Closest calls in your ZX2?

ZX2 Dedicated Discussion ZX2 Discussion
1

So I’m curious to see if anyone else has gone that “extra mile” to try to “push the limits” of your car in here on your ZX2, I’ve had 2 particular close calls that have both scared the crap out of me and yes, both of them were my fault. SO… I thought I’d ask everyone to share their times of close calls, crazy stunts and also just for fun, what happened.

My first crazy stunt was when the car was totally stock, nothing done to it I was messing around in an industrial area and I knew the place like the back of my hand but I had never driven it at night and due to the roads being so extremely flat it was veyr hard to see, I ended up nailing a 15mph corner at about 50, locking up the brakes, correcting, and straightening it just in time to drop off in the ditch (only a 2 inch drop thank god) and coast into the soft dirt to a stop, no damage done. But scared the crap out of me AND my friend both.

Next incident, FUN! Was down at the local fairgrounds about mid day, there was ice out and also wet pavement, most of which was ice to the sides and the main parking lot was totally vacant and just a tad wet. I was out sliding and drifting on the ice, got bored and ended up pulling 360s and reverse 180s in my ZX2 on the nice wet pavement (once again this was when it was stock on nearly bald toyo proxies). Needless to say the security guards must have got a kick out of it because I was back and forth across the parking lot for a good 7 or 8 minutes before a car came out (more of a golf cart really…), waving their hands with a very pissed look on their face with the driver kind of laughing and smiling. I was in 3rd gear coasting to a stop and the lady got out and TRIED TO CHASE ME DOWN! She was lipping “Stop, no! Stop now! No not here!” and waving her arms, i guess trying to fly to me? lol… anyway, I downshifted into second, took off like a madman, heard sirens in the distance and took the opposite way into town, went home, closed the garage door, freaked out, never did that again…

Last but not least (this was an actual CLOSE call, glad to be alive and so fortunate) I had just put on Kumho Ecsta Supra 712s on my car, finished all of my suspension and was having a little bit of fun on a nearby road, however, it was still filled with cinders in the bike lane, I thought nothing of it. I was topped out pretty much in 3rd gear nailing through this place which is a VERY thin road surrounded by a median in the center an outlying sort of pivoted concrete on the right side, so it slants and then goes up to a full height concrete sidewalk. As I was going through I was coming up to a very tough corner, let off the gas and was pulling through it just fine when the back tires barely broke traction and caught it, unfortunately the correction of it all slid me into the gravel, it bounced the rear left tire and threw the back end the opposite way… At this point I was now sliding (basically into a drift) into a sharp left, the sharp right is what threw me into it. I attempted to correct and left it in 3rd, it was a medium speed corner and downshifting would only give me time to lose traction and/or cause me to slide worse, so I left it, I had caught it and by the time it was looping into the next sharp right I was drifting it successfully but the road was WAY too think barely big enough and not big enough to correct my drift, otherwise… it would have been fine, it ended up repeating the process, the rear tires nailed the passenger’s side curb, bounced me again into the median, this time soaring over it, popping BOTH of my driver’s side tires (and god i spent a lot of money on those tires) and I nearly went OVER the bridge, missing it by about 2 feet.

Nearly crapping my pants I managed to go about 1/4 of 1/4 mile up without damaging the rims thankfully and made it up onto a curb where someone called the police who harassed me for 30 minutes angry that I didn’t confess to driving like a madman and also couldn’t find my police record (which i had nothing on file in the first place) but also for harassing me due to them not even finding my NAME, they claimed i was lying to them, told them they were spelling it wrong and they got even more angry, another 20 minutes later, they found me, lectured me, called a towtruck and it cost me $250 to tow it, and another $200 for new tires. Quite a lesson.

Any other interesting stories?

2

I got nothin’. I don’t push the limits a whole lot, but last Thursday I kinda freaked myself out. I was going home from my fiance’s work (had lunch) and when I was exiting the express way a big ole SUV moved over and exited in front of me, so I was stuck behind that slow woman and the exit veers right then splits and we both went on the one lane left fork which is a fairly tight “hairpin”(using the term a li’l loosely).

After the “hairpin,” there’s a small straight then a 90 left into a 90 right. At the small straight there’s a merge so it’s 3 lanes wide and two lanes go left and the third goes off somewhere I don’t even know. So once we get to that straight I make sure no one’s coming (not that there ever is there) and drop it to 2 and book it into the corner WOT to pass. The speed limit on the road you end up on is 40 so I wanted to take it to 50, and I felt that thing really stretching the grip on the left and it shifted hard core when I went into the right (done accelerating right after initiating the right turn). It was a li’l fun, but I sure as heck won’t do THAT again.

  • Darron
3

I know you said close calls, but…

I totalled my first zx2, not screwing around just driving normal, except it had just snowed. Caught a patch of ice and slid into a bridge abutment less then 1/4 mile from my house. some of you may remember the pics… didnt look that bad from the pics, but there was some 8000$ in damages.

When I had the red zx2, I was at a light waiting for someone, and a Eagle Talon pulled up along side me and started creeping on the light. of course, i was like “oh hell no”. light changed and we both went for it, on the other side of the light, the road merges to one lane… the lane I was in. Well the talon, not realizing that he had lost the race already, ended up pushing me into oncoming traffic, around the upcoming corner, and the schmuck still wouldnt let me back in.

just this last winter, my friend and I were coming back from about 45mins away. well, it had snowed up where we were heading. so we get near his house, and he sees the roads all snowy and is like… “yo, you want to learn how to drift a FWD”. “i was like, yeah why the hell not”. we were making a left hand turn onto a road with a parking lot on the right hand side, so if I screwed it up, I would sail into the parking lot, no harm done. Well there was a car coming out of the turn so we aborted. however, the next turn was a right hand turn, and he was like “here we go”, pulled the ebrak" and i went sailing over the curb into someones yard. front tires were about 2 feet over the curb. I was like “holy sh*t”, theres a fire hydrant… I was less then 6 inches from the FH when it was done. I made him get out into the snow bank to push me out… just in time to see the plow truck coming at us.

this other time, my same friend(bob) and his g/f were with me heading to another friends house. i come up to the turn for my other friends road, and bob was like “rally turn?” his g/f not paying attention realized to late what was going on, as i rounded this corner at about 50mph, and slide out the rear end… controlled of course. lol… she went sliding from one side to the other.

4

Coming home from school there is a rather large hill. Once you come over the top coming back towards my house, the main road is banked left hard core, then a second road comes up about 1/2 way on that banked turn. Then another road immediately comes up on that road. Well I went to take the right off the 1st banked corner that went left at a somewhat fast speed, and went to take the fast left onto the other road, well I had done e-brake turns there before so I was like, why not again. So I went for it, pulled it as I turned left and there were a hole bunch of stones there that were not there at the beginning of school. Back end really slides out, because the road to the left drops off . I ended up in the oncoming traffic just as a jeep wrangler comes flying around the corner (prolly 35mph). I freaked out, I had stopped by then, so I slammed it in 1st and took off. My bro and sis (14) and my one friend were in the car at the time. Scared the shit out of all of us.

5

I have calmed down since then. My one friend flys around on this road that is 40mph. He always and i mean always pulled his ebrake around most corners. He had a early 90’s Mazda Protege. He went to take the corner faster than normal, and Im guessing pulled his e-brake, at around 80mph (35mph turn, ive taken it at about 65 in my car no problem). He lost it, he flew across the other lane, into a 3 foot bank that was really steep down to the edge of the road, his tires caught, he rolled 1.5 times landing on his roof and slid something like 150-200 feet into the side of a house on his roof. He ended up in the living room, of some persons house at like 7:05am. Everybody in school had heard about it in the first 2 hrs of school. His girlfriend got a call just after it had happened and got in her car and flew up the parking lot and to the hospital where he was going. That really changed my mind about speading like that.

6

umm i put the car in a couple of ditches cornering too fast, almost rearended/ side swiped someone.Me and a friend were coming home from doing something and i was speeding in the rain on rt30 ( a highway) and all of a sudden brake lights came on and i swerved to the other lane in a split second almost clipping the corner of the car beside of me. but most of my limit pushing is done on the numerous rural routes wheres there are just feilds to park it in

7

Yo HKS, been on Pineroad any in Etters down from the supper rutters? Thats a fun road, there is also a guy that live on there that has a cavilere that I would actually drive (I hate them). And his friend has a VW Golf something.

8

I’m not sure it can be a considered closes call, but here’s my story.

I was driving home from work one night, back when I owned a Dodge Dakota, and it was very cold that night. There was ice everywhere and in Buffalo it’s not uncommon.

As I was coming to a light next light (100yds) the guy in the left hand lane decides cut in front of me and make a right hand turn. As soon as he cuts over into my lane, I start hitting the brakes, but nothing happens. I realize I’m on a sheet of ice. There was another guy going straight on the left so I decide, to gas it to the right into a marking lot. As I give it a little gas, I begin to maintain control but only got 3 wheels onto the parking lot, the rear driver’s side didn’t make it and I’m still sliding. And then I hit a lamppost and bent it over. Probably hit it at about 10 or 15 mph.

Better I hit the lamppost than reared the guy and get sued.

9

nah i dont head to etters … normally im down around windsor or spring grove

10

O YEA SPRING GROVE, had to thind about it. Rt 30, i know where that is, my one friend lives in spring grove. I gotta get on rt 30 to get to his house. I get on there by going down rt 74 and at BJs wholesale club I take a right onto rt 30. Im guessing you know where that is.

11

i live right down the street… hook a left at the mitsu dealer on 30 and your at my house