bye-bye szymonsta's dc2r

[szymonsta]

it pains me very much to write this but my beloved dc2r is now probably no more than a can of spam
intreagued? i'm going to write a short little blog to tell the story and help ease my sadness. if any of you are bored enough to read through it perhaps you will learn something from it too? (drive safely being probably the most obvious lesson)
anyway here goes:

the beginning:
i have always been a car-nut since i was a toddler, with a particular interest in japanese sports cars. (my favourites were the dr30/r31 skylines and supra turbo-a's that raced at bathurst in the 80s, then the R32 GTR and NSX a few years later)

for my first car i wanted a corolla sprinter (not knowing about the legendary status of the AE86 at the time, i'll be honest, i just liked the look!) or an early celica, and i ended up with an '85 model RA65, the last of the FR celicas. it had an exhaust, mags and was lowered (badly - it oversteered and understeered at the same time!) but it was my 1st car, it was cool and i liked it.


that car taught me a lot about driving and working on my car, but after a few years i wanted to upgrade to something high-revving! i had my heart set on a jdm low-volume import celica xx or dr30 skyline turbo, a silvia q's (imports had just arrived in australia and a stock s13 with a cat-back was uber-cool!) CRX SiR or integra LS..but none of these fit my budget so i settled on a prelude 4ws. it was an ok car and i made it look and sound a bit better, but the main thing is it got me into hondas big-time..


i fell in love with integra type-r's watching best motoring dvd's. i was also considering an s15, but a drive in a dc2r and this clip from best motoring just sealed my fate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT5-y9gaj08

soon after i was the proud owner of this pristine championship white 2000model one-owner dc2r:

[RichyR]

oh no, what happened?

[szymonsta]

my DC2R
the car stayed standard for the first year or so while i enjoyed learning it. i was lucky enough to live near some of adelaide's best driving roads and loved going for nice winding-road drives since i first got my P's, and the Type-R was just made for these kind of drives. it was exhillarating and incredibly fun. as much as i liked the car as standard, it was never going to remain so.
after a year or so,and a few emails to spoon in japan, i had a set of spoon progressive-rate springs, some p.mu pads and some buddy club rims installed.
the spoon springs were great and improved the handling even more, where i thought it couldnt get any better than the amazing stock handling balance!
here's the car in the early days:

on clubrsx and the new clubitr i met some great guys from SA and got into track days. i was hooked after the first one, and progressed along the usual 'light-tune' route, enjoying my car more and more. soon i had the car set up quite nicely as a daily and occasional winding road/track car:

by early 2009 the car was almost how i wanted it, all that was missing were some 16x7 ssr type-c's or advan RGII's, a mugen intake and exedy hypersingle clutch&fly.
i had RE55's, endless na-r's and zeal streight6 rotors, zeal function x's with 12kg/mm front and 8kg/mm rear xcoils springs, vision camber adjustment kits, front and rear strut braces, koyo radiator, mugen thermo, mugen oil cap and socks, mugen baffled sump, mugen N1 ecu, MBit 4-2-1 headers, a genuine WedsSport catalytic converter, Fujitsubo Powergetter exhaust, Defi gauges and vision superlow seat rail.
my pb at Mallala had improved to 1:23'05 (faster than the V8Brutes lap record and within 1s of Chris Alajajan's Production Car class lap record) and i think 1'22's were in reach if i had been able to track the car more than once a year..it had 118kw@wheels, about 10kw@wheels more than standard..
it was a brilliant, exciting, fun car.


this is the last photo of my honda before the incident. it was a beautiful car and i loved it. i had the car for over 6 years and i wanted to keep it for ever..

[ChargeR]

. Anxiously awaiting the rest of the story.

[daz]

the suspense

[felixR]

aww man i'm waiting for it

[szymonsta]

the Crash
i am lucky to be alive.
i consider myslef to be an above-average driver. i drive sensibly on the roads to and from work. on winding-road drives i always knew my limits and didn't push too much, i always felt it was a little riskier than putting along at the speed imit, but relatively safe.

then one night, tired after a call-back to work and having recently bought our first house with my wife..

i rolled my car.

into a ditch by the side of a winding hills road. i was going under the speed limit, for what i considered to be a very mild drive. spirited, but much slower than i had been many many times before. the car slid out a little, and all of a sudden there was just a metre or two of gravel, and then a drop..
it was a surreal experience.
here is my car at the auction: (it looked worse upside down too)




i have a broken foot and thats about it. the car was superbly safe, the passenger cell remained completely rigid.
i crawled out the driver's window to get out.


if this gets through to even one person it will be worth my half-hour of sitting at my computer and writing this..
drive safely guys. if you want to push the car, go to the track. but even then be careful. accidents happen to even the most skilled of racing drivers, let alone amateurs like us. enjoy your cars but keep in the back of your mind the thought that you are never 100% sure of what will happen next, and the bigger safety margins you leave, the better your chances of enjoying a safe drive.

[RichyR]

Glad you are ok bro, sorry for the loss

[DC:53:XX]

omfg... thats some bad shit.. *taps on wood* good to kno ur ok though....

[ChargeR]

Sorry to hear. Good work for taking the time to tell your story and to encourage others to drive safely.

[daz]

Good to hear you are alive and well mate!

Sorry about your dc2r but at least your still with us today. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

[felixR]

Glad to hear that you're OK and I hope for a speedy recovery for the foot!

the pictures make me sad

[szymonsta]

thanks for reading guys. i have wanted to write this for some weeks now but very busy lately. ..
i miss my car
i really wanted to hang onto it until for ever, so it would be like those cool 70s classic japanese cars are now..

but, we are now looking at getting a Subaru Liberty GT for my next car, which i am quite excited about. But the Integra Type R will always have a special place in my memories, it was a car i was truly passionate about, a real classic..

so i join the swelling ranks of misplaced clubITR'ers..this has been a great web forum to 'hang around in' for all of these years and i will still browse around even though im now ITR-less..

[mugsee]

Thanks for sharing and the good write up.

Broken foots will heal and cars are replaceable, so no big loss Congrats on the house! Onwards and upwards only.

[szymonsta]

ps i broke the foot after the accident, jumping back down into the creek bed.otherwise i was scratch free! luckily. anyway the foot's almost healed now, its been several weeks so all good.