Snow Joke....

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 23:20

Drove sixteen miles to work in fairly slippery conditions this morning. I think it is great our local council is saving money by not gritting the roads, presumably it is saving all the sand to fill the town center with, so we can have another 'Nottingham on Sea' week like we did last summer. (I kid you not!)
Anyway, back to my journey. I managed to avoid the Chavalier that skidded out in front of me from a side road, the Shitroen Saxo that cut the car in front of me up and forced us both to do an emergency stop, and the old git with a deathwish that leaped out in front of me (guess he couldn't be arsed to walk another ten yards to the pedestrian crossing.)
Finally I arrived at work. Knowing snow sticks to our road like ermm... chocolate sticks to a blanket, I slowed to a crawl (literally walking pace.)
As I turned in, the rear end decided to keep on coming round. No problem I thought, quick bit of opposite lock.... wheee! Now all four wheels have no traction, the back end has decided to come round the other way, and Mr 2 has a mind of his own.
I am now engaged in a graceful, if uneasy pirouette, with the camber of the road (quite steep) taking me inexorably towards the vicious 6" high kerbstones. I had just enough time to quickly turn the front wheels so the tires hit the kerb rather than the alloy, BUMP! This sent the back end, and the rear wheel into the gutter, CRUNCH. My rear nearside rear wheel now looks like something off 'Robot Wars' has attacked it. (Well, a chewed up edge to the rim about 2" long.)
I guess a trip to the garage to have my tracking checked is now in order. I am used to driving rear wheel drive cars, but have never had one totally let go in quite this fashion. I guess no matter how well you know your car, or how experienced you think you are, snow with ice underneath can surprise you even if you are being extra careful. I am just thankful I decided to take it really easy and not have a bit of 'fun' as I turned into the road (which I have done in the wet s:oops: :oops: s:oops: )
If the roads look bad tomorrow, I will be working from home. (Translation; I will be going back to bed, after sending the MD a quick email telling him I am working from home.)
Sorry about the long post, I just wanted to express my rage / frustration / embarrassment.
Anyone else had any interesting moments in the recent slippery weather?

Anonymous · February 24, 2005, 00:00

Sorry to hear about your minor altercation with the kerb and I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but...............make sure you have a stiff drink ready if you decide to ask Mr T for the price of a replacement wheel.

You can see my rantings on the link below:
m http://www.mr2roc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5373 m

I only mention it in an attempt to highlight the Mr T's pricing policy and to spread some of the groups feed back.

It still makes me mad s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

Regards,

Andy

p.s. My Scobbie driving mate thought the sub £200 price for a replacement gold rim for his car was excessive. I'm sure he didn't believe me when we traded stories.

heathstimpson · February 24, 2005, 08:04

Thta's why I leave the 2 at home in this weather and use the other front wheel drive motor. Just don't want to risk spinning it in these conditions and am lucky enough to drive two motors s:wink: :wink: s:wink: Sorry to hear about you crunch and hope its nothing more than a damaged wheel or knocked suspension tracking.

Anonymous · February 24, 2005, 09:09

Quote from: "heathstimpson"Thta's why I leave the 2 at home in this weather and use the other front wheel drive motor. Just don't want to risk spinning it in these conditions and am lucky enough to drive two motors s:wink: :wink: s:wink: Sorry to hear about you crunch and hope its nothing more than a damaged wheel or knocked suspension tracking.

Ditto.

This is where the mrs Micra comes in handy.

Last year Birmingham did the same thing. They hardly gritted then blamed the weather pattern saying "we didn't expect freezing temperatures then snow" s:shock: :shock: s:shock: This year (so far) they have been very good.

kanujunkie · February 24, 2005, 11:01

sorry to hear about youre scrape Dave, not good, hope you manage to get it sorted soon

Chris · February 24, 2005, 14:29

On Monday night, when we had a big dump of snow then it was interesting!!
I was on the way to a pub (down a lane) and had forgotton about the hill I had to go up to get there!

I turned in off the main road and just carried on sliding, but stopped before hitting the parked car. I then had the fun of trying to get up the hill, whcih is not easy with two rear tyres needing replacement and the lack of a clutch in the smt. I ended up going up sideways with the backend out at about 30 degress or so and with about a half turn of lock on! s:wink: :wink: s:wink: It took about 5 minutes to go 200m, much to the amusement of the drivers behind me!

Liz · February 24, 2005, 16:24

Left mine on the drive and got one of those large vehicles that carries alot of people...oh yeah... a bus! £2.00 single trip for 5 miles s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

Chris · February 25, 2005, 15:58

Yep, I did that today as well!! It seems that my SMT doesn't like the cold as it got about 5 minutes down the road and conked out. I then got the smt warning light and it refused to change gear, well for at least 15 minutes anyway!

Godd job it's got it's 20k/2yr service next week, even though it's only done about 300 miles since the 10k s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Anonymous · February 25, 2005, 18:31

Have to admit, both Kerstie and I have been all warm and stable in the Celica, and whilst we normally flash 2's, this week everyone we have seen has had us both saying.....

...."hey look a 2....good luck with that s:lol: :lol: s:lol: "

Hope its ok dave

Anonymous · February 25, 2005, 20:05

Thanks for all your comments / concerns guys. This forum is a nice place to be! I am glad no one else seems to have had any exciting moments.
My little kiss with the kerb could have been worse, i.e. there are sometimes cars parked along that stretch of road, now that would have been really embarrassing ... s:oops: :oops: s:oops:
I just know that 'chewed' rim on the wheel is going to irritate me every time I look at the car, even though it's not all that bad. (I don't even want to think about Mr T's price for a new one.)
Never mind, a few weeks and spring will be here, with some sunny 'top down' days! s8)

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