Oh crap momment today... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Hatterasguy · #1 04-28-2008, 09:33 PM

Every once in awhile we do something that is dumb...

Today it rained like freaken crazy! So I was leaving SCSU heading home and came to a nice wide open intersection. I have nice new wider rubber on the rear and wanted to see if it could still break the rear end lose. I was also talking on my cell phone while I was doing this.

With the old tires the rear end would break free pretty easy and I could step it out a little, perfectly controllable not really crazy. Well these tires since they are new and wider needed some more work, but at 4k in 1st half way through the corner they broke free, oh dear God was what went through my head!

They snapped free and all of a sudden the rear end was racing with the front, on a busy 4 lane street!

So I tried to adjust with the wheel and held her in what I am sure to the people behind me looked like a freaken perfect sideways drift. All while visions of crunching metal went through my head... But then you know when you get right on the edge and you know if the car goes an inch further you are spinning? Well I could feel it, I was balancing it on that edge. I let off the throttle to snap the rear back because I didn't want to be one of those Youtube videos and stuff it into a line of parked cars. As I did that it freaken caught and snapped back.

Three points:
1. I was on the phone the whole time, my uncle was like WTF because I said "oh ****". I said some DB just pulled out in front of me.

2. Their was a cop in the other lane!

I got lucky he must have been blind or something. Thankfully he didn't notice the blue MB going sideways past him with the driver on his phone!

I should have waived...
3. A guy in a Nissan 350Z gave me the double thumbs up at the next light.

So the moral of this story is, don't do stupid stuff. Only skill and a bit of luck prevented me from looking dumb like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnOqNx3FRE

kerry · #2 04-28-2008, 09:38 PM

I couldn't figured out what happened with that Mustang. At the end it looks like he steers directly into the oncoming traffic.

Hatterasguy · #3 04-28-2008, 09:40 PM

He started to lose it and over corrected, than he was gone regardless. He should have let off the throttle when he started to lose it.

TylerH860 · #4 04-28-2008, 09:51 PM

My house is near a huge movie theater, and a few years ago accidents were common after a showing of Fast and the Furious Tokyo drift.

The fact you managed to break loose a diesel W126 makes me want to give you 2 thumbs up.

My 300d drifting? HA!

The X5 won't let me, the car pretty much drives itself.

As for the SL, its way too easy. A lot of burned rubber on the road from my high school days.

Hatterasguy · #5 04-28-2008, 09:54 PM

Lots of practice, and a 603 are the ticket.

Those W123's can move, I couldn't keep up with John's CD at Bills GTG!

iwrock · #6 04-28-2008, 10:45 PM

Who talks about not talking on the cellphones while driving...

I have had my fair share of those moments.... They always come back to normal when you get off the throttle.....

And yes, 603s can produce nice slides.....

Hatterasguy · #7 04-28-2008, 10:52 PM

I talk on the cell phone all the time while driving, $70 ticket if you get caught...yet to get caught. I also have a Euro plate, I'm sure thats a $50 or so ticket.

I need to take it easy, I can only use my get out of jail free card so many times.

But I did use it to get out of a ticket today, no traffic court for me Wednesday!

Jim B. · #8 04-28-2008, 11:12 PM

You gotta stay off the phone, man. Your incredible agility and youth got you out of that one.

But it is different in the rain, when I lived in SF, I used to go up Upper Market street, a winding, curving street that winds up one of SF's biggest hills (I lived up there then in my house) and when I would nail the pedal when it was raining and the street was wet, the rear end would break away completely and the car would slide.

First time that happened it scared the hell out of me, but after that, you could do it for fun, with no cars around (rare in SF) and I did it a lot.

That 560SEC has a REALLY light rear end, it is true.

I had read a column in the SF Bay Guradian, years ago, that that particular stretch, late at night, was like a secret autocross place, and old foreign cars would race up and down it to see who could up or down the fastest, and time it.

I am not young anymore, but I am still pretty fast. (The 3 speeding tickets I am fighting right now is proof enough of that....)

Never mind the front Euro plate, that is a fixit offense. I have one on my car that says "Bad To The Bone" that a guy on Benzworld gave me, off a 500SEL he bought in Oakland to part out.

So far as the cops are concerned I am probably some hopeless criminal anyway

And severyone knows that mostly Bad Guys drove W126 in Japan, the movies etc.

So if you have the name, play the game, live fast die young.

A V8 Mercedes can do that to you.

iwrock · #9 04-28-2008, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim B.

You gotta stay off the phone, man. Your incredible agility and youth got you out of that one.

But it is different in the rain, when I lived in SF, I used to go up Upper Market street, a winding, curving street that winds up one of SF's biggest hills (I lived up there then in my house) and when I would nail the pedal when it was raining and the street was wet, the rear end would break away completely and the car would slide.

First time that happened it scared the hell out of me, but after that, you could do it for fun, with no cars around (rare in SF) and I did it a lot.

That 560SEC has a REALLY light rear end, it is true.

I had read a column in the SF Bay Guradian, years ago, that that particular stretch, late at night, was like a secret autocross place, and old foreign cars would race up and down it to see who could up or down the fastest, and time it.

Says the man with a few pending tickets...

Jim, I have driven your 560. That thing does seem like its got a light rear end.... Its got good traction though!

The SL600 is the same way.... Sooooo light in the rear, soooo easy to kick it loose.....

Were you or TurboBenz in the car when I took that corner at a high rate of speed, and kicked the rear out????

Jim B. · #10 04-28-2008, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iwrock

Says the man with a few pending tickets...

Jim, I have driven your 560. That thing does seem like its got a light rear end.... Its got good traction though!

The SL600 is the same way.... Sooooo light in the rear, soooo easy to kick it loose.....

Were you or TurboBenz in the car when I took that corner at a high rate of speed, and kicked the rear out????

No I wasn't that time, I don't remember, but I will tell you this: It is great when kick that rear end out and recover, it shows you are really the master of your machine.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, coming back home, through Sacramento, on the 80 that loops around Sac past Natomas, and some really young guy passed me at around 90 in I think some souped up VW Golf R32, pretty new one. I thought:not today.

So passed him at about 110; but he was very very good, knew his car well, and it is very small, and could slice and dice the traffic really good at about 90-100, he could judge well. Looking for the gaps like that, he caught me at passed me (about 2pm, some traffic around.) My car is too damn big to carve traffic like that. but stick me in an M5, C43 Amg or an E500 W124, different story.

So I then took it to around 120 and caught him and passed him again. But the guy was determined, and his car was fast, and could drive good, so by Madison Ave East, he'd gotten through the cars and passed me at around 115-120.

By the time I got to Citrus Heights, it is over 4 lanes each way and I could have gone up to aound 140 and tried to fiind him, but the CHP weigh scales are around there, and CHP cars usually hang out.

I drove you 600SL once. I tell you though, if I was in THAT car that day, I would have eaten the R32's lunch for sure. That thing haulsAZZZZZ!!!

Hatterasguy · #11 04-28-2008, 11:43 PM

Live fast die young, that works.

My motto is; "enjoy it while it lasts!"

Hatterasguy · #12 04-28-2008, 11:49 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWSFtpP4Nbs

Here you go Jim, you know have money when you drive a $200k CL65 like I drove my Jetta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UNExJi5xIs&NR=1

And this is how you make time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oKUjcxMuZs&feature=related

iwrock · #13 04-28-2008, 11:58 PM

Hattie, can you drive stick???

If so, come over here to the west coast.... I got a few friends that would be more than happy to give you seat time in their cars....

Hell, I will let you do burnouts in the SL600 if you want!