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Quote:

Originally Posted by vinuneuro

While I did slam on the brakes and try to steer, wasn't ABS suppose to save me some? :dunno:

Vin,

The purpose of ABS or "anti-locks" is to prevent your wheels from locking..
Once they lock, you have surpassed 100% traction.

The purpose of ABS is to keep you at the threshold of 100% traction without going over it. Either way, your still AT or above 100% so any major steering inputs will put your car at the edge or over of control.

Glad you had an angel on your shoulder :thumbup: - personally, If I'm about to really get messed up because of some idiot, I'm going to make sure he is a part of what happens and not get off scotfree :mad: - that said, when the situation arises, you naturally do the best you can, which often let's the cause of everything get away. :(

WOOW B-line thanks for the lesson, i'll try to remember it next time i'm about to crash.
Seriously though, it's a very good car control lesson, mind posting anymore?

Quote:

Originally Posted by B-Line

Vin,

Now can I convince you to take a car control course.. (I recommend this for everyone.)

So, here's what probably happened.

a little basic car control lesson: A car only does 3 things, it brakes, it accelerates and it turns.
Having said that, basic physics demands that at any given point, your vehicle has 100% of it's ability (TRACTION) to do any one of those three things.
- Meaning, you can accelerate with 100% traction, Turn with 100% traction or brake with 100% traction.
- you can also divide the traction - 90% acceleration/10%turning. 85% braking, 15% turning, etc. etc.

What you can not do is defy physics. You can not get 110% traction or ability out of your car. Once you have met the threshold of 100% anything that happens after that either decreases your performance (like locking the brakes,) or will throw you into a spin or understeer/oversteer.

- so now lets look at what happened to you. You slammed your brakes as hard as you could.. (using 100% of your traction to stop the vehicle) And then cut the wheel to change lanes (exceeding that 100% traction)

At this point, your braking and turning was toooo much input for the car and it BROKE FREE of stability.
Had you lifted off the brake a little, you could have gotten some steering input in because the car would not be using ALL it's ability to stop the car.

Now when your car was trying to stop full force, all the weight of the vehicle was forced onto the front tires, that's like 3000 lbs. Which was fine, until you cut the wheel. By cutting the wheel, the back end of the car which was relatively weight free broke traction and started to come around on you. By the time you knew what was going on, you were probably facing ass backwards.

- The point of all this info is not neccessarily for you to understand it all, rather, it is to illustrate that there is a clear, concise reason your car did that. Understanding why it did that is the key to helping you next time your in this situation. You can learn everything I just talked about in one day of driving school.

B

These are supposed to be good...

Linkage

He does.. cuz that's how you learn from the mistakes. If you don't know what you did wrong, chances are you will do it again...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaefer

Who cares about why you spun or whether ABS should have prevented it. You're OK, and that's all that matters. Glad to hear you made through that ordeal with nothing other than maybe a bruised ego.

By the way, congratulations on your ciitizenship! :thumbup:

Juan

Thanks for your input guys. While I don't want to dwell on what happend today, I think it is important to learn why it happend. So the quick lesson was much appreciated :) . Anyway, good night to all of you, and have a great FF :thumbup: !

I am having a hard time checkin out the FF thread until night these days since I am at work :( . As I am interning this semester , it kinda sucks just having a desk where anyone can drop by anytime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinuneuro

Thanks for your input guys. While I don't want to dwell on what happend today, I think it is important to learn why it happend. So the quick lesson was much appreciated :) . Anyway, good night to all of you, and have a great FF :thumbup: !

I am having a hard time checkin out the FF thread until night these days since I am at work :( . As I am interning this semester , it kinda sucks just having a desk where anyone can drop by anytime.

Wow! Do I want to want it to be Friday so bad that I thought it was or what? Anyway, sorry if the post made no sense. Have a great Almost Friday guys.

Scarry stuff!! Glad u r ok. I had a similar experience about 15 years ago--it ain't fun, but since you are able to walk away without any physical scars, it ain't all bad! :thumbup:

Gee V, was this part of the citizenship test? Man, we are getting outta control.

Anyrate, glad u are ok

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kewl X5

The old saying with a manual tranny...."When you spin, both feet in; when in doubt, both feet out" (Both feet in meaning, pressing the brakes and clutch vs. if you fishtail or plow, then let go of the accelerator, brakes, and clutch and steer yourself out of trouble).

B-line - Question for you regarding this old adage, as you clearly have a lot of race experience...
I've taken a few driving classes, and have a rudimentary knowledge of the art of car control. However I don't get much "track time" to practice and hone the craft.
A few years ago, in my 328Ci (RWD, or course) I stupidly decided to power oversteer through a wet left-handed sweeping corner (NEVER a good idea on public roads!! :tsk: ). I was a bit too aggressive, and the back end swung very hard and fast... as I counter steered, I lifted off the throttle completely. The result was a bigger swing the other way, and then a BIGGER swing back again... each swing was harder to control, until I finally started to reel things back in [being very careful not to "over-correct" my counter steering inputs], somehow avoiding the curb on my right all through the corner.
So my question is, would I have been better off by backing off the gas half way or so (rather than lifting entirely)? From what I've read since that day, backing off the throttle about half way is better at regaining some semblance of grip to the rear wheels than lifting off entirely...

Also, clearly, different cars require very different techniques to drive fast... I'm somewhat new to AWD; do you have any performance driving suggestions for the AWD X5 that may not be intuitive for some one used to RWD?

Thanks,