E92 M3 Gets it Wrong in the Rain and Pays the Price
Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. This could have been a much worse accident if the M3 had gone over the median into oncoming traffic or bounced back into the traffic on his side of the road and involved other cars. The driver was already losing it as they swerved around the car with the camera in it. The driver was in tough spot, they needed to correct sooner but that would have likely caused a collision with the car with the camera in it. Goes to show that aggressive driving doesn't always get you there faster. Stay safe everyone!
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thats nuts... people gotta be more careful driving there 400+ HP sports cars in the pouring rain
when hydroplaning the best thing to do is nothing at all. you wont catch an edge like a skier.. at least not most of the time, and any corrections are likely to make the situation much much worse.
looks like he was switching lanes too?
looks like he was switching lanes too?
Driving like that on a wet road with a powerful RWD car is not smart, AWD might of not helped though due to driver error but still.
Neither the fact that the M3 is RWD or high power have any bearing on hydroplaning. Our wide tires however can make it easier to hydroplane as you increase speed.
That's crazy, glad no one is seriously injured.
That's like saying there is no difference between a .22 and an AK 47. The both can kill! It is much easier to upset the car with more power in the wet and if you are a rear driver the rear hanging out is harder to recover. Its a fact. This car is plainly going sideways like every other rear drive car. It is also going faster than the camera car. Please don't confuse the kids put there and tell them that FWD and RWD have the same hydro planing trigger and response characteristics. Some of us have been driving before the nannies and tires were so good.
Goes to show even the best tires and the best handling is still no match for mother nature. When it rains, slow down!
100 mph on the Autobahn with brand new Pilot Sports felt so good. Granted it was a light drizzle.
Always amazes me how easy it is to pass from normal driving to a car to airborne flipping, spinning, cartwheeling! Cars seem like big heavly stable machines until they aren't.
Always amazes me how easy it is to pass from normal driving to a car to airborne flipping, spinning, cartwheeling! Cars seem like big heavly stable machines until they aren't.
That's because all of your ground contact depends upon four tiny little patches of tire. Thus, despite the fact that an M3 *weighs* almost as much as a steamroller, it's just not quite as stable, lol.
the median & the seatbelt did their jobs & saved lives.
That looks like it happened here in Taiwan. What seemed obvious from that video was that the driver with the camera was driving in the left lane and the guy in the M3 had to use the slower lane to pass. The guy in the M3 that passed wanted to move back into the fast lane upon passing the slower moving vehicle and slipped in the process. A lot of the Asians here in Taiwan jerk their steering wheel to the left or right when passing someone or changing lanes. The steering on the M3 is quite precise so with a jerk to the left or right on the cheap asphalt that they use on their roads and highways here in Taiwan the rear end comes out very easily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdollie
Neither the fact that the M3 is RWD or high power have any bearing on hydroplaning. Our wide tires however can make it easier to hydroplane as you increase speed.
That's like saying there is no difference between a .22 and an AK 47. The both can kill! It is much easier to upset the car with more power in the wet and if you are a rear driver the rear hanging out is harder to recover. Its a fact. This car is plainly going sideways like every other rear drive car. It is also going faster than the camera car. Please don't confuse the kids put there and tell them that FWD and RWD have the same hydro planing trigger and response characteristics. Some of us have been driving before the nannies and tires were so good.
Rdollie is right. It's the tire that will create hydroplaning, not the rwd or the power of the car. And it's always the front tire that will get you in trouble. When hydroplaning, the car loses control because of lack of steering, not because of too much power to any driven wheels. This is one thing that awd owners don't seem to get, and end up in ditches .Yes, you can upset a rwd on a slippery surface easier than a fwd or awd, but that's oversteering and has nothing to do with hydroplaning. A wide tire will hydroplane faster than a narrow one. The car in this clip is not oversteering, he is simply out of control. Brake lights are on, so the power of his engine is irrelevant. Most likely, he has wide summer hi performance tires, he hit a puddle of water, probably on his right side, car pulled to the right, he panicked and pulled violently to the left and lost control
Originally Posted by rdollie
Neither the fact that the M3 is RWD or high power have any bearing on hydroplaning. Our wide tires however can make it easier to hydroplane as you increase speed.
That's like saying there is no difference between a .22 and an AK 47. The both can kill! It is much easier to upset the car with more power in the wet and if you are a rear driver the rear hanging out is harder to recover. Its a fact. This car is plainly going sideways like every other rear drive car. It is also going faster than the camera car. Please don't confuse the kids put there and tell them that FWD and RWD have the same hydro planing trigger and response characteristics. Some of us have been driving before the nannies and tires were so good.
Rdollie is right. It's the tire that will create hydroplaning, not the rwd or the power of the car. And it's always the front tire that will get you in trouble. When hydroplaning, the car loses control because of lack of steering, not because of too much power to any driven wheels. This is one thing that awd owners don't seem to get, and end up in ditches .Yes, you can upset a rwd on a slippery surface easier than a fwd or awd, but that's oversteering and has nothing to do with hydroplaning. A wide tire will hydroplane faster than a narrow one. The car in this clip is not oversteering, he is simply out of control. Brake lights are on, so the power of his engine is irrelevant. Most likely, he has wide summer hi performance tires, he hit a puddle of water, probably on his right side, car pulled to the right, he panicked and pulled violently to the left and lost control
>>It's the tire that will create hydroplaning, not the rwd or the power of the car... Brake lights are on, so the power of his engine is irrelevant.<<
There are several ways to exceed the capacity of a wet (or, for that matter, dry) "friction circle"... Steering, braking and accelerating are three of them. All else being equal (i.e., given identical tires, road conditions and throttle), a more powerful car will accelerate faster and therefore hydroplane more quickly than a less powerful car. (I'm not sure if modern ABS systems make "more powerful brakes" irrelevant in this regard.) Actually, even a car with faster steering response will hydroplane more quickly than one with slow steering response, given an identical amount of wheel-turn.
There are several ways to exceed the capacity of a wet (or, for that matter, dry) "friction circle"... Steering, braking and accelerating are three of them. All else being equal (i.e., given identical tires, road conditions and throttle), a more powerful car will accelerate faster and therefore hydroplane more quickly than a less powerful car. (I'm not sure if modern ABS systems make "more powerful brakes" irrelevant in this regard.) Actually, even a car with faster steering response will hydroplane more quickly than one with slow steering response, given an identical amount of wheel-turn.
I call BS - his brake lights come on as he starts to notice the hydroplaning - ie, as he begins to veer to the left... he was going too fast for his abilities to deal with the unanticipated hydroplaning - which quite honestly, should have been a very real possibility in such wet condition, whether he had summer or all-weather tires on - large amounts of water and speed can induce hydroplaning in any car - on summer rubber (which we don't know, but is a big possibility) - he would be nothing short of an IDIOT to be driving the way he was (over confidence is a big problem with high-powered car drivers - or so I have observed).
He was also attempting to over-take on the inside - again - IDIOT.
He was also attempting to over-take on the inside - again - IDIOT.
There are several ways to exceed the capacity of a wet (or, for that matter, dry) "friction circle"... Steering, braking and accelerating are three of them. All else being equal (i.e., given identical tires, road conditions and throttle), a more powerful car will accelerate faster and therefore hydroplane more quickly than a less powerful car. (I'm not sure if modern ABS systems make "more powerful brakes" irrelevant in this regard.) Actually, even a car with faster steering response will hydroplane more quickly than one with slow steering response, given an identical amount of wheel-turn
You seem to be referring to the ability of a powerful car to break its tires loose. That's all true, you can do that by accelerating fast or fast steering inputs. But this is skidding not hydroplaning, and it can be done on any surface. Hydroplaning is the inability of the tire of removing the water it rolls over, the tire cannot handle the amount of water and begins to skip or float over it. Once the tire floats on top of the puddle, ABS , stalibilty control, etc become useless. A good wet tire will use the deep grooves and lateral channels to remove the water it rolls over, 4,5 6 gallons per second for ex. The more gallons removed, the better the tire. As speed increases, all tires will eventually be overwhelmed by the water and will hydroplane.
The trick is to keep the car under that limit. So let's say you have a summer tire that will start hydroplaning at 75 mph. Assuming equal weight, an M3 and a 316 will both start hydroplaning at 75, regardless of their horsepower. The only difference will be that the M3 can reach that limit sooner than the 316.
You seem to be referring to the ability of a powerful car to break its tires loose. That's all true, you can do that by accelerating fast or fast steering inputs. But this is skidding not hydroplaning, and it can be done on any surface. Hydroplaning is the inability of the tire of removing the water it rolls over, the tire cannot handle the amount of water and begins to skip or float over it. Once the tire floats on top of the puddle, ABS , stalibilty control, etc become useless. A good wet tire will use the deep grooves and lateral channels to remove the water it rolls over, 4,5 6 gallons per second for ex. The more gallons removed, the better the tire. As speed increases, all tires will eventually be overwhelmed by the water and will hydroplane.
The trick is to keep the car under that limit. So let's say you have a summer tire that will start hydroplaning at 75 mph. Assuming equal weight, an M3 and a 316 will both start hydroplaning at 75, regardless of their horsepower. The only difference will be that the M3 can reach that limit sooner than the 316.
+1 the car is irrelevant once it is hydro planing - if it is past the point of not being able to shed water from in front of the tire, it doesn't matter if it is a Ford Fusion or an M3, the water under the tires behaves the same for each car - and piles up in front of the tire at the same rate for each car if the tire, speed and water/road surface are the same in each case.
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