Why Mustangs keep crashing @ Cars&Coffee

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Originally Posted By: bioburner
They should offer them with some driving skill courses. I bet the insurance companies might even help. I will qualify for 55 plus if I take a drivers ed course for us old farts.
I was an AARP instructor for their safe driving course which has turned into a big nothing the past few years. Best bet is to take the National Safety Council's defensive driving course.Be very wary of any AARP endorsement.


My SRT8 came from the factory with a fantastic all day driver improvement course hosted by Skip Barber Racing and Michelin. 2 hours of classroom instruction and the rest of the day all over Homestead with a pro in the car with you.

All high performance cars should have some sort of driver improvement training in a country where the hardest part of a driver's test is parallel parking...

 

[FCD]

It's a nose heavy , tail happy RWD car that loves to oversteer and also another part of the fault are the stupid drivers who think they can make them go sideways without having a problem

 

[oilpsi2high]

Originally Posted By: HemiHawk
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: HemiHawk
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
They still spin very easily.


Like just about any rear drive car? FRS/BRZ/GT86 has like 150 wheel horsepower and Prius tires, and sure enough it'll spin. Mustangs aren't some dangerous vehicle.


Actually, those cars you listed are pretty tough to kick sideways on dry pavement.


I mean, whats "tough"? A friends BRZ on the stock terrible tires would spin them very easily. Now that he has real tires it sticks very very well. Proper conditions for both vehicles and neither will kick out randomly. With proper tires and temperature, you have to try to slide a Mustang too. The guy in the GT350 video had his foot flat, you can hear it rev bouncing. Do that in any performance vehicle and you're going to have a bad time if you dont know what you're doing.

EDIT: Camprunner summed things up nicely. Point is, "fish tailing" is not a Mustang only phenomenon. Is it easier with something with torque? Very yes. In most cases you can clearly see the stupidity in the videos showing them crash.



BRZ has low torque, you need to clutch dump it to get it sideways on dry pavement. Driven a bunch of those things, they suck.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: ordinarybloke
Quote:
They still spin very easily.


I don't see why this or any of it is criticism.
A Mustang is not for the wise is it?
Its raison d'etre is it is mindless. It's supposed to be funny, even if the sorts that drive them aren't always in on the joke.


Are you baked?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
It's a nose heavy , tail happy RWD car that loves to oversteer and also another part of the fault are the stupid drivers who think they can make them go sideways without having a problem


Being 53/47 (in 5.0L trim for the 2015 body style), it really isn't that nose heavy. Even the older S197 was 57/43 which while not great, isn't awful. The Ecoboost variant is 52/48 BTW. Now the old Fox bodies were ~60/40 LOL! And yes, they were very tail happy even with 225HP

For reference, my SRT-8 is 54/46 (worse than the current 5.0L Mustang). And it compares well to my previous E39 M5, which was ~52/48.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Tail happy cars are nothing new. I had an AMC Gremlin that was positively CRAZY to drive in bad weather. Worse than a pickup truck for having a light rear...

 

[DoubleWasp]

This all makes sense if you ignore the fact that a perfectly balanced exotic, developed in several cities, with a multi-million dollar budget for even the most mundane clips will kill you if you don't have serious driving experience.

It's called horsepower. I don't care what chassis you put it in. It's a death sentence for for inexperienced.

 

[Silverado12]

From what I'm seeing, it's people doing rolling burnouts and extremely stupid stuff like purposely drifting and breaking the rear end loose.

 

[wtd]

I have a 2014 GT and I'm very careful on how I drive it as the rear end has gotten a little loose on a few occasions. This is also why I keep the traction control on. From what I hear and read, it can get out of control very quickly without it on. You have to respect a vehicle that makes that kind of power.

Wayne

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
It's a nose heavy , tail happy RWD car that loves to oversteer and also another part of the fault are the stupid drivers who think they can make them go sideways without having a problem


Like a capri?

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
It's a nose heavy , tail happy RWD car that loves to oversteer and also another part of the fault are the stupid drivers who think they can make them go sideways without having a problem


Like a capri?


Best example ever was the LC and LJ Torana, adapted from a Vauxhaul Viva, extra wheelbase and nose length, and a straight 6.

That was mine, triple 1-3/4S.U. carbs on a 186 c.i. 6 cylinder, ported head, 23/60 cam, and headers.

Couple of times I had to do two laps of a roundabout to gather it back up after running out of countersteer.

 

[CT8]

The Mustangs crash all by themselves.

 

[02SE]

I don't know if Mustang drivers are less skilled than average. But I do know that it is most often Mustang drivers that try to goad me into a race, when I'm riding one of my Sportbikes. In fact it happened again today.

 

[Gasbuggy]

They handle well. Nose heavy? 54/46. We see alot of vette crashes too. The problem is mustangs sell in the largest quantity to demographic most likely to wreck them. They aren't called a 5.Bro for nothing. Many of these pullout crashes seem to happen when the driver upsets the whole car when they slam 2nd gear midway through. It takes good hand eye coordination, which alot of people don't have.

 

[Camprunner]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
I don't know if Mustang drivers are less skilled than average. But I do know that it is most often Mustang drivers that try to goad me into a race, when I'm riding one of my Sportbikes. In fact it happened again today.


After owning a modified Kawasaki ZRX 1200 I would not even try to race a sportbike with my 2013 Mustang GT.

 

[ordinarybloke]

Quote:

After owning a modified Kawasaki ZRX 1200 I would not even try to race a sportbike with my 2013 Mustang GT.


I'll correct this for you.

BEFORE owning any reasonably quick bike I would not even think to best it with a 2013 Mustang.

I mean... you had to pay actual money to work that out?

You've let me down.
You've let yourself down.
You've let us all down.

Mustang owners?...

Y'onour, I rest my case.

 

[fdcg27]

The reason is a simple one.
Most Mustang buyers have never had a RWD car before nor have they had a car that would gather speed as quickly.
An engine with real torque combined with any sort of LSD will enable a clueless driver to get things out of shape really quickly.
The answer, as with any car, is to slowly feel out and work up to the car's potential.
An instant attempt at really fast driving in an unfamiliar performance car is a recipe for testing out one's insurance coverage for most drivers.
These are not V-6 Camrys or Accords.

 

[Ducked]

I believe people kept shooting at them.

The big underslung radiator was vulnerable to ground fire, and pilot visibility on the ground was poor, causing taxi accidents.

 

[fdcg27]

You forgot the ground loops in even mild crosswinds if the pilot was a little slow on the pedals after touchdown although these and poor or zero forward visibility until you get the tail up are common to all aircraft with tailwheels.

 

[ted s]

leave the traction control on