[etiolate]

i messed up my dad's lexus once due to some oversteering (might have been intentional).

 

[wuwhere]

Night time under blizzard condition, I plowed onto a snow drift twice, lost control and fell on a shallow ditch. Luckily I was driving a Jeep CJ7. I put in 4-wheel drive and was able to drive out of the ditch.

 

[fenixdown110]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif only once, on icy interstate and my rear-wheel-drive car fish tailed. Lucky, I regained control after 15sec - scared the $hit out of me and felt like an eternity. No matter how many times you practice in a video game, real life fish tail is scary. I need more practice with Need for Speed.

No simulation will get you nearly enough experience. You need behind the wheel experience.

 

[averydonovan]

Worst time when I was behind the wheel was when I was heading to work one morning after it had snowed and hit a nasty patch of ice on the onramp (the one from northbound Union to eastbound Highway 6, for you Denver folks). I was driving a Buick LeSabre which turned into a 3-ton sled sliding to the right. It scared the hell out of me just sitting there being unable to do anything except provide a minimal amount of steering. Luckily I was able to guide it between those posts that have those reflective markers on them, so I didn't hit anything at all despite sliding a couple hundred feet. It took me a good 10 minutes before I was willing to try to get back on the road again.

The most memorable time of being in a car that had lost control was when I was a passenger, not even a year before the episode described above. It was in a smaller vehicle, a Chevy Malibu, with bald tires. It was on the curvy part of I-70 westbound approaching Wadsworth and the driver was going much too fast for conditions on that part of the road. The car hit a patch of ice, crossed all 4 lanes twice, and finally stalled out facing the wrong direction in the middle of the highway. There was almost no traffic that night (there were travel advisories out) which is the only thing that saved us.

 

[fenixdown110]

^^Glad see your okay and pretty much in one piece.

 

[MD1032]

I remember when I was driving my last Civic, the '97 LX, before we put new tires on it. It was raining so the roads were slick, and I saw that a Firetruck was pulling out of a Fire station and thus traffic was stopped. No problem, I had hundreds of feet! Yeah right... hit the brakes and SHHHHHH... the car skid for a long time and judging by the distance I knew I was going to hit this old blue Accord that was in front of me, so I let off the brakes and reapplied them, which stopped me. The thing that was funny was that I was going the speed limit and had so much time to stop, and was barely able to stop. After that, my dad bought me four new tires, "Prime Well" brand, real cheap, but man, those were awesome tires and they performed extremely well in the rain. I remember messing around in the rain once I got the new tires to test them out and I was pleasantly surprised... I'd highly recommend those tires to anyone looking for a good, cheap tire.

Now that car was totaled, so I have a '98 DX with new tires that my dad also bought and these are Firestone FR380's, and they're far better than the cheap, dead ones that came with the car when we bought it that skid all the time. They're supposed to have a better grip on the road in the weather than the Primewell's but that's actually not true. They are, however, much, much quieter and get better mileage than the old ones, and I feel extremely safe when driving with them because even when I do hydroplane or skid, they stay perfectly straight...unbelievable, my car has never fishtailed or anything of the sort with these tires.

I hope this thread convinces some people to buy new tires. You can be the best runner but if you have bowling shoes on, you'll suck. Same thing with cars.

 

[fenixdown110]

It's better to coast to a slow stop. Apply the brake if you must, but very gently. If you don't have enough room, pull over to the shoulder to avoid causing an accident.

 

[wantmyf1]

I'm originally from what's called the "Snow Belt" in New Brunswick (province), Canada. If you don't know how to drive in bad weather you'd never leave your house from November to April. I've lost control more times than I can count. Fortunately I never had an incident and recovered control. It's literally a case of practice makes perfect, or at least quite good

I actually practiced losing & regaining control and that probably saved my neck a few times. Find a slick empty parking lot. Oh, and winter tires exist for a reason. They really do give you significantly more control than all-seasons!

 

[fenixdown110]

^^That's the way to do it!

Plus it starts to get fun.

 

[Judge Buff]

One extremely cold, winter night in 1978, I was driving back to Great Lakes Naval Training Center from my girlfriend's house in Milwaukee. It was about 4 am and I fell asleep at the wheel on Hwy 41. I woke up doing 360s across a bridge and I just happened to hit the ruts in the snow at the end of the bridge perfectly to keep my car from flipping over. No other traffic. Just me, alone at about 5 below.

Guardian angels apparently don't mind the cold or snow. I've never fallen asleep driving since then.

 

[logwed]

Oh god... I am TERRIFIED of falling asleep at the wheel. I'm so glad that you made it through that ok.

 

[wantmyf1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fenixdown110 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^^That's the way to do it! Plus it starts to get fun.

It's great fun! But you need an older vehicle to really get that full "out of control" feeling. My current vehicle has ABS, Traction Control and Stabililty Control. I just can't get that thing swinging like I could my parent's late '80s Caprice Classic!

 

[Foshizzle]

Yes, about 10 years ago driving home from my then gf in a blizzard. Lost the rear end doing maybe 60-80km/h and swerved into the oncoming lane then over to the other side and down a snow filled ditch. Luckily nothing happened to us (had a friend with me) or the car, but had there been oncoming traffic in the other lane we would probably have died since I was driving a -87 Vw Polo without airbags and very thin metal.

 

[pimfram]

I've had a couple times where the youknowwhat could have easily hit the fan. Worst I've had was just doing a 360 and ended up in the ditch. I've had at least a half-dozen close calls, most of which were trying to brake on the interstate and skidding on ice. Happened today coming home from work, actually. Just gotta keep a cool head and hope for the best.

 

[kool bubba ice]

No ice involved.. Never put the breaks on or sped up, just tried to get control.. Got new tires.. I needed some anyways.. Read tips on how to help prevent it. I had a headache afterwords, & was groggy for a few hrs, maybe a slight concussion, not sure? I just felt out of it.. Maybe, shock or adrenaline..