HOLY **** !!!

I just made it through the most intense "almost" accident scenario!! Driving down the freeway this morning, raining...stretch of road that has those grooves that sort of move you around from side to side (WHY!!! do they do that?? on the freeway??) anyhoo, the rear end let loose and i spun around three times, trying to counter the spin the whole time, missed two cars...made it to work and lived to drive another day !!
Feeling like a beast right now !!!! lol

 

Buying some new underwear?

 

Sounds like you need new tyres!
Also sounds like the moving around the grooves you describe is what is known as "tramlining", and the grooves may be ruts created by lots of big rigs using this stretch of road. Some tyres are worse than others for tramlining, so maybe another reason for new tyres.

 

Lol new job as stunt driver, no doubt you're feeling like a beast right now
In all honesty, how would you summarise in percentile terms your escape for skill / luck or combo of both

I've been in a few near misses in my time where I like to thin that a certain amount was good judgement / skill etc but am also aware of a certain amount of luck involved too.
Glad you escaped, car unscathed and lived to tell the tale

Jim

 

I would say skill was at best 10% of the equation. As in most cases involving large heavy objects, I was at the mercy of simple physics. I turned into each phase of the spins and tried to apply the accelerator at the midpoint of the rotations, which helped in slowing me down slightly, but as soon as the car began to rotate again, physics takes over again and I turned the wheel towards the spin again using the accelerator to try to counter. It always seemed that I was going to stop spinning, but the rain just made it impossible to recover and the tires just could not bite into anything until the inertia from the vehicle sufficiently subsided, then the tires were able to grip again. I am running Michelin PS's right now. I don't think there is a better tire than that for our Jags.

 

Glad you made it to the other end of that unscathed. If you're anything like me about a half an hour after you needed a nap when the adrenaline rush wore off.

 

That is awesome!
I'd love to be the guy you passed while spinning 360's with a double shot americano in your hand and coaxing the wheel with the other.." I totally meant to do that.."

 

Yes, but these are not caused by big rigs. I have driven on brand new freeways that have these grooves. The grooves are spaced only about 3 to 4 centimeters apart. The effect is the same though, in that it causes your tires to follow the grooves as if it is on rails. With our wheel and tire size it effects our cars even more, especially if you have a tire size in the 245/35 range

 

You may find the subject of this article a little funny

"Sawing grooves into pavements greatly reduces wet weather skidding accidents on roads and airports. "

Pavement Grooving Reduces Accidents - Concrete Construction

 

Did you punch it at the time or just driving steady?/..DFW area traffic is crazy enough

 

Just putzing along. I wasn't in a hurry, I get up early to beat traffic.

 

Lol..holy ****!!! That is exactly what they do to the freeways here. I don't understand it.

 

Wow. That's very sobering. Glad you managed to right it in the end - although 3 spins is amazing... That was with traction and driver aids fully on? I've had the back end break loose momentarily but the computer has always saved it

 

Yes. It was the rain that caused the spin...DSC didn't help, and now that you mention it ...I don't even remember seeing the light come on. I don't think the system can correct for a situation like this or can it??? It didn't in my case.

 

Sounds like you might have hit a pool of standing water and then aquaplaned.

 

Agreed - aquaplaning sounds likely. As you start to loose control, the driver aids should help to bring it back under control. But if it's sudden and extreme like a pool of water I can see that there is likely nothing it can do at that point...