BMFB
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I took my blazer to waterford hills road course this last sunday and it was a blast. This was my first time at a road course, and it will not be my last.
Truck handled really well, and the grip was outstanding. I had a driving instructor with me who was showing me what line worked best on the course, and kinda where braking zones should be and stuff. If I really pushed it I could get some oversteer, but that was about it, it never plowed, and it had great turn in and predictability. The scariest thing about it was just how much power the truck had out there. My driving instructor said it was the fastest thing he had ever been in, and that it handled as well as his race spec neon.
However, with some nifty driving on my end, coupled with a late brake, wide entry into a turn (passing a honda), and inexperiance with the course..and some gravel...and I did roll it over.
This was my first real car accedent (if you can call it that). I remember it pretty vividly, watching the world in front of me rotate over. First thing I did when the truck stopped moving was turn the engine off and from the video I can hear that that happened really quickly so I probbaly didn't black out. Me and the driving instructor climbed out through the pass. window and we were driven back to the pits. I got a chance to look at the underside of my truck and was pretty suprised and how far back the trans looked, almost middle of the truck.
Got back to the pits in time to see the truck get flipped back over. Myself, and the crowd of people were amazed to see that it looked no different.
I had to kick the door panels in, and it was full of gravel but it seemed fine otherwise. Lost about a gallon of trans fluid, all of the coolant, and a couple gallons of fuel... I was afraid of fires when I was upside down in the truck, after the motor got shut off I listened for a fire before I did anything else. I have an fire bottle in the truck but I know it will never actually help me. Truck was full of gravel...and i mean it was ****ing everywhere. Tires debeaded and filled with gravel.
Got it back to the pits, looked it over. Diarmed the fuel and spark and rolled the motor over to see if it was hydro locked with oil, I think it was close to being that way because it dieseled once...but after deciding it was fine it fired right up. added some trans fluid and coolant and drove it around the pits. Had a lot of smoke at first, but it cleared up after a bit of running.
Got under it and looked around, all the mounts seemed fine, rear end looked good, front end looked good...drove it a bit more and it seemed fine.
I changed the tires over to my all seasons, loaded it up and drove it 40 miles home. Drove fine...yesterday I looked at it a bit and found I cracked the exhaust and the windshield is done...I needed new mirriors anyway so I got some from a yard for 25 bucks. Unfortunetly they are elephant ears. Only other real things are my seat mounts are a little looser than they were...so Im going to re-do them. The pass side body mount got torn apart but it was on its way out anyway...rusted through.
Two track officials approached me and looked the truck over. They said they were concerned that the truck rolled becuase it had a high center of gravity but after looking at it they said it was probably set lower than a subaru legacy and any car would have flipped in that situation. I was lucky it was a truck that had such broad sides and didnt tumble, it might have been alot worse.
Myself and the instructor walked away with no broken bones, no whiplash, hurt backs, bruses or cuts. I am very lucky.
Truck handled really well, and the grip was outstanding. I had a driving instructor with me who was showing me what line worked best on the course, and kinda where braking zones should be and stuff. If I really pushed it I could get some oversteer, but that was about it, it never plowed, and it had great turn in and predictability. The scariest thing about it was just how much power the truck had out there. My driving instructor said it was the fastest thing he had ever been in, and that it handled as well as his race spec neon.
However, with some nifty driving on my end, coupled with a late brake, wide entry into a turn (passing a honda), and inexperiance with the course..and some gravel...and I did roll it over.
This was my first real car accedent (if you can call it that). I remember it pretty vividly, watching the world in front of me rotate over. First thing I did when the truck stopped moving was turn the engine off and from the video I can hear that that happened really quickly so I probbaly didn't black out. Me and the driving instructor climbed out through the pass. window and we were driven back to the pits. I got a chance to look at the underside of my truck and was pretty suprised and how far back the trans looked, almost middle of the truck.
Got back to the pits in time to see the truck get flipped back over. Myself, and the crowd of people were amazed to see that it looked no different.
I had to kick the door panels in, and it was full of gravel but it seemed fine otherwise. Lost about a gallon of trans fluid, all of the coolant, and a couple gallons of fuel... I was afraid of fires when I was upside down in the truck, after the motor got shut off I listened for a fire before I did anything else. I have an fire bottle in the truck but I know it will never actually help me. Truck was full of gravel...and i mean it was ****ing everywhere. Tires debeaded and filled with gravel.
Got it back to the pits, looked it over. Diarmed the fuel and spark and rolled the motor over to see if it was hydro locked with oil, I think it was close to being that way because it dieseled once...but after deciding it was fine it fired right up. added some trans fluid and coolant and drove it around the pits. Had a lot of smoke at first, but it cleared up after a bit of running.
Got under it and looked around, all the mounts seemed fine, rear end looked good, front end looked good...drove it a bit more and it seemed fine.
I changed the tires over to my all seasons, loaded it up and drove it 40 miles home. Drove fine...yesterday I looked at it a bit and found I cracked the exhaust and the windshield is done...I needed new mirriors anyway so I got some from a yard for 25 bucks. Unfortunetly they are elephant ears. Only other real things are my seat mounts are a little looser than they were...so Im going to re-do them. The pass side body mount got torn apart but it was on its way out anyway...rusted through.
Two track officials approached me and looked the truck over. They said they were concerned that the truck rolled becuase it had a high center of gravity but after looking at it they said it was probably set lower than a subaru legacy and any car would have flipped in that situation. I was lucky it was a truck that had such broad sides and didnt tumble, it might have been alot worse.
Myself and the instructor walked away with no broken bones, no whiplash, hurt backs, bruses or cuts. I am very lucky.
