I was driving on the 522 off-ramp onto Woodinville-Duvall road, and my car slowly started loosing traction in the back end. At first I thought "no big deal" because it does it there all the time when its wet or moist out. Well, it quickly went from "no big deal to "oh ****" I had hit some black ice. Luckily I wasnt speeding too fast, and I say too fast cause the off ramp is labled as 35 or something, but I normally take it at like 40-45 in these conditions. I can take it at like 50-55 in the dry summer. Anyway, I wasnt speeding too fast because I saw a cop sitting on one of the cross streets at the red light. So, when I hit the ice, my car started sliding sideways instead of going around the corner. Unfortunatly, when this happened, I was no longer heading up Woodinville-Duvall road, and I was now heading straight for a stop sign. I qucikly dropped it in 2nd, mashed the gas to bring the *** around so I didng slide sideways into the damn stop sign that I was quickly headed towards. So after nearly missing the stop sign, now Im still sliding sideways, only facing the other way, and heading towards another car going down the damn hill. Im still in second so I let the clutch out, mash the gas again, and swing the OTHER way around the car. So now Im facing the way I wanted to be going again, but in the wrong lane. Well, that was ok with me, but I still had momentum up from missing the other car, and I kept going around. So now Im facing the wrong way again, sliding sideways, but this time, back towards the off ramp. I counter steer to keep the damn thing straight and stop spinning and carefully navigate her to a stop. She finally slides off the ice, and all 4 tires are sqealing. When she came to a rest, there was a big cloud of timre smoke and the smell if burnt rubber. Once I finally came to rest facing the wrong way in the original lane I wanted to be in, of course the cop comes rolling up. I thought to my self, "Oh ****, here it comes". So the cop rolls up, and I roll down my window. The first thing he said was "are you alright?". I responded, "yeah, Im fine". Then it got interesting. He said "normally I would have been writting a ticket right now, but seeing as I clocked you on the of ramp and you werent even speeding on the off-ramp, and it seems the ice was unforseen by you, Im gonna let you off easy with a warning". I thought, "no ticket. Cool". Well then he continues on to say "also, I just wanted to say that what I just saw was some of the best defensive driving I have seen in a long time, and I have no worries that you can handle your car". I said "Thanks". He continues again to say "Im sure that some late night practices may have had something to do with that?". I couldnt help but to smile and nod. He kinda smiled, and said, "Well, Im glad your ok, and just be more careful in the future". He turned to leave, and I said "have a nice night", he responded with "you too", and got in his car. I drove away feeling good .

Normally I would have seen the ice on the road, as Im good at spotting "hazards", but I was focused on the cop. I learned though, to check where the cars going before being worried about something that Im not even to yet...If that makes sense . Anyway, Im sure the descrition didnt make too much sense, so Im gonna try and draw up a diagram for you. Ill attach it in a minute or whatever. Thank God Im ok though, I didnt wanna hit that damn car or the stop sign .

~T.J.

 

Good story - glad you're OK!

 

Well, heres a little diagram. The dots on the rectangles are the fronts of the cars. To the extreme left of the picture is the 522 overpass where it goes over Woodinville-Duvall road. The off ramp merges with Woodinville-Duvall if youre going right. The stop sign I was talking about is for if youre turning left. Other than that, I hope this picture helps more than it confuses.

~T.J.

EDIT: There wasnt much room to show sliding, but for basically the whole time, my rear end had no traction. It was one giant power slide (drift?).

 

You damn wreckless kids.... oh wait, I'm one of them.... damn.....

Anyhoo, good job man.... that would really suck to wreck your car or get a ticket, and it would suck more if you got hurt or worse..... and on a closing note..... DrIfTinG 4 EvA! God, I'm a ricer......lol

 

Awsome drift...TAKUMIIIII!!??!?!?!

 

If I had a SR20DET motor in my 240SX like some people I know, Id be drifting a lot more than I do now .

~T.J.

 

thank god for your mad quick shifts, or youd be dead right now, yo!

 

Excellent save! I know from experience how tricky it can be to catch a 1st gen once it unexpectedly begins to slide. You played that throttle-steering just right, and of course a little dose of luck helps. Ever consider going rallying?

 

Ill agree 100% with the luck part. It was happening surprisingly slow (although the whole thing took maybe 10 seconds), and I had time to think about what I was gonna do, but it was pure luck that it worked . I actually have thought about rallying. I have an 85 GSL that I rally up and down the fire service roads in the mountains all the time . That car is indesructable. I take that thing everywhere, and its got over 215K miles on it and still runs good . Im sure that with all the off road driving I do, as well as all the practice I get on the streets around here really helped me this time. When you live in an area like Seattle where it rains about 70% of the year and drive a rear wheel drive sports car, youre gonna know how to drive it when its sliding around . Im just glad it happened in my 83 that I drive now with the brand new Toyos on it, rather than the 85 with the scary-bald-thread-showing tires. Otherwise I dont think I would be here telling this story. Id probably be in the hospital with a doctor pulling stop sign post splinters outta my ***...If I was lucky .

~T.J.

 

That sounds farmilar. Nice save though!! glad you didnt break yourself or anything else.

 

be glad you have a quick steering rack.

nice moves, next time however, use the hand brake to bring you back around on the proper side of the road and pop the hatch as an air brake.

 

U had me worried when I read the title. Glad it worked out the way it did. Go do some autox with it and show off your skillz. And maybe learn a few too!

 

Yeah, I want to autocross, but Im not really intothe "scene" so Im not too familiar with it, and I dont wanna just go show up sometime and do it all wrong and make an *** of myself, haha. Im probably no good at it anyway, cause I cant drive my car for **** when its dry, haha . Anyone in the Seattle area that wants to go sometime and show me the ropes...Or something?

~T.J.

 

dam thats sounds nasty, good to hear u got out of it un harmed.

how could remeber so much in a spin out? when ever my ***, ends up where my front should be i dont remeber anything that happenes cus it soo dam fast..

last time i spun out, was around a round about and half of it was wet so the end flip out and did a few 360's and i didnt hit anytihng! then when i went to take off (still in shock) i didnt look back and rolled into a poll lucky it was rolling and it only scratched it a little.

I really want to get around to doing a defencive driving course one day.

 

I wasnt familiar with it either. We all start as n00bs. Listen, learn, watch, read.

http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/index.html

http://www.nwr-scca.org/solo/index.html

On the sidebar theres info for novices, how do I start etc.

Warning, it is very addicting, makes a crack addiction look like good clean fun.

 

i agree. trust me in they will help you out. just go out and have fun legally driving your *** off.

 

Man I'm glad to hear your OK!

I don't know how you guys can cope with their being ice all over the place... but good to know that you can handle your car!

 

one of the reasons i wont drive a auto. dosnt give you enough control when/if you need it.

nice work on the driving, and i cant belive the cop was so eazy on you..ive never been pulled over w.o. gett a ticked that ended up costing me over 100+ bucks...bastereds!

Stepdaddy

 

Haha.....

You can make that diagram with parking spaces, and thats me sliding on the ice to get into a good spot at the local grocery store.

These cars are unbelievably easy to handle, even in slippery conditions, I was really amazed.

 

Rack? FB's dont have rack and pinion steering.

Great moves RMD... I gotta reprogram myself to not hit the brakes when I slide. I always take that extra 5 seconds to think about it before taking my foot away from the brake.

 

Rack? FB's dont have rack and pinion steering.

Great moves RMD... I gotta reprogram myself to not hit the brakes when I slide. I always take that extra 5 seconds to think about it before taking my foot away from the brake.

 

I almost died myself yesterday.

I was taking a 40 mile trip in my FB through some rural areas to meet my girlfriend's aunt, to pick up my daughter.

It was a surprise trip I had to take, since they said she was sick, and I needed to pick her up right away. I ended up leaving around 11pm to go meet them.

As I am driving, a slight mist of rain starts. I thought that was interesting, with all the snow on the ground off the road. Anyways, it was only a 10 minute drizzle if that, and then it stopped.

I was doing about 60mph on a 4 lane road (2 each way). All of the sudden, I notice, as if the car was floating, that I had no control over the car. Attempt to correct.....nothing. Attempt to tap the brakes, nothing. The car was just sliding sideways still at 60mph.

Thank god there were no cars around me at this point. All I could think about, after sliding like that for 10 seconds, was how deep the ditches on the side of the road were, and how screwed I, let alone the car would be, if I wind up in them.

I turned in the direction of the skid, and all though I wasn't slowing down yet.....it started to correct itself.....but then, overcorrected (since I still had no control) and I was sliding with my driver's side facing forward. I kid you not, I am about to soil my boxers. All I could think about is flipping in the ditch. "Why can't I get out of this skid?"

A few seconds more, and the car is facing straight, and I am able to slow down enough to get the car stopped. I was still so freaked out, that I was actually shaking. I pulled over, and stopped for a few minutes to calm down. I notice headlights coming up over a hill in the distance. The headlights soon turn into a skidding tanker truck, which I watch slide right off the road into the deep ditch. I figured it wasn't safe, so I got back on the road.

You couldn't see any ice at all. No reflection from my headlights, nothing. But, accelerate at a normal pace, in any gear, and you're fishtailing.

Took me over an hour to get to where I was going. I had to continue the rest of the trip at 20mph or less.

The rest of the trip there, I counted 34 cars and trucks in the ditch. Never passed another car on the road, never came across another car heading the same way. Everyone, but myself, and 2 tow trucks, flew off the road into ditches or fields.

I felt good, that I was able to keep my car going, and make the trip, despite the slow speed.....but I have never been so helpless and scared of anything like I was last night. The RX-7 gods were watching over me.

 

You can say that again .

~T.J.

 

A very different scenario happened to me and my girlfirend about two months ago. We were driving to a small town about 20 kms from Saskatoon. All day, it had rained. Now at about 10pm, the temperature dropped dramatically and the roads became long sheets of ice. I was going very slowly on the freeway, probably 40 kph. Ahead of me, the road rose to make an overpass for the highway below. As I came over the rise, I saw a car crashed into the guardrail on the right, and another crashed into the guardrail on the left. Both cars were sticking into the two traffic lanes, obstructing both and creating about a 3/4 lane space between the two.

Not wanting to crash myself and wondering if the occupants of the two cars were all right, I slowly pulled over and tucked my car in behind the rightmost crashed cars, out of the way so that any cars that came behind me could go on without obstruction. I got out and checked on the drivers of the two cars. Both were fine and had already phoned the police. Satisfied, I got back into my car and looked behind me. There were a few cars coming a ways off, so I decided to wait until they were past before I attempted to go on my way.

I don't know what the cars behind me were doing, but the first one slammed into the leftmost crashed car at about 60 kph. Both cars spun on the very slick pavement and completely obstructed the overpass. The rest happened in slow motion. Car after car sailed into the overpass and hit the other crashed cars. My girlfriend and I just sat there and watched as cars spun all around us, coming within centimeters, but never touching my RX-7.

Finally the cars stopping coming. I looked around and realised that I was the only car that had not been hit by the traffic coming from behind me. The car I had parked behind had been hit as well by a spinning Sunfire. I was too stunned to even move. My girlfriend and I had just narrowly missed being slammed into the guard rail three times by cars skidding into the crashed cars ahead.

The police, having been called well before this occured by the original two accident victims, arrived immediately. As we were not hit, the police sent us on our way. Very scary indeed. I stopped both because I wasn't too keen on trying to get through the gap between the two cars, and I wanted to make sure the drivers and their passengers were all right. The car that started the chain reaction was not concerned with the people crashed or if they were injured, he just wanted to get on his way. He was lucky he wasn't hurt, as he got hit a few times before it was all over.

 

I was just going to say that, Lol...