I was thinking about taking the Z this morning instead of the Alfa, I haven't driven it for a while and kinda miss it, plus the Alfa has a knock (I knew about this knock when I bought it and paid an appropriate price, no one got ripped off) that I'm trying to resolve, so was going to leave it at home in place of the Z. I'm SO SO SO SO SO glad I didn't! And here's why:

 

Driving round a few back roads to get Michael to school, up one particular road there is a big sweeping right hand bend, with quite a wide road, and a layby on the left for residents to park in, as I approached it I saw the tarmac glistening, so thought "I better slow down even more for this I think".

 

So I slow down a bit more and start to go around the corner, about half way round, the Alfas steering just went light, completely unresponsive, I've got it locked over to the right with a tiny bit of gas still to try and get some traction, which works, but then the back end goes as well, next thing I know, unintentional, uncontrollable 4 wheel drift (In a front wheel drive car) towards an L300 that's parked in the layby.

 

Michael is in the passenger seat and although it looked as though we were going to bump it sideways on and we weren't going very fast by this point, we were going fast enough for me to be VERY concerned. Just as we were both clenching up and preparing for the bang and crashing noises, the car came to a dead stop!

 

Turns out for whatever reason, there was absolutely NO ice for about half a meter at the side of this L300 and it was JUST enough for the wheels to get traction and stop sliding, by this point though the car has stalled too, so it wasn't trying to drive forwards or anything, which would have been much worse, as the only way to get away from the truck was to reverse!

 

Be VERY careful out there folks, I reckon if I'd taken the Z the first thing I'd have known about the slide, would have been the backend being infront of me and the 2 cars WOULD have collided :(

Sounds like a close call... but i mean, you were driving an alfa, they dont handle like z's xD.

 

Glad to hear ya okay though mate.

Close call there mate. Glad things didnt turn out badly for ya.

Go put buy a lottery ticket mate and i want dibs on a share,lol

Im glad everyone is ok

Do they do snow chains for a zed ?

 

Glad you and your lad are ok though Alex, makes you realise that driving at at this time of year is a bit of a lottery though doesn't it....

Sounds like a close call... but i mean, you were driving an alfa, they dont handle like z's xD.

 

Glad to hear ya okay though mate.

 

Its suprising how well alfas do handle. As alex said, if he was in zx it would of been different. So just shows that it handles better than the zx does.

tbh from my experience of the Z losing traction, both deliberately and accidentally (Happens a fair bit unfortunately :( Must sort out my bushes and things) I'd say the Z would have whipped its tail around and I'd have been fubar :( Not to mention considerably wider tyres on ice = big slide, so it would have gained more momentum before hitting the patch of road with no ice and most likely hit the L300 quite hard :(

Its suprising how well alfas do handle. As alex said, if he was in zx it would of been different. So just shows that it handles better than the zx does.

 

A properly set up Z to be honest will out handle most cars on the road, sure it'll kick its arse out if you don't handle it right but the weight balance is damn near 50/50 so if you can handle it you got more chance than in an alfa.

 

I've totalled a Z in the wet and it took a hell of alot to lose it, ie i was drifting at 90mph... but many a time at sensible speed i had her kick her arse out on mossy roads in the wet etc, so long as you don't lift off the pedal and don't over counter it they are pretty predicatable. Well unless you have HICAS... then you're definately screwed once things start getting sideways.

tbh from my experience of the Z losing traction, both deliberately and accidentally (Happens a fair bit unfortunately :( Must sort out my bushes and things) I'd say the Z would have whipped its tail around and I'd have been fubar :( Not to mention considerably wider tyres on ice = big slide, so it would have gained more momentum before hitting the patch of road with no ice and most likely hit the L300 quite hard :(

 

Yeah i was thinking the wider tyres would be the main cause of what you said regarding the alfa as it probably runs something like a 195-215? my 285's admittedly get pretty squirrely in the wet.

A properly set up Z to be honest will out handle most cars on the road, sure it'll kick its arse out if you don't handle it right but the weight balance is damn near 50/50 so if you can handle it you got more chance than in an alfa.

 

I've totalled a Z in the wet and it took a hell of alot to lose it, ie i was drifting at 90mph... but many a time at sensible speed i had her kick her arse out on mossy roads in the wet etc, so long as you don't lift off the pedal and don't over counter it they are pretty predicatable. Well unless you have HICAS... then you're definately screwed once things start getting sideways.

 

There are a few cars like that tbh, the Z is definitely one of them in my experience, although traction is definitely not it's thing, the balance is there and the way it reacts as you say is quite predictable most of the time, although as with any car, it's never 100%. Even a standard Z with stock suspension is like this, but no matter what you do, bar traction control, traction is NOT a Z's forte, lol. As for HICAS, mine was removed when I got it and I've since just upgraded the lockout kit to a more solid adjustable one with poly bushes. HICAS caused me to stack my GTR into a kerb when I hit a patch of diesel coming off a roundabout, every time I got the car straight, it flicked out in the other direction because of the HICAS :( Cost me a lower suspension arm and some pride though, nothing bad.

 

Yeah i was thinking the wider tyres would be the main cause of what you said regarding the alfa as it probably runs something like a 195-215? my 285's admittedly get pretty squirrely in the wet.

 

I've got 235s or 245s on the front, I forget which and 275s on the rear, it does NOT like wet or icy surfaces, lol. The Alfa hasn't got super skinnies on by any means, but certainly a lot skinnier than the Z has, plus most of the weight in the Alfa is at the front and up high, whereas with the Z it's pretty evenly spread front to rear and really low too, on ice, knowing the car the way I do, the rear would have stepped round and the wide tyres would have just slid really easily and I'd have been ****ed. Probably wouldn't have even made the sliding noise across the ice like the Alfa did.

There are a few cars like that tbh, the Z is definitely one of them in my experience, although traction is definitely not it's thing, the balance is there and the way it reacts as you say is quite predictable most of the time, although as with any car, it's never 100%. Even a standard Z with stock suspension is like this, but no matter what you do, bar traction control, traction is NOT a Z's forte, lol. As for HICAS, mine was removed when I got it and I've since just upgraded the lockout kit to a more solid adjustable one with poly bushes. HICAS caused me to stack my GTR into a kerb when I hit a patch of diesel coming off a roundabout, every time I got the car straight, it flicked out in the other direction because of the HICAS :( Cost me a lower suspension arm and some pride though, nothing bad.

 

 

 

I've got 235s or 245s on the front, I forget which and 275s on the rear, it does NOT like wet or icy surfaces, lol. The Alfa hasn't got super skinnies on by any means, but certainly a lot skinnier than the Z has, plus most of the weight in the Alfa is at the front and up high, whereas with the Z it's pretty evenly spread front to rear and really low too, on ice, knowing the car the way I do, the rear would have stepped round and the wide tyres would have just slid really easily and I'd have been ****ed. Probably wouldn't have even made the sliding noise across the ice like the Alfa did.

 

 

 

I really enjoyed my old n/a, and while building my TT project a mate said oh come take my tt zed for a drive and a slide to see what you think of HICAS (was trying to convince me to keep HICAS)

 

In the dry it was great provided you kept it in line, but hell the moment i cut it loose its just like you say, it steps out and you correct it and she just snaps back the other way, it was fine on a mild stepout, but that feeling just isn't right when the car is sliding, the HICAS got binned the moment i got home :blink:

This happened to me in my sprinter last winter, I came such a abrupt stop I thought if hit thr parked cars at first, very confusef when got out xand there was zero damage. Scarey

MY Z is my daily runner although in the snow ill take the mrs's Micra, however this morning i left NO SNOW, withing minutes i couldnt see much.......

 

By the time i got to work id ammassed a huge queue behind me, tough luck all those behind me , but it was V slippery.

 

Im looking out of the window now and its snowed solid for the last 3 hours :(

 

I think i may leaver her in the warehouse tonight, and take the pool car....

 

J

I really enjoyed my old n/a, and while building my TT project a mate said oh come take my tt zed for a drive and a slide to see what you think of HICAS (was trying to convince me to keep HICAS)

 

In the dry it was great provided you kept it in line, but hell the moment i cut it loose its just like you say, it steps out and you correct it and she just snaps back the other way, it was fine on a mild stepout, but that feeling just isn't right when the car is sliding, the HICAS got binned the moment i got home :blink:

 

I never actually locked out the HICAS on the GTR, was pretty much unheard of to do so in the Skyline world at the time, it was still considered a benefit (We are talking nearly 10 years ago here) but yeah that particular skid scared the crap outa me, at one point we were heading for a lamp post on one side of the street, the next we were headed for the lake, the next we hit the kerb with the front wheel turned. It bent the lower suspension arm, so was travelling fast enough, but didn't do much other damage, even the alloy was fine.

 

This happened to me in my sprinter last winter, I came such a abrupt stop I thought if hit thr parked cars at first, very confusef when got out xand there was zero damage. Scarey

 

Yeah thankfully I knew I hadn't hit the pickup, as the Alfa is quite small I could see how far away we were, although a few seconds later I did doubt it, lol "Did I hear a noise or not?" lol Thing is, until we did stop, there was NO WAY we were stopping before the truck and we WERE going to hit it, so was bloody weird when it just stopped dead. I reckon that was a warning shot for me this winter, I'm driving everywhere now at 15mph I've decided :D

 

MY Z is my daily runner although in the snow ill take the mrs's Micra, however this morning i left NO SNOW, withing minutes i couldnt see much.......

 

By the time i got to work id ammassed a huge queue behind me, tough luck all those behind me , but it was V slippery.

 

Im looking out of the window now and its snowed solid for the last 3 hours :(

 

I think i may leaver her in the warehouse tonight, and take the pool car....

 

J

 

Good call I'd say. No snow here yet, can't wait til there is, I want to see our Husky in his first snow fall :D

blimey mate that was close! good ol' alfa :)

Glad your Ok pal, I've had the same happen before, slip then grip. I've been in the Yaris today, might as well be driving on brake discs!

Glad your Ok pal, I've had the same happen before, slip then grip. I've been in the Yaris today, might as well be driving on brake discs!

 

You never know actually, in the snow that might be more beneficial, lol.

haha, it actually might mate!

You could always do what a fella i talk to in sweden did...

 

Hes a sponsered motard rider so stuck 1500 studs in the rear and 900 studs in the front of some old slicks xD

 

[YOUTUBE]U0hvq9qTewI[/YOUTUBE]

Now that looks like some serious fun!

Oooof! Brown trouser moment! I had a similar slide in Zedward last year, its only fun when you mean to do it isn't it?

Glad you're both ok