First, I'm not proud of it. Just want to share my experience and see if I can get some ideas from you on what to do in the future.

I had a '05 G Coupe AT with OEM 18" RIM and Summer Tires on at the moment. Ok, this happened on a local highway 50 mph zone. It was raining hard and I was not too slow, maybe 70. I think I must have hit a pot of water on the driver side and that car started to lose control and went left towards the barrier. Not wantting to smash hard, I think I steered the car to the right and didn't think I was steering it that hard. but next thing I knew, it was spinning like crazy. So fast that I couldn't really figure out which way I was facing. Keep in mind that it's still raining heavily and the ground is totally wet. I decided that I couldn't do anything about it and just let go -- I mean foot of the pedal and hands of the wheel and just layback. I had my seat belt on. It must have spinned more than few seconds because I had time to think that maybe I should hold on to the wheel so when it hits something, I'm can keep my body pushed back to the seat, so I did. Soon after that the car hit something (later to be found to be a curb on the right) on the passenger side and after a very fast and chaodic movements, I landed on my head. I still remember the ceiling was melting down on me but luckily it stopped.

Well, I sat there, collected my thoughts and I suddenly remember there were other cars behind me. So I sat tight in my seat for few secs before I decided that was long enough for them to brake. I then quickly untied my seat belt (it was working very well) and looked out the only hole next to me (I didn't care what it was at the moment but it was the driver side window w/o the glass). All of them stopped like 50 feet away from me. I quickly crawled out of the window using my arms cus I was afraid of a fire. As I was half way out, someone was already there to help me to stand up.


Wow, that's my first thought.... I then quickly checked my body by running my hands up and down just to make sure I don't have a broken bone or some part is lost ... I event counted my teeth w/ my hand. Well, it was like nothing happened to me. The only things I found out later was that

1. my left wrist was hurting because of the impact from the steering wheel at the moment of hitting
2. my head felt a little pain must because I landed on it and it wasn't designed for that
3. a small bruise on my left knee
4. a 3 inch long cut on the back of my left hand
5. and my left back was pulled a little which recovered after a week

What I learned from this incident:

1. No high tech can conquor physics.
2. Be extra careful when it's wet
3. I need better lighting. If I saw that water, I'd be in much better condition
4. Those huber tint was was worth it. I later found both my left and right glasses onthe road but they were in one piece. Kinda like a net. The glass has been crashed into thousands of small pieces but the tint held them together as 1. So if the glass was to splash towards inside of the car, it would have hit my face, eye, ear w/o the tint
5. Last but the most important, WEAR SEAT BELT

FYI, none of my airbags popped. but the passenger side air bag did.

Now my question is:

1. I thought about hitting the gas a little when it started spinning hoping to gain tracking again. But I thought maybe I'll hit at the moment it would be facing the barier and I'll run into it. It's a 2 lane highway so not much room for mistake like that. So I did not do anything. But til today, I'm still not sure if I made the right decision. However, maybe it won't make any difference for my particular case since I was already floating on the water. What if it was dry?

2. I heard that cars these days may have the ECU recording the last 10 sec of all the information before crash. Kinda like a black box in an airplane. Gives information like how fast I was going. Does our car have that? If it does, do you think the police or the insurance may use it against me?

3. Like I described above, I don't think I steered very hard when the car first lost control. I knew from my previous experiences to not to do that. However, I'm afraid, it wasn't my steering that caused the car to spin but rather the VDS or ABS kicked in. As many of you already know, our cars have a very intrusive VDS system and it always take effect when you don't want it to even when it's "turned off". I had an experience before that it braked one side of tires when I was fast in a curve and I almost lost control because of it.

So what do you think?

 

Sorry to hear that, glad ur ok though.

In the rain the car becomes very unpredictable when it slides. I have done some practice slides in the rain in empty parking lot and even at 40 mph they are very tricky to control. So going 70mph without knowing that u are going to spin in the rain is a very sad situation. Unfortunately u couldn't do anything. If u countersteered more the car might snap on the other end of the road with worse results.

But on dry it is much easier to control the car at almost any speed. I once went on a slide going 80 mph and managed to stay in one lane going side ways for about 3 seconds.

 

Wow, sorry to hear to hear about your accident. You are one lucky dude to escape a rollover with no major injuries.

From the way you describe it, it sounds like a case of hydroplaning, nothing VDC could have done for you at that speed. I don't think VDC or ABS caused your accident. You were going too fast for conditions on sh!tty tires.

 

I'm glad you made it out alive. Check out this thread https://g35driver.com/forums/lounge-off-topic/127496-edr-your-car-black-box.html there's a video link in it that talks about the blackbox in newer model cars.

 

Damn sounds intense, but i have a question as well. They say when you start hydroplaning to floor the car. If you have VDC on and you floor the car while hydroplaning the wheels would be spinning wouldnt the VDC kick in and cut the power? That would mean that VDC would be pretty pointless in the rain if you cant floor it if you have to right?

 

What do I think?

Speed too fast for conditions.

I've gotten the rear end free on numerous occasions in the rain. I live in Washington and it rains all the damn time. I leave VDC on, and drive at sane speeds, and I've never gotten the rear end out ouf control. VDC reels it back in every time.

VDC is meant to overcome most situations within the limitations of the car's design. Your car wasn't meant to hydroplane and remain controllable.

70 in a 50 in the rain. Sounds like you got what you asked for.

Glad you're okay.

 

When u hydroplane VDC can't do anything to prevent it. Imagone gliding on solid ice, no matter when ur wheels are doing u are still going to glide if u are carrying speed.

 

glad you're okay and hopefully we all can learn from your experience..

 

So the moral of this story is drive slow in the rain......no matter what you drive.

 

Those big puddles that tend to collect on the sides of lanes are really dangersous. You just have to slow down in bad weather conditions. Give your self time to avoid those big puddles. Especially if your not familiar with the road. Glad to hear your OK.

 

quesstion how does the vdc work is it actually braking independet wheels or is the computer limiting power

 

both

 

Thats some crazy ****.!!

 

i know u said u were spinning so fast u couldnt get ur bairings but most situations arent like that

1) point the wheels straight AND HOLD THE WHEEL...letting it do its own thing is BAD and could have potentially kept your spin going much longer than it would have with the wheel not turned into the spin.

2) giving it gas after u have stopped the spin but are sliding will help gain control EVEN WITH VDC ON, especially if ur facing backwards...

 

#1 - Glad you are safe and sound. You should thank whoever's watching over you because you lucked out big time.

#2 - I hope your VDC was on, even though in a case of hydroplaning the VDC won't help you too much. I remember when I hydroplaned near CT at 90mph on the freeway the VDC did NOTHING. (I suppose all 4 tires were spinning at the same speed so Mr. VDC thought what the heck, you are in control)

#3 - In case of hydroplaning or losing control in the wet, do NOT do anything drastic whether it be gas or brakes. If you notice the car is starting to slide alittle, maintain neutral gas position and don't hit the brake. Countersteer very lightly, and move the steering wheel alittle to see if you can get some traction. I know it sounds insane to do these baby steps when your car is out of wrack, but overcorrection often cause more problems.

#4 - I posted a thread awhile back regarding the stock 18" Pilot Sports. These tires work very well in the dry, but in the wet they get squirmy even with 50% thread left. Back then my coupe only had 16k miles and the rear tires would step out on me on the freeway. You need to be very careful on the stock 18" summer tires in the rain.

#5 Laws of physics - if your car is hydroplaning or slipping in a straight line, then let it be and make minor corrections. Flooring the gas is about the dumbest thing I've heard when losing control. This is not D1 Drifting competition, keep the rear end in control. If you are spinning, the only way to stop the spin is a counter rotational force, that'd be brake and counter steer to turn your front tires into the direction of the spin. Wider contact patch perpendicular to the axis of the spin, the better control you have. Again, if you floor the gas when the car is spinning, you'd be UFO'ing down the street endlessly making water donuts and a light show.

#6 Once the vehicle has past a certain drift angel - stop trying to salvage control by countersteer and throttle control. In the G, if your car is over 40 degrees sideways and not in control, just hit the brake and hold on - unless you prefer to drift into a park car or light pole. The faster your car snaps around, the less likely you will be able to catch it in time to correct. In a hydroplaing case though, usually the rotation of the car starts out slowly and can be corrected with careful throttle and steering.