In central Virginia last night light snow/rain was falling, but the temperature dropped so fast that all of the sudden the roads got covered with a sheet of ice. I was driving in the P-car on the middle lane of a 3 lane interstate (I-95) (at about 45-50 mph) and then it happened: my vehicle lost traction and started going sideways toward the ditch. I managed to get it to go the other way and back and forth a couple of times until I finally got it controlled. I was very lucky nobody was around me!
After catching my breath, decided to switch vehicles (I HAD to travel last night). Got into the Land Cruiser and it took me 4 hours to go 20 miles on the interstate again. At one point I had to turn the engine off and stay in it for over 1 hour. All traffic had stopped. There were accidents at every curve (people going off the road, etc). Turned around and went back home. Never experienced this before.

Wow Nic, glad to hear you (and the P-car) are safe.

-C.

No PSM???

Makes me appreciate San Diego even more...........73 and sunny today!!!

Glad you made it safely out of there!!!

Glad you're ok, last night's weather was terrible.

I left the Tysons mall around 8 and I saw a dark blue 996 parked and I was thinking, damn this 911 driver got b@lls(or PSM) to drive his in such weather conditions..I left mine in the garage since I knew snow and ice was building up for the evening plus my car's not equiped with PSM.

My wife wrecked her car a few weeks ago, so now I'm stuck driving my P-car everyone. Luckly I didn't have to drive last night

Hate hearing about scary situations like that. Glad to hear all is OK!!!!

Have a safe holiday everyone!!!!!

Cheers

Guys,
I have PSM, but I do not if or when it got engaged. It all happened fast. I do not recall seeing any lights on the dash, but I was dedicating all my concentration to bringing the car back toward the road and away from the ditches (the car tail went left and the front aimed to the ditch on the right, then as I steered in the direction of the tail slide the car aimed the front the other way sort of zig zag on the ice/snow). I was intent on not braking so as not to lose control.
PSM may have come in toward the end as I heard a noise (braking?) but by that time the worst part of the slide was finished.
I am going to assume that PSM helped, but I feel that when you are sitting atop ice, the laws of physics will take over PSM or not.
When I switched cars and got back on the road, even the LC was not safe. There was a layer of ice on the interstate and the "trac" light warning lit up several times even under slow driving conditions. The local paper reported over 50 accidents in the area where I was driving. I have never seen so dangerous driving conditions. Many cars would stop and they could not even get started again without their tails going away from the car, this was on a ramp on Insterstate 95!
Boy, I was lucky! Thanks for your comments!

Boy, you're lucky.

Glad to hear you saved it.

What type of tires do you have on the P-car?

You need tire grip for traction and stability control systems to work.

I'm glad that you escaped unhurt and your Porsche unscathed.

Bet,
I have Continental (I think they are called ContiSport) OEM tires.

I have a MUCH greater respect for icy roads now!

nicoff,

I have the same tires. Nice compromise between ultimate grip and wear and comfort for a high performance summer only tire.

But, as you found out they are treacherous on cold wet/snow/icy roads as they are a high performance summer only tire. The rubber compounds utilized are designed for grip during the heat of the summer and the side effect of this design is that those same compounds turn into hard hockey puck like material below 45 degrees and offer limited grip in the cold and very limited grip in the wet and almost no grip in the snow/ice in cold conditions.

Winter tires specifically designed for the cold/snow/ice conditions will offered you much better grip and safety and may not have broken free. The difference between summer vs. winter tires in the cold in hard to discribe and must be experienced to realize what a huge advantage the winter compounds offer. The same is actually true when comparing all seasons vs. winter. While the the all seasons are better than the summers they still are nothing like winter only tires. If you plan to drive in the winter I would suggest a different set of tires and rims for winter use.

Bet,
You are not kidding when you say "offer limited grip in the cold and very limited grip in the wet and almost no grip in the snow/ice in cold conditions."
That is exactly how I feel after what happened to me last night. Even today (25 degrees) with ocassional patches of ice on the road, I feel that these tires have so little traction. I did not feel like driving the car having to watch for every spot on the road and just turned the car back to the dealer two days early (my lease was due coming Wednesday 12/22).

If you had snow tires on at the time, PSM would have made a BIG difference. When ever it snows or is icy and the coast is clear, I take the turn out of my house and can't get it to skid at all. Very Impressive system, but you need snow tires.

Bobby