Zico
3rd February 2008, 16:29
After the Aquaplaning thread I thought it would be interesting to hear of anyones experiences of hitting black ice.
One evening last winter we had a thick layer of frost on a private carpark we had access to, it had the perfect amount of grip to play safely at low to moderate speeds at crazy angles on the makeshift course, much to the astonishment of a guy from South Africa who had never seen this rally style of driving before. He asked me what to do on the event of hitting black ice which I didnt really have an answer for. My reply was simply awareness, to be aware of overnight temps as to the best of my knowledge theres not a lot you can do other than try and not to lock the wheels up on braking. He then went on to tell me of how he nearly wrote off his Ford Galaxy on his 1st winter over here on hitting black ice driving out of his housing estate.
I had a heart stopping experience a few years ago on joining the duel carraigeway on the way to work one morning. The air temp was above freezing and the road was merely damp until I joined the DC, A straight bit of road, downhill, nose to tail in traffic on both lanes and I was wondering why everyone was going so slow (35mph) and started braking. I soon realised when I hit the pedal... NOTHING! ABS pulse but near absolute zero effect on slowing the car down. The car in front with its wheels fully locked started drifting sideways due to the slight camber on the road then bouncing along the curb. My heart was in my mouth, here I was in a totally unexpected situation which I had so little control over and the outcome was gonna depend on whether anyone spun in front of me. Much to my amazement no one did and by a sheer fluke I emerged unscathed..
Any other similar or not so similar experiences?
What, if anything can you actually do in this situation.. any do's and donts?
One evening last winter we had a thick layer of frost on a private carpark we had access to, it had the perfect amount of grip to play safely at low to moderate speeds at crazy angles on the makeshift course, much to the astonishment of a guy from South Africa who had never seen this rally style of driving before. He asked me what to do on the event of hitting black ice which I didnt really have an answer for. My reply was simply awareness, to be aware of overnight temps as to the best of my knowledge theres not a lot you can do other than try and not to lock the wheels up on braking. He then went on to tell me of how he nearly wrote off his Ford Galaxy on his 1st winter over here on hitting black ice driving out of his housing estate.
I had a heart stopping experience a few years ago on joining the duel carraigeway on the way to work one morning. The air temp was above freezing and the road was merely damp until I joined the DC, A straight bit of road, downhill, nose to tail in traffic on both lanes and I was wondering why everyone was going so slow (35mph) and started braking. I soon realised when I hit the pedal... NOTHING! ABS pulse but near absolute zero effect on slowing the car down. The car in front with its wheels fully locked started drifting sideways due to the slight camber on the road then bouncing along the curb. My heart was in my mouth, here I was in a totally unexpected situation which I had so little control over and the outcome was gonna depend on whether anyone spun in front of me. Much to my amazement no one did and by a sheer fluke I emerged unscathed..
Any other similar or not so similar experiences?
What, if anything can you actually do in this situation.. any do's and donts?