Almost became a statistic today

[Fly2High]

Boy is that right! Just this morning, the genius in front of me came to a complete stop at the end of an entrance ramp for the interstate with traffic going 70+. Instead of watching and picking a place to merge in, they just park it and wait. Somehow in 40 years of driving I’ve never had to do that.

Does anyone ever think to leave themselves some room to accelerate on an entry ramp? If everyone is even doing the speed limit (55), which they are not, how the hell do you expect to accelerate up to 55 with no room starting from a stop at the end of a ramp? At least stop up on the ramp well before if there is no way you are going to get on. At least give yourself a fighting chance. What I also love it the idiot behind you complaining that you stopped up before the curve of the ramp when they expect everyone who is already on the road to just part ways so you can merge or do they expect you to get stuck at the end of the ramp.. THAT is never going to happen. NYers would sooner block you into a wall or off the road than leave enough room for others to merge. Besides, when is there ever so little traffic that you have the space to leave any amount of room much less for the guy merging in. Also love when they merge on going slower than the current speed causing you to slow down. I have seen rear end accidents caused by people entering too slow. If you do not wish to drive the current pace, take the side roads!

OP, glad it worked out and stay safe.

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[Elp_jc]

Instead of watching and picking a place to merge in, they just park it and wait.

Those are the folks who cause nasty accidents. And same thing with those same folks when they slam on the brakes when someone merges like 10 cars in front of them. Between people who don't know how to drive, and the ones who do but do so distracted, it's a jungle out there.

No satisfaction from being in an accident that wasn't your fault, so I just drive defensive enough to avoid them in the first place. I'm used to do that on my motorcycles, so not a big deal for me. And not even worth it to get all worked up. But it's frustrating when you have to merge a little aggressively, but still perfectly safe, when folks get all psycho on you. I also try to avoid those instances, but sometimes it's the safer approach. That's what I really liked from driving in Mexico City back in the day. Never had an accident, and people were merging inches from your bumper all day long, and nobody honked on you. Not here. Ha ha.

 

[ice445]

Got back from the dealer for my second oil change and they said my rears were down to 6/32 already, at only 7200 miles! I guess I've been sending it a little to hard this summer, so that probably doesn't help their cold traction. I'm about to park the car for the winter, so I'll get some new wheels and tires come spring time. Our first snow is due in just a few days.

On the plus side, still no engine tick. Lol

 

[Rogues Gambit]

Got back from the dealer for my second oil change and they said my rears were down to 6/32 already, at only 7200 miles! I guess I've been sending it a little to hard this summer, so that probably doesn't help their cold traction. I'm about to park the car for the winter, so I'll get some new wheels and tires come spring time. Our first snow is due in just a few days.

On the plus side, still no engine tick. Lol

Glad there's no more tick, be sure to get Michelin's or Conti's

 

[jwt]

+1 on the defensive riding/driving, as my bike instructor would preach, no point being in the right and dead

 

[RasJeremy]

Good fucking God! I had this experience today and I gotta say... those rear tires really wonna get in front when it is a little wet!

For you MPH guys It was accelerating from around 25MPH to 30MPH when it had a quick slide.
Might not look like much but that heart rate was enouhg workout for me for the day!

 

[WD Pro]

@RasJeremy

I cant see what you have attached (fire walled at work) but I am glad your OK.

Out of interest, you are on the MPS4S's aren't you ? What was the air temp ?

Cheers,

WD

 

[Fly2High]

might be time to swap out the summer tires. Looking at the leaves have begun changing colors suggests the temps could be getting lows at or below 50F. Summer tires do not like being cool to cold.

Also, how cold were the tires? If you just left summers need some time to warm up. Not sure if it was this thread but like others, I will monitor my tire pressure (since we do not have tire temp) for pressure change. When I see the pressure go up a pound or two, i know the tire is warm. Before that, I keep it very tame.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Might not look like much but that heart rate was enouhg workout for me for the day!

Whether it's cold or wet, you simply have to respect the potential that any RWD car has for getting a little (or a lot) tailhappy. Especially in the cold, since you can't see the cold like you can see wetness on the road. And yeah, it can happen pretty quickly.

I hope you were ready for the potential snap-spin the other way once you caught the first direction of "tail-looseness". You're more likely to encounter this when the first bit of sliding goes further, but it'll catch you out if you're not expecting it.

3rd gear with a much less powerful engine, the car first yaws to the left, I catch it, then it overshoots past straight and yaws a little to the right and I have to catch that.




Norm

 

[mindo389]

All 4 mustangs I've owned were light in the rear... Hard to gain traction, especially on wet roads. As for interstate entrance ramps, I'd love to kick the genius who invented the traffic light or entrance signal on the entrance ramps around here...and the fools that bought them. Not sure how many times some idiot almost caused accidents on them.

 

[Vlad Soare]

What I find scary is not that it got a bit tail-happy, but that it did that at 25 mph. At that kind of speed I wouldn't expect such surprises while driving casually.

 

[Gregs24]

What I find scary is not that it got a bit tail-happy, but that it did that at 25 mph. At that kind of speed I wouldn't expect such surprises while driving casually.

Don't buy a 450PS rear drive car then !

 

[Vlad Soare]

Too late.

 

[Norm Peterson]

What I find scary is not that it got a bit tail-happy, but that it did that at 25 mph. At that kind of speed I wouldn't expect such surprises while driving casually.

You only have to ask for a little more total grip than actually exists. And because cornering eats up some of the rear tires' total grip it's most likely to happen when you add just a little too much throttle while you're in a curve or a corner.

Basically, the car might be fine just cornering that hard, or just accelerating that hard, but not fine at all trying to do both together.


I got a pretty good wake-up call on that one day on my way home from work. Cooler day but dry, less than a mile into the drive home so the tires were still cold, first in line at a traffic light with two left turning lanes. Only a little throttle in 1st gear put the tail heading off to the right, so it may have been a good thing that I was not in the left-most lane.


Norm

 

[Vlad Soare]

Yes, sure, I understand that. But I would expect those 275 Michelins to have enough grip to travel casually at 25 mph.
Actually, we don't know if Ras was travelling casually. If he slammed hard on the throttle in second gear, then sure, losing grip makes sense.

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