To squeel or flip?

You'd be hard pressed to flip a passenger car on a smooth surface regardless of how hard you pushed it. The center of gravity is pretty low. It would be more inclined to skid out of control than it would to flip.

Mind you, the rules change completely when you give the wheels something to push sideways against. You can skid sideways all day on a smooth surface and never have a problem. Hit a curb or a raised spot while sliding sideways and you might find yourself looking at things from an upside-down perspective.

My girl just rolled her mom's Oldsmobile Intrigue. She was doing 70MPH on the highway and somehow got out of control. The car was fine until it left the roadway, hit a hillside sideways (as well as a drain gate) and began its journey of two and a half barrel rolls before ending up square on its roof.

I've slid sideways at 50MPH in a convertible 'stang with the top down and the car didn't even remotely act like it wanted to roll. I was just hoping to get it back before I hit something, and I did.

JS

They put an accelorometer in the passenger seat and drive as fast as they can around a 200 ft circle untill the car spins out. the last/ highest reading is the "skidpad" rating. that relates in the real world (roadcourse, highway onramp, etc) in that a .87g on a skidpad (87 civic) will slide to/into the outside edge/wall easier than a .89g ( 1993 cobra) will. hope this helps, Bram

I've always wondered: wouldn't the relative smoothness of one skid pad vs another skew the results? I mean, a skid pad with a rougher surface would give better grip, right? More grip means higher Gs. Wouldn't the surface temp also affect tire grip? Or would either make any significant difference?

BlueGator

Also they tend to be wet when you do it.