Sunday morning, 8:00 am; hauling north on I-75, somewhere around Lake Allatoona, north of Atlanta. Weather cloudy, road dry, sparse traffic. Looks like a good place to check-out the Fiero’s handling with its new front swaybar. Let’s whip it back and forth a few times . . .

Whoosh! Whoosh! Feels pretty good. OK, now a little harder . . .

Whoosh! Whoo –- Oh, crap! I’ve lost it! Smooth breakaway, but I can’t seem to catch it; like the rear reacts faster than the front. Right! Left! Right! Now what did I read on Pennock’s about spin control? Oh, yeah – lock the brakes.

OK, that’s better; now I’m stable. Nothing wrong with traveling north while facing southwest, is there? Oh, good: the nearest traffic is half a mile behind, too far away to freak-out at the sight of a yellow Fiero sliding up I-75 three-quarters backward with smoking tires.

Our fate now in the hands of Isaac Newton and General Rubber, we drift toward the right shoulder. BRRRRRRR over the warning ripples, then the nose rotates and miraculously we (the Fiero and I) are pointing in the right direction on the paved shoulder, not in the grass. Wow!

A few deep breaths. Drive on. Stop at the next roadcut and admire Ropes Creek metabasalt until my knees stop shaking. Reflect on the observation that a semi-deserted expressway is a pretty good place to do stupid maneuvers without killing myself. Drive on again; gotta be in Ringgold by 9:00.

Glad my wife didn’t see that.

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This story brought to you by the makers of Depends® adult incontinence undergarments.

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Disclaimer:

Kids, don't try this at home . . . or anywhere else!

Had that same experience in my 85 Corvette. Complete 360 degree turn in the middle of the interstate. Mine was caused by a heavy downpour and directional tires... rear set on backwards... can't say I'd recommend the experience either!

Glad everything turned out OK,

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Roy :D
87 GT

That must have been the cause of the *pucker* sound I heard this morning.
Glad you made it through unscathed!

I almost did the same thing a couple of years ago in my Firebird. Was dodging a retread or something.

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Raydar - aka Steve

Black 88 Formula.
Red 88 Duke coupe. "The Project"
88 Formula parts car. "The Donor"

That would never have happened if you had not skipped the meeting yesterday!!!! HaHaHa. just joking. Missed you yesterday tho. Glad you made it thru this maneuver.

Ronnie --

You're right! If I hadn't skipped the meeting, then I wouldn't have had time to install the swaybar, and I wouldn't have felt the need to test it.

Hmmmmm . . .

Glad to hear ya made it! But NEVER "lock" the brakes..its a miracle you did ok by doing that. Locking the brakes is a big no no.
Anywho, I saw you were going to Ringgold. I have family in Ringgold, GA....how wierd is that? lol In fact I was there about 3 months ago.

new rear bar time? (keep it smaller than the front though! :P)

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Ben Cannon
88 Formula, T-top Metalic Red
88 Formula, Silver
87 Coupe, Metalic Red
"Every Man Dies, not every man really Lives"
-Mel Gibson, "Braveheart"

artherd –

Didn’t have time on Saturday to install the rear bar. But I think the real problem was the loose nut behind the wheel.

My7Fieros –

I agree; there are lots of times when locking the brakes – or even using the brakes – is a bad idea. With locked brakes, you can’t steer and the car doesn’t stop as fast as it could. However, in this case I gave up the idea of recovering control, and opted to slide straight in a safe direction rather than thrashing across three lanes. Better to avoid the need for such extremes.

We were meeting in Ringgold to look for fossils in the Taylor’s Ridge roadcut on I-75. Found a few.

why would you lock your brakes? you'll loose all control of your steering

I think the locked up his brakes bc he was sliding sideways or backwards and he didn't want to keep spinning. Thats the general idae I got from his message.

Jake

Here's the old thread. Under the circumstances it was good advice.

I miss some good threads at times. I agree, locking the wheels was the best course of action for what you were in for. I was a passenger in a car on the highway last month where we were fishtailing, then spinning at highway speed, if the driver would have locked the brakes, I highly doubt we would have totalled the car when we crossed several lanes while spinning and hitting a cement divider several times. Good job, it was also probably good here were no semis behind you too.

I try not to make stupid moves right in front of big trucks.