Today, DSC failed me!

I'm glad my car has no driver aids beyond ABS. Never any chance of thinking they can do anything to help and/or affect how I drive because they are there.

I would have bet my last 50 pence on Wills crash being a result of standing water but the road seems pretty free of it in the images shown. Crap happens, shrug it off and move forward!
 
[TW]Fox;25611956 said:
What a driving hero you are. When the conditions are terrible there is always the odd person flying past at 85, I always think how brave and heroric these people are :rolleyes:

It's better doing 85 in a clear outside lane than doing 50 10 feet behind the car in front in lanes 1/2, which is what 90% of people seem to do in those conditions.
 
The reality is you hit standing water and start to aquaplane you are pretty much a passenger. If the tyres are removed from the road by water, doesn't matter what systems you have or how many stages rallies you've done, you gonna get bummed.
 
The reality is you hit standing water and start to aquaplane you are pretty much a passenger. If the tyres are removed from the road by water, doesn't matter what systems you have or how many stages rallies you've done, you gonna get bummed.


It can be pretty entertaining though

 
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A few stories have emerged about Cruise Control flinging various cars off the road during hydroplaning - don't suppose you had/were using CC?

Got any links?

A scare story seems to go around every year, 'don't use CC in the rain, or the car will keep accelerating when it's lost traction', which is a load of BS, the moment the car has lost traction the car disengages the CC.
 
Got any links?

A scare story seems to go around every year, 'don't use CC in the rain, or the car will keep accelerating when it's lost traction', which is a load of BS, the moment the car has lost traction the car disengages the CC.
With a system that can detect slip on the car, yes, without that 'you are bummed' as Housey would say.
I'm glad my car has no driver aids beyond ABS. Never any chance of thinking they can do anything to help and/or affect how I drive because they are there.
Flawed logic +1
 
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Yeah I did 500 miles Cornwall to Edinburgh on Friday in partly similar conditions and there were some really nasty lakes on the A30. Between Launceston and Exeter (only about 40 miles) I saw three seperate single vehicles in the hedges that all looked to have done exactly the same as Will.

Wow, that's random.

How often do you travel between the two?

I live in Cornwall but family is in Edinburgh.......
 
Well I'm taking the sensible stance that in this weather unless you really need to be out on the roads, you shouldn't be. It doesn't matter how good a driver you are or what you are driving, you are not invincible and the conditions are horrendous in the South East. Will Gill is a much better driver with a lot more experience than me but in the current weather accidents like these can happen to anyone.

I know this has been recognised as a bit of melodrama, but is the weather really that bad down there??
 
Well there's been a lot of flooding in that part of the world and no doubt some roads have been flooded or have been saturated with a lot of standing water.

That said, it's still not bad enough to lock yourself away and start praying for the end of the apocalypse.
 
Bad luck, aquaplaning can be alarming. Hit a nice big puddle on the 54 this evening which tried to suck me into the armco. Back to lane 1, tail between legs style :p

To be fair, the 54 is a horrible excuse of a motorway!
 
No far from it, there was biblical rain so my senses were finally honed, I just drove through a rather large mass of standing water, felt just like ice I had zero control or options available to me, just hold tight and watch as my view went from tree to bush to road to grass to tree to bush to road etc...

I must admit Dsc had saved me from a few wobbles over the years when aquaplaning so I shall learn my lesson and leave earlier in future, although I really would stress I wasn't speeding (anyone who knows me will testify if I'm in the wrong I'll admit it quite happily, lying to strangers is a strange habit round here! >

Not really running out of talent more like driving way too fast for the conditions. DSC can't do anything if you aquaplane as you need to lightly accelerate to regain traction on the drive wheels.

Having said that, the number of people driving below 30 and above 60 has astonished me with all the flooding.
 
Have you universally decreed that the appropriate speed is between 30 and 60?

No, they are the speed limits appropriate to the roads, driving well below 30 would indicate an inability to assess and drive to the conditions (overly fearful and unnecessarily cautious), above 60 has a massive impact on the likelihood of aquaplaning and also demonstrates an inability to drive to the conditions with the current level of flooding.

54mph is the critical speed with regard to Aquaplaning likelihood, so I guess in a way the laws of physics (and the UK) say the safe speed is between 30 and 54mph.

:p
 
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