IMHO it was just the increase in torque at the downshift that did it, combined with a very poor surface. There are so many other possibilities: was there a patch of fuel or oil at that point from a previous incident, was the surface degraded? We perceive roads as uniform, but I also ride motorbikes and am very aware that every inch of tarmac is unique.

 

I'm with Foosh on this one. From an engineering perspective, that was culprit.

 

Only in America ... this thread is unbelievable ... again Americans know nothing about driving whether fast or in inclement weather ... this thread is as ridiculous as people wearing safety gear for a standing mile event which in Germany is simply called the on-ramp ...


Number ONE rule for inclement weather driving is no SUDDEN changes, no hard accelerating, braking, shifting, steering ... especially not with high performance 295 water skis on the rear .... you drop two gears, that is a hard shift no matter the transmission, the engine does not have the time to match the rev no matter what, that is like slamming the brakes....

 

Dropping two gears instantly while not letting the car pick one, then the next is asking for trouble. You introduce a lot of engine braking which feels like braking except that you're grabbing the rear wheels hard. There isn't a weight transfer to the front wheels like you would expect. Instead what its like is pulling the e-brake. AWD probably would have negated this. I also am familiar with this car on a track, you cannot compare the track vs the street. It is nothing alike. You don't have road grime, oils, ruts from heavy trucks, etc. My guess is that if you had rain / snow mode active the transmission shift time would have been significantly longer and the car may have rev matched down to compensate the differences in speed and you probably would not have experienced this. Glad you made it out OK!

 

You know, any car regardless of it's racing heritage or how balanced it is or isn't will ALWAYS require the driver to be vigilant and focused on it's use in certain conditions. The car did what you instructed it to do but the car relied on you to carry the burden of that instruction. The downshift clearly upset the balance of the car, the weight transfer made the rear end light thus creating a possible oversteer reaction by yourself to correct after the rear became loose. Less than optimal tires will not allow the car the sufficient grip it needs to minimize instability or sudden change in forward or lateral momentum so again the driver must make up for that too. In the end it was the driver who caused the situation and it is the driver's responsibility to resolve the situation (which you did by saving yourself and the car from being a ball of aluminum foil). Don't take this wrong XFactorX, we all have made mistakes but understand that the car and all of it's tech wizardry can still be a handful in less than ideal conditions.

Be safe!

 

Very Lucky. LOL I am not skilled enough to try anything like that even on dry pavement. I'm the type that actually uses rain/snow mode when pavement is wet. Had a few RWD break loose on me before and did not enjoy it.

 

XfactoR,
I had a similar type of experience in my XKR about 6 months ago, and I wasn't downshifting. I was driving along the 5 freeway near Bakersfield, CA with a very light rain falling, and I felt at any speed above 50mph I had no control over the car. I check my treadware on regular occasions and was confident I had a reasonable amount so that I didn't understand what was causing the rear end to feel like it wasn't attached to the rest of the car. When I got home to Los Angeles, I checked my rear tires more closely as I started losing air in one of them, just a few p.s.i. every week or so. When I checked them, I was quite stunned to find that there was plenty of tread on the outside rows almost all the way across the rear tires, but the inner two or so rows of tread were bald or worse. These were Hankook tires, by the way.

Have you gotten under the car and checked all the way across the tires?

 

It has finally dawned on me the fact that you don't have nearly the control over rev matching on the ATs as you do with the MTs. Having little to no AT experience, it hadn't occurred to me.

 

Tberg - thanks for your comments. I think you may be exactly right. I'm going to take a closer look and report back...

 

Yes, at 16,500 miles I changed these Pirelli P Zeros out because it was too dangerous on the highway in wet weather.

 

^^^^THIS^^^^

I did something very similar to that in 1980 with a 1959 GMC 1/2 ton pickup truck, going around a corner, downshifting and hitting a sudden mudslide at the same time...it is ONLY the grace of God that I'm alive today and hadn't gone over the edge back-end first, after swapping ends, and going over a 1000' ft cliff. No exaggeration.

Your car had nothing to do with it other than the operator broke traction in critical conditions. Glad you're still here. Just learn from it.

 

Firstly I'm glad you and your car are OK. Thank you for posting this to make sure people are aware of what can happen if you aren't careful. I'm with the others that the downshift caused the rear wheels to brake harder than they could grip to the road. If its raining out, its auto-mode only for me. Your playing with fire similar to pulling your e-brake