Aquaplaned

Author
Discussion

ChrisW.

6,210 posts

254 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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I think we've all learnt something from this post ... respect to the OP for putting it up here for comment ... when a car "goes" in standing water you need very quick hands to have a chance of catching it .. and when you aren't expecting it ???

The easiest solution is just to slow down ... tempered by the temperature and how much tread your tyres have .... very glad it all turned out well !

ajondyh

680 posts

123 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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ChrisW. said:
I think we've all learnt something from this post ... respect to the OP for putting it up here for comment ... when a car "goes" in standing water you need very quick hands to have a chance of catching it .. and when you aren't expecting it ???

The easiest solution is just to slow down ... tempered by the temperature and how much tread your tyres have .... very glad it all turned out well !
biggrinbiggrinbiggrin Now then, wasn't there a video of you at a very wet Donny doing some hay cutting Chris drivingrofl

mikegemmill

30 posts

87 months

Thursday 24th January 2019
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Really interesting read... bad luck on the original incident but well done on a positive attitude with buying it back for an exciting project!

CornedBeef

509 posts

187 months

Friday 25th January 2019
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I can echo what the other poster said, hopefully you get it back on the road. Will you be starting a new thread OP? I'll follow with interest.

ATM

Original Poster:

18,093 posts

218 months

Friday 25th January 2019
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I may as well keep this one going if I ever get the car back. Bit of a mix up by my useless insurance company now means that the car is not where they said it was but has been moved already. I had organised a sympathetic truck guy to go get it. This means more dragging on and off truck/s with less sympathy as there is only 1 wheel on the back. I wince just thinking about what damage that's doing. Anyone here with any actual knowledge of these cars can you please tell me what's taking this abuse, is it just so form of metal frame or could it be mechanical bits and pieces?

M4CK 1

469 posts

126 months

Friday 25th January 2019
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ChrisW. said:
I think we've all learnt something from this post ... respect to the OP for putting it up here for comment ... when a car "goes" in standing water you need very quick hands to have a chance of catching it .. and when you aren't expecting it ???

The easiest solution is just to slow down ... tempered by the temperature and how much tread your tyres have .... very glad it all turned
out well !
The moral to this story is mid engined cars can notoriously snappy in wet conditions. Wider rear tyres don't don't dissipate the water like narrower tyres. If the car hits standing water and you back the throttle, the front has already lightened, know the back has lightened, lost grip causing a spiral skid which is pretty impossible to catch. On a straight piece of road it's best to try and keep your steering straight and maintain a steady throttle which should push you through the puddle.
Yes going slower would probably helped, but I guess in hindsight maybe. But you don't always see puddles until the last moment.
Good luck Op. Happens to the best of us!!


Edited by M4CK 1 on Friday 25th January 23:31

saaby93

32,038 posts

177 months

Saturday 26th January 2019
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M4CK 1 said:
ChrisW. said:
I think we've all learnt something from this post ... respect to the OP for putting it up here for comment ... when a car "goes" in standing water you need very quick hands to have a chance of catching it .. and when you aren't expecting it ???

The easiest solution is just to slow down ... tempered by the temperature and how much tread your tyres have .... very glad it all turned
out well !
The moral to this story is mid engined cars can notoriously snappy in wet conditions. Wider rear tyres don't don't dissipate the water like narrower tyres. If the car hits standing water and you back the throttle, the front has already lightened, know the back has lightened, lost grip causing a spiral skid which is pretty impossible to catch. On a straight piece of road it's best to try and keep your steering straight and maintain a steady throttle which should push you through the puddle.
Yes going slower would probably helped, but I guess in hindsight maybe. But you don't always see puddles until the last moment.
Good luck Op. Happens to the best of us!!
It's worse than that wink
With all the weight up the back the front wheels have difficulty cutting through the water to find road and can tend to float.
If they do, they can stop rotating or at least roate at a much lower speed than the road theyre passing over
i.e. theyre skidding
in order to steer you need to get the tyres travelling at the same speed as the road
With FWD you can use the right pedal, get the tyres up to speed so youve got contact with the road again and can pull your way through

With RWD youve no chance (well not much)

M4CK 1

469 posts

126 months

Sunday 27th January 2019
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saaby93 said:
M4CK 1 said:
ChrisW. said:
I think we've all learnt something from this post ... respect to the OP for putting it up here for comment ... when a car "goes" in standing water you need very quick hands to have a chance of catching it .. and when you aren't expecting it ???

The easiest solution is just to slow down ... tempered by the temperature and how much tread your tyres have .... very glad it all turned
out well !
The moral to this story is mid engined cars can notoriously snappy in wet conditions. Wider rear tyres don't don't dissipate the water like narrower tyres. If the car hits standing water and you back the throttle, the front has already lightened, know the back has lightened, lost grip causing a spiral skid which is pretty impossible to catch. On a straight piece of road it's best to try and keep your steering straight and maintain a steady throttle which should push you through the puddle.
Yes going slower would probably helped, but I guess in hindsight maybe. But you don't always see puddles until the last moment.
Good luck Op. Happens to the best of us!!
It's worse than that wink
With all the weight up the back the front wheels have difficulty cutting through the water to find road and can tend to float.
If they do, they can stop rotating or at least roate at a much lower speed than the road theyre passing over
i.e. theyre skidding
in order to steer you need to get the tyres travelling at the same speed as the road
With FWD you can use the right pedal, get the tyres up to speed so youve got contact with the road again and can pull your way through

With RWD youve no chance (well not much)
Yes I know what your saying. I've never driven a Boxter but I've had mid engined racing cars, a VX220 turbo and driven a 996 gt3 with not much tyre in the rain.
In a straight line the front will go light, which is when your instinct will tell you to back off, what I was saying was to not to back off, maintain your throttle otherwise the back tyres will under rotate and the car will rotate very quickly. Also if your rotating quickly let the wheel spin in your hands.
All fine in theory but in practice it happens really quickly and you're more or less a passenger.
spin

ATM

Original Poster:

18,093 posts

218 months

Saturday 2nd February 2019
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ATM

Original Poster:

18,093 posts

218 months

Saturday 2nd February 2019
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PaulD86

1,651 posts

125 months

Monday 4th February 2019
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The project begins. I'll be interested to see how you get on with this.

ATM

Original Poster:

18,093 posts

218 months

Monday 4th February 2019
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Only progress so far is fiddling with the Battery and chargers. It might need a new battery as it was dead when I got it back. But when I saw it a few weeks earlier it was fine. So a few days on the charger might see it recover. It fried the fuse on my modern charger twice. The old school charger was showing a current draw of 5 amps with the battery connected to the car.

Zagamuffin1

64 posts

62 months

Wednesday 6th February 2019
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I’d have the battery out of the car to charge in case any cables have been damaged , don’t want fire damage as well

SV_WDC

679 posts

88 months

Wednesday 6th February 2019
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Curious now the near-side window is covered up. Has it been smashed? Didn't look damaged in the initial photo

Zagamuffin1

64 posts

62 months

Wednesday 6th February 2019
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Proper desulfanation charger is prob needed as well if that deeply discharged, borrow a Ctek if you can

ATM

Original Poster:

18,093 posts

218 months

Wednesday 6th February 2019
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SV_WDC said:
Curious now the near-side window is covered up. Has it been smashed? Didn't look damaged in the initial photo
Don't know what happened because when I saw it prior to this the battery and locking was fine.

Esceptico

7,334 posts

108 months

Thursday 7th February 2019
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M4CK 1 said:
The moral to this story is mid engined cars can notoriously snappy in wet conditions. Wider rear tyres don't don't dissipate the water like narrower tyres. If the car hits standing water and you back the throttle, the front has already lightened, know the back has lightened, lost grip causing a spiral skid which is pretty impossible to catch. On a straight piece of road it's best to try and keep your steering straight and maintain a steady throttle which should push you through the puddle.
Yes going slower would probably helped, but I guess in hindsight maybe. But you don't always see puddles until the last moment.
Good luck Op. Happens to the best of us!!


Edited by M4CK 1 on Friday 25th January 23:31
Moral of the story is slow down in heavy rain or where there is standing water. Easier said than done though, especially if other people are not slowing down. Takes self control to pull into the slow lane and let them go by. Even more difficult in a fast/sports car. But the faster the car generally the wider the tyres and the more risk of aquaplanning.

saaby93

32,038 posts

177 months

Thursday 7th February 2019
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Esceptico said:
Moral of the story is slow down in heavy rain or where there is standing water.
No that wont work
Videos posted earlier show drivers lifting off and creating a spin
How far do you slow down? If youre going no quicker than anyone else how do you know
Best thing not to take it out? - leave it parked up neatly polished on the patio

Esceptico

7,334 posts

108 months

Thursday 7th February 2019
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Esceptico said:
Moral of the story is slow down in heavy rain or where there is standing water.
No that wont work
Videos posted earlier show drivers lifting off and creating a spin
How far do you slow down? If youre going no quicker than anyone else how do you know
Best thing not to take it out? - leave it parked up neatly polished on the patio
Lifting off will only cause a spin if you are going too fast in the first place.

Using other people as a guide is not sensible. Being able to say "I wasn't going any faster than them" doesn't help much if you disappear into the scenery!

As per my post, if you have wide tyres you should be going quite a bit slower. Fat tyres just can't get rid of the water quickly enough.

When I lived in Switzerland there were occasional, really heavy storms. Sometimes I would park up for 10 to 15 minutes to let it pass. Better than crashing.

tedblog

1,438 posts

79 months

Thursday 7th February 2019
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The tread pattern and depth will also enter the equation. Running 2mm on wide tyres might cause issues but 7mm on the same width wont.