Hard Lesson....
Discussion
Took the old girl out this morning, I could have taken the company Mondeo but with all the rain these last few days a blue sky was a welcome excuse for a blast. Warmed her up on the drive...a bit of initial missfiring but she soon settled out to her usual urgent grumble. Opened both windows to clear off a little condensation and of course listen to her talking to me...like she does...(sad git). Anyways...took off down the road everything sweet...made my way across town only to be cut out of a one lane filtering situation by a women in her jeep...thought to myself, I'll get her on the dual carriageway further down the road. My chance came approaching a roundabout..roared passed her and onto the roundabout....at this point I must say the road was still wet. Third gear...accelerating thru, my tail swung out to the left..thought shite..loads of left lock...tail swung to the right...thought shite...loads of right lock...tail swung even more violently to the left...thought fuk...180 degrees later slammed into kerb of central res.....rear nearside stub axle broke and my beloved S sat across central res upon it's wheel. Brake shoes and springs everywhere...by now I am growing a fine set of donkeys ears as the lady in jeep and a line of grinning gawpers drive by me....
The moral of this tale is.. you need to have some respect on wet roads i.e. back off the go faster pedal or you'll be joinin' the S 'silly bollox' owners club of which I am now, a member.
PS.. Any one know where I might get hold of a wheel...mine is now shagged....
Paul.
The moral of this tale is.. you need to have some respect on wet roads i.e. back off the go faster pedal or you'll be joinin' the S 'silly bollox' owners club of which I am now, a member.
PS.. Any one know where I might get hold of a wheel...mine is now shagged....
Paul.
sheeeeet sorry to hear that mate. Tivs and wet roads can bite, even in the V6s.
Finding an OZ 8 spoke aint going to be easy. First stop is probably Bell view or douglas valley breakers. Claire still has an entire set of S wheels in the garage that she may be prepared to part with - although they arent the same style and need a refurb.
Regardless, hope you get her sorted ok. You certain theres no more damage underneath/wishbones etc? That would be my fear.
Finding an OZ 8 spoke aint going to be easy. First stop is probably Bell view or douglas valley breakers. Claire still has an entire set of S wheels in the garage that she may be prepared to part with - although they arent the same style and need a refurb.
Regardless, hope you get her sorted ok. You certain theres no more damage underneath/wishbones etc? That would be my fear.
You have two options in this scenario. One option is to fight it and try and get it back under control by steering into the slide, feathering the throttle/declutching etc. To have any chance of success you need to know what you're doing, and react quickly enough. If you catch the initial slide you will need to be even faster to catch the rebound before the car overshoots. If you're fast enough you can damp it down and get is straight again, but if you are even a fraction too slow the oscillation will get worse and worse until you finally lose it completely. In slippery conditions it is even harder because the grip levels drop off more sharply (the tyre 'breaks away' more abruptly. This is a very risky option to take because all the time you're steering into the slide you aren't slowing down; it uses a lot of space, if you run out of room you will hit hard and may well be spinning which means you hit several corners before you stop. Very easy to write a car off doing this.
The second option once you feel it getting away from you is to put the clutch in and stand on the brakes. The car will keep going in a straight line pirrouetting slowly until it stops. If you do it quickly enough you can often stop in the width of the road. If you are unlucky and do end up hitting the scenery, you will have scrubbed off as much speed as possible and will not be spinning fast so you have minimised the damage.
On the whole I tend to recommend the second option.
The second option once you feel it getting away from you is to put the clutch in and stand on the brakes. The car will keep going in a straight line pirrouetting slowly until it stops. If you do it quickly enough you can often stop in the width of the road. If you are unlucky and do end up hitting the scenery, you will have scrubbed off as much speed as possible and will not be spinning fast so you have minimised the damage.
On the whole I tend to recommend the second option.
Thanks Guys for your sympathetic words..
My wheel search has just begun. Horizonmotorsport have my car at the moment and rung earlier to say that damage does not extend to wishbone or chassis..thankfully. After they have repaired it I can use the 'get you home' wheel to err.. get me home. I may or may not do it through the insurance company, Classicline have a £250 excess..I am undecided at the moment..depends on Horizons bill.
Green V8S...
....I read your post with interest and conclude that I am in need of some proper instruction when it comes to these situations....on balance..I prefer option 2. In the dry I can get the tail to drift through the above mentioned roundabout without any fears of a spin out...what surprised me today was the suddeness and speed of the tail swing. I have been pondering all day where I went wrong, apart from getting out of bed, I think in my panic to rescue the sitch I applied way to much lock and I may very well have still got my size 10 on the throttle...the adrenalin rush has blanked me memory.
It all happened in a flash...too quick for this reckless old fart to do anything.
As for option 1...no balls for that one mate
My wheel search has just begun. Horizonmotorsport have my car at the moment and rung earlier to say that damage does not extend to wishbone or chassis..thankfully. After they have repaired it I can use the 'get you home' wheel to err.. get me home. I may or may not do it through the insurance company, Classicline have a £250 excess..I am undecided at the moment..depends on Horizons bill.
Green V8S...
....I read your post with interest and conclude that I am in need of some proper instruction when it comes to these situations....on balance..I prefer option 2. In the dry I can get the tail to drift through the above mentioned roundabout without any fears of a spin out...what surprised me today was the suddeness and speed of the tail swing. I have been pondering all day where I went wrong, apart from getting out of bed, I think in my panic to rescue the sitch I applied way to much lock and I may very well have still got my size 10 on the throttle...the adrenalin rush has blanked me memory.
It all happened in a flash...too quick for this reckless old fart to do anything.
As for option 1...no balls for that one mate
Hard luck there. Another slightly dodgy trick that I have found (occasional/lucky) success with is to let go of the steering wheel!! It will oppsoite lock all by itself a lot faster than you can. However, you have to grab the spinning steering wheel at just the right moment to stop the correction at the perfect instant... But don't quote me on that, at your own risk etc, etc.
Anyway, a couple of years ago I sold my OZ 8 spokes (2 straight, 2 slightly kerbed) to a guy Kevin - he had a "wanted" ad for them here on PH. If I recall, he was an airline pilot and his g.f. had an S. I got the impression (maybe mistaken) he had quite a wheel collection going and that the ones he bought from me were just adding to the growing wheel mountain. Maybe if he is reading this and still has a few spares he could help you out.
Cheers, JW
Anyway, a couple of years ago I sold my OZ 8 spokes (2 straight, 2 slightly kerbed) to a guy Kevin - he had a "wanted" ad for them here on PH. If I recall, he was an airline pilot and his g.f. had an S. I got the impression (maybe mistaken) he had quite a wheel collection going and that the ones he bought from me were just adding to the growing wheel mountain. Maybe if he is reading this and still has a few spares he could help you out.
Cheers, JW
Hi Paul
Sorry to hear your bad news, hope she is back on the road soon. Give www.tvrcarparts.com a shout about the wheels, a little birdie said they may have "discovered" a secret stash, but it may be a complete load of tosh.
Best of luck.
Steve
Sorry to hear your bad news, hope she is back on the road soon. Give www.tvrcarparts.com a shout about the wheels, a little birdie said they may have "discovered" a secret stash, but it may be a complete load of tosh.
Best of luck.
Steve
Really sorry to hear about your mishap - I try to go out in mine only when its dry. However if you are out and it is damp it can easily happen (from experience) - I was lucky and caught it before it got messy but I know how loose they can get in the wet, so try not to blame yourself too much.
On the silver lining side no-one was hurt and you have the perfect excuse to treat yourself to a high performance driving course (if there is any cash left!).
On the silver lining side no-one was hurt and you have the perfect excuse to treat yourself to a high performance driving course (if there is any cash left!).
S3_Steve said:
Hi Paul
Sorry to hear your bad news, hope she is back on the road soon. Give www.tvrcarparts.com a shout about the wheels, a little birdie said they may have "discovered" a secret stash, but it may be a complete load of tosh.
Best of luck.
Steve
I tried them for OZ 8 spoke.... no joy but they did have the original S wheels in stock.... fairly reasonable from memory...
Wildfire said:
Bad news paul, hope it can all be repaired soon. I have a set of S1 wheel in good nick if you want them?
Many thanks Wildfire and all you chaps offering wheels....I may be in touch
It hadn't occurred to me that I may very well have to get a whole set of new wheels. The insurance assessor has not been along yet and chiselled down Horizons estimate...so far it's £931+vat, not including wheel or tyre. (I was hoping the fuel tank was err..
) Anyways, Mike at Horizon is a pretty thorough chap and has said he may be able to source a wheel...so I am hopeful. The missus has started standing things in the garage where my pride and joy normally stands.. woe is me...
Paul.
MickS2 said:
Bad luck, I hope the reapirs go well.
Does anyone believe fitting an LSD would make this sort of incident less likely to happen or easier to correct? It certainly helped in the good old days when I was rallying RWD Escorts (tarmac and loose surface).
The S3's do have have LSD's as far as I am aware UNLESS it was only fitted on S3c's
I think the S4's and V8's had LSD's as standard but they can be retrofitted to old 'uns like my S2. Sierra Cosworth or XR4i LSD fit easily other than maybe a flange change - the bible has details. You can pick them up on ebay for about £50-£100 and I wondered if it would make the old girl more controllable in greasy conditions
doddze said:
LSD is standard on the S3c's
Hmm..I know as far as I am concerned it is all rather academic but does that mean my decatted 91 Sc3, has already got a limited slip diff fitted as standard...?
At risk of revealing my supreme ignorance can someone remind me how a LSD actually works...
I stopped learning about cars after I sold my MK1 Cortina with a cross flow head and a twin choke webber back in 77.
(It also had an eight track cassette player too)....I sort of got married and did other stuff...
Cheers....Paul.
>> Edited by S3Paulo on Wednesday 9th November 19:42
Gassing Station | S Series | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff