ESP does not work when you get rammed
Discussion
Always wondered about this one, unfortunately I have now experienced it first-hand.
Driving along a dual carriageway, on a slight left hand bend, I was in lane 2 doing about 30mph while gracefully accelerating to 40mph to overtake a car 50 yards ahead in lane 1.
I would wager that the centre of my steering wheel was pointing about 11 o clock, maybe 10:30 at most – so a very mild corner.
Next thing you know, a Seat Ibiza bumps into the back of me and sends me oversteering towards the nearside of the carriageway. I applied as much opposite lock as I could and slammed on.
Up over the curb I go, at an angle of about 80 degrees, stopping a foot or two short of a lamppost. I look to my right and the Seat accelerates hard into the distance, along with 3 or 4 cars that were following us. No-body stopped.
I checked the car over and there’s not so much as a mark on the rear bumper, and god knows how but the front bumper managed to clear the curb without being ripped off. The wheels seem ok too, so in all a very lucky escape.
Obviously I’m incredibly pissed off; some f
ker rammed me on purpose and none of the following cars stopped to see if I was ok. I have reported this to the police who will check for CCTV but I won’t get my hopes up.
Interesting how ESP did sod all though, as the conditions was dry and my tyres are good. Perhaps it tried but didn’t have enough space to intervene; perhaps on a motorway it would have been more effective. Either way I didn’t see no flashing light in my peripheral vision but as you can appreciate it was the last thing on my mind.
I know in a FWD car you should boot it in an oversteer skid, but who really is going to have the reactions and skill to drop two gears, apply full throttle and full opposite lock within a split second?
Driving along a dual carriageway, on a slight left hand bend, I was in lane 2 doing about 30mph while gracefully accelerating to 40mph to overtake a car 50 yards ahead in lane 1.
I would wager that the centre of my steering wheel was pointing about 11 o clock, maybe 10:30 at most – so a very mild corner.
Next thing you know, a Seat Ibiza bumps into the back of me and sends me oversteering towards the nearside of the carriageway. I applied as much opposite lock as I could and slammed on.
Up over the curb I go, at an angle of about 80 degrees, stopping a foot or two short of a lamppost. I look to my right and the Seat accelerates hard into the distance, along with 3 or 4 cars that were following us. No-body stopped.
I checked the car over and there’s not so much as a mark on the rear bumper, and god knows how but the front bumper managed to clear the curb without being ripped off. The wheels seem ok too, so in all a very lucky escape.
Obviously I’m incredibly pissed off; some f
ker rammed me on purpose and none of the following cars stopped to see if I was ok. I have reported this to the police who will check for CCTV but I won’t get my hopes up.Interesting how ESP did sod all though, as the conditions was dry and my tyres are good. Perhaps it tried but didn’t have enough space to intervene; perhaps on a motorway it would have been more effective. Either way I didn’t see no flashing light in my peripheral vision but as you can appreciate it was the last thing on my mind.
I know in a FWD car you should boot it in an oversteer skid, but who really is going to have the reactions and skill to drop two gears, apply full throttle and full opposite lock within a split second?
Crusoe said:
So you were going slowly and pulled out on someone in your blind spot who managed to avoid hitting you hard enough to leave any marks and you are blaming him/her?
I am not even going to entertain you any further than, please log out and never log back in.Rawwr said:
HellDiver said:
ESP can't defy the laws of physics.
Precisely. Anything subjected to a moment of shock will be instantly beyond any kind of correction, electronic or otherwise.Are you sure the Seat actually hit you and it wasn't a pothole or something? What makes you think he rammed you on purpose?
Granted, there are some twunts about that will scarper after an incident, but I'd imagine that most people would stop. And that most drivers witnessing someone being deliberately rammed on the road would also stop. Seems like quite a stretch that you encountered someone crazy enough to deliberately ram someone, got hit, for them to not stop, for the witnesses to not stop and to have no physical evidence of a collision. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as it sounds, but Occam's Razor and all that...
Granted, there are some twunts about that will scarper after an incident, but I'd imagine that most people would stop. And that most drivers witnessing someone being deliberately rammed on the road would also stop. Seems like quite a stretch that you encountered someone crazy enough to deliberately ram someone, got hit, for them to not stop, for the witnesses to not stop and to have no physical evidence of a collision. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as it sounds, but Occam's Razor and all that...
MattVXR87 said:
I had kind of guessed that, but always wondered how the system would work in practice. I guess theres not much 4 skinny tyres can do when they are supporting the weight of two cars.
Think of it like this: If you were stood in front of me and I pushed you, your legs and body would be able to counter it easily as the moment of shock is pretty slight. If I ran up behind you as fast as I could and pushed you, there's just no time to react to it and you'd be on the floor. Uriel said:
Are you sure the Seat actually hit you and it wasn't a pothole or something? What makes you think he rammed you on purpose?
Granted, there are some twunts about that will scarper after an incident, but I'd imagine that most people would stop. And that most drivers witnessing someone being deliberately rammed on the road would also stop. Seems like quite a stretch that you encountered someone crazy enough to deliberately ram someone, got hit, for them to not stop, for the witnesses to not stop and to have no physical evidence of a collision. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as it sounds, but Occam's Razor and all that...
Yeah. Seen it coming, all too fast I'm afraid. Must have been stolen, or perhaps he had a domestic. Granted, there are some twunts about that will scarper after an incident, but I'd imagine that most people would stop. And that most drivers witnessing someone being deliberately rammed on the road would also stop. Seems like quite a stretch that you encountered someone crazy enough to deliberately ram someone, got hit, for them to not stop, for the witnesses to not stop and to have no physical evidence of a collision. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as it sounds, but Occam's Razor and all that...
HellDiver said:
doogz said:
mikezs said:
HellDiver said:
ESP can't defy the laws of physics.
WHAT!?
Do you really think it was intentional? That's pretty bloody serious!
MattVXR87 said:
I know in a FWD car you should boot it in an oversteer skid, but who really is going to have the reactions and skill to drop two gears, apply full throttle and full opposite lock within a split second?
Why, any of the resident PH driving gods of course. 
Glad to hear you got out of it OK. That's the main thing.
MattVXR87 said:
I know in a FWD car you should boot it in an oversteer skid
Only if you're Jason Plato in a BTCC race and you've been told you're getting no sex unless you win.As a mere mortal I was taught to kill the power (by pressing the clutch pedal), steer into the spin and wait for the car to sort itself out with the weight transfer over to the front wheels.
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