[flash]

this is mostly for california drivers who seem to be so clueless and keep banging into each other - i found this on the weather site and thought i would post it for everybody



Skidding and Hydroplaning in Rainy Conditions



Losing control of your car on wet pavement is a frightening experience. You can prevent skids by driving slowly and carefully, especially on curves. Steer and brake with a light touch. When you need to stop or slow, do not brake hard or lock the wheels and risk a skid. Maintain mild pressure on the brake pedal.



If you do find yourself in a skid, remain calm, ease your foot off the gas, and carefully steer in the direction you want the front of the car to go. For cars without anti-lock brakes, avoid using your brakes. This procedure, known as "steering into the skid," will bring the back end of your car in line with the front. If your car has ABS, brake firmly as you steer into the skid.



While skids on wet pavement may be frightening, hydroplaning is completely nerve-wracking. Hydroplaning happens when the water in front of your tires builds up faster than your car's weight can push it out of the way. The water pressure causes your car to rise up and slide on a thin layer of water between your tires and the road. At this point, your car can be completely out of contact with the road, and you are in danger of skidding or drifting out of your lane, or even off the road.



To avoid hydroplaning, keep your tires properly inflated, maintain good tread on your tires and replace them when necessary, slow down when roads are wet, and stay away from puddles. Try to drive in the tire tracks left by the cars in front of you.



If you find yourself hydroplaning, do not brake or turn suddenly. This could throw your car into a skid. Ease your foot off the gas until the car slows and you can feel the road again. If you need to brake, do it gently with light pumping actions. If your car has anti-lock brakes, then brake normally; the car's computer will mimic a pumping action, when necessary.



A defensive driver adjusts his or her speed to the wet road conditions in time to avoid having to use any of these measures.

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[RPM]

Last night I was in a rental Mustang on Sunset Blvd and the Hollywood Freeway. I have driven all over the world and I don't think I have ever experienced so much water on major roads in such a short time. There was just no way for the drainage system to absorb the deluge. I passed a supermarket parking lot that was throwing water onto Sunset like the spill way at Hoover Dam!

So, CA drivers may not be able to drive in the rain, but this rain was just plain ridiculous.

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[Virgo_Quinn]

Just one of many reasons why, before I join the priveledge ranks of 968 owners, I'm gonna refresh my skills at an advaned defensive driving course and a performance driving school. I'm a very good driver with a lot of miles under my belt, but those skills have obvious real world payoffs - allowing you to have more fun, but safely. After all the money I plan to plow into this car, it's worth protecting the investment, not to mention my life, and yours, and everybody else's <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Lucky for me, this car is probably one of the best in the world in recovering from such nightmares as hydroplaning and stopped vehicles popping out of the fog. A dominant factor in why I like the 968 so much is that 50/50 distribution - it makes for a safe, yet fun, ride.

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[KensCab]

VQ;

You are right about the handling of these cars, that CAN keep you out of some troubling situations. Last fall on a PCA "Fall Tour" as we were all returning home it began raining. We were coming down a hill (we are in Colorado so we do have some hills and curves) in a fairly heavy rain, the 911 Targa in front of us started 'fish-tailing' the back end of the car wanted to be in the front. We were probably going a little too fast for the conditions but we were headed home after a great tour and a long week-end. Anyway, we were directly behind the the 911 without much road for avoidence. He danced around down the road a couple of times and we managed to steer aroung his almost sideways car. If I had of been any any other vehicle of mine, the 911 and my 968 would of become intamatly involved. While they are of the same speciecs it would not of been a good mating! After I got around him and looked back, another 911 that was behind had slowed to avoid him and the Targa had gained control. We ALL stopped a little latter at a resturant for lunch and relived it a time or two. The 911 that was behind me witnessed the whole show was amazed that I was able to steer around the one in front of me and avoid a nasty that none of us would want to see, one Porsche into another. I have had several P-cars through the years and have spent some time on the track and at AutoX's, believe me there is nothing better than 'Learning the ability' of these cars. It would be greatly reccommened to spend some time at DE events and probably even more so at AutoX's.



Best of luck in finding your right one!!!

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[Virgo_Quinn]

Thanks KC - thats a funny story (luckily).



I've read and heard that the rear-engined 911 is kinda eccentric in handling, to say the least - exeprienced 911 drivers probably almost subconciously adjust, but for a P-car n00b like me, I like the "boring" and "predictable" handling of the 968. In fact I was digging through those nice old articles posted in the gallery, and one of them suggested that if you feel like you wanna drive like Mario Andretti (article was from 1992 hehe) you'd be better off in one of the 968's (inferior) competitors - the Japanese copies like the Supra and 300ZX. The writer said that those cars provide more than their fair share of "fun" moments in turns since you can't assume that the car will do what you want it to. Scary!



Let's also not forget tires help you alot in these situations. Since I'll be doing alot of long distance touring, my aim is to get a performance touring tire with a well-regarded wet-weather capability.



One more thing about hydroplanning and training yourself to avoid it - many performance driving schools have skid plates where you can practice entering and recovering from skids/spins in a safe and controlled environment - conditions which can make it alot of fun <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[KensCab]

"...funny story (luckily)" <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wacko.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Maybe a bit humorous now, but at the time it wasn't too much fun of not only worrying about how much cleaning the exterior was going to have take place because of the weather, but of the concern of the mess in the seats !!!!!!! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />





You are certainly correct, good 'shoes' will make life a whole better!

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[Virgo_Quinn]

Sorry KC, didn't mean to make light of that near miss!



"Funny" was perhaps the wrong word - luckily everybody (and everything, including your interior hehe) was ok, but I guess what I found a bit funny was the exalted 911 losing control and you in your 968 deftly slipping by. After a near miss like that, you can only shake your head, chuckle, and thank your lucky stars (and the engineers who built the 924 chassis style).

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[KensCab]

Oh no problem... it is funny now but at the time the 'pucker factor' was about an 8.9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

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[Jim Child]

[quote name='Virgo_Quinn' date='Feb 23 2005, 09:16 PM']what I found a bit funny was the exalted 911 losing control and you in your 968 deftly slipping by. After a near miss like that, you can only shake your head, chuckle, and thank your lucky stars (and the engineers who built the 924 chassis style).[/quote]



I've had so many 911's spin in front of me on the track that it doesn't even phase me any more. It must have happend at least a dozen times by now.

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[KensCab]

I believe the problem that day was the rain, the speed, and the 911 with no weight in the front! The front end hyroplaned and the back end wanted to come around and take over! There were others on this drive, I think Chris Lennon was just in front of him. Made for an exciting few seconds for me....

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[ds968]

I drive one of our other cars when weather conditions are horrific, or even forecasted to get nasty. Not for fear of being incapable of handling the 968, but fear of the other drivers in front, rear and / or to the side losing control of their cars and plowing into me right at the point where there is no time or space to react. And I leave plenty of room, but " Murphy's Law " finds a way for an accident to happen during that 1% of the time where you're trapped..

So our MBZ or Pathfinder are the designated potential victims in those cases <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



But if the 968 is your only car, and you're looking at just a few days a year of the type of weather local folks can't handle when driving ( yes, California is a perfect example ) a rental car is not such a bad idea. $ 40, $ 60, or $ 100 or so

for a couple of days is justified for the peace of mind, IMHO.

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[Samariter]

The 911 is much more easy to drive than many think. Problem is that oversteer situations are not as easy to resolve as with the 968.



Most people do not realize as well that it is most dangerous when the rain just started. The rain picks up the dust and produces a lubricate surface - very dangerous.



The advice to not use the brakes or soft braking is dangerous as well from my point of view. It sure depends on the specific situation but it doesn't matter in what direction your car is pointing - if you have lost it in a spin better step on the brakes, as hard as you can until the car completely stops !

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[flash]

it was specific to cars without antilock brakes - they are dead right about this - don't ask me how i know - i was very young and very inexperienced - if you lock your brakes while in a skid, you will end up going in a straight line wherever the car was going - this is a lot more dangerous than steering with the skid

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[perbal]

I feel sorry for you guys in California with all of that rain. This morning on my way to work in a fresh 6" of snow I hit a patch of packed snow/ice and before I could do anything about it, even though I tried to steer back where I wanted to go, I did a 180 on a four lane road and wound up facing the other way in the lane going the other way. Luckily, the traffic going the other way was stopped at a traffic light. I think I'm going to look into some better winter tires. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Perbal

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[coloradocab]

[quote name='perbal' date='Feb 25 2005, 01:18 PM']I feel sorry for you guys in California with all of that rain.  This morning on my way to work in a fresh 6" of snow I hit a patch of packed snow/ice and before I could do anything about it, even though I tried to steer back where I wanted to go, I did a 180 on a four lane road and wound up facing the other way in the lane going the other way.  Luckily, the traffic going the other way was stopped at a traffic light.  I think I'm going to look into some better winter tires. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Perbal

[right][post="1198"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



Good snow tires make a DRAMATIC difference on our cars. Blizzaks are great, but their treadlife is rather short. I now have Dunlop Graspic studless snows on my coupe, and it does great!

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[Etnier]

I just put Graspics on my coupe as well and think they're great. They replaced Blizzaks. The Blizzaks change to conventional rubber at about 50% tread depth. Not a good thing.

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[perbal]

I'm following up on my experience last month concerning snow tires. I got caught yesterday after attending a closing about 20 miles from home. You may have read that driving conditions were bad yesterday in the Northeast <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/mad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> . But snow over wet that has frozen, known as ice, makes for horrible driving conditions. It took me almost 5 hours to go 20 miles on Long Island. Of course traffic was terrible. I got stuck twice trying to go up a slight rise. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I really must get some snows. So far Dunlop Graspic studless has been recommended but I would like to hear any other recommendations. Thanks!



Perbal

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