Ever thought - "That was close - not doing that again"
Discussion
This weekend, I forgot my golden rule of “Respect this car – it’s got big V8 and very little weight. It could EASILY bite you!”
To cut a long story short – due to my lack of respect, I ended up thinking “God that was close! I’m not doing that again!”. Basically pulled out of a junction ambitiously expecting ‘a bit’ of oversteer – and not the shed loads I got. Several crude over corrections and snaking motions later I was back on the straight and narrow.
Fortunately (and not through my skill I hasten to add) – no damage to car or anything else.
Anyone else done something daft like that - and felt as stupid as me?
John
To cut a long story short – due to my lack of respect, I ended up thinking “God that was close! I’m not doing that again!”. Basically pulled out of a junction ambitiously expecting ‘a bit’ of oversteer – and not the shed loads I got. Several crude over corrections and snaking motions later I was back on the straight and narrow.
Fortunately (and not through my skill I hasten to add) – no damage to car or anything else.
Anyone else done something daft like that - and felt as stupid as me?
John
all the way through it to make people think you're doing it on purpose to show off and then take the quickest route home to change your underpants 
This weekend I let my stepfather have a go.
I warned him to take it easy but after 500 metres I made him stop. Never again will he drive my car.
He demontrated a complete lack of respect for the car. I have driven 1000 miles in the last 3 weeks on icy roads, in torrential rain and on slippery roads & there has not been a moment of unplanned waywardness. The car got out of shape more with him driving for less than 1/2 a mile than in those 1000 miles of enjoyable hooning.
The only close shave I have had was a numpty trying to block a (very safe) overtake. I must pay a bit more attention in future.
I warned him to take it easy but after 500 metres I made him stop. Never again will he drive my car.
He demontrated a complete lack of respect for the car. I have driven 1000 miles in the last 3 weeks on icy roads, in torrential rain and on slippery roads & there has not been a moment of unplanned waywardness. The car got out of shape more with him driving for less than 1/2 a mile than in those 1000 miles of enjoyable hooning.
The only close shave I have had was a numpty trying to block a (very safe) overtake. I must pay a bit more attention in future.
LOL sounds sort of familiar. I had a similar moment in my M3 (works car) the other week. I was demonstrating the launch control of the SMG gearbox to a mate of mine and completely forgot to turn back on all the electronics you need to turn off to get the thing working. I subsequently approached the next corner at rather high speed fully expecting the stability control to kick in and correct my poor driving - it didn't and I ended up in an overseer induced slide 
, good job there was nothing coming in the opposite direction.
"God that was close!"
, good job there was nothing coming in the opposite direction. "God that was close!"
TVRorM5 said:Did the same thing, but unintentionally. Probably felt a lot more stupid than you as I didn't catch the fish tailing and I smacked two parked cars at about 1:30am ... one of which was modified for a person in a wheel chair (fortunately only very lightly dented ... the car, not the chair). Felt like Captain Shit.
Anyone else done something daft like that - and felt as stupid as me?
When I where a lad!!! now only 33.
I was on my way to Southport to see the girl same route every other day. I lost the back end and went sideways down the road, luckly I kept it side ways and thought I would sort it out after the Skoda had passed. She hit the brakes and slid I slid and hit her side on. It blow in all of her windows and broke the back axel in two.
When the police turned up it turns out she was on her way to the hospital so her son with the weak heart could have it checked out!!!!
Felt like S£%&T
John
I was on my way to Southport to see the girl same route every other day. I lost the back end and went sideways down the road, luckly I kept it side ways and thought I would sort it out after the Skoda had passed. She hit the brakes and slid I slid and hit her side on. It blow in all of her windows and broke the back axel in two.
When the police turned up it turns out she was on her way to the hospital so her son with the weak heart could have it checked out!!!!
Felt like S£%&T
John
I used to have a mint Corrola Gt Coupe (standard), It still had its original(gone a little hard) tyres 185/13 70series, and 130 brake with and gressive SLD,They had an narrow track at the rear and quite a big power step at 4700 (used to rev to 80000).The ride height was also more like a 4x4 as they where built for ralling.
Man you never pulled out in a hurry with any amount of lock or you were facing back where you came from, if it went on corner it was a massive tank slapper as the narrow track and ride height would then kick you back the other way when it bit.They were fantastic when lowered and bigger wheel 60 series tyres.The Chim 4.0 Hc seems so composed after that,still not had it long though !.
I now drive an 206,000 mile sierra as a daily runner and that has old tyres, you get over taken by mountain bikes on corners while trying to make the turn.Great fun though less damage when you get it wrong at 10mph.
P.s My first car was a Fiat 131 and we used work at Oulton Park,often we would blow the rears upto 45psi (165/13 /70)then go for round the track, it was more like a scene from the Dukes of Hazzard, quite the possible the slowest lap times ever.
>> Edited by Top Chimp on Monday 13th February 22:48
Man you never pulled out in a hurry with any amount of lock or you were facing back where you came from, if it went on corner it was a massive tank slapper as the narrow track and ride height would then kick you back the other way when it bit.They were fantastic when lowered and bigger wheel 60 series tyres.The Chim 4.0 Hc seems so composed after that,still not had it long though !.
I now drive an 206,000 mile sierra as a daily runner and that has old tyres, you get over taken by mountain bikes on corners while trying to make the turn.Great fun though less damage when you get it wrong at 10mph.
P.s My first car was a Fiat 131 and we used work at Oulton Park,often we would blow the rears upto 45psi (165/13 /70)then go for round the track, it was more like a scene from the Dukes of Hazzard, quite the possible the slowest lap times ever.
>> Edited by Top Chimp on Monday 13th February 22:48
Not quite a "not doing that again" more a "more, more, more" but hey, here's one I thought I'd share...
I took the TVR into work last Thursday because it was such a nice day, and leaving at about 6ish I did the usual crawl up the motorway slip road, check mirrors, get onto Motorway, move across to fast lane asap to avoid the indecisive noddy at the front.
Only this time I forgot just how quick the TVR is (
) and shot past about 20 cars in three seconds and was suddenly across all 3 lanes doing 70mph plus a bit (
) feeling like I'd just set a new landspeed record or something.
It frightened the hell out of me.
That same want-to-go-round-again feeling you get with a great rollercoaster. TVR Griffith
I took the TVR into work last Thursday because it was such a nice day, and leaving at about 6ish I did the usual crawl up the motorway slip road, check mirrors, get onto Motorway, move across to fast lane asap to avoid the indecisive noddy at the front.
Only this time I forgot just how quick the TVR is (
) and shot past about 20 cars in three seconds and was suddenly across all 3 lanes doing 70mph plus a bit ( ) feeling like I'd just set a new landspeed record or something. It frightened the hell out of me.
That same want-to-go-round-again feeling you get with a great rollercoaster. TVR Griffith
TVRorM5 said:
This weekend, I forgot my golden rule of “Respect this car – it’s got big V8 and very little weight. It could EASILY bite you!”
To cut a long story short – due to my lack of respect, I ended up thinking “God that was close! I’m not doing that again!”. Basically pulled out of a junction ambitiously expecting ‘a bit’ of oversteer – and not the shed loads I got. Several crude over corrections and snaking motions later I was back on the straight and narrow.
Fortunately (and not through my skill I hasten to add) – no damage to car or anything else.
Anyone else done something daft like that - and felt as stupid as me?
John
The only real time I had one of those moments was trying to follow a 7 in my mx5 down the A24 at about 7am on Revival Sunday morning. It was dampish, my poor 5 was on slightly naff shockers by then, I was young n foolish, trying to follow him down the inside line on the roundabout. What was hairy was the old cpl in a pukka AC Ace on the outside of us that we both went past and on the exit I was in deep "oh sh..." mode. About 50yrds up the road I think I stopped fishtailing back n forth and then drove rather chastened the rest of the way to Goodwood. Was a very stupid moment.
bga said:
This weekend I let my stepfather have a go.
I warned him to take it easy but after 500 metres I made him stop. Never again will he drive my car.
He demontrated a complete lack of respect for the car. I have driven 1000 miles in the last 3 weeks on icy roads, in torrential rain and on slippery roads & there has not been a moment of unplanned waywardness. The car got out of shape more with him driving for less than 1/2 a mile than in those 1000 miles of enjoyable hooning.
The only close shave I have had was a numpty trying to block a (very safe) overtake. I must pay a bit more attention in future.
Better driver than me! I do drive my Chim on a weekly basis. In our part of the world we've had several snow falls - and I think its fair to say that the Chimaera is not the easiest car to drive in adverse conditions. Its easy to make mistakes!
As for "doing something stupid" - YES! Best thing to do is to learn from the mistake – that’s what makes you a better driver! Finding the limits of your car (in a safe environment) is important.
Those that admit to having done something stupid also educate the rest of us!
Dav
I had a real donkey moment on the A303 just after I passed my test. Was driving my midget down to a friends 18th.
Quite soon after M3 decided that the tunes that were coming out of my walkman (plugged into PC speakers- now that was what I call ICE) needed changing.
So what did I do?
Well I asked my 15 yo sister to hold the wheel of course, while I rummaged beneath my seat
To be fair she managed the first gentle left but as the road swung back to the right she turned too much and then overcorrected (easy to do on a car with less than two turns lock to lock and the turning circle of a london taxi)
As I popped my head back up to see where we were going all I could see was some bloke in white vectra heading towards us with his eyes closed. Going backwards was a bit frightening so I turned the wheel and the car spun back.
This was not such a good thing: now we were heading head on into the barrier so I spun the wheel again and we hit the central reservation at c.30mph going backwards.
By some miracle we managed to thump the only 200m of hawthorn hedge central reservation in 10 miles of armco
Bit frightening to start with as sister was screaming, but once she calmed down realised we (and the car thank God) were both ok.
Plenty of embarrasment followed as they cordoned off the lane and pulled the car off the hedge. Copper asked me what happened. I said "ooh vicious cross wind officer"; He stuck his finger up and said "wind what wind? Think we'll put this one down to experience sonny". Legend
There is a lesson to this I think a) Always look where you are going... b) don't give other people the wheel...c)never give it to your 15yo sister
!
>> Edited by george 500 on Tuesday 14th February 10:24
Quite soon after M3 decided that the tunes that were coming out of my walkman (plugged into PC speakers- now that was what I call ICE) needed changing.
So what did I do?
Well I asked my 15 yo sister to hold the wheel of course, while I rummaged beneath my seat
To be fair she managed the first gentle left but as the road swung back to the right she turned too much and then overcorrected (easy to do on a car with less than two turns lock to lock and the turning circle of a london taxi)
As I popped my head back up to see where we were going all I could see was some bloke in white vectra heading towards us with his eyes closed. Going backwards was a bit frightening so I turned the wheel and the car spun back.
This was not such a good thing: now we were heading head on into the barrier so I spun the wheel again and we hit the central reservation at c.30mph going backwards.
By some miracle we managed to thump the only 200m of hawthorn hedge central reservation in 10 miles of armco
Bit frightening to start with as sister was screaming, but once she calmed down realised we (and the car thank God) were both ok.
Plenty of embarrasment followed as they cordoned off the lane and pulled the car off the hedge. Copper asked me what happened. I said "ooh vicious cross wind officer"; He stuck his finger up and said "wind what wind? Think we'll put this one down to experience sonny". Legend
There is a lesson to this I think a) Always look where you are going... b) don't give other people the wheel...c)never give it to your 15yo sister
! >> Edited by george 500 on Tuesday 14th February 10:24
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