WHOAH... CLOSE CALL!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

I have seen this happen, had several friends had it happen and even had a hydroplaning experience myself. VERY unnerving. Mine happened over 10 years ago and I STILL drive carefully in wet weather. Control is an illusion!

Mine occured with nealy bald tires (mistake 1) on my 250hp TBird Turbocoupe. It was a late Sunday evenning, been out having a few brews (mistake 2), was driving in drizzle and mistakes 1+2 (mistake 3) was arguing with my girlfriend (mistake 4) popped the gas pedal in anger at about 45mph (mistake 5). Too many mistakes... my car spun instantly and went off the road backwards spinning into a freshly plowed cornfield (yes, Dallas has em). Drinks went all over the inside. Figured my car was busted as well as myself when the cops showed up. HUGE break, the car started and I drove it back on the road. Car vibrated badly but turned out to be just mud stuck in the wheels. Sprayed a good 25 pounds of plow mud off at the car wash and she was good as new. Went back the next day and noticed I had narrowly missed a firehydrant and some fence posts.

Like myself, you just dodged a big one. Have fun but stay safe. Wet roads are unforgiving.

 

Mike,
Sounds like you went on "Mr. Toads Wild Ride" at Disney World! With all the tail swapping you did, it is truely amazing you came out unscathed! I'll echo what the others have said, glad you are in one piece!

 

Glad to hear that you are ok. be careful

 

I'm glad you're o.k and that's a close call 1Sick.

 

I glad you were able to remain calm and make it through the experience with just a little grass and mud Don't know if I could have handled the situation as well...my heart was in my throat just reading about it

 

I’ll add my sigh of relief to all my CL brothers (no sisters?). Glad you’re ok, Sick. I’ve had a good butt-puckering spin once or twice myself. While we surviving expert drivers like to mark it up to skill, I think we’ll all admit that a little luck doesn’t hurt. Stay well guy.

 

Yeah man!!!! I'm just glad your safe:eek: I would think it has alot to do with the tires too, I went from Michelins to Kumho and I have to tell you my Kumho's hold up better in the rain for some reason. I could never get traction with the Michelins but I could with the Kumhos and they were alot cheaper

 

Geez, Mike, glad you are ok. First Dr. Rick with his busted lip on his GS, now Mike hydroplaning, I am afraid to go out! The roads have been horrible here in hotlanta the past couple of days, I have seen many more wrecks than normal. I lost traction a couple of times today on the way home myself.

Let's be careful out there!



Rich

 

Man, that's an act of God. Thank the lord for your survival. I'm happy that you are still able to tell your story on CL.

 

I just noticed this thread while looking for some specs on the GS, in the UK we have plenty of rain, ask anyone who has spent a vacation here, with our appalling weather visibility gets severly reduced so it is not possible to see just how much water is sitting on the road surface. When you drive in these conditions it becomes a habit to occaisionally touch the brakes lightly to assess the grip levels, I must have forgot this on the day.

My Soarer had a new set of Pirrelli P6000 tyres, same tyres I have used for 3years in rain, snow and sometimes in the dry as well, driving along a 70mph dual carrigeway in heavy rain when suddenly the steering goes very light as the front wheels loose contact with the road (aqua-planing), ease off the gas so as not to provoke any undue motion into the car, the road is now a shallow bend and the car is going dead ahead it's only a matter of several seconds before I will rub the barrier on the drivers side.

The steering is having ZERO effect as the car is just sliding forward at 60+mph as the normal effect of retardation does not apply when the friction is removed from the tyres, so unless I do something I am going to tear the side out of my car - Cadence Braking, hitting the brakes rapidly on/off while giving the wheel just a little turn, after about ten pumps on the brakes the front wheels had dropped though the water and started to find just a little grip enough to divert the front end away from the armco barrier.

Cadence Braking is what we had before ABS and ABS is bloody useless when the wheels are not actually touching the floor.

 

Sick when this happened to you
the VSC beeping and going like crazy what is the car itself actually doing

is it trying to brake ??

 

wow.. thats pretty crazy... glad you came out alright 1sick.... VSC to the rescue..

 

What is Vehicle Skid Control(VSC)?
Vehicle Skid Control (VSC) senses the onset of loss of lateral traction and helps the driver stay on track. Input from four wheel-speed sensors, a yaw-rate (directional) sensor, a deceleration sensor, and a steering-wheel-angle sensor is communicated to the VSC syst***s computer. The system has the ability to reduce power and to control the brake actuator. Working with both ABS and TRAC, the VSC system helps the driver to compensate for loss of lateral traction, which can cause skids and loss of vehicle control.

*Lexus Vehicle Skid Control (VSC) is an electronic system designed to help the driver maintain vehicle control under adverse conditions. It is not a substitute for safe driving practices. Factors including speed, road conditions and driver steering input can all affect whether VSC will be effective in preventing a loss of control. Please see your Owner's Manual for further details.

The new system in the 06 GS is more advanced.

For those that want to see what I am talking about, here is an easy test.
1. Go to an empty parking lot when it is raing. Basically do doughnuts with the GS with the VSC off, then try the same manuevers with the VSC on. (btw, this kills tires). The VSC really helps the car regain composure, compared to being without it.

As a matter of fact, I've been in the snow in the SC 400 and GS 400. In the SC, the car would slide and the only thing to help me was manually dropping the automatic to 2. In the GS, you wouldn't have to do anything, the car would detect slippage and "beep beep beep" it does everything for you.


Moral of story, don't speed in the rain but more importantly, CHECK YOUR TIRES periodically to ensure you have sufficient tread.

 

Dude!!!

Glad to hear you're ok man. I read the title of the post and was like- 'huh?' and then I started reading and I was thinking- 'oh- i have those tires' and then i read some more and then i was like- whoa- I HAVE THOSE TIRES!

I dunno man- the Yoko ES100s have a REALLY mean looking tread that looks like it disperses water fairly well. Guess you must have hit some oil or area that was deeper than the rest of the road.

I was trying to understand how your car went down the road...

1) car started pulling to the right- eased off gas - eased back on...

2) car is pulling to the right again - (which tire do you think was losing contact?)

3) rear end whips around (whipped left or whipped right?) Maybe the rear tires lost contact and then when they gained contact again (since you were pressing the gas more) maybe one rear wheel was spinning faster than the other which cause you to whip around?

4) VSC starts beeping at you while you're going sideways down the freeway (i've heard the vsc before - haha -it's pretty scary but funny because it's like the car's way of saying 'oh crap! oh crap!'.)

5) then you ran off the freeway towards the exit wall and then it whipped right?

I dunno- I'm confused now.

FYI on the tires - I noticed a bubble in one of mine 2 months after getting them. You might want to keep an eye on those ES100s for the first few thousand miles.


Clifford

 

Well #1, it was not until I got home later that day that I checked my tires and they were pretty much SLICKS in the middle and rear. But the outside had tread, so when I looked, it seemed fine. B/C when I had tread, I never had a problem.
2. In all honestly, I felt the cheapo Kumhos Esta had better wet grip. To me in the wet the Yoko ES 100s did not feel as secure. Now in the dry, the ES 100s blow the Kumhos away. It was very easy to get the tires to squeal with the Kumhos, meaning I lost grip. Aesthetics, the Yoko looked better, with a nice round sidewall, the Kumho was flat like a ironing board.

Now for your numbers (mind you this happend a while ago, so I'll try to remember)
Cliff I'lll be answer later, got a call, 2 firends/1 girl=