Yesterday lunchtime I took the scooby out for a quick drive. I know the route that I chose very well & involves a steep uphill right hand bend which you can normally power out at about 40mph without any problems. Yesterday the road was damp. When I accelerated out of the corner going no faster than normal, the car started sliding into the bank on the left. For about 100 yards the left side of the car was cutting a track through the lower part of the bank. Then I went into snap oversteer mode with the backend swinging anticlockwise and I ended up at 90 degs to the road with the backend in the hedge on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately I was ok & the car was still driveable, however some of the paint work has been scratched low down on the right hand side & there's a couple of small dents at the back that hopefully will knock out.

When I returned to the accident scene an hour later, I found that the bend where I lost it was covered in petrol or diesel. That in combination with the damp road & my speed explains why I lost it. So what should I have done when I started sliding & was the situation recoverable?

I guess it's time to get booked on a wetter the better course...

 

One further detail that I should have mentioned is that when I returned to the accident scene, where my car had knocked a hole in the hedge, there was another identical hole 10 yards further down the road. I guess somebody else must have taken the same trip as myself on the oil.

 

<B>Diesel!!</B>


grr..

 

So, Cem, how did your accident happen then???

 

Depending on the amount of diesel, you might have got away with gently braking once your left side wheels were on the bank with a minimal about of steering to the right. The odds are the snap oversteer was not actually this but that your front wheels were pointing across the other side of the road, so that once you got off the diesel and your tyres regained grip you would have effectly driven towards the far verge.
Very difficult to know what to do at the time though as the natural reaction is to steer away from the bank.
As long as no one is hurt though then you could say that you did the right thing.

 

I had the same sort of thing happen to me entering the underpass (lefthander) on my way towards the Bow flyover early on a Sunday morning.

I managed to hold it until the car straightened itself out, I think that if I had panicked and tried too hard to correct it I would have spun.

I guess I was lucky that time, I could smell the diesel from inside the car (among other things !!)

Good idea about the course, I've been thinking about it myself.

 

I've been thinking about going on the 'wetter the better course' too, especially after Don Palmer took me out in the Caterham Superlight at Donno last weekend, he sure can handle a car and push it to the limit .
I believe that if you get a party of 6 people together the 7th goes free, knocking the cost down a little for all. Anyone up for getting a group of seven together to go on the course?

 

Merlin,

Glad you are OK, mate.

If you are thinking of going on the WTB course might be a good idea not to fix those dents and scratches! If you really want to learn anything at the course you will need to push the car beyond its limits but there is hardly any run-off space. I know a lot of people (including myself) end up in the grass with various degrees of damage (e.g. I got a big cut in one of the tyres and a dent in the side skirt; and another well known car got smashed against the tyre wall and had a huge dent in its side panel).

Just a word of warning...

Take care!

 

Andy-D

Wetter the better course.

I'm up for it, but probably not until the new year.

Rich (Hoping Santa will pay for a trip to MIRA! )

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Robertio:
<B>... The odds are the snap oversteer was not actually this but that your front wheels were pointing across the other side of the road, so that once you got off the diesel and your tyres regained grip you would have effectly driven towards the far verge.
Very difficult to know what to do at the time though as the natural reaction is to steer away from the bank.
As long as no one is hurt though then you could say that you did the right thing.[/quote]

Thanks for the comments. What you have said has made me think that perhaps I spun through 270 degrees clockwise...

The car ended up with the back wheels in the hedge & the front ones still on the road, so somehow it managed to swing round from the direction of travel. Now assuming you are correct that I had too much steering lock on when I was hitting the bank to try & get away from it, then as soon as I regained grip at the front, this would take me away from the bank and the back end would then want to swing round because I had too much steering lock, hence the 270 turn. All damage on the car is on the left hand side, which is consistent with this scenario. The low down scratches are from stones that were on/in the muddy bank. The two dents behind the rear door are from hitting the hedge.

 

I came across a similar accident last Sunday (Scooby spun backwards into a hedge) but that was down to leaves on the road. It was so bad you could alost slide on it like ice.

Take care - it's slippy out there!

Chris

 

Yep, it's winter-time. The leaves are making the roads seriously slippery - I have had three moments in the last week - one of which was massive understeer at about 20 mph! Have also been activating the ABS on a regular basis - it's time to take it a bit more carefully out there.....

 

This nearly happened to me. The bloke in front was not so lucky and ended up upside down and smashed into a Van coming the other way (No-one hurt)

My Scoob certainly did an intersting little shimmy, starting off with understeer, going into lift off oversteer which I caught. Don't know whether it was really me or the car that got us out of it.

There but for the grace of God (Subaru, or whatever) etc

JD

[This message has been edited by JayDee (edited 17 November 2000).]

 

Thing about abs on subarus is if you are on ice or something very very slipery and you hit the brakes the computer will go mental and allow the car to free wheel in attempt to stop the wheels locking.In some cases you might stop quicker with the wheels locked solid.

 

Kevin

Audi had a switch on the dashboard which was part of their late eighties advertising campaign such that the ABS could be switched off. This was for situations such as deep snow which would become packed in front of a locked wheel and thus aid braking.

I don't think that this would apply on ice/diesel etc.

martin

 

Kevin,

ABS on Subaru's is better than most. You could always pull the ABS fuse in sonwy conditions.

PS. not tried it myself!!!!!!

Lee