With the recent number of people expressing an interest in "shooting canyons", and a lot of them being ages 16-18, I felt it necessary to make a post regarding this activity. Although I'll be the first to agree that driving down windy roads is fun, I strongly emphasize that they're not race tracks. So here's a few things I have learned about driving them, since I live amongst the canyons and drive them very often:

- Brake before the turn and use light throttle coming out of it. This will ensure the most traction. Also, it is better to slow down too much and make up for it with the gas then to be scrubbing off speed and traction while trying to steer.
- If you lose traction, don't slam on the brakes. Any sudden change in cotrols, such as steering, braking or accelerating will send your car out of control. Even the F1 racers drive as smoothly as possible.
- Watch where you're driving. The canyons have some pretty views, but if you have to look, pull over. The next turn is closer than you think.
- Pretend all blind curves have a stalled car around the bend. It sounds silly, but I have had at least 4 near misses of this sort.
- Stay on your side of the road. One of the worst types of collisions is head-on, and guess what happens if you're apexing a blind curve when a big truck is coming around the other way.
- Get to know the roads. If you don't know the canyon, take every turn as if it was a hairpin. It may start as a smooth sweeper, but your eyes get wider and wider as it gets sharper and sharper until your car breaks loose and slides into that guard rail (or worse!)
- Canyons are not the place to test the limits of your car. The penalty for misjudging a corner at an autocross event is spinning out and 2 seconds on your already ruined lap time. The penalty in the canyon is most likely falling off a cliff and dying (not to mention totalling your beautiful Lancer). If you have the need for speed, there are plenty of drag strips, empty parking lots, and race tracks to go to.

That's all for now. If anybody wants to add something, or correct anything I might be wrong about, feel free to post. I know 4 people who have been hospitilized while driving canyons (one is paralyzed now), 1 totalled car and 2 totalled motorcycles. Let's not make this a trend, please.

 

you can also add that little tip that Adam gave about rolling down the windows at night if you tinted windows. that way you dont go running into the side of the mountain.

 

tonight..@ carbon canyon... about 9:30 i was sitting in my freinds Prelude..its a really nice car..he just got his CF hood, HID, bodykit, intake/ greddy exhaust and momo stuff in his trunk...it was his first try in that canyon..me and my friend warned him this canyon gets crazy in the end....but he slid out..and loosing control..he got freaked out..and slam the brake..and we lost control...slid down a hill and we land in the field...the frount aftermarket bumper is gone..the trunk lid is gone...all the shuff flew out the car..window shatters...cuts the drivers hands and stratch his head....we hit over a steel fance and something hit on the roof..the roof dents in...the other friend of mine was sitting shut gun..he het his head on the roof..i was in the back seat..w/ SEAT BELTS!! yes seat belts works! and i have no injure at all..i still can remember when the windows shatters...his HID made everything so clarey..the engine was still running..and i warned him to shut off...and the cops came over like in 2 minutes..because my friend is only 16 and he got minor injure..so he was taken to the hospital. right now come back and think about it...
A car is not a toy....he shoudnt play w/ his car in the canyon..specially its his first run...
DRIVE SAFE
i hope his parents wont be all mad at me..cuz me and my other friend was the one dat call him up and bring up this idea jsut to drive in the canyon...
but i bet they hate me till death now...
and im guessing that 98 prelude is mostlikely totalled now..

 

well the canyons might not be racetracks but they are the closest you can get really, i mean if there was a track i would go crazy on that instead of highway 9, but its not like you can just go to a track the closests ones to most cities are hundreds of miles away and they won't just let you in with a street car unless you have a helmet and special license that you had to take a multiple thousand dollar class to get and then you have to pay hundreds of dollars for just a few hours on the track. if i spent that money on the track all i would be able to afford would be a crappy car and i wouldn't be able to afford mods for it either. so really your just getting the track experience for free(well tickets and gas and crashes if your unlucky)but its always varied cause you can always go find a new road and there is much more twisty road then tracks.

 

BE SAFE... and Drive responsible....thats all i can say

 

I am afraid someone missed my point already (although it doesn't surprise me). A life is priceless (I wouldn't use it to pay for track time), and although I'm not saying to drive like grandma in the canyons, I wouldn't drive right on the brink of out-of-control either. Just to clarify what I said earlier.

 

That truly is a very ignorant way at looking at things. Cars, first and foremost, are expensive investments, and in many people's cases, VERY expensive TOYS. If you cannot afford to properly utilize this "toy" you should not be playing with it. They have reasons for having people take licensing exams, and allowing them to race on sanctioned tracks; simply because a car is more than a toy, it is very much a weapon, double-edged as a matter-of-fact, also. It is flat out irresponsible to assume that it is your right, as the owner of a race-prepped car, to make any PUBLIC street into your personal playground. Especially when others lives are at stake (including your own). Simply, if you cannot afford the thrills, tough. Attempting to get your cheap thrills on some mountain road is irresponsible.

 

For those of you who still think racing is a personal decision and only a risk for the racer, check out this thread, and tell the mother that people can race where they want just because they don't want to spend $30 to drive on a track.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...threadid=10688

 

good point urbanknight

 

I want to add. It was obvious that the Accord driver was an idiot. It is not only the speed that killed all those people but his lack of gray cells.
I've seen one even worse accident on my own eyes where a guy passed!! through another car, which was turning left, with a 110mph and split it into 2 unrecognisable pieces - just a bunch of tin, blood and motor pieces on the road. He went through the red light and all 4 passengers inside the split car were killed.
And again, i don't really blame the speed - i blame the brainless piece of **** that drove. After seeing that i didn't drive for 3 months. Was also in shock like that fireman...

A big problem in street races like that is that the people (kids?) try to "win" in any case and their "pride" does not allow them to slow down and lose to another driver.
It is especially dangerous in the city streets where there are side roads and you never know when someone might pull out from nowhere or go through the red light or a kid runs after a ball etc.

Racing in city streets suck, especially when people are crawling all over.
Canyon is different but as urban accented:
- if it's a blind curve expect a broken car right behind it, or a line of cars or something - this is how my friend just got crashed a few months ago. Something was going on on the street, there was a blind curve and a line behind it, he couldn't break down and hit the car in front and the car behind him hit him - chain reaction.
- watch out for those curves that start smooth and end up sharp.
- if it's throwing you out of the curve - don't brake, release the gas pedal.
If you do have to brake and have enough room (but usually you don't ), make sure the wheels are not turned or at least make then go strait. Braking in strait line helps the car move in single direction and will prevent it from spining.

 

Forgot to add something about canyon driving...
If you're pushing your car it means beside accelerating you gonna have hard braking.

Just DO NOT use advices from people in the post about better breaking just with the brakes rather than with the engine because brake pads are cheaper to replace. You need to use both engine and brakes or othervise you gonna find yourself going downhill and the brakes don't work even when fully depressed. Unless you have some mean brembos with hell-expensive pads don't even think about using just brakes. They overheat and then they are almost useless.
To me my life and possibly even someone elses is much more worth to me than the pads and the clutch combined.

 

I drive on ridges, not really canyons, but mountainside ridges. In my experience it can be fun, or it can be a nightmare. Firstly, if you have more ***** than sense, you shouldn't mess with the consequences. Next, know what tools can get a job done, and be prepared before attacking a downhill. Then, have a good sense of what you can, and can't do. Many drivers have driven their whole life not knowing the capabilities of their car and themselves. I've driven on this course near my house where houses are 20-30 ft away from the road, and 5-10 ft above the ground. There are two lanes, and 1 car barely fits on the road. Despite that, I do take up both lanes if necessary. I have my methods of knowing of oncoming cars, and in 1 situation had to pull an inertia drift to avoid an accident.

If you think that drifting is easy, you're wrong. Especially in a FWD car. Concepts that seem like instinct go out the window when you feel what it is like to drift. I do this on stock tires and nothing but lowering springs and a strut tower bar. That's all I have, but I manage to drive this car harder than that lame driver in the WRX in that commercial. BTW, NEVER PULL AN E-BRAKE TO DRIFT, IT'S NOT NECESSARY TO DRIFT, AND IT WILL KILL YOU.

If anything, do it because you feel that you're tied somehow to the mountain, or the canyon. Don't do it for respect, to be a badass, to show off, or to get any points across. I see it as a form of therapy for myself, to forget everything but the next turn, and the warmth of the road before setting the reins loose on it. I drive for myself, to prove something to nobody but myself. My first accident totalled my car, and now I strive to correct what I did wrong by being able to do it correctly, safely, and maturely.

So if you decide to risk your life and your car, have a better reason than any of the negatively stated above. And I suggest if doing it, try to do it alone, and have someone follow you, and most importantly:

"KNOW THE MACHINE, KNOW THE ROAD... THOSE ARE THE TOOLS THAT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE." ---?

--- Kei

 

i agree with you visual and just because i say windy roads are an alternative to tracks doesn't mean i'm crazy on them, the canyons i drive i know very well, i drive them almost every day when its not raining and even a few times a week when it does rain and i know conditions can change from day to day, just because i enjoy pushing my skill and my car on these roads doesn't mean i am completely irresponsible, i don't accelerate to top speed on long straight aways or anything, and i always try to enter turns at a speed where i know i can safely exit it, so far i've entered and thousands of turns and exited the same number safely and only completly lost control and did a massive understeer once, and since then i've been a little more cautious and realized that the limits of my driving are now approaching the limits of my car and have now started to modify my suspension.

 

I'll add to that, if you don't know what heat-fading means, you shouldn't be driving on canyons at all. I can tell you it's scary heading towards a cliff-side curve, pressing on your brakes like a leg press machine and the car is still moving like your foot's on the gas.

 

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