Does the phaser II have a flashing light as well?

I wish I still had the models of the Star Trek props I built when I was a kid.

Sorry to hear your hit the median, i drive with VDC off alot and never had an issue with losing control. You need to get a feel for the car, they are very controllable. VDC off shouldn't mean = instant crash. Get her fixed and get back on the road! And maybe get some practice in controlling the car in a slide if you get the opportunity to go to a track of some kind, or an abandoned parking lot, ect.

Should read up on the crash threads... Damn near every one involves "VDC Off" But yes I do agree, it shouldn't mean instant crash. But when there is a crash, 90% of the time it's Hooning gone bad without VDC

All of these accident threads are making me feel like I'm driving on borrowed time. Knock on wood!

I am sorry to hear, but at least you and your son have a sense of humor. :icon18:

Goodluck with the repairs. We all do dumb things from time to time.

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...seriously.html

Been there, done that.

was this the chocolate cube story? :ugh:


op- sorry to hear and see. hope you learned a lesson from your son. ;) at least you are still alive and here posting about it. GL with the repairs or new car.

Yes, the poopcube.

Perhaps I need to cut down on my vdc off power slides.
But then again, perhaps not.

You may have induced lift off oversteer. Next time (if you ever risk doing so again - or the others out there) don't lift off! Be smooth. And don't Scandinavian flick on the streets. I have bad (although still pretty fun) experiences with that. On closed roads / tracks of course.

Sorry to hear, OP.

I can tell you this... VDC on or off, a faster than usual right turn with gravel on the road is scary.

Someone watches too much Top Gear. Lift off oversteer is USUALLY a FWD issue
RWD cars oversteer by mashing the pedal down

Speaking from experience, side airbag out does not mean totaled.

It's going to cost you, though, depending how much needs to be replaced behind the wheels. Wheels, TPMS, joints, etc. With the airbags deployed, you need them replaced, which hurts. And they do some real damage when they come out. Side airbags out? Probably need the whole seat replaced and side work, which will hurt even more. With a car that new, hopefully your insurance adjustor pushes for OEM parts. But be prepared for a big bill past $6k and up.



To anyone wanting to pile onto someone who may have had his first *real* at-fault accident, I'll just say it takes weeks or longer for that anger to go away, depending on your personality and those closest to you whom you choose to tell about it. It's not best to egg it to the surface. Just sayin. Fist bump. No one got hurt or worse, and no one else involved, so always remind yourself of that and be glad.

And it takes balls, imo, to post about it. We all learn this lesson about cars and hooning at some point, especially anyone that enjoys pushing the performance even just a little bit. Some of us learn that lesson really early in life, others later, some with catastrophic results. But if we can walk away from it with no long-lasting impact (health, financial, mental), then momma sed we should keep our dignity and move on. :)

just crush your car and be glad you didnt get hurt

Still no pics? Did you soil yourself when you lifted off?

:icon17:

Maturity test before buying a sports car, anyone?


Though i would probably fail it :(

:iagree: :tup:

Not sure on the top gear reference, but I'm not afraid to say I used 'lift off oversteer' in a wrong way. Heck the only time I'm 100% sure I've experienced it was in a video game. But I do know that for me, using the throttle when I don't have traction has been safer for me than letting off and using the brake. I've normally spun out when slamming the brake in my noob days coming out of a drift / power slide, but have since then been able to better control it with throttle.

I was in a friend's car that had wheels bent in roughly 15 degrees in a crash, and that's what totaled it (shattered axles and whatnot..) my money is on it being totaled. Claim it under insurance then switch providers. You'll still get an increase in payments, but it'll usually be less that way

ROFLMBO...such a funny thread. Glad no one was hurt, but dang freakin embarrassing. I have turned the traction off, stomped it, rear got completely loose and did almost a 360 in 3 lanes with oncoming traffic leaving the stealership. Thank goodness the oncoming traffic was far enough away for me to straighten up and take off. I have learned that I need to leave it on unless in an empty parking lot, scared the complete crap out of me. Thank goodness for tinted windows.

We need to make all Noobz do a search for "VDC off" on here.

I took his comment to be correct. Its like a bike, in a turn if you being to slide out and close the throttle the bike will snap back. it over steers to the opposite side and "high sides you off about 5-10-20 feet into the air. Same goes for a car, slide, close, it snaps and slides to the other side. To me that says "lift off oversteer, to other side that you were over steering on."

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psb820c2f1.jpg

Dang, Thats a bad turnout for havin some fun... At least you guys are ok. Been working at a collision center for years and it would have to be alot of damage to total out a newer Z. For instance you would need about 24k in damage to total out a 35,000.00 dollar car. Airbag deployment has nothing to do with it. Most companies have a 70-80 percent threshold to be reached before they total your vehicle. I have seen some go as much as 85 percent of the value of the vehicle. Weve put in new frames, engines, airbags, you name it. State Farm however will total one before they put in a new frame. We get a few trucks that get totaled from time to time because of this. Just contact your insurance company and choose a reputable collision center.

OP, it takes some balls to admit that here on the forum. It really sucks and I hope you get it squared away asap. I totalled my '08 350Z from turning vdc off and trying to show off...It's a life lesson learned. It sucks, costs quite a lot of dollars but in the end you know to either take it to the track for hpde events and learn the art of driving fast, in a controlled manor or not to try that stuff on the streets.
tl;dr Life lesson learned,learn from it and don't repeat.

:iagree:

side note, Ol Lorenzo had some bad highsides in his rookie year.:eek2:

Lift off oversteer is a mid/rear engine car issue. When you lift off the throttle, the weight transfer moves forward, giving the front tires grip, but also makes the rear light. With less grip on the rear tires, a mid/rear car begins to rotate it's rear biased weight around the now grippy front tires. This is what made 70s and 80s (90s probably too) Porsche 911s treacherous to drive.

Tragic story, but at least no one is hurt, ego aside.

Next time, it'd be better to find a BIG empty lot with no islands or poles to hit. Cars will always magically steer towards those.

OP did your side curtain air bags go off? if not you could always look in the FS threads for some one selling OEM seats and just replace that then replace all of the wheel/drivetrain parts you broke :ugh2:

Lift off oversteer is an issue specific to mid/rear cars, but every car can do it. Especially if you put a stiff roll bar on the rear, combine it with crappy tires and drive on wet roads. But if you do that, then you are just looking for it aren't you?

Lol. Thank god I never have! Once all most but my boot caught the tank, my body rubbed the ground, but the bike stabalized and went straight and I just used it to climb back on and up. The guy behind me after the race was S-ing bricks when he came over to talk to me haha

Yep, it's an ineherent dynamic to anything with a good bit of weight on the rear axle, but can be dialed in on most anything.

Really, anything that's reasonably well-balanced will exhibit some oversteer if the throttle is lifted at the limit.

I used to turn off the traction control before I had even backed out of the driveway. I went through my rear tires too quickly. Now with new PSS installed at all four corners I leave it on. Most of the time.

Ya I still make sure to press vdc off right after I turn the car on. Especially when it's raining. When you have even a decent amount of skill (I by no means am exceptionally skillful) with low traction maneuvers, things are safer when you have the option of right foot steering.
Granted you have to be aware you don't have vdc and adjust your driving habits accordingly. But vdc must be off in order to conduct defensive driving techniques.
I don't want people to be reading this and thinking they're safer with vdc off. Go practice and take some lessons if possible. Know your limitations

Showing off by drifting or power sliding is the number 1 way to crash your car. Besides, that's showing off driver skill than the car itself (which is meant for the track). Show off how well it grips and carves the road (with vdc on), which IMO is far safer than power sliding.

Depending on who your insurer is you may not get a premium increase. I've replaced several broken windows over the years, had my Mustang 5.0 stolen twice, wrecked once during the theft, plus my kid wrecked her Jeep Cherokee when she was 16 and they never raised the premiums. Probably because we had no citations and the accidents/thefts were far apart. If your record's clean up until now it's probably best to go ahead and report it. We're with AAA by the way and have been with it since college, a looong time ago.

oh well nobody cares. :inoutroflpuke:

Hahaha. :icon18: But seriously, don't do this.

Ok - I'll be the d!ck.

Fix it yourself out of pocket. I don't want my insurance rates going up because the risk pool for the 370Z got that much worse from people doing stupid crap on the street in it. The GT-Rs insurance rates have doubled since they came out based on things like this - the more an insurance company takes a loss on a particular vehicle, the higher the rates get for everyone that owns one, regardless of driving record.

It's also the reason why the 350Z is more expensive to insure for me than a 370Z - things like this.

There's a reason you do things like this on a track and not on the street where there are curbs and other cars and pedestrians. I'm not going all elitist and saying I never did anything risky while on the street, but I got all that out of my system when I was putting myself through school driving a cavalier, not while working in my late 20s driving a Z. You can bet that by the time I'm responsible for an 18 year old about to go to college, the temptation to do stupid things will be far smaller than the miniscule amount I currently experience.

My VDC has never been turned off in any of my Nissans while on the street. I don't have to prove anything to any of my friends either. Half of them drive trucks and would lose bowel control with me on a track anyway.

Keep that crap off the streets. And buy a Corolla. It's sad that your 18 year old son has more sense than you do. Showing up here for sympathy wasn't the best thing either, but hey - I didn't laugh, right? Take it as a wake up call.

and wear out your rear brakes too quickly.

Look at it this way, you have done a big service to Z owners who might get a little too confident in it's handling ability. A lesson learned with just some minor damage to the car and no injuries or even worse! You may have just saved someone from something tragic.

:tiphat: