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Old 12-26-2002, 02:40 PM   #1
Sean
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Member#: 518
Join Date: Nov 1999
Chapter/Region: NESIC
Location: Pelham, NH USA
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762 PGT Impreza L,
Elantra GT Sport

Default Lincoln Towncar vs. Subaru Impreza in the snow - Ding! Ding! Let's get it on!

So Route 125 in Kingston was a little slushy this afternoon but nothing all that serious. I was leaving five or six seconds between myself and the car in front of me because of the conditions and oncoming traffic was keeping about the same spacing.

OK, you know what a car looks like just before it gets all squirrelly and is about to lose control? You know, like when a motorcycle loses the rear end at high speed and starts tankslapping just before it dumps the rider?

Well, that's what this Towncar in the oncoming lane looked like. It was just bopping along following traffic one second and then, a second later, the rear end started flopping around and I saw the passenger door.

Now, for those of you keeping track at home, it's a Bad Thing(tm) when you see the passenger door of an oncoming vehicle. I dove for the shoulder and smacked the snowbank just as the Towncar crossed into my lane. Luckily, I kept on the gas and didn't scrub off any speed even though I now had a few hundred pounds of snow on my hood.

I just pulled back onto the road and kept on going like nothing happened. I checked the rear view mirror and saw that the Towncar had recovered, didn't hit anything, and continued on its merry way.

Now, here's the perplexing part...there was nothing in the road to cause such an exaggerated loss of control. I can see hitting some slush and being pulled to one side a little bit but not instantly being tossed perpendicular to the painted lines.

Ohwell...at least I now have the official snowbank mod done to my front plate.

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Old 12-26-2002, 02:43 PM   #2
KC
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RWD with bald tires hitting about 1/2 of slush will do amazing things.
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Old 12-26-2002, 02:47 PM   #3
DarkShadow
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The towncars have lots of torque and combined with the rwd, it can easily lose grip.
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Old 12-26-2002, 03:13 PM   #4
rkkwan
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Few years ago when I was trucking in upper Michigan... The road was totally snow covered, and most of the traffic was doing a steady 45mph. Then came this Towncar passing everybody at around 55mph. My instinct told me this is trouble, and voila, it lost control about five car lengths in front me. Swung close to the center median, and cut across about THREE car lengths just in front of me and went into the snow banks on the right shoulder side.

This idiot was lucky that I backed off my throttle a little once I saw him flying by. Otherwise, I could have killed him easily, as I would not swerve to avoid him, as that would only take out more vehicles (and kill more innocents) on the road.

-Ray
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Old 12-26-2002, 04:32 PM   #5
Jonathan
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I am not exactly sure of the demographics associated with the Lincoln Town Car. My general impression is that the car appeals primarily to the "elderly" (atleast people aged 55+) as opposed to younger people. People in this age bracket generally have rather slow reaction times. People with slow reaction time are not especially proficiant with "catching" an out of shape car.

On the other hand, I do know that there is an rather abundant supply of "unwanted" gas-gusseling mid to late eighties Town cars that have for the most part received fairly decent maintanence available in the $ 800 - 1500 price range. Such vehicles are certainly ideal for young first time car owners and parents who are concerned about there wild and crazy youngers physical well-being. These car are big, safe and sturdy enough that they generally withstand significant impacts rather readly (although perhaps they dont fair well when faced with oncomming fully-loaded eighteen-wheelers).

Sean - I think you exercised very good judgement in giving this other larger vehicle the nessesary room to skate around in.
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Old 12-26-2002, 05:27 PM   #6
rkkwan
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Jonathan - From what I've noticed, the Towncar does have its primary owners the older people. However, many are also used by limosine or hirecar companies. And a lot of cross-country "road warriors" also like Towncar. These two subsequent groups can be very aggressive in their driving.

-Ray
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Old 12-27-2002, 03:21 PM   #7
SupraCoup3
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Bordoux/Red whatever!...

Angry AWD makes up for another's stupidity

If you're gonna go nutso in the snow,
that is to say, going a bit fast in a RWD car and loose control, shouldn't you know how to recover from an oversteer?

I think that towncar got lucky, because if he did his little "traveling perpendicular to the painted lines" facing anyone else, (like me, in my SC400, for example) I'm guessing it woulda got real messy, really quick.

Ohhh... I'm getting a bit o' AWD envy now. Sean, was it Kris who said when you loose traction in your 'rex you just mash the pedal down & point where you want to go? That's just not fair... Not fair at all.



Oh yeah, Sean do you remember me? The kid w/ the Sharp Zaurus @ the Chilli's Meet a while back?


Cheerio.



PS: If you have snow on your car a few donuts in a nice slippery wide open parking lot seems to do the trick... knocking it all of by hand is too tedious


John

Edit: *spell check* hahah captian obvious strikes again.
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Old 12-27-2002, 04:06 PM   #8
Sean
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Default Re: AWD makes up for another's stupidity

Quote:
Originally posted by SupraCoup3
Oh yeah, Sean do you remember me? The kid w/ the Sharp Zaurus @ the Chilli's Meet a while back?
Sweet! Yeah, of course I remember! But yeah, the Towncar got real lucky. Had I not sacrificed my front plate he more than likely would have hit me. It appears that he did skillfully recover but still...his bumper was in my lane while he was still squirrelly.

Regarding AWD recovery, you can "sort of" slam the gas to the floor and just point the front wheels where you want to go. When you do this, the car will continue to drift and the rear end will swing wide. This is great if there is nothing on the outside of a turn (guardrail, cars, people, trees, etc.).

If there are obstacles on the outside, exercise extreme caution. This is where rallycross and ice racing experience comes in handy. If you know your car, you know exactly how much throttle you can give and how wide the rear end will swing. Otherwise, just slam on the brakes, let the car spin and hope you don't hit anything expensive!

And donuts clear the snow off the car but gets snow stuck inside the wheels! Six of one, half dozen of the other...

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Old 12-27-2002, 09:00 PM   #9
IggDawg
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Throttle steer comes in handy. I've actually used my handbrake to get me out of a sticky spot before. The mash n point trick does work... but all this should be said with the "to an extent" clause. all these tricks are great so long as you don't actually have to slow down. you can speed up or dodge something, but like hell you're gonna stop once you're going at a decent speed. 30+ mph.

Also, if you're not in the proper gear and you're in a NA car with even decent power and torque, you'll just bog if you try the throttle steer trick. my most recent incident was with a curb in my parking lot. I had just gotten off my shift and was headed out. I start up my car, and head out. I make a u-turn around an island a little too fast. This was during the last really heavy storm before christmas. I must have been doing 15 mph at the most. there was just so much slush and snow I had zero traction. I really should have been going slower. anyways, when I came out of the corner, I just kept skidding diagonally. I hit the gas and cranked the wheel, but I was in D instead of 1 where I really should have been. So I bogged and just kept skidding. I didn't ahve time to downshift or really do anytrhing about it. so I tried to pitch the wheel so I'd absorb some shock with my arms, but I hit it at around 10 mph and screwed up my control arm. Had I been "playing" and in the proper gear, this wouldn't have happened. I would have been prepared. but I let my guard down for a little while casue I was tired and just wanted to get home. the weather doesn't wait.

Moral: be prepared, stay alert, constantly be thinking"if I had to recover from a skid/avoid someone/whatever else right now, how would I do it?"

-IggDawg
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Old 12-28-2002, 12:12 PM   #10
SupraCoup3
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Bordoux/Red whatever!...

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Yeah... I hear you on the snow in the wheel wells... but the best is when you get a iced parkinglot! no mess!


Maybe I should strong-arm schleppy into showing me some AWD tricks... But dude! without a wing, (or with only his cracked one) he won't be able to stay on the road!

http://jtj.tocci.com/nowing.avi
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Old 12-28-2002, 12:42 PM   #11
Schleppy
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I'll try and show you a few little things, but I am still learning myself :-)

Nice to see the Toyota/Lexus kid on the boards :-P
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Old 12-28-2002, 12:49 PM   #12
SupraCoup3
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1993 SC400
Bordoux/Red whatever!...

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yup!

Yo Schleppy, would it look more like this without your wing?

http://jtj.tocci.com/wee.mpeg

Or are honda civics the only front drive car in the world that need a huge spoiler? Oh yeah... I found out that my sister when she was younger burned rice so badly it lit of fire. Dunno how that fits in, but I was talking about civics.

Of course, the F1s aren't FWD, but hey, they may be one of the few cars that absolutely NEED them.


John
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