Jaws911

TTO – itwasthisclose

Short one – went to take an end of the year quickie this morning on the Palisades Parkway (two lanes each way, well divided) . A very light ,cold dry snow started to fall – as I went north, the snow increased a little & began to stick. Car felt fine, but the road ‘looked’ slick, so I pulled into the right hand lane going uphill, and soon after – going straight UPHILL! - downshifted gently from 4 to 3 (guessing about 55 - 60 mph – really, I was just out to enjoy a last ride of 2005 )…

….one tiny twitch from the rear, a correction - and I lost it – the car just started going sideways - I tried to correct – what I thought was a light input got me unbalanced even more – it felt like the car was on ball bearings - I had nothing!. I did finally recover – just after I was ½ way into the left hand lane going sideways just being missed by a few inches by big SUV which was honking his horn as he went by. I had NO ‘effin idea who/what was behind me - I was concentrating – I guess struggling – to keep the car on the road. In his defense & retrospect it seemed like I had come across freezing rain or “ verglas” – frozen road surface - had he stomped on ‘em, he might have lost it as well.

I really was going slow – and that this happened going UPHILL is amazing – I guess I don’t have LSD ,and for the first time, wished I had PSASM (or whatever its called).

Anyway , finally got it back in the Barn safe & sound …& wiser, And just had to share the story w/ the only peeps who could really understand!

Wishing everyone a Happy & Healthy (& traction-full!) New Year

carrera

I am curious as to what type of tires you are driving on. I am guessing not winters. This kind of excitement I guess you can do without. Glad to hear that it was a happy ending.

Jaws911

yeah , meant to add that - Dunlop 9000 (properly inflated, but certainly not a winter tire). In the 20,000 miles that I've driven it (95,000 on the odometer) , I've rarely been in snow - but this was a horse of a different color ...
& you are right - i can do without that excitement!


('86 cab)

john70t

Congrats on the save!
It's probably safer to run the rear tires a few pounds lower than the max during the winter-because tire pressure is so undervalued, and has a lot of effect on the contact patch.
The difference between 30 and 34 psi is quite noticeable for me, but I've seen people driving around practically on their sidewalls without noticing. A quarters worth of air will save them a hundred bucks in gas.

mcuozzo

Jaws,

Being a former 911 owner from NJ, I've had some similar experiences. The tires certainly do make a big difference. I had Yokohama's at first and they were scary in anything but dry conditions. I had my tires slashed (NJ is great huh?) and could only find firestone all season tires as a quick replacement. After that the 911 was much better to drive in the wet. So unless you are putting the car up for winter, a set of hi-po all season tires might be in order.

Also the Pal. parkway is one of the more slippery road surfaces, plus the elevation changes and curves don't help too much.

Glad your safe and be careful out there.

Matt

Billb603

Thanks for making me feel better!!! Just got my new to me 94 911 cab and drove home from the garage where it had a tune up etc on the way home from the guy in Mass I bought the car from. OK with summer tires on dry road for 2 hours...oh I love this car. Got to my road and realized car not a snow car with summer tires as i tried to make it up the first steep part of our road. Then balanced maintaining speed for the hills and yet not too much for the down hills til I got to my driveway. Took the turn with some speed as it is uphill (10 mph) and realized the rear was trying to pass me as I slid sideways toward a stonewall I stupidly built to tear the bottom out of my new Porsche sooooo I went against my instincts and gave it more gas as told to do by these web forum discussions and the car straightened out and missed the wall. Then the scarey part. I have a 1500 foot downhill 15% grade driveway I was commited to at this poiint. I felt like the car had levitated or that my driving was magical as I alternated clutch out and in and braking (leaving the clutch in always worked on my other manual rear wheel cars but seemed to be worse at times in this one) as the engine kept trying to pass me down the hill on my snow covered gravel and paved driveway. I managed to negotiate steep dropoffs and curves and into the garage without a scrape. I walked in the house white and shaking vowing to never drive in the snow again with or without snow tires. I will be getting the brown "piping" down the center of the otherwise black drivers seat detailed out come spring. PS I wasnt worried about personal injury so much as Porsche injury causing the bad case of nerves.