Had My First Spin Out, Scared Me Shitless

[cannabiscorpse]

I find it amazing that people can judge his driving through a post. Well done, you must be awesome drivers!

If anything, yes i believe you should have been in a lower gear while cornering in the wet. I experienced a 180 degree spin out in my first ss commodore in 5th gear once, cruising through a corner, not driving fast etc. I believe to this day that if i was in 3rd/4th, i would have had more of a chance of holding onto it because i wouldnt of been 'coasting' and would have had some torque from the engine to help it recover. At the end of the day, NOBODY knows what happened but you. Even with the best explanation of the scenario possible, others will not be able to interpret what happened. Thats of course not including the fact its possible that oil could of been on the road, in which case your chances of not spinning on that are virtually nil, regardless of your driving ability.

I think that if you are concerned with your driving ability or want to further those abilities, then definitely look at the skid pan events etc. In my opinion thats something everyone should do, let alone those in reasonably or high powered vehicles.

[blind_elk]

As for my gear selection, im usually in 5th after 60kmp/h to reduce fuel consumption ...

Doesn't hold true. Just because you are doing less revs doesn't mean you are using less fuel. The engine is at its most efficient when near peak torque. 60k in 5th isn't within a bull's roar of peak torque.

[Ghostrider]

Having only driven FWD cars in the past I had my first spin out in my R33 after owning it for a week.

It's raining in Sydney tonight and I was on the on ramp to the harbour bridge out of china town the part that darling harbour backs onto. Was doing 60km/h around a slight bend in 5th, accelerated a bit, boost kicked in and suddenly I did a full 360 spin and was very luck not to hit the side barriers. Had stalled the car and was clapped and wolf whistled by standers by as I started the car and slowly drove off. I'd had 2 beers (full license) and was thanking my stars no cops came past...

Just wondering why it's so easy to spin out? Could be down to my tyres, stock rims and no name brand, previous owners tyres.

Anyways just thought I'd post this because to be honest I have never felt so out of control in a car and never have I felt that rush before! Lol

Ok, I have done my share to shoot you down, but let's just look at some facts?

You claim to be doing 60kph around a slight bend in 5th (OD) and with a little acceleration you lost it and did a 360 spin???

Well I now invite everyone that has looked at this thread and or made a comment to Google Harbour St Cockle Bay Sydney NSW and have a look at the road this has allegedly taken place on. That is of course if the stretch of road is not well known to you already.

There is nothing that resembles even a slight bend as such and I drive this road about 6 times a week in up to 14.5m stretch coaches & hummer limousines. It is also an 80k stretch of road and in a coach we go through it as near to flat out as we can to get up the ramp onto the harbour bridge. At best it is a set of 2 very lazy curves that requires next to nil turning of the wheel to negotiate. The worst bit being at the start in front of Imax Theatre, but that still isn't a bend.

Your car weighs about 1370kg, max power of 184Kw @ 6400rpm, max torque of 294Nm @ 4800rpm and @ 60kph your engine is doing about 1550rpm.

Now some others may correct me if I'm wrong, but your car isn't coming onto boost till somewhere near 2500/3000rpm which suggests to me you stuck your boot in it to do what we do in heavy vehicles to get up the ramp and hence when the boost kicked in you lost it and went into a spin.

That says driver error, inexperience in the car & in the wrong conditions, nothing to do with oil on the road as you so think we should believe. At the end of it all the person behind the wheel is responsible for how the car/vehicle behaves on the road. Drive to the conditions........ ease on the power and you will probably find driving your Skyline much more rewarding like most of us do.

I don't think your thread is telling quite the truth?????

Anyway, that said, if you feel the rear end step out, the easiest fix is take the foot off the gas and let the car correct itself and most defensive driving courses with tell you exactly that.

As Duncan said, you can do a lot worse than joining the car club, as under normal conditions these cars handle quite well and you can attend the many outings they have to help you learn how to handle your car to it's potential.

If you read your owners handbook, I'm sure it will say something like 5th gear (overdrive) is for 80k and above!

Cheers, D

[96Gts25t]

This here people is a clasic example of a skyline driver lowering his standards to a P plate commodore drivers reputation, Not what we need....

[RobertoB]

Thanks everyone for your comments

[Daewoo]

Hmmm the oil on the road scenario is starting to me more sense to me at present...

I don't see how being in a lower gear could have avoided my spin out considering it would have been easier to hit boost under acceleration.

To be honest, and trying my hardest not to be a pr!ck here... You are bullsh!ting yourself and everyone here... You aren't going to learn if you keep doing that...

No one in the history of cars, or driving, or damp roads, spun a car on that bend in 5th gear with moderate acceleration... blaming it on oil, wet weather, tyres, turbo boost, or any other outside factor is missing the point entirely... you f^cked up, could have killed yourself or someone else, and unless you take responsibility, you might end up doing exactly that...

The easy answer is, you were either going too fast for the conditions, or accelerating too hard, or both...

All the defensive driving courses in the world (teaching you about how to stay out of other peoples accidents) are going to teach you not to screw up yourself... advanced driving courses are great, if you want to go onto a racetrack... but streets are not race tracks...

Take responsibility, be true to yourself, understand what you did wrong, don't even go close to doing it again.. don't blame anything other than yourself...

I hope you take my comments with the intent they are made, which is to hopefully keep you alive...

Daewoo