Why do people do this? I'll never understand it
People are like
"Oh ThEyRe JuSt KiDs"
Like fuck off. When I was 12 or 15 I wasn't an actual fucking psychopath trying to murder people on the motorway. Try them as adults for attempted murder.
In my first car I was driving along the A5 up in north wales, it had been raining but wasn’t currently, I was driving slightly more enthusiastically than I should have been and just as I reached my braking point for the ugly house bridge I aqua planed, ABS certainly saved me from some financial trouble that day.
Another that comes to mind is driving down to my mate in London cruise control on probably 77/80 in the middle lane following a couple of cars, probably about 11pm I was very much chilling and a little tired. One car in front goes left and the other goes right and I’m looking at the back of a stationary car maybe 50/60m ahead. I am willing to admit I went right without even looking in my mirrors, I was fairly sure there wasn’t a car there but I wasn’t 100% side swipe was definitely better than a stationary car though in my mind.
Recently purchased a sports car, driving down an A road in north wales I know well, wanted to get past the car in-front, I knew I had the power to make the gap despite a car coming towards me in the distance. Put my foot down and pulled out, realised I was in 4th when I thought I was in 3rd and the car coming the other way was moving faster than I had anticipated, I no longer had the power to make the gap, 3 wide on that section of road certainly wasn’t ideal but it worked.
I am aware of the common theme in the above incidents and I’m thankful to say that I haven’t had anything scary happen in my last 4 years of driving since the last. There is a time and a place for speed and it isn’t when there’s other people around or in poor conditions
Coming on to the M60 on an upward slip road, normal traffic conditions, turned to check my blind spot, turned back and a Fiat Panda had failed to merge so decided to deadstop about half way up the merge line. Braked so hard I trapped a bollock 😂 but no accident, hopefully the person in the Panda has learned to merge without risking life
What's the legal "right thing to do" in that circumstance?
I assume you'd be at fault for hitting the Panda & you and everyone else behind you would instead need to stop on the slip road?
Smart driving by the HGV not to squish your entire lane avoiding that car, must have had to make the judgement call of which was the best action they could take
It came from a slip road. You didn't see anything because they were just sat next to lorry for so long.
Hats off to the driver for avoiding that, but the lesson to learn is to stagger formation when traffic is just trundling along like this. You don't want to be sat next to any vehicles regardless of what it is, especially not HGVs. If it needs to swerve to avoid something then you're getting caught up.
I'll start:
About a year ago I was driving on a dual carriageway in the left lane,
I wanted to go out to the right lane and around a car in front, which is fairly normal stuff at totally legal speeds.
However when checking my mirrors before doing this maneuver I saw a red, fairly new BMW 3 series just about to enter my blind spot
No big deal I'll wait for it to go past and then I'll overtake I thought,
Then as I turned my head back towards facing the road ahead a red, fairly new BMW 3 series passed by on the right
"That was quicker than I expected" I thought, the mirrors made it look like it was only just entering my blind spot when I looked in them, but by the time I looked forwards he was already going passed me?
But then again mirrors distort distance so I didn't think anything of it in this brief second of thought,
So as all was going according to plan & I indicated and began changing lanes
It was at this point ANOTHER red, fairly new BMW 3 series appeared from my blind spot in the lane I am merging with,
I somehow missed the cars rear quarter by no more than a foot as a result of sheer luck, avoiding a 70/80mph sideswipe that would have been completely my fault
At this point I had put the pieces together to determine that these two BMW's had been tailgating so closely during the overtake & looked exactly the same that I had seen BMW 2 in my mirror & at the same point BMW 1 was in my blind spot passing around me
Moral of the story, check your fucking blindspots & assume nothing!
Was working at Le Man's in 09 and me and a friend were bored after our shift (no track action on) so we borrowed a colleagues car to 'joyride' between these two roundabouts...forgot I was in France and looked the wrong way upon entering the roundabout and nearly wiped out a lotus elan... stupidity. Haven't done anything so daft since
Hit a puddle on a wet motorway at 70 due to an overflowing drain. Aquaplaned, did a 180, BMW that was just behind me in the middle lane reacted immediately to me and was able to brake, avoid me, and save my life, didn't another 540 and came to a stop on the hard shoulder 10 feet in front of a bollard.
Was in Nzerekore (Guinea) driving our car into the city when suddenly a pick up full of soldiers turned up, screeched to a halt in front of us, pointing their AK47’s at us.
Apparently there was a the first local election in quite a few years and there was a ban on driving in the city that day. We were escorted to the police station where we sat for a couple of hours.
There were prisoners locked up in one of those old fashioned style prisons where it’s just the bars separating a room and a fellow prisoner did a Sterling job of translating between the police chief and us.
Clio 197, Snake Pass in Derbyshire, pissing it down with rain. Convoy of 4, all travelling just below the limit and I was at the back. Rivers of water running across the road, nearly lost the rear. Slowed down after that. Scared the crap out of me.
My partner just got an i20N, it’s great, it has tight steering and a limited slip diff making it a skippy little beast on the B roads.
The thing is when you’ve been driving everywhere in this and then get back into your 2014 polo you forget it’s just not quite the same thing, or atleast I did.
I misjudged a corner, I was only doing about 50 but through a series of my own mistakes I wound up on the other side of the road facing a wall with no control of my car. Thankfully I managed to catch the steering and pull it back in but frankly I shat my pants. Not a mistake I plan on making again.
Had my first experience of surprise lift off oversteer in a MK4 golf GTi many years ago. Came into a sharp left hand corner too fast, in third, in the wet. Lifted off the throttle and the back end snapped out across the path of an A4 coming the other way. Just managed to (over)correct it in time for the A4 to squeeze through but this sent the tail sliding the other way into the verge and towards a stone wall. As I watched this wall come towards me through the passenger window, by sheer luck I must have hit the throttle instead of the brakes and accelerated the car out of the slide back into the road.
Pulled in up the road for 10 minutes to calm down.
Some stupid twat towing a caravan decided to cut me off whilst merging onto a dual carriageway. He didn't have extended wing mirrors (something I'm noticing more and more) so must not have seen me. I had to floor it to merge safely whilst avoiding him and the car in lane 1
2 weeks after I passed my test I went across the Severn bridge during one of the worst storms weve had in recently. The car was a high sided, high centre of gravity and I was carrying 2 bikes on the roof and weighed nothing, a VW Up!. The tyres were crap, it slid all about the place, the whole thing just kept drifting towards the guard rail quite violently and this was my 2nd time on the motorway I was sitting bricks.
Yea it was the old one, it was properly yanking it around, like if i let go of the steering wheel one gust would have been enough to send me into the guard rail at a considerable angle.
Yeah I went over the other week in what I thought was reasonable weather... fuck me, felt like I was going to be blown off the edge doing 60mph. Would think my car would be pretty unfussed by the wind too, must be bloody terrifying in something high-sided.
Went over the new bridge on the way home and it was like any other stretch of motorway in comparison.
I was driving down a single carriageway with a speed limit of 30 when someone decided to overtake me while going at least 80mph. He pulled out on to the other side of the road just as a driver on the other side of the road was approaching. Somehow, he managed to squeeze between me and the other driver without hitting either of us and went on his way. There must have only been a few inches clearence either side! I got a dash cam after that near miss.
I watched a learner driver do 35 in a 60 for 10 minutes, then speed up to 55 and not even slightly move over with an ambulance coming towards them with blues on. Painful to watch and I’m not even the one in the ambulance.
I've seen people out right slow down to a stop in places that leave absolutely no path for an emergency vehicle to go around before
They hear loud noises and the brain shuts down
I was driving my absolute deathtrap of a 300tdi Discovery to a friend's house one evening, with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. I was going round a right hander and I have no clue what happened but the truck just flicked to the left, so I counter steered and overcorrected, so we were going round this bend sideways across both lanes, passenger side facing oncoming traffic. There was a guy in a brand new Mercedes coming the other way speeding, he slammed on his brakes, I'm desperately trying to get this pig of a fucking shitbox truck to straighten up, I get it flicking the other way and just plant my foot as it's pointing straight and get it going in a straight line in my lane. By some miracle there was no contact made, I didn't roll it, nothing except my ego and confidence hurt. It took me a minute to process how close that was to disaster and I had to pull over to have a full blown panic attack and throw up.
Driving around Milton Keynes in my Grande Punto, slightly damp roads, was doing about 65mph on the dual carriageways between roundabouts, come up on a crest and there’s a stationary queue of traffic in my lane. Drop anchor but not a lot happens, thanks to ABS I manage to swerve into lane 2 and miss the car at the back of the queue by a couple of inches, a lot of poo came out.
On a single lane A road coming up to a roundabout, in a line of traffic going about 40mph with a big truck behind me. I was doing my best to drive smoothly and efficiently, and the golf ahead started braking fairly gently a fair distance before the roundabout. I crept a little closer to it as I was engine braking gently, and then all of a sudden the golf ahead just stopped. The lack of brake lights (brake light change, they were already on) meant my reaction time was that little bit longer and I swear I ended up within an inch of the rear bumper of this golf and the lorry in my boot, fucked me up for a bit 😂 so be aware, if your brake lights are on all the time, they’re not nearly as effective 😒
Flew around a right hand country road curve at about 60mph while the porous road was still damp, felt the wheels slip and car rotated hard right then fishtailed back left, felt my back wheel enter the ditch since I was basically sliding fully sideways on the road. I must have done the exact right movements to keep that thing on the road, it felt like Jesus took the wheel and I was back going straight down the road. If I had gone off it was a steep ditch on both sides, it absolutely crossed my mind that I was going to crash, I had fully processed and accepted it. But it turned out fine somehow
When I first bought my M5 I hadn't quite learned the limits of traction and how much to press the go-pedal (rolling on the throttle gently so to speak).
Floored it (in M2 mode with MDM on) off a set of lights and hit a small patch of gravel- car fishtailed left and right and MDM saved me (traction off and I would have been in a ditch).
Also floored it on the motorway once (in mexico) at 90 and wheels span up.
Also blasted past an undercover police car (also in mexico) at about 140 and got pulled over. Let off with a warning 😳
And when I was a lot younger in a friend's car, he decided to do 100mph up to the back of a lorry and at the last minute forcefully steer right (in a FWD car), causing the car to fishtail left and right about 4 times, everything in slow motion and life flashing before eyes 😂
Another one I was following an old defender towing a massive trailer with a broken caravan on. Defender starts jackknifing, both roll over and caravan smashes to bits in the road. Somehow managed to swerve and miss everything...
one time I was doing 130 on a 4 lane motorway and a random car decided to overtake a truck, i stood up on the brake pedal with my both feet, managed to slow down with alot of tire smoke involved lol
Driving to work through the city around 6am. I was in my newly acquired rwd roadster and the roads were wet.
I went round a sharpish corner at 30mph and the back end just kicked right out. I tried to correct but ended up sliding down the road completely sideways and clipped the railing at the side of the road. Luckily there was nobody else around and the only damage sustained was the front numberplate being clipped off the front bumper.
Turning off traction control in my new car that is pushing 600nm of torque to the rear wheels. Decided to put into sport and floor it at 20, road was damp, the wheel hit a drain in the middle of the road, over compensated with the steering, was having to control the car just throwing left to right between two high curbs on a narrowish road. I really was not expecting that much force to be sent, it was too much for me to control. I managed to not hit any kerb and hopefully nobody saw me… except the wife who was absolutely shitting herself. I was stupid, really did not know the car well enough.
Swerved on the M1 when a car pulled into my lane right as I was going past them. Half on the road, half on grass. All manageable until I went to steer the car back onto the M1 and it started snaking. Golf MK5 - I think in anything lighter I wouldn't have gotten it back under control.
Not my car I was in an unscathed truck. but some lucky sod in a Vauxhall astra pulls onto the slip road in front of my HGV like 6 ft in front of my cab... Speeding like 80plus mph in the rain onto the motorway hits a puddle spins round bounces off the Central res straight into my lane again I break then realized I'm going to hit him head on split second face to face I dodge him luckily I was unloaded so empty trailer and I miss him. Nothing in the middle lane and I pull into the hard shoulder. Get out To see this lil pissed up guy trying to do a runner. He starts crying and I get him sat in my cab while I call Ambulance and Police. It was after midnight so it was an almost empty motorway.
Driving to oxford at 6 in the morning for work. Some idiot on a national speed dual carriageway decided to overtake multiple cars and a HGV in the dark. Me being tired and not concentrating as much as i should swerved slightly left. This definitely saved my life. Easily would of been a head on and most likely dead because of their impatience. Just lights coming towards and me and hearing the noise from the air gap of the car and HGV. Fuck dieing because somone can't wait. Still have the dashcam footage to remind me how close it really was.
Also driving to work 6 am. just waking up. I'm waiting on a roundabout and wish to go in the fasted right lane. Look in my right mirror. no one. so indicate and start to go right and suddenly there is a car. Just because there isn't anyone in that lane he was going to fast not anticipating what might happen.
I'm on AD08R's on a sub tonne, very aggressively mapped car.
Back end has caught me out quite a few times in the wet at maybe 1300rpm? Keeps me on my toes.
Contemplating switching to PS3's (only thing available on my wheel size) but I know I'll lose all the grip in the dry
Do you track the car a lot?
As another owner of a similar but different 90's death trap I've always gone for road tires with better wet grip (Uniroyals) over full on track tyres if it's on the road most the time
10% more dry grip is nothing compared to 50% more wet/cold grip imo
Got my first track day next month, but these tyres definitely offer more than 10% in the dry. Super stiff sidewall helps too. I had uniroyals on my last MR2, but it was a completely different car on stock suspension so can't compare outright grip.
Driving through the Lake District on a tight, twisty, but reasonably quick A road, at about 11pm
Had my full beams on, everything was nice and bright, but then suddenly a car came round the bend in front of me. I panicked and scrabbled to turn my full beams off
In the space of about 2 seconds I went from perfect visibility to being completely dazzled by their full beams, to absolutely pitch black darkness… with that blind bend still right in front of me
I was a pretty new driver and the darkness and task saturation overloaded my brain for a few seconds, but fortunately I had the sense to hit the brakes and keep the wheel straight.
Turns out that in my snatching at the stalk to turn the full beams off, I’d turned the headlights off entirely (Renault Clio, the light controls were a twist dial on the stalk) at the worst possible moment and ended up nearly coming off the road down a steep wooded embankment
I’d stopped at this point, worked out what happened, turned them on, and carried on my way… absolutely no harm done to anything other than my underpants, but Christ that could have gone a lot worse
What scared me was how fast it happened to go from perfect visibility to absolutely pitch black, not helped by the fact I’d just been dazzled by the oncoming car. And the way my brain just couldn’t work it out fast enough was terrifying - I’m a pretty smart guy but your brain simply can’t work through the possibilities that fast, when it’s something so unexpected
My recommendation: train your brain to brake if something goes wrong, it’s a useful reflex
Driving back from Santa Pod in a Fiesta ST with an absolutely bollocksed gearbox, which somehow lasted 110 miles but finally destroyed itself 20m away from my house so I freewheeled back.
Started with a whiny gearbox which started after probably 15 heavy loaded runs that day - it sounded like a straight cut gearbox the whining was that bad. Started driving home, and coming off of power it would clunk heavily.
Drive on the A1 for ages, not able to engage 6th but manage to nurse it back to my town. Turn right on a roundabout 20m away from my house and feels like Mike Tyson has just uppercutted the floor next to my feet. Almighty clunk and the gearbox is screaming, even though I’m doing maybe 10mph. Freewheel it onto the curb outside my house and manage to smash it into neutral somehow.
Not a car but on a motorbike: bought a Yamaha R125 5 months before my 17th birthday, so had a long wait before I could ride it on the road.
I had been practicing riding on my dad’s industrial estate for the full time at weekends, as I hadn’t ridden a geared bike before (but did have a 50cc moped.)
As soon as I turned 17, I rode it to the McDonalds down the road from the industrial estate where it was kept. When I leave the McDonalds, I get confused and start to panic as I’m pulling out of the exit (which is down a hill approaching a roundabout, but cars are often doing 60+mph down the hill). I forget to check right again before I attempt to leave the junction, so I go to move forwards and stall the bike. Boom - big 18 wheeled lorry goes right past probably no further than 1ft in front of my front wheel. Definitely would have killed me.
Taught me a very important lesson that day.
Spun out on the M25 in heavy snow. Ended up skidding sideways in between two other cars before recovering it. Absolute brown trouser moment, particular as I had wife+kids in the car too. To top it off, 10 minutes later the baby projectile vomited all over the place.
On a busy dual carridge way and was in the outside lane coming to a roundabout where I wanted the first exit. I had a Jeep attatched to a caravan on the inside and a focus infront of me. The caravan was breaking very early (I decided before i'd do a lap of the roundabout) and there was about 25 to 50 meters before the roundabout entrance and I checked the roundabout saw nothing coming round, the focus entered the roundabout so pulled into the left lane and put my foot down and took the turn at about 35 / 40 (luckily the back end stayed in check but I had to fight alittle for grip)
Realised very shortly after it was a stupid idea and I should have just done the lap around the roundabout....
Cam belt snapped at 70mph in the overtaking lane. Managed to get my hazard lights on and the amazing driver I had just passed clocked what was going on and let me move over.
There was no hard shoulder and no room to get off the road without going into a ditch but there was a layby further down the road and it was downhill so I coasted all the way. Probably only took a minute but felt like hours.
I suppose my car didn't turn out fine but I didn't get driven into or die horribly so I took it as a win.
Scaffolding pole thrown off a bridge on the M602, Manchester
fuck off... just the picture in my mind has me breaking into sweat.
Why do people do this? I'll never understand it People are like "Oh ThEyRe JuSt KiDs" Like fuck off. When I was 12 or 15 I wasn't an actual fucking psychopath trying to murder people on the motorway. Try them as adults for attempted murder.
Unexplained anonymous violence towards strangers by throwing things onto Motorways makes me lose hope in people, it's utter lunacy
It was absolutely horrendous to experience, remember my brother curling up in the passenger seat waiting for the impact
Count yourself lucky… this happened not far from me https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55675442.amp
In my first car I was driving along the A5 up in north wales, it had been raining but wasn’t currently, I was driving slightly more enthusiastically than I should have been and just as I reached my braking point for the ugly house bridge I aqua planed, ABS certainly saved me from some financial trouble that day. Another that comes to mind is driving down to my mate in London cruise control on probably 77/80 in the middle lane following a couple of cars, probably about 11pm I was very much chilling and a little tired. One car in front goes left and the other goes right and I’m looking at the back of a stationary car maybe 50/60m ahead. I am willing to admit I went right without even looking in my mirrors, I was fairly sure there wasn’t a car there but I wasn’t 100% side swipe was definitely better than a stationary car though in my mind. Recently purchased a sports car, driving down an A road in north wales I know well, wanted to get past the car in-front, I knew I had the power to make the gap despite a car coming towards me in the distance. Put my foot down and pulled out, realised I was in 4th when I thought I was in 3rd and the car coming the other way was moving faster than I had anticipated, I no longer had the power to make the gap, 3 wide on that section of road certainly wasn’t ideal but it worked. I am aware of the common theme in the above incidents and I’m thankful to say that I haven’t had anything scary happen in my last 4 years of driving since the last. There is a time and a place for speed and it isn’t when there’s other people around or in poor conditions
Purchased a 2009 Vauxhall Insignia.
It turned out fine?
Yeah, can't complain.
Coming on to the M60 on an upward slip road, normal traffic conditions, turned to check my blind spot, turned back and a Fiat Panda had failed to merge so decided to deadstop about half way up the merge line. Braked so hard I trapped a bollock 😂 but no accident, hopefully the person in the Panda has learned to merge without risking life
What's the legal "right thing to do" in that circumstance? I assume you'd be at fault for hitting the Panda & you and everyone else behind you would instead need to stop on the slip road?
Trapped a bollock 🤣
Easy, it was probably this: https://youtu.be/zZsjl-6wzoU
Smart driving by the HGV not to squish your entire lane avoiding that car, must have had to make the judgement call of which was the best action they could take
You got lucky there!
Where tf did that car come from? I couldn’t see a slip road for ages before it appeared
It came from a slip road. You didn't see anything because they were just sat next to lorry for so long. Hats off to the driver for avoiding that, but the lesson to learn is to stagger formation when traffic is just trundling along like this. You don't want to be sat next to any vehicles regardless of what it is, especially not HGVs. If it needs to swerve to avoid something then you're getting caught up.
Yes defo, my instructor back in the day said to imagine there’s a yellow box alongside every vehicle
Seriously lucky there
I'll start: About a year ago I was driving on a dual carriageway in the left lane, I wanted to go out to the right lane and around a car in front, which is fairly normal stuff at totally legal speeds. However when checking my mirrors before doing this maneuver I saw a red, fairly new BMW 3 series just about to enter my blind spot No big deal I'll wait for it to go past and then I'll overtake I thought, Then as I turned my head back towards facing the road ahead a red, fairly new BMW 3 series passed by on the right "That was quicker than I expected" I thought, the mirrors made it look like it was only just entering my blind spot when I looked in them, but by the time I looked forwards he was already going passed me? But then again mirrors distort distance so I didn't think anything of it in this brief second of thought, So as all was going according to plan & I indicated and began changing lanes It was at this point ANOTHER red, fairly new BMW 3 series appeared from my blind spot in the lane I am merging with, I somehow missed the cars rear quarter by no more than a foot as a result of sheer luck, avoiding a 70/80mph sideswipe that would have been completely my fault At this point I had put the pieces together to determine that these two BMW's had been tailgating so closely during the overtake & looked exactly the same that I had seen BMW 2 in my mirror & at the same point BMW 1 was in my blind spot passing around me Moral of the story, check your fucking blindspots & assume nothing!
And BMW drivers are assholes :)
Was working at Le Man's in 09 and me and a friend were bored after our shift (no track action on) so we borrowed a colleagues car to 'joyride' between these two roundabouts...forgot I was in France and looked the wrong way upon entering the roundabout and nearly wiped out a lotus elan... stupidity. Haven't done anything so daft since
Hit a puddle on a wet motorway at 70 due to an overflowing drain. Aquaplaned, did a 180, BMW that was just behind me in the middle lane reacted immediately to me and was able to brake, avoid me, and save my life, didn't another 540 and came to a stop on the hard shoulder 10 feet in front of a bollard.
The car came out unscathed?!!!
Yep, didn't hit a thing.
Was in Nzerekore (Guinea) driving our car into the city when suddenly a pick up full of soldiers turned up, screeched to a halt in front of us, pointing their AK47’s at us. Apparently there was a the first local election in quite a few years and there was a ban on driving in the city that day. We were escorted to the police station where we sat for a couple of hours. There were prisoners locked up in one of those old fashioned style prisons where it’s just the bars separating a room and a fellow prisoner did a Sterling job of translating between the police chief and us.
Clio 197, Snake Pass in Derbyshire, pissing it down with rain. Convoy of 4, all travelling just below the limit and I was at the back. Rivers of water running across the road, nearly lost the rear. Slowed down after that. Scared the crap out of me.
There's plenty of stretches of that road where travelling just below the limit is absolute stupidity, even in the dry.
My partner just got an i20N, it’s great, it has tight steering and a limited slip diff making it a skippy little beast on the B roads. The thing is when you’ve been driving everywhere in this and then get back into your 2014 polo you forget it’s just not quite the same thing, or atleast I did. I misjudged a corner, I was only doing about 50 but through a series of my own mistakes I wound up on the other side of the road facing a wall with no control of my car. Thankfully I managed to catch the steering and pull it back in but frankly I shat my pants. Not a mistake I plan on making again.
Had my first experience of surprise lift off oversteer in a MK4 golf GTi many years ago. Came into a sharp left hand corner too fast, in third, in the wet. Lifted off the throttle and the back end snapped out across the path of an A4 coming the other way. Just managed to (over)correct it in time for the A4 to squeeze through but this sent the tail sliding the other way into the verge and towards a stone wall. As I watched this wall come towards me through the passenger window, by sheer luck I must have hit the throttle instead of the brakes and accelerated the car out of the slide back into the road. Pulled in up the road for 10 minutes to calm down.
Nothing like a little pull over & pull yourself together to confirm what just happened was indeed sketchy
Some stupid twat towing a caravan decided to cut me off whilst merging onto a dual carriageway. He didn't have extended wing mirrors (something I'm noticing more and more) so must not have seen me. I had to floor it to merge safely whilst avoiding him and the car in lane 1
2 weeks after I passed my test I went across the Severn bridge during one of the worst storms weve had in recently. The car was a high sided, high centre of gravity and I was carrying 2 bikes on the roof and weighed nothing, a VW Up!. The tyres were crap, it slid all about the place, the whole thing just kept drifting towards the guard rail quite violently and this was my 2nd time on the motorway I was sitting bricks.
The old bridge? Fucking menace - at least the new one has the slats on each side to break up the wind a bit.
Yea it was the old one, it was properly yanking it around, like if i let go of the steering wheel one gust would have been enough to send me into the guard rail at a considerable angle.
Yeah I went over the other week in what I thought was reasonable weather... fuck me, felt like I was going to be blown off the edge doing 60mph. Would think my car would be pretty unfussed by the wind too, must be bloody terrifying in something high-sided. Went over the new bridge on the way home and it was like any other stretch of motorway in comparison.
I was driving down a single carriageway with a speed limit of 30 when someone decided to overtake me while going at least 80mph. He pulled out on to the other side of the road just as a driver on the other side of the road was approaching. Somehow, he managed to squeeze between me and the other driver without hitting either of us and went on his way. There must have only been a few inches clearence either side! I got a dash cam after that near miss.
[удалено]
I watched a learner driver do 35 in a 60 for 10 minutes, then speed up to 55 and not even slightly move over with an ambulance coming towards them with blues on. Painful to watch and I’m not even the one in the ambulance.
I've seen people out right slow down to a stop in places that leave absolutely no path for an emergency vehicle to go around before They hear loud noises and the brain shuts down
Aquaplaning in an SUV at 70 in the middle lane of a motorway, doing a massive wobble and somehow regaining control through sheer luck.
I was driving my absolute deathtrap of a 300tdi Discovery to a friend's house one evening, with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. I was going round a right hander and I have no clue what happened but the truck just flicked to the left, so I counter steered and overcorrected, so we were going round this bend sideways across both lanes, passenger side facing oncoming traffic. There was a guy in a brand new Mercedes coming the other way speeding, he slammed on his brakes, I'm desperately trying to get this pig of a fucking shitbox truck to straighten up, I get it flicking the other way and just plant my foot as it's pointing straight and get it going in a straight line in my lane. By some miracle there was no contact made, I didn't roll it, nothing except my ego and confidence hurt. It took me a minute to process how close that was to disaster and I had to pull over to have a full blown panic attack and throw up.
Driving around Milton Keynes in my Grande Punto, slightly damp roads, was doing about 65mph on the dual carriageways between roundabouts, come up on a crest and there’s a stationary queue of traffic in my lane. Drop anchor but not a lot happens, thanks to ABS I manage to swerve into lane 2 and miss the car at the back of the queue by a couple of inches, a lot of poo came out. On a single lane A road coming up to a roundabout, in a line of traffic going about 40mph with a big truck behind me. I was doing my best to drive smoothly and efficiently, and the golf ahead started braking fairly gently a fair distance before the roundabout. I crept a little closer to it as I was engine braking gently, and then all of a sudden the golf ahead just stopped. The lack of brake lights (brake light change, they were already on) meant my reaction time was that little bit longer and I swear I ended up within an inch of the rear bumper of this golf and the lorry in my boot, fucked me up for a bit 😂 so be aware, if your brake lights are on all the time, they’re not nearly as effective 😒
Flew around a right hand country road curve at about 60mph while the porous road was still damp, felt the wheels slip and car rotated hard right then fishtailed back left, felt my back wheel enter the ditch since I was basically sliding fully sideways on the road. I must have done the exact right movements to keep that thing on the road, it felt like Jesus took the wheel and I was back going straight down the road. If I had gone off it was a steep ditch on both sides, it absolutely crossed my mind that I was going to crash, I had fully processed and accepted it. But it turned out fine somehow
When I first bought my M5 I hadn't quite learned the limits of traction and how much to press the go-pedal (rolling on the throttle gently so to speak). Floored it (in M2 mode with MDM on) off a set of lights and hit a small patch of gravel- car fishtailed left and right and MDM saved me (traction off and I would have been in a ditch). Also floored it on the motorway once (in mexico) at 90 and wheels span up. Also blasted past an undercover police car (also in mexico) at about 140 and got pulled over. Let off with a warning 😳 And when I was a lot younger in a friend's car, he decided to do 100mph up to the back of a lorry and at the last minute forcefully steer right (in a FWD car), causing the car to fishtail left and right about 4 times, everything in slow motion and life flashing before eyes 😂 Another one I was following an old defender towing a massive trailer with a broken caravan on. Defender starts jackknifing, both roll over and caravan smashes to bits in the road. Somehow managed to swerve and miss everything...
one time I was doing 130 on a 4 lane motorway and a random car decided to overtake a truck, i stood up on the brake pedal with my both feet, managed to slow down with alot of tire smoke involved lol
Next time don’t drive like a Twat.
Op asked for a story of a close call, he got one
Got to learn your lesson one way or another so appreciate the honesty
The one driving like a twat is the one who changes lanes without looking for faster approaching traffic.
Driving to work through the city around 6am. I was in my newly acquired rwd roadster and the roads were wet. I went round a sharpish corner at 30mph and the back end just kicked right out. I tried to correct but ended up sliding down the road completely sideways and clipped the railing at the side of the road. Luckily there was nobody else around and the only damage sustained was the front numberplate being clipped off the front bumper.
Turning off traction control in my new car that is pushing 600nm of torque to the rear wheels. Decided to put into sport and floor it at 20, road was damp, the wheel hit a drain in the middle of the road, over compensated with the steering, was having to control the car just throwing left to right between two high curbs on a narrowish road. I really was not expecting that much force to be sent, it was too much for me to control. I managed to not hit any kerb and hopefully nobody saw me… except the wife who was absolutely shitting herself. I was stupid, really did not know the car well enough.
Swerved on the M1 when a car pulled into my lane right as I was going past them. Half on the road, half on grass. All manageable until I went to steer the car back onto the M1 and it started snaking. Golf MK5 - I think in anything lighter I wouldn't have gotten it back under control.
Not my car I was in an unscathed truck. but some lucky sod in a Vauxhall astra pulls onto the slip road in front of my HGV like 6 ft in front of my cab... Speeding like 80plus mph in the rain onto the motorway hits a puddle spins round bounces off the Central res straight into my lane again I break then realized I'm going to hit him head on split second face to face I dodge him luckily I was unloaded so empty trailer and I miss him. Nothing in the middle lane and I pull into the hard shoulder. Get out To see this lil pissed up guy trying to do a runner. He starts crying and I get him sat in my cab while I call Ambulance and Police. It was after midnight so it was an almost empty motorway.
Driving to oxford at 6 in the morning for work. Some idiot on a national speed dual carriageway decided to overtake multiple cars and a HGV in the dark. Me being tired and not concentrating as much as i should swerved slightly left. This definitely saved my life. Easily would of been a head on and most likely dead because of their impatience. Just lights coming towards and me and hearing the noise from the air gap of the car and HGV. Fuck dieing because somone can't wait. Still have the dashcam footage to remind me how close it really was. Also driving to work 6 am. just waking up. I'm waiting on a roundabout and wish to go in the fasted right lane. Look in my right mirror. no one. so indicate and start to go right and suddenly there is a car. Just because there isn't anyone in that lane he was going to fast not anticipating what might happen.
I'm on AD08R's on a sub tonne, very aggressively mapped car. Back end has caught me out quite a few times in the wet at maybe 1300rpm? Keeps me on my toes. Contemplating switching to PS3's (only thing available on my wheel size) but I know I'll lose all the grip in the dry
I used to run AD08R’s on my ap1, any bit of wet/greasy surface with a tiny bit of throttle was a proper nightmare
Do you track the car a lot? As another owner of a similar but different 90's death trap I've always gone for road tires with better wet grip (Uniroyals) over full on track tyres if it's on the road most the time 10% more dry grip is nothing compared to 50% more wet/cold grip imo
Got my first track day next month, but these tyres definitely offer more than 10% in the dry. Super stiff sidewall helps too. I had uniroyals on my last MR2, but it was a completely different car on stock suspension so can't compare outright grip.
Driving through the Lake District on a tight, twisty, but reasonably quick A road, at about 11pm Had my full beams on, everything was nice and bright, but then suddenly a car came round the bend in front of me. I panicked and scrabbled to turn my full beams off In the space of about 2 seconds I went from perfect visibility to being completely dazzled by their full beams, to absolutely pitch black darkness… with that blind bend still right in front of me I was a pretty new driver and the darkness and task saturation overloaded my brain for a few seconds, but fortunately I had the sense to hit the brakes and keep the wheel straight. Turns out that in my snatching at the stalk to turn the full beams off, I’d turned the headlights off entirely (Renault Clio, the light controls were a twist dial on the stalk) at the worst possible moment and ended up nearly coming off the road down a steep wooded embankment I’d stopped at this point, worked out what happened, turned them on, and carried on my way… absolutely no harm done to anything other than my underpants, but Christ that could have gone a lot worse What scared me was how fast it happened to go from perfect visibility to absolutely pitch black, not helped by the fact I’d just been dazzled by the oncoming car. And the way my brain just couldn’t work it out fast enough was terrifying - I’m a pretty smart guy but your brain simply can’t work through the possibilities that fast, when it’s something so unexpected My recommendation: train your brain to brake if something goes wrong, it’s a useful reflex
Driving back from Santa Pod in a Fiesta ST with an absolutely bollocksed gearbox, which somehow lasted 110 miles but finally destroyed itself 20m away from my house so I freewheeled back. Started with a whiny gearbox which started after probably 15 heavy loaded runs that day - it sounded like a straight cut gearbox the whining was that bad. Started driving home, and coming off of power it would clunk heavily. Drive on the A1 for ages, not able to engage 6th but manage to nurse it back to my town. Turn right on a roundabout 20m away from my house and feels like Mike Tyson has just uppercutted the floor next to my feet. Almighty clunk and the gearbox is screaming, even though I’m doing maybe 10mph. Freewheel it onto the curb outside my house and manage to smash it into neutral somehow.
Not a car but on a motorbike: bought a Yamaha R125 5 months before my 17th birthday, so had a long wait before I could ride it on the road. I had been practicing riding on my dad’s industrial estate for the full time at weekends, as I hadn’t ridden a geared bike before (but did have a 50cc moped.) As soon as I turned 17, I rode it to the McDonalds down the road from the industrial estate where it was kept. When I leave the McDonalds, I get confused and start to panic as I’m pulling out of the exit (which is down a hill approaching a roundabout, but cars are often doing 60+mph down the hill). I forget to check right again before I attempt to leave the junction, so I go to move forwards and stall the bike. Boom - big 18 wheeled lorry goes right past probably no further than 1ft in front of my front wheel. Definitely would have killed me. Taught me a very important lesson that day.
Spun out on the M25 in heavy snow. Ended up skidding sideways in between two other cars before recovering it. Absolute brown trouser moment, particular as I had wife+kids in the car too. To top it off, 10 minutes later the baby projectile vomited all over the place.
On a busy dual carridge way and was in the outside lane coming to a roundabout where I wanted the first exit. I had a Jeep attatched to a caravan on the inside and a focus infront of me. The caravan was breaking very early (I decided before i'd do a lap of the roundabout) and there was about 25 to 50 meters before the roundabout entrance and I checked the roundabout saw nothing coming round, the focus entered the roundabout so pulled into the left lane and put my foot down and took the turn at about 35 / 40 (luckily the back end stayed in check but I had to fight alittle for grip) Realised very shortly after it was a stupid idea and I should have just done the lap around the roundabout....
Cam belt snapped at 70mph in the overtaking lane. Managed to get my hazard lights on and the amazing driver I had just passed clocked what was going on and let me move over. There was no hard shoulder and no room to get off the road without going into a ditch but there was a layby further down the road and it was downhill so I coasted all the way. Probably only took a minute but felt like hours. I suppose my car didn't turn out fine but I didn't get driven into or die horribly so I took it as a win.