Dangerously slippy road surfaces
Discussion
Whilst travelling on the m25 yesterday, around junction 26 ish, i passed a bad accident where it looked like the car had spun out of control in the damp conditions. Once out of the tailback i accelerated well, lets say firmly, and felt the front wheels scrabbling for grip and the traction control light flashing, i then noticed i was doing 60mph!!! And this is in a 1.9 diesel fabia, not some 1000hp nutter supra with tires wider than the thames estuary. I have also seen many accidents on a roundabout near me in st albans where the road surface is unacceptably slippery in the wet, some of you may know where i mean! it just seems silly that the highways agency dont see the light and invest in new road surfaces that will, without doubt, save lives! ok, rant over....
I remember when I used to commute in the Clio, one morning it was chucking it down and the car was all over the place. It was so bad I pulled over, got out and checked that I still had tyres, assuming maybe they'd all gone flat or been stolen in the night...
Turns out there was diesel on the road, I can only assume something had been leaking it that had driven along this backroad earlier in the morning. Obviously this combined with the rain, made it extremely slippery. When gently pulling onto the A6 (after waiting for a massive gap), despite crawling along, managed to maintain wheelspin into 3rd gear in a 75bhp Clio
As has been mentioned, money + time means they're not going to resurface the M25 so that a few less people bin it when it rains.
Turns out there was diesel on the road, I can only assume something had been leaking it that had driven along this backroad earlier in the morning. Obviously this combined with the rain, made it extremely slippery. When gently pulling onto the A6 (after waiting for a massive gap), despite crawling along, managed to maintain wheelspin into 3rd gear in a 75bhp Clio

As has been mentioned, money + time means they're not going to resurface the M25 so that a few less people bin it when it rains.
The roads are a bit greasy at the moment.
Power delivery of front driver diesels has an effect too, the work van will spin very easy in the current conditions in 2nd at 30mph or so when the turbo wakes up (in 3rd if you get a camber/surface change and everything happens at the wrong time, the BMW wont (double the power), unless you really provoke it.
Power delivery of front driver diesels has an effect too, the work van will spin very easy in the current conditions in 2nd at 30mph or so when the turbo wakes up (in 3rd if you get a camber/surface change and everything happens at the wrong time, the BMW wont (double the power), unless you really provoke it.
It would help if they went back to using the old kind of surface rather than this new s
te that water just sits on. Its bliss on the motorway when you hit a stretch of old surface and because water won't lay over the whole surface, it's much easier to spot laying water. Of course they won't go back to using it because it's noisy and roads have to be quiet these days.
te that water just sits on. Its bliss on the motorway when you hit a stretch of old surface and because water won't lay over the whole surface, it's much easier to spot laying water. Of course they won't go back to using it because it's noisy and roads have to be quiet these days. You booted it in a 1.9 diesel fabia. Right. PD engine? If so that's 250 lb/ft through the front wheels.
Short of covering the entire road network on that yellow(ish) coloured grippy surface, what would you like done? Maybe you (and the person that span) should learn to modulate the throttle to reflect the conditions?
Short of covering the entire road network on that yellow(ish) coloured grippy surface, what would you like done? Maybe you (and the person that span) should learn to modulate the throttle to reflect the conditions?
I was held up by an accident in lane 3 of the M62 once when it had been raining but had stopped.
The Police roared up and stopped on the hard shoulder. Cops got out and stopped the lane 1 and 2 traffic, ran across the motorway and promptly fell on their arses!
I couldn't see anything specific on the road surface - just seemed to be caused by the mixture of deposited oil, rubber and the rain.
The Police roared up and stopped on the hard shoulder. Cops got out and stopped the lane 1 and 2 traffic, ran across the motorway and promptly fell on their arses!
I couldn't see anything specific on the road surface - just seemed to be caused by the mixture of deposited oil, rubber and the rain.
dapearson said:
You booted it in a 1.9 diesel fabia. Right. PD engine? If so that's 250 lb/ft through the front wheels.
250 divided by (or multiplied by depending on which way you calculate it) the gear ratio, which assuming he was in top gear wont be a great deal compared to any other car. Plus it will have a fair chunk of its weight over the front wheels. Edited by kambites on Monday 26th November 09:54
kambites said:
250 divided by (or multiplied by depending on which way you calculate it) the gear ratio, which assuming he was in top gear wont be a great deal compared to any other car. Plus it will have a fair chunk of its weight over the front wheels.
Possibly.Edited by kambites on Monday 26th November 09:54
Either way "booting it", observing wheelspin, and then claiming that the road surface is dangerous is just silly. Answer: don't boot it. Drive to suit the conditions - why should the rest of us foot the bill for changing the road surface just because you can't?
It's bad enough that we have to have anti-slip surfaces at traffic lights because people can't judge the surface and braking distance, plus on corners where people can't judge the radius.
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