If you were doing a skid.

[ollieboy]

Say you were in a car driving onto a road from an area lower then the road and the road was wet after heavy rain and you were in a rear wheel drive car of which the wheels began to spin on the slippery road how would you react.

Would you stop accelerating or would you continue to accelerate?

Or would you have another method of bringing the skid under control?

I would appreciate a genuine answer as this is relevant to something quite serious.

Thanks

[fuel]

depends how bad the skid is, if the car is starting to slide sideways I would probably button off the gas and counter steer into the slide to regain control. If it was just one wheel spinning in a straight line I would stop accelerating I guess. In a RWD if you continue to accelerate while the wheels are spinning it's more than likely to go quite sideways and hairy when you attempt to regain control.

Today I was going round a roundabout in my little Viva and I accelerated too early exiting out and the back stepped out, doesn't take much in the wet to loose a bit of traction.

[Looonie]

My instant safe reaction is to button off the gas and then feather it to try and keep traction whilst maintaining forward movement.

Assuming the uphill section you are coming off isn't too steep or slippery, you could just stop and then re-commence your movement. But if its too sleep and/or slippery then you run the risk of sliding backwards when you stop and/or having a very difficult time re-starting your movement.

If you kept your foot buried up it, then you'd lose more traction and in fact run the risk of your vehicle sliding backwards down the slope.

Bit more information maybe? Is this a standard t intersection scenario with both surfaces sealed? or coming from a gravel pit on the side of the road up over a hump to reach the higher road surface that you are moving onto from an acute angle to the road direction?

Also what speed are you doing? As if you have for instance come onto the road at a fairly high speed, and the rear end began to step out, then buttoning off may put you in a tank slapper and spin you out the other direction...

The ideal solution would be to always bear in mind the conditions and the grip levels available and drive suitably

[ollieboy]

Ok, I see what you are saying. In regards to wheelspin, very little wheelspin, as in one wheel only lightly spinning and it is barely noticeable but it is still making a noise.

[Bling]

foot to the floor, wind down the window and wave to the people on the street?

[ollieboy]

Ok, I may as well share a bit more information.

1. I am not the person concerned in the first post.
2. What occurred was innocent and there was no intention of sustained loss of traction.
3. What resulted however was an impounding of a car and a charge of sustained loss of traction.
4. Details of the situation are a bit hazy as there was never any intention of wheelspin so we weren't paying attention to the drivers actions.
5. The end result of the evening was a $120 taxi ride home and several pissed off people, and one person with no car which is required for work.
6. The police officer stated "The wheel spin lasted two seconds, therefore it is sustained!" while I thought, if thats your definition of sustained, your wife won't be very satisfied, amirite! lol etc.

[ollieboy]

I was just reading Section 22A of the Land Transport Act which states "(1)
A person commits an offence if the person—without reasonable excuse, intentionally pours onto, places on, or allows to spill onto a road—
(i)
any petrol, oil, or diesel fuel; or
(ii)
any other substance likely to cause a vehicle to undergo loss of traction"

It was rain that caused the loss of traction, therefore, whoever put that rain there is committing an offence. God

Edit: also, from my research so far of Case law. No one yet has successfully appealed a sustained loss of traction charge, this is quite bad because in the Common Law system, it is the basic principal that previous cases outcomes are looked at to decide the outcome of a present case. I hope to change precedent.

[method]

You are not giving us any information..

How exactly did it happen?

Ie: Sitting at a T intersection, hit second gear too hard, LSD locked up and went full lock sideways past the police.

About that law thing, its only if the case is very similar, you could argue the definition of sustained and cite problems such as a wet grimy road being slippery and bad camber on the surface all working to your disadvantage.

[ollieboy]

Sorry I was writing up the posts into manageable sections and I'm taking my time.

From a carpark, out onto a very wet road. The car park was low and to get onto the road the change in altitude was about 1 metre over a short distance. The car accelerated up the steep part and the driver turned left, as he did the automatic gearbox changed to second and the wheel began to spin, its a single spinner afaik so no lsd in the equation. Not really any sideways action happened, just noise from wheel spinning.

[method]

Well, prepare a strong case and take it to court...

Getting our opp inion isn't going to get your mate off it..

[ollieboy]

We have a strong case, and an excellent lawyer. My question was regarding how you handle a car in this situation, it is important because if people have a similar opinion in our favour we may get an expert witness, but we don't want to waste their time if we do not believe it is worth chasing up.

[Adamal]

Having learnt from past mistakes, its best not to just let your foot off the gas, but slowly ease off to let the tyres regain traction.

[ollieboy]

Adamal: That is what I was thinking and what I would do, also what I assume the person in question did. I needed someone else to say it to be sure though. Excellent. Man I just got a text from the guy it happened to, he can't believe it aye, I feel so bad for him, he has never had any speeding charge up until now in his almost 20 years of driving. He says he just feels numb.

[method]

That would be the case if going fast, if you pulled out of a car park in a automatic you would just button off the throttle especially if your car was not sideways and only single spinning.

No chance of it snapping back at all.. because it hasn't stepped out!

[ollieboy]

About that law thing, its only if the case is very similar, you could argue the definition of sustained and cite problems such as a wet grimy road being slippery and bad camber on the surface all working to your disadvantage.

Oh yeah. I realise this (I study law at Uni) but the material facts of the case are still similar which is what the courts look at. They abstract it to a suitable level and when done so the case would be similar to others. We are going all out though to stop this because really, to put it plainly, it's shit.

[ollieboy]

That would be the case if going fast, if you pulled out of a car park in a automatic you would just button off the throttle especially if your car was not sideways and only single spinning.

No chance of it snapping back at all.. because it hasn't stepped out!

By buttoning off do you mean the foot been taken completely off the accelerator?

[Mr.Phreak]

From a carpark, out onto a very wet road. The car park was low and to get onto the road the change in altitude was about 1 metre over a short distance. The car accelerated up the steep part and the driver turned left, as he did the automatic gearbox changed to second and the wheel began to spin, its a single spinner afaik so no lsd in the equation. Not really any sideways action happened, just noise from wheel spinning.

So he was in third and it kicked down to second??

What car is it btw??

[ollieboy]

I am unsure of which way the gearing was going but I am assuming it was 1st to 2nd. It is a r32 Skyline, the most basic model, it has a single cam rb20. The fact that it was a Skyline sealed the deal in the policeman's eyes I think.

[solitaire]

Kenny (Akane) had to goto court for the same thing and got off (not easily but he had his ducks in a row before he went in)

Might pay to have a word with him

[method]

That would be the case if going fast, if you pulled out of a car park in a automatic you would just button off the throttle especially if your car was not sideways and only single spinning.

No chance of it snapping back at all.. because it hasn't stepped out!

By buttoning off do you mean the foot been taken completely off the accelerator?

Not snaping it off put lifting off.

If the loss was only 2 seconds, and the police officer accepts it was 2 seconds i would seriously look at trying to define sustained. 2 seconds would be brief.

You could argue it would take 2 seconds or more to react to the sudden and unexpected loss of traction and regain control of the vehicle.