scary experience tonight - beware of leaves on ground

[ecl]

had a very very scary experience tonight

was driving down kirham (off beecroft road) at around 9pm

those of you from the hills should know of the area before the bridge above the m2, it comprises of a few twisties but nothing too dramatic

i was literally going 30-40 km/h as it was raining and i couldnt see anything

anyways, on the last turn, my back wheel stepped out and spun out (lost count how many circles i did but time sure did stand still)

luckily, there was no cars coming the other way as i basically spun and stopped across both lanes and i doubt they wouldve seen me

also, lucky i didnt incur an damages to the car nor was there anyone around

a later inspection showed a large number of leaves and sticks on the ground which probably resulted in loss of traction, i have decent tyres with decent tread

i wasnt being stupid and was driving very slowly, so i suppose it couldve happened to anyone

anyways, just a warning to those travelling in leafy areas and in the wet

[always_me]

same thing happend to me getting off the m2 heading down to chatswood on dehli rd down the hill, was driving and bmw when i was franging it a little and geard down and copped some nice compression lock up and goooooooooooooooooooooooone couldnt stop the back end going faster then my front end, lucky was late at night no cars or would have been big pile up. never again. i shit myself badly ( only thing was wet or leafy, just wanted to tell the story)

[Duncan]

glad to hear you guys were both OK.

They were pretty ugly conditions last night, but it sounds like you probably should have been going slower still Leaves, Oil, mud any of these things can catch you out

BTW Takumi would have headed for the leaves directly, slid past you, and won the race

[silver gts-t]

BTW Takumi would have headed for the leaves directly, slid past you, and won the race

[CS_180]

duncan u fooooll

[Menthu_Rae]

yeah, shouldnt you guys already know this from watching initial d?

nah I've had a similar thing happen to me mate - i was going around a long sweeping left hander when it was wet, i was doing 30km/hr (in a diesel merc) and not braking/accelerating - and the back end stepped out. luckily i was able to opposite lock and feed in some accelerator to shift the weight back a bit, but i still didnt regain traction, feed in some steering the opposite way (fishtailing kind of) whilst trying to get traction back through the accelerator...

finally gripped to the road, 5m before the front of a truck in the other lane!!! the guy in the truck was dumbfounded, from his point of view, this old merc (with P plates ) just came sliding around a corner and almost whacked into him...

he was beeping his horn and giving me nasty gestures - but of course i didnt do it intentionally...

but yeah, same thing dude - low speed, not doing anything stupid at all - and it just slid out (no leaves on this road tho, probably just oil) so be careful out there guys! glad to hear you're alright tho... lucky, very lucky!

[Duncan]

ahh the other thing I should mention....tread depth makes a hge difference to grip in the wet, much more so than in the dry.

skylines tend to have a wear problem on the inside rear tyres if they are lowered at all so you might find that they look OK on the outside but a re crap on the inside

[GoldZilla]

Takumi probably would have dropped a front wheel into the gutter if he needed to to get around you as well...

Seriously though, don't forget that wider tyres generally have LESS grip in the rain than narrow tyres because the wider contact patch can contribute to aquaplaning - the wide tyres will drive OVER the water, whereas the narrower tyres tend to "cut" through the water and grip the road surface underneath.

Anyway, regardless of whether you've got a phat set of wheels with wide tyres, or the stockers with 215's or whatever, ALWAYS buy the best tyres you can afford. Remember that the tyres on your car are the ONLY real contact your car has with the road.

Good to hear that both of you are safe anyway.

Nick T.

[rukus]

i used to go thru there to work (going toward epping. now i go through north rocks rd)..

but ye i feel a the rear lose it a little even in dry whether coz the road is quite bumpy and has lots of small pothole type holes there which help in traction loss.

that's lucky no cars were coming from the opposite direction or ur poor skyline would of been hammered :|

[Jordan]

ahh the other thing I should mention....tread depth makes a hge difference to grip in the wet, much more so than in the dry.

skylines tend to have a wear problem on the inside rear tyres if they are lowered at all so you might find that they look OK on the outside but a re crap on the inside

word, even over mild standing water at 80kph, the car wriggles and jitters like the HICAS is going off its nuts. The rears were aquaplaning, not fully, but enough to ensettle the rear end.

On the F3 going home one night in the wet at 120kph, driving over a wash of water (water coming from one side of the road to another due to the camber of the road and gravity) the back will lift up entirely and sit itself down again pointing a few degrees away from the direction of travel making you shoot off into the other lane before bring it back under control. Scary stuff and I always slow right down to 80kph right awy untill I get my kajhones back D:

Fresh tyres on the back makes the car feel so much better, like it was dry.

I think its most likely because one wheel will aquaplane first, making the toe-in on the other wheel push it, then the other wheel will plane, and the same goes for the other wheel, making you shake around.