Another lost traction on freeway thread

[accel]

Being this is in the autox section, @accel, did your autocross experience help you to not crash the car that day?

AutoX experience was of huge huge help - no doubts about it. As a matter of fact that was probably the only thing that saved my car from head on impact with the edge of metal divider or involving other car.

If I just froze doing nothing, I'd probably just continued into the divider.

If I slammed brakes that would probably cause the driver behind me to brake and possibly loose control as well.

I was scared, will not lie. But instinctively was doing usual things to re-gain control.

A few words about stability control by the way... Previous rwd car I owned had very agressive stability control. Any minor rear tire slip would cut the power. Stangs traction control is very un-intrusive to say the least. Something to keep in mind.

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[accel]

As I don't have the attention span to read this novel about a mistake you made, I get that you basically made a decision based on instinct, and not knowledge of that particular road, and then wasn't able to control the car. That's one topic, but may I ask why you felt the need to out yourself on a forum where you knew you would be scolded? Make mistakes, learn from them, but posting on the internet about it I think will only cause more frustration.

Hoping it would be helpful for others to learn from someone's mistake?

But yeah, did not expect some of the reactions above.

 

[FranzVonHoffer]

@accel, the situation might have been aggravated by an undetectable road condition and/or road properties. You get a little wheel spin going then it starts stepping out on you.

For instance, down here on very humid days sometimes composite pavement type roads will lose their bite and feel greasy. Fine at normal conditions but can surprise you if you start to put any power down. The road outside the plant here is like that. On hot dry days it's sticky but if it's really cold (which compromises the tires) or it's very humid I'll get a little wiggle on the turn out the driveway.

Road conditions are always an x factor anyways, I've run down a road on a perfectly dry day then hit a wet section because of landscape sprinkler, I've also had a step out on an intersection that had a brick section in it, grip on brick is garbage in all conditions. So you gotta watch out for all the variable not just speed.

 

[rebellovw]

Key is that you learned from it and cataloged it. It is like never follow someone into a left turn - always wait for them to clear it then turn. I picked up bad habits living in a small CA town where the speed limit is 25 everywhere and the freeway lights are extremely bright (880)

Live someplace dark with many 45 mph roads it is way different.

 

[accel]

@accel, the situation might have been aggravated by an undetectable road condition and/or road properties. You get a little wheel spin going then it starts stepping out on you.

For instance, down here on very humid days sometimes composite pavement type roads will lose their bite and feel greasy. Fine at normal conditions but can surprise you if you start to put any power down. The road outside the plant here is like that. On hot dry days it's sticky but if it's really cold (which compromises the tires) or it's very humid I'll get a little wiggle on the turn out the driveway.

Road conditions are always an x factor anyways, I've run down a road on a perfectly dry day then hit a wet section because of landscape sprinkler, I've also had a step out on an intersection that had a brick section in it, grip on brick is garbage in all conditions. So you gotta watch out for all the variable not just speed.

A lot of coincidental contributing factors...

For example, the other car actually went into my lane right in front of me from gas station which caused me to slow down. I waited for the driver to speed-up but that did not happen. I then decided to switch to the left lane to continue with my preferred speed, but then the other driver accelerated to the point which made our merge ahead a bit problemmatic.

 

[rebellovw]

 

[strengthrehab]

Well, maybe, just maybe it could have been avoided by not getting red mist and trying to pass a person on the highway entry ramp?

And the TC is very obtrusive. Try exiting a corner on track at full throttle with wheel turned, you'll feel the stabilitrac kicking in

 

[accel]

Well, maybe, just maybe it could have been avoided by not getting red mist and trying to pass a person on the highway entry ramp?

And the TC is very obtrusive. Try exiting a corner on track at full throttle with wheel turned, you'll feel the stabilitrac kicking in

Well, definitely nothing would hapoen if I didn't make use of other available line.

As far as traction control goes, wheelspin situation definitely did not apply here... Rear end traction limit was exceeded, but it might've actually been due to lift off and not due to acceleration. Hard to remember as this has happened time ago.

 

[bnightstar]

Well, maybe, just maybe it could have been avoided by not getting red mist and trying to pass a person on the highway entry ramp?

And the TC is very obtrusive. Try exiting a corner on track at full throttle with wheel turned, you'll feel the stabilitrac kicking in

TC is not obtrusive enough that's for sure. On my first day I got the car I was doing a left turn between lanes a guy on the right side of me decided I was taking to much time so he passed me (in my country passing on the right is not permitted) so I put my gas pedal down and the car just spin around it's axes my rear end almost passed me and this was from a stand still on 1st gear. I do understand that this is 400 hp car but still stock tires loose grip way to easy and the TC react way to late. Though most of the time I do it for fun to loose the backend in some situations like the one from OP it's really dangerous.

 

[bnightstar]

And to add to the tread today I was on the freeway today driving at 130 km/h (our highway speed limit is 140 km/h). I was taking a long left turn on a hill passing another car it was raining so at the middle of the turn the car jumped in a huge puddle causing the backend to slide and I was facing the freeway divider. I’m not sure how I manage to save the car as everything happen super fast but the car jumped one more time and faced the other line at that time the TC got on and pulled the gas out of the car which helped me regain control of the car. This was one of the scariest experiences I ever had in a car. I’m happy that I got extremely lucky in that situation and nothing major happen.

 

[accel]

And to add to the tread today I was on the freeway today driving at 130 km/h (our highway speed limit is 140 km/h). I was taking a long left turn on a hill passing another car it was raining so at the middle of the turn the car jumped in a huge puddle causing the backend to slide and I was facing the freeway divider. I’m not sure how I manage to save the car as everything happen super fast but the car jumped one more time and faced the other line at that time the TC got on and pulled the gas out of the car which helped me regain control of the car. This was one of the scariest experiences I ever had in a car. I’m happy that I got extremely lucky in that situation and nothing major happen.

Man, if you have summer performance tires from factory... I'd typically stay to the right in slow lanes in these conditions... and even then I felt that front tires (almost new at the time) hydroplaned couple times in heavy rain.

 

[bnightstar]

Man, if you have summer performance tires from factory... I'd typically stay to the right in slow lanes in these conditions... and even then I felt that front tires (almost new at the time) hydroplaned couple times in heavy rain.

Lesson learned for next time and Wet/Snow mode always active in such conditions as it wasn't when this happen.

 

[accel]

Lesson learned for next time and Wet/Snow mode always active in such conditions as it wasn't when this happen.

also check your tire pressures. with rears being so wide it makes sense to keep the pressure exactly as recommended.

overinflation may reduce traction.

i checked this section of forum as to what tire pressures are good for autoX, track and most people suggest to keep it exactly to recommended.

 

[bnightstar]

also check your tire pressures. with rears being so wide it makes sense to keep the pressure exactly as recommended.

overinflation may reduce traction.

i checked this section of forum as to what tire pressures are good for autoX, track and most people suggest to keep it exactly to recommended.

I'm watching my tire pressure and it's as recommended my car only has 2600 km on the odd meter as I pick it up last month so is totally as recommended. I'm seriously considering getting Steeda stop the hop package installed on the car though.

 

[GreesyStang]

These cars are, in fact, a bit unstable. The OP admits he dropped the ball here. I've done similar shit. Drive like a "Richard" well, perhaps. Gtfo of the passing lane and I would drive much more conservative. He also said the bastard probably sped up, how many times have you had to pass someone on the right after hanging out behind them waiting for the signal that they will merge, but they don't, so you go to leisurely pass on the right, and all the freaking sudden Driving Miss Daisy discovered the skinny pedal and it would appear is standing on it!! Then you have to throttle it to get around so everyone can resume the normal flow. Pisses me off. That said, I bought a CJ manifold and was about to install it. Turned right on highway access road, throttled it, as you do, it started to break left, I corrected, but didn't get out of it, it overcorrected right, didn't get out of it, then left, I was enjoying the smoke, then I realized that I had overplayed my hand and it was taking some real skill to get it to settle down enough to get straight and on the interstate. CJ is in garage until the 1200 in IRS parts are installed. It's already fast, it needs to be stable.

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