720'ed into the wall on the highway

[DaksGT]

I was going with my girlfriend to the movies at around 11 and it was snowing like a champ, the highway i was on 400 north has 6 lanes and i was in the lane beside the fast lane (so second to the left) and there was a silver 4runner right beside me in the fast lane.
All of a sudden the dumb mother****er desides to turn right when he's parallel to me, I see it brake hard and swerve(sp?) right.
And since it was still snowing (im going 85 kms by the way) the white lines between the lanes werent cleared so snow ltes say 5-10 cm high. My right tire hits the snow the car all of a sudden fish tails (don't ask me how it just did) and now I'm facing opposite trafic, i try counter steering and all I think I even downshifted not sure though (everything happend so fast but so slow) and the car just kept on rotating. I just gave up on the save and slammed the brakes and held on for dear life. It was ****ed watching cars go towards me, and as I was spinning so many thoughts went through my head. Right then I cut across about 3 lanes and the car came almost to a dead stop (going approximately 5-10 km's an hour) and hit the wall. Everyone was okay, the car has a scratch about 3 inches long and the front bumper near the wheel well sticks out by half an inch so nothing catastrofic at all, I drove the car home she ran fine and all.
Just wanted to share.

[coOOlcelica]

just be glad you are ok man!!!!

[DaksGT]

Originally posted by coOOlcelica
just be glad you are ok man!!!!
yeah thats the only important thing a car's a car

[Blk00SS]

Yeah.. Just be glad your alright. Car can be fixed and it doesn't sound like it was that bad.
And god damn son of a bitch it rained here all day.. Where's the ****in snow.. It doesn't even feel like christmas

[SlasherX]

Originally posted by Blk00SS
Yeah.. Just be glad your alright. Car can be fixed and it doesn't sound like it was that bad.
And god damn son of a bitch it rained here all day.. Where's the ****in snow.. It doesn't even feel like christmas

Ho Ho Ho!!

[Bryan H]

now you see how i wrecked the celica i had
in theory about the same thing happened. just no 720's just a instant 180
back end lifted up and spun around

[larryd]

damn man.. atleast ur ok right :)

[GTS LAID]

awesome story... more more more..

[nxracer]

What happened? I'll take a shot at it.

When your front tire hit the little snow bank between lanes it effectively applied the brakes "harder" to one wheel. Since you were already on the brakes hard (rear wheels unloaded) and in swerve mode the back of the car decided it would take the lead.

[AznThugg2002]

dang dawg. im glad u and ur gf are ok!

[nxracer]

And another thing.....

Down shifting while spinning is not really a good idea. Best bet, clutch in, grab neutral and wait for the car to stop.

[BillWS6Formula]

Glad to hear you're ok and that you "almost" came out of it scratch free!

One thing with fwd cars is in snowy/slushy conditions they can snap spin on you in a HURRY! The greater traction from the heavier front end combined with the relatively lightly loaded rear means the rear is much more prone to step out of line when high steering angles, or heavy braking are used. And of course MUCH more likely to happen when both occur at the same time. FWD is great for traction to get and keep you going in heavy snow, it's dynamic behaviour while moving at speed is another thing altogether in slushy/icy conditions. In such conditions when you enounter a spin, you need to APPLY a little gas and NOT hit the brakes, to allow the car to pull itself out of the spin while countersteering. Just try it in a big, snow covered parking lot with lots of room to play - it works! :)

Personally I find fwd to be a lot scarier in heavy winter conditions than rwd. Controling a rwd spin on a snowy road is much more natural and intuitive than the same spin in a fwd car.

[yota_racer]

Damn, sounds like something that would happen to my best friend. He has bad luck like that. Glad to hear you are ok though.

[Drag'nGT]

You're okay. That's what matters. Insurance can do the rest.

[DigableGTS]

dayum, yeah, I'm glad to hear everyone involved is ok. you can replace a celica.

[DaksGT]

I went today and washed the car to asses the damafge and when i looked its nothing, the bumper near the wheel well I straightened out using the good old pull and tug technique, and the rest i used touch up paint on, looks like brand new unless u really pay attention. Comespring time i'll just repaint the bumper.
It was ****ing scarry is all i gotta say, facing opposite traffic twice, not cool.