I was driving on 680 when we were hit by a sudden massive cloud burst which piled sheets of water onto the road... I hit a patch of water (kept my foot on the gas to power through it, I didn't let off or hit the brake) and my car pitched almost completely sideways when I hit the puddle of water... I was totally hydroplaning and facing the center divide @ 55mph (I was even driving below the limit). If I hadn't of taken a track day in the rain and learned how to control my car in such conditions, I'd have hit the center divide at ovver 55mph. It was scary as hell since other cars were around, etc.


I also saw a big rig almost jackknife but was going slow enough to avoid it.



Always remember, just because you have all wheel drive doesn't mean you're immune from the rain! Watch out for those heavy cloud burts, they are the worst for you!!!!



Anyone else experience anything like this today or recently?

 

how the hell does so much bad **** always happen to you?

you need to work on your karma points or something...

 

This. Also, you may have avoided this with some quality all seasons. j/k

*waits for "would have hydroplaned in all seasons, too" comment.

 

not saying you are a dumbass Daniel, I already had the macro made and it would take effort to change it

 

btw, glad you are okay.

 

lazy. *calls kettle black*

 

u need good tires and this will happpen a lot less

 

I make a point of checking my limit of traction every morning when in wet weather and reminding myself what it feels like to be sliding on wet pavement. I think it helps just because recovering from a slide becomes more about muscle memory, leaving less room for panic and errors. But then, I've only had my subie for a year.

Glad you're ok.

 

i did lose my subie today , my brother stole my car fml

 

Yep. My day started at 7AM with a trip from Half Moon Bay to Castro Valley to take my Justy in for an alignment at Roger Kraus. The way back (around 10am) was much worse than the way in and I did see some people get squirrely. Myself, I was doing about 65-70mph in my Justy on 13" RE-92's (which is a great tire by the way) and having no issues beyond getting tossed around a little by the wind and "jetstream" from big rigs on the San Mateo bridge, and dodging the usual people doing whatever the **** it is they do when they should be driving.

I also drove through similar weather from SLO back to HMB, all HWY 1, I think two weeks ago in my other car which is a heavy, RWD beast on 245/45 (front) and 275/40 (rear) Pirelli P-Zeros. That was a similarly excellent experience. Hydroplaning happens - just got to be COMPLETELY alert and in tune with your surroundings. It's a weird feeling the first few times it happens - and it's increased by having wider tires (less lbs/sq inch on the ground) which a lot of us have.

I guess I count myself lucky as I have had a lot of bad weather/rain/ice/snow driving experiences over the years. The first driving of my life started on dirt roads at age 10 in Subarus "back in the day" so maybe that is where some this comes from, but I like to attribute it to simply PAYING ATTENTION while driving. It's critically important.

 

My tires are pretty much done, they work find in regular rain but this was such a large cloud burst that the water wasn't draining off the freeway which is what caused me car to start drifting towards the center divide (I wasn't alone, everyone started going left and right, one car even full spun out). I slowed down to around 35mph on the freeway to avoid that from happening again.

I def need to put on my new set of tires for the rainy season since my old summer RS2's have seen better days (even almost bald, they are still pretty good in the wet, as long as it's not like what I described earlier, any tire would suffer from hydroplaning in that much water).


I know a lot of people think that AWD is a godsend and that it will save them no matter what the situation, this is NOT true AT ALL. AWD will not save you, taking a class to learn how to drive you car in the wet and dry is what will save you.

 

Ohhhh man - there's your answer - your tires! No tread leaves no place for the water to go, and effectively turns your tires into little wakeboards for your car to rock. Even though it's expensive, I get new tires for my wife's car if they are even getting close when the rainy season starts.

Probably the scariest thing in a scary situation like that is the thought that any number of cars could come flying toward you! I had a scare similar to that years ago on HWY 85 when we had all that crazy flooding - I was in my Celica on pretty bald and waaaay too wide tires "chancing" it in the rain. I drove home REEEAAALLLY slow the rest of the way, being thankful that fate didn't toss my stupid *** into a guard rail!

 

Wombat, you're right about the wide tires... I think I'm running 265/45/17 right now and not only are they wide but they are getting really low in the tread dept which isn't helping either.


Always remember, NEVER, EVER hit the brakes when you start hydroplaning!!! NEVER! Don't let off the gas or do anything of that sort... All you do is keep you foot on the gas like you're accelerating and hold the wheel as straight as you can, thats how you get through it.

Ill prolly change my tires tomorrow, that close call earlier scared the **** out of me.



PS: My tires aren't BALD, they are just on the low end of the wear indicator. They do fine in regular rain, but this cloud burst was MASSIVE, it pretty much put a 1" deep puddle on every lane of the freeway... EVERYONE was getting squirrly as hell. So just be careful eveyone!

(I have a set of brand new Yokohama summer tires in my garage just waiting to be put on, a little thinner though @ 245/45/17 instead of the massive 265's! )


Be safe out there everyone!!!

 

Last good one I saw was an old Bronco on an on ramp. We were going around the clover at what I consider a relatively slow speed. Definitely not reckless or even fast enough to spin out. Bronco back end starts coming out, noses in toward the center of the clover. We continued at speed. They spun AROUND us - literally in real-time slow motion. It was the slowest spin out I have ever seen. Their eyes were popping out of their heads, mouths gaping in a silent scream.

We stopped to check on them and we all had a good laugh about it. Crazy.

 

If serious that sucks man. Time to give him an asswhooping when you find him.