sempers

M4 J7 westbound - it's a long (fast) 270 degree left hander.

Feb(ish) time, coming back from my (suddenly ex)g/f's place. Old saab 9000. Bit annoyed, mind elsewhere, driving fast in the "I'm angry and it's two in the morning" manner, rather than being on a mission. Piled off the exit without looking at the speedo - must have been doing some 15mph more than I could get round in the dry in that car, and it was starting to sleet.

Car attempts to go straight on. Driver attempts to persuade otherwise, and loose a little speed (trail brake). Driver wins.

Car goes all way way round. Gave up on trying to catch at about 70 degrees of slide, figured it'd just snap the other way / hit the barrier head on if I got it. Hitting the barrier backwards seemed better.

Spun 1/2 way round the corner, backed it into the hard shoulder. Without touching anything Lord alone knows how.

Amazing how much time slows down...

Also managed to roll a 1972 triumph at 20mph when I was 18. That takes serious effort

[Edited by sempers - 7/2/2003 11:39:43 AM]

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Nearly, very Nearly smashed my car up today !

Making good progress round the back lanes near Mcr Airport, goes into a left hander and the back just lets go, no warning, no understeer just a big slide (MK2 Golf GTi), managed to keep it pointing vaguely in the right direction but it was a really scary moment the likes of which I havent had in a while, if I had stuffed it I would have been gutted seeing as I have just fitted and sprayed 2 new front wings !

Anyone else had any good 'Moments'

The_Lizard

Front-wheel-drive US Ford Escort, paved straight country road, approximately 70mph. I crossed a township boundary, the blacktop turned to gravel, and the torque steer immediately made the car yaw to the right. I steered back left, and brought it back into line by correcting against a series of decreasing fishtails.

Same car, major expressway, heavy rainstorm, balding tires. As I drove along I realized that I was fighting the car's increasing urge to yaw to the right again. I lifted off gradually, and for a moment had that vague groundless feeling of a drift, until the car slowed enough that the tires could bite through the rain, and the car suddenly snapped back into line.

Oh, how I appreciate the AWD on the Outback.

Popeye P1

unlucky chappy.

Rob Walker

Driving along the M602 into manchester about 10 years ago in my Astra gte 16v doing about 100 and a bmw (what else) pulled out in front of me.. as soon as I touched the brakes I heard a loud pop and my foot just hit the floor.. totally crapped myself. first thing I thought to do was pull the handbrake on and managed to skid/fishtail through the traffic in the other lanes onto the hard shoulder. Left a massive skidmark that was there for months afterwards..
What still gives me the heeby jeebies about it is that the motorway ends about a mile after that with a big roundabout. I'm sure they'd have to peel me out of the rear end of something if my brakes went there...

Duck_Pond

Yes, but it was my fault. Driving along a dual carriageway, and not paying enough attention (messing with CD player)... looked up... Doh! Car in front of me is stopped and letting someone out.

No time to brake - have to swerve violently round the back of his car and carry on.

Unfortunately, the guy in the car I almost hit has seen red and chases after me (I doubt he would have, had my car not been a Scooby), and starts flashing and gesturing at me to stop.

Another asset of having a scoob is the big tail spoiler - no-one can see you apologise with a wave. So I'm trying to get him to see that I'm sorry, but he's getting more irate.

So apologies to you Mr Vectra driver. He eventually turned off.

worley

Dark morning, picking GF up from Manch Airport, p1ssing it down, conciously keeping speed down over the Sheffield moors. Find myself reaching the top of a crest at 70 mph , downhill left hand bend with 5cm of running water across the road.

BIG aquaplane, off the gas, held the line and prayed! found myself all the way across the road before the 4wd found some grip.

The dry stone walls either side showed signs of previous mishaps...

Fuzz

M5 southbound Junct 30 (exeter I think ?)
Cold winters day, off to see relatives for Christmas in the Pug 306.
Starts to snow.....
leaving larger gap now because of it, concentration good.
Car in front brakes violently
Oh **** Have I left enough room..
braking as gently as I could, NOW I see why car in front braked so hard, the car in front of him is now doing the salsa down the outside lane, pirouetting, nose on the barrier, shortly followed by the rear end... and then the front... and then the rear etc.
I watch as the car in front (an old Jag I think) starts to lose the rear.
and yes, then mine tries to follow suit.
But thank **** I had shrugged off enough speed by then to control the "going forward, but looking out the side window" moment.
neither I nor the car in front lost it completely but It wasn't far off...

Andy

corradoboy

Fun roads around Brimham Rocks (Yorks Dales), overdid it a little & got airborn. In mid air I applied the handbrake and jammed foot through the floor, then waited. Lots of gravely screachy noises and stopped about 2 inches from the boot of Audi 100.
On the same run, just outside Knaresborough @rse tried to overtake the front at 100+, did full corner (80yds-ish)with most of the car on the wrong side and looking through side window.
Got a round of applause from a guy walking his dog after a 5 slap fishtail after hitting a patch of ice under a bridge. Lots of tracks in mud either side from unsuccessful applicants.
It might be old, front wheel drive, underpowered, unreliable and expensive to insure (Scooby is cheaper) but it's still a great drivers car. I will shed a tear when the Corrado makes way for the Scoob later this year.





Tear of joy that is !

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Had a few dodgey moments Worst was years ago I was driving a vauxhall cavalier (scarey thought ) and going round a tight bend in second at about 60mph I lifted, the rear snapped out which I caught but I was faced with a bus coming towards the rear door I had to do the speediest job of catching and straightening up the car you have ever seen and got the rear end on my side of the road just as the bus passed

Couple of years ago in the snow I was driving my puma and pumas are great cars but on snow they don't go anywhere and then if you can get them moving they don't steer or stop I was going round a bend on slough trading estate and it went straight on towards a massive metal gate I managed to yank the handbrake to turn the car then floored it to pull it forward in the new direction expecting this big metal post to hit the rear wing but it must have missed by inches and I carried on

And there are a few more

Paul

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Hmm I know that bend and it can be scarey on the limit but I haven't had a moment there luckily.

blueE9

pug 205 1.9 gti, Wapping High St, cobbles plus few inches of snow led to an overcooked handbrake turn which had the car sitting backwards on top of the traffic island marking the right turn. no damage but lots of amusement from the nearby bus queue. oh and too many bike crashes to mention.

Duck_Pond

Had 3 "moments" in my driving career, apart from crashing a Metro...

1.) In the MG Metro, took a corner too fast, adverse camber, passenger side wheels went into some slush / snow near the curb, and resulted in a full 180, narrowly missing a lamp-post. Mate sitting in the car calmly points out "Shouldn't we be heading in the other direction."

2.) Again in the snow, start going down the hill from my folks' place, in a Citroen BX, approach a few slalom between parked cars, and realise that the car is simply skating. So apply handbrake. No change. Engage reverse. Still no change (beginning to panic). Open door and stick foot out into the snow , with full steering lock and brakes applied... finally bites and hits the curb, inches from a parked van.

3.) Demonstrating the performance of the Scoob to 2 mates, and foolishly take a mini-island and subsequent chicane at about 75mph, have to steer violently as the curb comes in to play (just missed it), resulting the the car twitching / snaking like mad... eventually calms down... Mate in back seat not happy... my disclok was next to him on the seat at the time, and smacked his legs very hard. Doh!

Duck_Pond

Oops - forgotten worst one...

In the Scoob, going up a country lane - nice stretch, good visibility. There is a chain of about 5 cars in front, with the lead car doing 40 in the 60 limit. Bloke in front of me is in a Skoda RS Estate, and goes for it. I think, "what the hell" and follow.

Both making good progress, until we are getting towards the front of the cars... the lead car speeds up. The half-blind right hand corner at the end of the straight is now fast approaching.

The RS quite rightly pulls in behind the lead car leaving me, on the wrong side of the road, with nowhere to go, heading into a nasty corner.

Have to make a decision... NAIL IT!

In 3rd, so pretty responsive, I'm overtaking the lead car as I hit the corner, doing about 80mph. A van has just turned right across the road in front, so the cars coming the other way were only starting to pull off.

For some reason, I actually bothered to indicate (left) to show my intentions as I nipped in between the oncoming cars and the lead car. The bloke driving the Lexus IS coming the other way was white in terror (not surprising!)

After having escaped this very nasty moment I thought it best not to hang around... and zipped off.

About a mile up the road, the RS driver caught me up and I could see him smiling / shaking his head in disbelief.

That was definitely my worst near miss. New pants required!

CarpetCleaner

**** only knows how you manage to lose the back with no understeer. Did you lift off suddenly you wuss

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

that's a bit extreme isn't it? It could have been alot worse

New To Scoob

Loads and loads, some ended up in not so near misses, one of the best, about 1am in the local town, 3 tidy girls get into the fiesta xr2i beside me and my m8 in my 205, a couple of smiles and chat-up lines from each party so when they left we decided it would be a great idea to give them a chase, did so until we got to a 40 zone, they passed a taxi we went past then realised we forgot about the traffic island, hit the brakes only to discover thin layer of ice on the unused piece of road, the m8 responds with oh f*ck looks like were sideways and proceeds to wave at the taxi driver through the windscreen of the 205, taxi ***** it and hits the brakes and we gracefully slide back in front of him and on our merry way.
Same m8 same car, joining the M876 forgets how tight the sliproad corner is and promply goes sideways round the full corner at a ridiculous speed.

Funkii Munkii

Glad to hear youre OK

We have an office nearby to Manchester Airport in Baguley, it used to be in Timperley and the drive from Timperley to Manchester A/P through those back roads is fantastic fun especially in a Transit as you can see over the hedges and see whats coming but its nothing compared to the scoob

Dave

PiNkEyE69

about 6 years ago...
Dirving home from uni in my mini, dual carriageway, daytime, no rain.
all of a suddent someone up front slams the anchors on, causing the one behind him.her to slam them on, and so on.
Got to me, I slammed the brakes, nothing happened!
Quickthinking, I swerved and when down the central reservation (well, bumped down the central reservation would be accruate) which had no barrier and over took 2 cars before stopping.

Few months later, going round a roundabout in the rain and the back end went, I over corrected and it spun 180 in the opposite direction and ended me up in the crash barrier.
Police came along and gave me the "driving too fast were we?" speech which p'd me off! NO I WASN'T. It's not fault if the council can't be bothered to keep the road surface drivable.
Anyway, 4 weeks later in my new car I went round the same roundabout and saw another car in the crash barrier.
1 week later the entire roundabout was retarmaced.... funny that!

Duck_Pond

Paul - It was sliding for long enough at a very slow speed to consider getting out completely, and running round the front to try to stop it. Was a surreal moment or two.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Duck Pond

lol things really slow down too! and accident takes forever to happen it seems.

At least you were ok
Paul

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Missed that corner but caught it now does that count as a near miss

Alpine99

I've had one of those ice moments.. parked up in the street outside mates house.. got out and car was actually sliding down the hill... very very slowly but it was moving.. just watched as it pitched into the kerb 10feet further on..