Just a quick spin...............literally!

Just wanted to share a little experience; heading off to see my kids one evening last week; came to a roundabout on the main road. It was quite damp underfoot so thought I’d ‘lad’ it up a bit and gave the car a quick bit of right foot, the back-end drifted out which was pretty good, then my ambition far outweighed my ability and the back snapped round as I left the roundabout and in an instance I was facing the way I just came from :open_mouth:. Very fortunately it was nice and wide so no harm done, just kissed the kerb as I pirouetted; only damage was my pride and my underpants!!!
See you don’t need 400hp to get in a spin!!!
Just wanted to share.

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At least you were up front about it, nice to see.

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As least you came out of it in one piece. Shortly after we got our MX5 something similar happened to us. We booted it coming off a roundabout and the back broke away. Fortunately we didn’t spin because if we had I think it could have turned very nasty as the roads were very busy at the time. We learnt the lesson though (and swapped the old, hard tyres for new ones).

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As you hit a kerb, probably want to get the alignment checked and adjusted.

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Any damage to your confidence in the car?

There are some places such as Thruxton where you can pay to take your own car on the skid pan and learn what to expect and how to control that sort of situation. Defensive as oppose to learning to drift :slight_smile:

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I was lucky enough to go on the skid pan at London transport complex at Chiswick many years ago. The one that was made famous on the chewing gum advert

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They all do that sir. My wife thinks I drive like a nutter as we come out of a roundabout sideways, but fact is I can go around it faster in my van in the wet at least.

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I don’t think so, I’ll just keep it sensible in future; have thought about getting myself a day at a track to learn a bit of handling skills just in case :+1:

Thruxton is only an hour or so away I am thinking about it; I am way too old and uncool to drift; what happened was far away from anything skilful :grinning:

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I have checked the wheel it was the slightest kiss up against the kerb as I stopped, cheers

The MX5 has fully adjustable suspension. While there might not be visible damage to the wheel.tyre, there might well be a loss of alignment. Even potholes will put the alignment out.

Hi Saz, righto cheers for the heads up, it needs a new tyre anyway; unconnected to my spin; so i’ll get them to check it all round, many thanks.

A little while ago now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1hs60mcuE

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Hi Nick, funny my experience started like that but ended quite differently :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :thinking:

Unlike the Ariel Atom driver on the Lincoln ring-road, who pirouetted off one of the roundabouts on a damp surface, and reversed it into a lamp-post! From what I saw he would not be driving anywhere afterwards, as the car was a bit of a mess at the back.

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My mate has a Boxster and he is in the owners forum and says there have been quite a few of them have swapped ends coming off a r-about and ended badly!!

December 30th 1965, heading out of Aberdeen on an empty country road covered in snow and ice and in early just daylight about halfway to Glenshee to try my very first skiing, my old school-friend was showing me what his brand new Mini-Cooper (with matching flashy red seatbelts) could do. He was a great fan of Jim Clark and had met him a couple of times, hence enjoying the Cooper.
The dead straight road had a sudden kink to the right, about 45 degrees off the line, with a massive farm gate at the actual bend point.
We were a bit too fast and when he turned the wheel to take the shallow angle the car spun around completely and eventually ended up pointing in the right direction at almost the same speed as we had approached.
There was silence for more than a few seconds while we each considered what a mess the drystone walls and that gate would have made of the new car, and us.
“Did you mean to do that?”
“No. Good fun though!”
I can still play that back in my mind like it happened a few minutes ago.

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Long before the days of cctv and youtube, you’d be famous now (well for 15 mins anyway)

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I lost the back end ( a little) coming off a roundabout when I was new to MX5s.

My worst spin by far was in my little minivan, on the A3 coming home from Portsmouth.
It was bucketing down with rain and as I went down hill I overtook a couple who were braking ??? It was all slowmo after that. I remember looking left at them as I passed and they had quizzical expressions. Then I hit the flood, I went 90 degrees left, then straight, then 90 degrees right. The water came up over the bonnet so I lost all orientation then popped out on the far side of the flood but still in the correct lane. I would like to believe that my superior handling skills saved me but in reality it was pure luck. I learnt look further ahead after that and have not had an accident in 54 years since then.

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