolutely no problems keeping it straight or recovering from oversteer and understeer at pretty high cornering speeds.

I've been wanting to take my '2 onto a wet airfield or track and get some proper experience and professional instruction on handling skid conditions.  Can I ask where you went for your handling day and how much it cost?

On the couple of occasions I've ended up in skids (one of which was in a Corsa while cornering too fast and the other was in the Spyder caused by a slightly overenthusiastic right foot) I've found myself fine handling the actual skid, but at the point everything gets traction back I've been unable to straighten up the opposite-lock quickly enough (in the case of the Corsa I ended up on the grass embankment).

Certainly, just knowing what to do when you lose control is only part of the story - practicing it and getting your reflexes trained is a worthwhile exercise.

[SimonC_Here]

1st lotus do a good airfield day at North weald airfield.
£110 or so I seem to remember. Althougb I could be wrong looking at the site now!

http://www.1stlotus.com/intro.htm

Simon

[FireFury]

1st lotus do a good airfield day at North weald airfield.
£110 or so I seem to remember.

Is there any instruction provided in that, or is it just a case of being let loose on the airfield to do your own thing?

[FireFury]

1st lotus do a good airfield day at North weald airfield.
£110 or so I seem to remember.

Is there any instruction provided in that, or is it just a case of being let loose on the airfield to do your own thing?

Should've read the site before posting  s:) s:)

Seems there is instruction, prices are listed as:
2 Person Day - £340 each in your own car
4 Person Day - £170 each in your own car

Wonder if they make the track wet artificially or if you just get whatever conditions are naturally happening on the day  s:) s:)

[roger]

Wonder if they make the track wet artificially or if you just get whatever conditions are naturally happening on the day  s:) s:)

They don't create a skidpan - you take it as it is.

[ChrisGB]

The Andy Walsh day was the one I went on. I did not have tuition though, just practice around some courses laid out. I think it was a club day with 30 cars at £30 each. Anyone interested if I try and arrange something similar (say 15 cars as 30 was a bit much) for ROC? We had a real variety of machinery there. The MR2 was competitive against much faster machinery, even a tuned Scooby. The rain is a great leveller.

Once I get finished with the mods I will be back there for one of the 4 people handling days.

Chris