Almost crashed into a house!

[Pears]

Today I had the scariest one second car moment in my life. I was following my GPS driving a route I was unfamiliar with. It told me to turn from the highway into a f*cking 90 degrees perpendicular street! Everyone on the highway was driving around 60 to 70 mph. I slowed down to 40 mph because I was anticipating a turn, but I didn't expect the turn to be a f*cking 90 degree turn with no ramp or anything to ease into it.

It was dark so I didn't see it coming. When the turn came, I f*cking drifted into the small residential street with houses in it. It was a f*cking narrow street and when I turned sharply, I almost crashed into a house!!! When I drifted, I lost control for one second and it was f*cking scary. It was the first time I ever drifted. I will never follow that route again. It was extremely dangerous and if I crashed into the house, I could have killed people. Luckily, I got away unscratched and my car is still beautiful. I feel sorry for my guardian angel. It had to work really hard today.

[Mish]

I'm sorry to hear about that Pears. GPS can be so insesitive to the actual situation on the road. They should make ones with a lot more description.

Glad you and your car are in one piece

[1averagejoe]

Practice makes perfect...nothing like going out into an old abandoned lot and having fun driving like a maniac and learning how your car reacts under certain conditions.

What type of car do you drive?

[Pears]

2007 Toyota Camry

[lesa]

Glad you are okay Pears. I wonder does the GPS is often updated? There is always new road construction out here.

Practice makes perfect...nothing like going out into an old abandoned lot and having fun driving like a maniac and learning how your car reacts under certain conditions.

Yea, one of the first things I do before purchasing a car is to do a rough test drive. I need a car that can handle my crazy driving. I like to make fast turns (intentionally and unintentionally).

[1averagejoe]

45mph on the freeway, freshly wet from the rain, and a rear wheel drive car. I hit oil and the rear end let go while turning and I was facing towards the side of the freeway. Scared the piss out of me, and I had oncoming traffic behind me. Luckily there was no one next to me. I was able to correct it thankfully because I've done it before, on purpose...lol.

Oh ya, and you did a power slide...drift is different. Physically impossible to drift a front wheel drive car. That must have been a really tight turn to have swung out the rear like that though.

[anachronistic]

Reminds me of an accident I got into during a blizzard. Glad you're okay!

[Pears]

Oh ya, and you did a power slide...drift is different. Physically impossible to drift a front wheel drive car. That must have been a really tight turn to have swung out the rear like that though.

What the difference between a drift and power slide?

[Gigabitch]

Scary! Be careful, Pears. I don't want to lose you.

[Kiechi]

Haha that's the azn coming out. Drift, drift, drift, drift.

[Pears]

It was an extremely sharp 90 degrees right turn at 40 mph so I turned right into the narrow street, then my car slided forward with the left side of the car in front and I had to turn the steering wheel left to adjust the car. That's drifting right? I don't know what kind it is.

[Kiechi]

[url]http://www.wikihow.com/Drift-a-Car[/url]

Was it like that?

[Pears]

Kiechi, it says on the website "Drifting is a driving technique ... where a car slides at an angle, with its side moving in the direction of the turn." That's what happened. The left side of my car was moving in the direction of the turn, since it was a right turn. Then I had to turn the steering wheel left to straighten out the car and go straight forward.

I didn't use the handbrake like it says on the website. I stepped on the brakes very fast and suddenly because I didn't want to hit the house or cars parked on the street.

[lesa]

... my car slided forward with the left side of the car in front and I had to turn the steering wheel left to adjust the car...

Same thing happened to me once. I was entering on-ramp to interstate highway. It was a raining day and I went from 0 to about 20 mph or more in first gear. I forgot to shift and my car slided forward in the same position as you stated. There were many cars behind me and I remember thinking this is neat (I was excited briefly after knowing I was okay and did not cause an accident). I did not correct my wheels..I let it slow down and then I corrected it.

My ex had rear wheel drive truck and would spin out when he approach a 80-90 degree turn while raining. He got ticket for careless driving once and almost been in several accidents. He traded the vehicle for front wheels drive.

[1averagejoe]

Powerslide is basically you drive fast and turn sharp or use the handbrake to break traction of the rear end of the car where upon you try to control the car and keep it from spinning out.

The difference between drifting and a powerslide is that with drifting you basically keep the rear free of traction by using the throttle. So for example, you go into a turn hard, give it lots of gas and basically control the car throughout the turn with a balance between steering and throttle. The initial loss of traction can come from either the turning in hard, hand brake, or by quickly shifting the weight of the car. From there you use the throttle and steering to keep the rear tires from gaining traction. You can not drift a Front wheel drive car because the power is basically turning the front tires not the rear. A rear wheel drive car can drift because the rear tires are the ones that move the car. Usually cars that drift tend to have a decent amount of power to break the traction of the rear tires. Basically drifting is having the rear tires move too quick because of you giving it too much gas to have traction and going sideways at the same time.

Hope that explained it...lol

For a casual driver FWD are better daily drivers. Reason being in poor conditions if you do give the car too much gas you don't have to worry about swinging the rear end out. Also if you do lose control in poor conditions a lot of peoples natural instinct is either to step on gas to try and gain control or brake. If you did step on the gas the power is being sent to the front wheels which are the ones that steer, and in sense pull the car in the direction you point the wheel. While with a RWD car the tires putting down power are the rear and are pushing the car and basically if you're already out of control all you're doing by giving it gas will reduce traction between the rear tires which is exactly what you don't want to do. Unless you do want to...lol

Drifting imho is kind of stupid. Yes it's fun and great practice for real driving in the event you do lose control. But the movies over exaggerate it and make it look cool for immature teens to go out in their honda civics thinking their drifting and street racing is cool. But in reality they don't know what they're doing and end up getting in accidents.