Rear end skid out in M3 this morning

[nucastle]

Had a scare on the way to work this morning while driving the M3 to work.

Was on the outside lane at a set of lights on a long curved road with a massive artic in the other lane who was over into my lane by quite a long way. Not wanting to get caught alongside him as the curve tightened i decided to put on a bit of gas as the lights went green and got ahead of him.

Unfortunately as the road curved left about 50 meters after the lights, the back just flew out to the right and i spent about five seconds with the back end of the car fishtailing left and right about 4-5 times before i clipped the pavement on the left hand side of the road - thankfully that corrected things and i was suddenly back to normal ..... totally shook up. It was only because i was quite a bit ahead of everyone that i didnt end up slamming into someone.

I wasnt actually going THAT quickly, and im so glad this was out on country roads and that there were no pedestrians about - but it was just a total shock to just suddenly lose control like that. Usually the traction control light flashes and you get some slippage on the tyres when things are going hairy but nothing this time. Rear alloy is kerbed and scuffed a bit now but its almost a miracle thats all that happened.

As much as i think wet roads and rwd bmw's are the obious thing to blame, im still just a bit shocked it lost traction so quickly.

Lesson learned .... no more cornering at speed!

 

[nucastle]

Quick question to any BMW/M3 owners .... are the standard Continental Contisport tyres any good on the M3? Trying to figure out if i need some new rubber ....

 

[nucastle]

good idea, thanks for that.

Im paranoid now .... maybe i should start shopping for a 4WD!!!

 

[nucastle]

I think ill get the alignment checked when im over at the bmw garage near where i live to get some oil.

Ill ask what they think about tyres.... I had PS2's on my Alfa GTV which always seemed well regarded.

Thanks for all the input so far though - very helpful! Completely agree about the comments about the car demanding respect..... i couldnt have ever seen all the FWD cars ive driven doing the same, and jumping right into a 340bhp RWD car after that was asking for trouble especially not knowing what to do when things go wrong. I think one good thing i at least did was not to slam on the brakes when it happened which is a bit of a natural instinct.

 

[nucastle]

Ha! That must have been comedy to watch

Glad you're alright though

Next time take your foot off the gas and the back end will come back in control. With practice you will learn how to balance the throttle to get a bit of slide but keep it in check and no wild full opposite lock side to side fishtailing

I bet the people behind me were coming to the usual conclusions about BMW drivers when they suddenly saw someone in a silver M3 all over the dual carrigeway like a right idiot

 

[nucastle]

That makes 2 of us! .... i would have thought there were enough gizmo's on board to at least have half a crack at stopping me skidding

.... maybe there was diesil on the road.


.... Most probably, it was my lame, over zealous driving!

 

[nucastle]

Yeah - now a day is behind me im wondering if maybe something needs to be checked

- tyres (ive put 4k miles on it since i bought it last month, but im not sure how much tread was left on them when i bought em)
- suspension (the rear struts were done before i bought it)
- wheel alignment

..... from what gibbo has said, the fact that the rear end was all over the place in a forty grand car with all manner of drivers aids just smells a bit fishy to me.

Now ive probably knocked the back left wheel out of alignment and need to get it checked, i suppose this is the best time to have it looked at.

 

[nucastle]

You can turn it off, but it puts a big yellow warning light right in the middle of the drivers instrument console to tell you 'dont blame me if you kill yourself'.

 

[nucastle]

If I didn't know any better, I'd almost interpret that as a statement of "my driving was fine, it's the fault of the car".
If you have that attitude, then I'd suggest that you sell your M3 now BEFORE the accident, which after all may injur others besides yourself.

LOL - of course not. Im not blaming what happened on the car .... at the end of the day it was MY choice to come off the line quickly, and to do so in the wet.

What i AM looking for, is to see if there IS some kind of issue that might have excasserbated what happened as a result of me going into a corner at what was not entirely breakneck speed ... and to get that sorted out before anything might happen if that was the case.

Believe me, the safety of other people and myself is at the top of my priorities