[AWSAWS]

I wouldn't normally post something like this, but I hate to think what damage was done!

Careful may be a nsfw site.

http://www.machovideo.com/13693/bmw-m4-fail/

***UPDATED: Higher quality footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miA5qj5ergM

[PJJD]

Thats painful to watch The usual story that money doesn't buy talent

[Pacman83]

Acting like a yob on a public road. Hope it costs him a fortune to put right. Might teach him a lesson, but I doubt it

[makkan00]

I'm surprised that none of you read his statement.

Originally Posted by trinim3 View Post
Hey guys,

It was my car that was involved and a mistake was made. There were no intentions of doing anything out of the norm. In fact, you'll notice in the video that the car was going very slowly in front of the crowd. This was intentional because we've all watched too many YouTube videos of this sort of thing happening and wanted to make sure that nobody would get hurt should anything unexpected happen. Once the car was past the crowd the accelerator was pushed in a straight-line as I have done many times in the past when the rear snapped violently. The car was going ~30mph at that time. The car has been driven for 4700 miles and has been driven with DSC off many times including in the rain and never has the car snapped so violently just from accelerating. I chalk it up to several factors including cold temps (low 40s), cold tires and incorrect psi (more on that later) and of course driver error. More judicious use of the throttle should have been exercised. MDM mode was not used because MDM is too quick to intervene and cuts power prematurely (or maybe not).

Usually when the rear breaks loose, it does so progressively and steering correction will suffice. However, you can see in the video that the front tires are turned slightly to the right indicating opposite lock was put on the steering trying to prevent the car from doing a complete 180 however there wasn't enough real estate to counter how violently it snapped - though admittedty the gravity of the snap required immediate full oppo lock which was misread. I'm not sure why some are saying that no steering input was made because it was - one could argue it should have been sooner but again usually a little wiggle just takes small steering input and power through not a full-on immediate opposite lock as was needed in such a big snap - to me it actually seemed like it was happening in slow-mo although the vid makes it seem like it happened so fast. As the car started to correct it became apparent that there was no way out except over the curb which is where I put on the brakes and tried to straightline the curb as much as possible to avoid hitting the curb at an angle which would cause a lot of damage and potentiality flip/roll the car.

I've driven many high hp rwd cars including vipers, porsches, corvettes, and formula cars and I've graduated from formula racing schools and have years of training in advanced car control and plenty of track time. Heck I remember day one of Formula school, half of the first day was spent on the skid pad learning how to keep a car from spinning if you lose traction. Maybe I need a refresher since it's been awhile and I've been driving AWD Audis for the past few years. Some of those other RWD cars I mentioned will snap fiercely and you have to be on extremely high alert, however my experience with the M4 has been that it tends to not snap so viciously in a straight line - but this time I was wrong. I would caution anyone thinking that it can't happen to them (count me as previously one of those) that anyone can make a mistake. I'm thankful that nobody was injured from such a mistake. Surprisingly, the car seems to be driving just fine with the only damage being the right plastic guard underneath the bumper which can be seen in the video. Surprising I know.

I mentioned earlier that I had incorrect PSI - let me explain. My PSI was low, so I inflated it a bit with a pump with an analog tire guage which of course is very imprecise compared to a digital gauge. I noticed that my right tire pressure was 1.5psi off of my left when viewing the PSI from the BMW onboard digital gauge (you can only do this while driving). However, as my car had been pulling to the right from day 1 of delivery (there's a big thread of many complaining about that on these forums). Miraculously, the car drifted to the right to a lesser extent with the right tire PSI being slightly higher than the left and so I was playing around with the idea of keeping it that way for a short time- however I knew that I needed to put the PSI equally across both tires but I just failed to do that before going to the meet. I have no idea if unequal PSI left to right contributed to the right rear spinning so differently than the left.

Anyways, I know I'll be ridiculed and called an idiot (and rightfully so) but I think many of you also know that I didn't do anything intentionally out of the ordinary or unsafe. I'm not sure I was even trying to show off as acceleration happened when the car was past the crowd and it's not like a powerslide or burnout or anything of that sort occurred.

I also think the M4 is a fine car and I have no complaints about the amount of power or torque or tire width or grip or anything. In fact, the whole reason I got the M4 is because it's not AWD and I like the rear moving around a bit. Mistakes happen and I've learned a lesson - and from now on will keep DSC on when driving around because there's too much at stake to make a mistake while driving - no matter how good or bad of a driver you are. Thanks for hearing me out. It certainly has been a humbling experience.

Further details:
http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1075458

[acerboo]

cock!

[zltm089]

Very surprised that the rear snapped like that on an m4.... does happen frequently with 335i without a proper lsd and dsc off!

[dave_g]

Ouch!!

[silver07335i]

The M4 driver is lucky there wasn't any cars on the other side of that traffic median.

[DavS1]

Everybody moans about MDM mode cutting in too soon....sometimes it does, but its usually when you give it too much steering angle for the slide, plus...it's not a racetrack it's a public road. if you want TC fully off and become the super hero M driver that doesn't need driver assistance take it to a track

[Jase 320d]

Driver is hopeless. Daddy shouldn't of bought him an M4

I see zero opposite lock being applied

[Pacman83]

Originally Posted by makkan00

I'm surprised that none of you read his statement.

If I were him, I'd have kept my gob shut and not made this ridiculous 'statement'
Showing off in front of an audience on a public road (regardless of what he thinks is 'safe') is idiotic.

[DavS1]

Yea there hardly looks like any opposite lock at all

[AWSAWS]

Originally Posted by DavS1

Yea there hardly looks like any opposite lock at all

I'd have to agree. It looked very amateur.

You have to be so careful with the traction control and throttle. I had a little bit of fun in some snow covered car parks over Christmas. The back end just whips around like crazy with full TC and DSC off.

[breathe3asy]

Tough crowd

[AlanYoro35i]

idiot's statement trying to cover up his crappy driving skills.

[JJ0063]

Originally Posted by Yoro35i

idiot's statement trying to cover up his crappy driving skills.

This.

That post he made was a load of writing where he should have just said "I fcuked up!"

[zltm089]

Wow you lot should be on pistonheads!

[djgandy]

The downside of a limited slip diff (and lack of driving skills)

[Kerr]

It did go pretty quickly and he was too slow to respond. You could hear his foot was still planted and no opposite lock applied.

How badly damaged is the car?

I can only imagine how embarrassed he was doing that in front of a crowd.

[Fundguy1]

Fail.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by zltm089

Wow you lot should be on pistonheads!

+1

[litany]

... quite expensive experience