Spun Out on the Freeway today....Lucky Me....

[jrhone]

Thank you......Tires when they get old lose their grip.The rubber gets hard. Tread doesnt matter. I would bet if you look up their age. Coding on the side of the tire will tell you their age. All manufacturers warn of exceeding 3-4 years depending on climate. Dont overthink... You have old rubbers..... Use new protection..... :0)

Yup...I bet they are old....they were fine for summer....but cold, and now wet probably isnt a good mix. Now do I stay with 14's or move up to a 15" setup? Hmmm....decisions!

[mo's72tii]

Sorry to hear it!

My 17 yr old daughter did the exact same thing today getting off the 73 at Greenfield in the E30 vert. Luckily she didn't hit anything or anyone. She was traumatized and it was only 10 minutes from my office. I got her and got the car off the road.

You both were very lucky today!!

[zane]

I had a similar incident a couple of years back at a track day/HPDE session at Infineon. It had rained early that morning, and while the track wasn't soaked, it was still damp. We did a couple of warm up laps, and as you come up over turn two (a blind, crested, 90 degree right) the rear end felt a little squirly. On the third lap I got on the gas what felt light a fraction earlier, but in the proverbial blink of an eye, I went from feeling in total control, to utterly out of control as I spun into the muddy grass.

At the end of the session we went to the de-brief and the instructor asked who spun. I raised my hand, as well as a couple of other guys, and we had to go in front of the class and explain why we spun.... and do a twirl while wearing a pink tutu!!!

Experiences like this remind me of how quickly "control" can slip through our fingers, and when in doubt, it's best just to dial it back a notch, especially on public roads.

Haha, sounds like a NASA event. Consider yourself lucky; a buddy of mine put it into the wall in turn two about a month ago in his E46 M3.

[jrhone]

Sorry to hear it!

My 17 yr old daughter did the exact same thing today getting off the 73 at Greenfield in the E30 vert. Luckily she didn't hit anything or anyone. She was traumatized and it was only 10 minutes from my office. I got her and got the car off the road.

You both were very lucky today!!

Mine was on the 73 and Jamboree!!!!

[coppertop]

...road wasnt particularly wt, just a bit damp maybe....

That can be a slippery situation. A light rain will make any oil or other gunk on the road even more slippery than a heavy or steady rain that will eventually soak it away.

Very, very true. Especially in CA where it only rains a few times a year in the south coast. Freeway ramps and intersections are especially bad because oils and other fluids get concentrated in those areas more heavily and it takes quite a bit of precipitation to wash the pavement clean.

The Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley on and off ramps are especially nasty after tomato truck season during the first few storms.

[PabloM]

Same exact thing happened to me but I wasn't so lucky. My nose got into a fight with the wall on the top of the bridge. Coming off the off ramp, extremely careful, came around the top turn to start merging, got on the gas 10% and bam instantly started sliding. It didn't spin all the way which in hindsight was a mistake. I managed to nearly get it staright again but there was a wall in the way and not a curb. I think if I had mashed the throttle I would have done a complete 180 and been ok. Either way, my tires are nearly bald so from now on rain tires are going on. It was at max a 15 mph crash. I pulled off at the next side street and walked back to the offramp to look for what may have caused it. While walking there, a Toyota Trueno also oversteered out of the corner, overcorrected 2 times and ended up smashing his front wheel in the center divider curb completely destroying that side of the suspension. The next car that came around was a f150 truck that also oversteered out of the corner and smashed the wall in the same place I did. His bumper got dented but that was it. And lastly a van came around 3rd and got very squirly before starightening out again. I didn't see anything on the ground that look suspicious. Oh well, the car just needs a new fender and paint, no big deal but a definite wake up call. Rain means NO BALD TIRES. You can never be too careful.

[Arshloch]

I found that in many cases it is the oil, coolant and some road dirt/grime that makes even the best tires loose traction. Especially on turns like that all these fluids tend to land on the ground.

P.S.

Did numerous drifts on the ramps like that with 80s and 90 F-bodies and damaged my first camaro in the same situation.

[jgerock]

Earlier this year, a guy around here was caught and convicted of pouring oil (or maybe grease) on a ramp mainly used by the police. Several officers lost control of their cruisers and hit the jersey barrier. I believe the idiot was disgruntled due to a parking ticket he received.

As posted above, the first dampness from rain and black-ice are deadly. Check your tire condition and pressure folks!

[02tom]

Also be careful in construction zones or anywhere there may be loose dirt/dust from recently disturbed or tracked soil on the roadway. I came around a corner a couple years ago on an on ramp that had a loose dusting (from dump trucks I think) of dirt that nearly caused me to wreck. The clay in the soil around here is slick, wet or dry when found on top of the road surface. Fortunately, I wasn't driving the car that hard that time. I saw skid marks where someone else had skidded into a barrier.