Had to Happen Eventually
 

I have a 2004 base 8 with the 6 speed. I have about 48K miles on it and four wheel snow tires.

For years, I have been hearing on this forum that those of us without traction control were taking our very lives in our hands by even switching the car on much less driving it, but I come from an age when all cars were rear wheel drive and you just knew how to drive them.

Last night, I'm driving down to pick my wife up at the train station, and I was going about 35 miles an hour on a road, which is posted at 35 miles an hour. I go around this turn that I have been driving around for 20+ years, and as I straightened the wheel out to go straight after the apex of the curve the rear end just kept continuing around. Now it was about 50 degrees Farenheit out, and the road was damp, although it was not actively raining. I turned into the skid and waited for the car to grab, which it did, but the rear was pretty far out at that point. I straightened the wheel as the rear was coming back, and it over corrected, which wasn't really that surprising, and I had prepared for it. I waited for the rear to straighten up on the now straight steering wheels, which it did, and I coasted the car back into its lane. I started to accelerate again, and the rear skidded out again. I can only think that oil had come out of a patch on the road because of the rain and really slicked up the road, but even still, wow. I have never really felt that little control over a car that wasn't on black ice. Up until now, the only times that the 8 has ever broken loose on me was when I was pushing the car pretty hard on dry roads. I would hate to think what would have happened if I had been rushing down the road at the time instead of obeying the speed limit. Just a story. No real point to it I guess.

How old are those tires??

Glad it turned out to be no problem.

oh man, I was waiting for, ".....and then it happened.....BAM!!!!!" Glad that wasn't part of the story.

Could have been much worse.

yeah man, glad you are alright, you had me sweating the whole way through. I tried not to get ahead of myself reading, but caught a glimpse of "35" and thought I was going to read that you hit a G35 head on or something.

P.S. I nearly shat in my brand new leather seats the first time my back end went out like that.

Black Ice? There are cold spots in the road.

Watch out for bridges.

Not that old. They are Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50s that I only run in the dead winter months. They have about half of their tread life left, however they have never been my favorite tire. When I put my mother into some snow tires for her Jag, I got her Dunlops. Way better tire, but this was ridiculous. I really believe that there was raw oil on the road from the asphalt patch that the township put down recently. I don't know. Maybe the temperature was too high for the compund in the tire making it slicker than it might otherwise have been? Beats me. I'm at a loss. The car drove fine for the rest of the night, although I did really baby it after that, as in driving under the speed limits and not accelerating at all around turns. It was weird.

I'm glad that it didn't end with a bang too! :) For a short instant I was heading right for a guard rail. Thank God no one was coming the other way too as my rear was in their face ... so to speak, and that can really piss somebody off.

Freaked me out. Thanks for the kind words of support!

It was 50 out. There was no way that there was ice, but that was how it felt.

Although I've parked my 8 for the past three winters I have still driven it with snowtires when the cooler weather arrives. I've also driven other RWD's in the winter before. What I do find myself doing lately is having to remind myself that I have the winter tires on. The car's so forgiving in the summer and I end up pushing it (especially in corners). Maybe I will take your recent experience and take it as a warning albeit that it was not due to ice. Glad to hear that nothing serious happened to you.

I've recently found out that it's a major pain when you go to the trouble of putting on the snow tires, and the weather stays this warm and snow-free. The stock summer tires may be rock hard and unresponsive when it's under 30 degrees, but snow tires can be almost as bad when it's above 45. It didn't take me long to realize that people call snow tires "squirrelly" on warm pavement (wet or dry) for a very good reason!

Glad to hear there was no collision in your story. Though I think your story leads more towards actually confirming that the "DSC saved my life" thing may be a little exaggerated.

No DSC, and you not only didn't die, but were able to recover your 8 w/o any damage.

Def. kind of weird, tho. I'm a little aprehensive about the snow tires on warm days, but it seems like a strecth to say it was anything other than some foreign substance on the road - especially running at the posted limit.

Yeah, you know I think that there might be something to that. I do find that my winter tires do better when it is colder than warmer. It could have been sort of a combo of "squirelly" tires and a slicker than normal road. Good point.

This is a good driver - he knows what to do and kept his head in an unexpected emergency situation. I hope to do so well if this happens to me. Great job!

I am definately not happy driving on my winters - conti TS810's 225/50/17 - at 55 F outside. I am also really noticing the disadvantage of running a 17x6.5 wheel on my car. For bad weather I'm sure I'll be glad to have this setup but in the dry when I'd like to drive the car I feel a floaty sensation changing lanes on the highway (ok, at high speed).

I'd reco in the future that peeps try and run a 17x7.5 wheel for winter, or maybe 17x7 at the smallest. It feels like it makes a big difference. Oh, and this tire is rated to fit a 17x6 wheel. Yikes!

Great post OP!

Ahhh . . . the WS-50's. Those tires are horrible on dry pavement. I used them for 1 winter on my STi and they were phenomenal in the snow, but the dry traction was terrible. I am much happier with the Dunlop Wintersport M3's on my RX8 as far as dry performance goes.

I have the WS-50s and have also found them to suck on the dry, but I went out to a ski mountain and the parking lot was frozen over, and i was amazed at how well they stuck to it. Great tire in the snow but no where else. But hey they are winter tires, not high performance radials, so I am happy with them ^.^

yet another reason I'm glad I retired my 8 for the winter

The M3s are what I put on my mother's Jag. They are a far better tire all the way around than my WS 50's, but it is hard to know until you've bit down on the apple whether it is poison or not. The reviews on Tire rack at the time made them sound OK for winter work. Not a big deal. This will be their last winter, and then I'm switching to the Dunlops.

Those tires are squirmy as hell in the dry, but great in the snow. In your case, there was definately something on the road.

I had this happen once when a truck had leaked diesel on a highway off ramp in the rain. I hit it when the truck was long gone. I smelled it after the "oh shit" when I hit the brakes and absolutely nothing happened!

No way to stop, so just laid on the horn and prayed people going through the intersection saw me and my plight. Somehow made it through with being hit or hitting anything!

Just goes to show - be prepared for anything on the road. Sounds like you did a good job!

I really didn't mind the Potenza's until yesterday. Parked the car with the wheels still turned and then I saw the tread. I need new tires already! Ahhh! Only 15k miles and it's already down to the tread bar. Wow, that's pathetic.

My Toyo Proxes 4's have seemed to do all right in very hot weather (several 100 degree days). As the temperature has fallen, I've noticed they do just as well. So far I'm pretty happy with them.

Black Ice is a common term here is the Midwest. It is when a very thin layer of ice forms on the road. It looks just like pavement until you hit it. When I was younger and dumber I was shooting through some back roads in Michigan in my Fiero GT and hit a patch. The next thing I saw are the trees on the side of the road going by my windshield from left to right. Was able to recover the car and it turned into a lesson on black ice I will never forget.

Black ice bad - there's a place between Provo Utah and Salt Lake as you are heading toward the ski resorts - it's called Point of the Mountain - evil evil black ice, have watched six cars one after another hit the patch and go off road, then some kind of a little snow plow slid off and they had to bring in a bigger one...prefer snow any day!

Nice Driving!

my car doesnt have 18,000 miles on it and i already had to change my back tires. and im about to change the front ones for the winter.