Sodding Ice

So this morning I was driving along a country road near Norwich in my AX, it starts to get bloody slippery, so I try to slow (was only doing 25 to start with), and lose traction. Car starts to drift, I steer into it too much, traction returns, I go hurtling towards the bank, almost catch it but not quite, and smack the bank with the front corner, mostly the side. Stop just up the road, check it over, and all looks fine, tiny deformation of the bumper (already a pikey looking motor, who'll notice?), and some grass and mud in the wheeltrim. Pop back out at lunchtime to check, flat tyre. Bugger!

Yes, hairy stuff!

I had a similar scenario a year ago in my CX GTi T2 where the car stepped out sideways with total loss of grip...

no damage done apart from totally shattered nerves and me an even more neurotic driver!
Stopped driving the CX and used a Xantia TD estate instead for the next two months...

The Xantia has recently lost two perfect Michelins in the last two months and I'm a very
unhappy bunny. remember this road debris:






Andrew

ouch!

Ouch indeed! why does this only happen to good tyres with plenty of tread on

For the same reason your toast always lands jam side down .

Am i the only one who likes the ice?? power sliding a 3.5tonn long wheelbase transit at 15mph is almost as much fun as doing it in a proper car at 60

D

It's always easier and more fun when it's NOT your car
- guess that's why you hear the phrases:

drive it like you stole it
and
the fastest car in the world is a hire car!



Andrew

too true, icertainly dont do that in my beloved XM i have other less loved vehicles for that sort of abuse.

Samwise,

At least the damage was minor and you werent in your proper car!

D

What you guys really need are a set of the tungsten carbide studded tyres that we use in winter over here

Cheers, Colin.P

That's the problem with this country though Colin, first bit of frost and it all collapses into farce.
No preparation and then the council goes mad chucking car melting powder about the place like
confetti. Likely we'd get penalised by the Police for 'damaging the road surface' if we had the
temerity to use studded tyres and/or chains.



Andrew

Looks like I got off lightly Andrew! Did you have an opportunity to read my PM by the way? I really would appreciate any help you can give me in tracking down a decent DTR CX estate.

The real answer is to be retired like me - you don't have to go out until the ice has melted

Some years ago, when I wasn't retired, I left here one morning and was driving up a steep lane towards Lyme Regis which was completely covered in ice, I got so far up and the car started slowing although the revs were still the same, eventually it stopped and started going backwards, one rear corner dug into the bank the car then went broadside and jammed across the road with the back burried in one bank and the front in the other, I was just hoping that nobody was coming down the hill because there was no way the could have stopped - until they hit my car.

Peter.N.

I saw an amuzing sign on the back of a lorry today. I was one of those big flatbeds with very long ramps lifted vertical (2 diggers on the back at the time). Just to make the sign more relevant it was going quite slow along a narow windy lane.

The sign was made of 2 number plates and read "your skid stops here".

Made me chuckle.

Interesting extra to this. I took the flat tyre in to Kwik Fit today, to see if it could be fixed. Turns out the tyre is fine, but the wheel is damaged. Now, there has been a bit of a bobble in the steering, which I put down to the very old and probably flat-spotted spare tyre. I now wonder whether my suspension is also damaged......