Slippery when wet - or how one little 180 can be rather expensive

Wow, that's bad, I'm very sorry!

I had a similar spin once, slow speed, gentle curve, light rain, road not very wet.

I believe it was caused by old tires that had become hard from age. New tires seem to have cured the problem, I've negotiated the same curve in light rain with the new tires and there's no slip.

I suspect either tread design or age hardening caused or contributed to the spin, you might consider replacing them?

I think that everyone who has driven a sports car has probably done something similar. Mine was in my 1969 Fiat 124 Spyder. And I was driving on a dry road in clear weather. But when I swapped ends on that sandy road in North Carolina I managed to find one rock sticking up and bend a wheel, damage a tire sidewall, and (as I eventually learned) damaged the wheel bearing.

Ouch ouch. Sorry to hear about the expen$ve incident.

Heh, mine was in my 1968 MGB in a light snow. Swapped ends, went up over a curb and broke off the little gadget that holds the e-brake cable to the undercarriage. Fortunately, nothing else was damaged other than my dignity.

Iva & Vixen

My scariest was in a 1969 Alfa. Hit a small patch of ice at the top of a curved hill that bottomed out at a narrow, single lane bridge with concrete abutments. How I made it down backwards around the curve and over the bridge without hitting anything is beyond me. Almost a "conversion experience".

Stuart H. and Wasabi

Thank you.

I have replaced the ones at the back. Sort of had to as I did not trust the left to be okay after hitting the curb like and two different tires seem wrong. The onces I had was Yokohama AVS Sport which are more a dry than wet tire and I have gone for something a bit more of a compromise Yokohama AVS db V550. So far they seem just as good in the dry where they slide very controllable and traction is better in the wet.

I am going to a driving course soon. Not one about speed but about safety and I plan to spend a good amount of time on the "ice". Not that I think the spin could have been avoided but one can always get better.

Kind regards Bruno

Thank you all for the support.

Oh and about dignity. My little accident was two corners away from work

- want to guess how many of my colleagues passed me while I waited for the transport :-)

Also, some tourists walked by. There was this couple of girls which thought the car was just parked there, laughed and said out loud it must have been a woman parking there. The road in question is two lanes each way with a center divider, so to put the car where it was it had to be either my 180, going against traffic for half a mile or a three point turn in the middle of traffic :-)

Kind regards Bruno

I did that once, in a 240Z. We were going to get a marriage license. My target was a parking space on the other side of the street, right in front of the county courthouse, with parked cars in the spaces ahead and behind. It was wet. I pulled it off perfectly, and didn't hit anything. Plumb in the middle of the space, 3 inches from the curb.

Then I noticed a cop car that was leaving the underground garage beneath the courthouse. The officer had seen the whole thing, and his jaw was in his lap. I told my fiancee, "Just keep walking." That's the last time I ever pulled a dumb stunt like that.

My only spin was in the same car. We were on a twisty road in the Ozarks, and it had rained the night before. I crested a hilltop turn on a trailing throttle, from sun into shade where the pavement was still damp, and did a 360 THROUGH the following S-turn before coming to a stop with one wheel off the road. The only casualty was a small dent in the gas tank, which needed no repair. My Z was set up considerably more neutral than stock, and I learned a lesson about weight transfer.

Such a spin would not have surprised me at all with the OEM Bridgestones that came with my '96. It rained several times the first week I had the car and the lack of control was terrifying.

Z talk! Yeah! I think that everyone who has driven a Datsun Z car fast has spun it. I spun mine out many, many times on the street and in parking lots on purpose, and twice on accident where all I could do was hope for the best.

The first time, I was driving fast on a dark, unknown road and hit an unmarked 90 degree turn.

The car might have made it, but skillful and experienced driving would have been required, and that means NOT stomping the brakes as hard as possible like I did. I like to think I would have made it if I were in the car then with my current skill level, but I wouldn't bet on it.

That is one of two times that the car became airborne, about a 2 foot drop-off going partially sideways, and I dented and ripped my exhaust loose on a large rock. Looking at it the next day, I was surprised that the car did not roll.

Those cars had tough, heavy suspensions. No damage of any consequence to the drive-line or steering, and I have little doubt that I would have had bent control arms and/or other problems had I been in a more modern, non off-road vehicle like the Miata.

There have been no unintentional spin-outs in a Miata yet, out 10+ years and 150,000+ miles of Miata driving. Two decades of experience and a torsen rear end go a long way.

Pat

Every time I've started to lose it, I've instinctively backed off the gas and she straigthens right out. I have no idea if that's what you're supposed to do, but it seems to have worked.

That's exactly what you're *not* supposed to do. Backing off the gas takes weight off the back wheels which could encourage the back end to become the front end, and vice versa.

I know it's instinctive - and I've been guilty of the same thing - but the one thing I learned from my track days is when the back starts to come around, step on the gas and transfer the weight back onto the back wheels to stop the spin.

Or, if you've already lost it, "in a spin, put both feet in" - meaning clutch and brake.

Iva & Vixen

Actually, if you get your time on ice, it kind of IS about speed also. You get to experience all the same physics characteristics as you do at speed but, at a lower rate of speed. I do think it'll help you to have the right tendencies. Whether you'll have time to use them or not, next time, is anyone's guess but you'll be better equipped and that helps the odds!

I too have spun a Miata on a public road (once). Took a left hander from a traffic light, over a hump and off camber, decided to kick the rear end out and I DID! The rear tire caught the edge of the road and I managed to get it to swing back but as sooooo many Miata owners know, you might catch the first swing but, it's when the pendulum comes back that you get in trouble! Funny thing was that there was a guy (also in a 92 Black and Tan) sitting at the light who got to watch my little show. I pulled off the road a mile or so down to access any damage, and he stopped in to tell me how entertaining that was for him! Even funnier, we later met again (by chance) at a Miata club meeting and became quite good friends. It wasn't till a year or two later we put it together that we had met so much earlier! It's a small (Miata) world ;-)

Chris

Stock Z-cars were not easy to spin otherwise. Mine had a whopping large rear swaybar and Konis.

...in contrast with their delicate, flimsy U-joints. One or another of the six needed replacement every couple of months. You think maybe it was because my engine wasn't stock, either?

That'll work if you have too much rear camber bias, or have upgraded only the front swaybar. In other words, if your Miata is an understeering pig. :-)

It's stock.

You still could have an alignment that guarantees understeer under nearly all circumstances. Do you know the current alignment specs?

No. But since I've never specified otherwise, I assume it's stock as well.

Frank, the factory alignment specs have a ridiculously-large +/- range, presumably to make the dealer's job easier. But the camber on one front wheel could be 0.5° positive and the other 0.5° negative, and the car would still be within spec. Such a car might oversteer in one direction and understeer in the other!

I have never heard of anyone being disappointed with his first precision Miata alignment. Most owners can't believe it's the same car.