winter tires story

[Fred Munro]

Educational experience, Doyt :o)  A comment I can add from many years of
black ice experience - when it is as slippery as described in your post, I
hit the clutch and shift into neutral. Even the low effort from engine
braking can break the wheels loose on slick black ice, and trying to recover
from THAT in a quattro is an interesting experience. I let the car coast
down in speed - you can steer fairly well even on slick ice if the car is
freewheeling. Just imagine you are driving on loose ball bearings and act
accordingly ....

Fred Munro
'94 S4

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doyt W. Echelberger" <Doyt at buckeye-express.com>
To: "Roger M. Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at downeast.net>
Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: winter tires story


<snip>
> About halfway home, on a straightaway about 3 miles long, I noticed the
> snow was gone, and the road looked wet. This was different. I turned the
> wheel a little, and NOTHING happened. It was black ice, newly frozen and
> totally invisible. And I was going about 50 miles an hour. I barely
touched
> the brakes and they locked up, so I let off instantly. I was running with
> the ABS disabled. The car was still going straight, and nothing that I did
> affected anything. This was really scary. I had no control at all.
>
> I gently backed off the gas pedal and the car slowly lost speed and stayed
> straight, and eventually got down to about 20 miles an hour. It took at
> least three lifetimes to slow down. We didn't have any traffic, so I crept
> along at maybe 15 mph for about 10 minutes, until we got out of that
stuff.
> It was only a patch about 5 miles long, and salt trucks hadn't gotten to
it
> yet. Talk about adrenaline.......
>
<snip>