Yep - Happened to me, both on the motorway, and on a wet trackday (although on track it's very short distances before grip is restored) - On the motorway it's quite scary, and soon makes me get a tight grip on the steering wheel. :eek: I think the key is to not release the throttle right off, and definitely not to try and brake - all of which could potentially unbalance the car whilst "light" and cause an accident.

Either way, it pays to be concentrating 110% in poor conditions.

how can you get the theory so right Jason, and yet keep crashing?! (only joking)

I have aquaplaned before, and it really does take it out of your hands, least input possible until you get grip back is the best idea... ESP does help.. (last time was in the fiat) and you can feel it working to help, although physics cant be denied.... a decent set of tyres help....

NOTE: even in this country, a set of steelies with winter tyres ,and with temps below 5 celcius they will always work better in water/ slush/ snow than summer tyres, or alternatively (as Chris said earlier) M&S always cut water better... although the uniroyal rainsport II's have a very good rep.

foot off accelorator and dont apply the brakes is the best advice.

Yep, twice as a driver, once as a passenger. First time was in my own car not long after passing my test (a red Fabia 1.4mpi Comfort ), just a case of too fast for the conditions, went half up onto the verge, no harm done (except to my underwear!). Second time was in one of my old boss' Fiesta hire cars, biblical monsoon-rain and worn out tyres, again no harm done and I persuaded him to replace the tyres.

Third time was a few weeks ago, I was a passenger in a Kia Rio with improbably wide aftermarket alloys, Chinese tyres and a maniac at the wheel. Kept telling her to keep out of the puddles and slow down...she SPED UP and deliberately hit the puddles, claiming 'it's fun!' :eek:

The result? Speared straight ahead on a bend and tore the ar$e out of the car

A few times when I drove for a living, but the scariest was coming out of the Dartford Tunnel in torrential rain many years ago in a Mk1 (RWD) Cavalier. The whole car just felt like it was starting to spin to the left when the tyres found traction again and it straightened up. All over in fraction of a second, but the memory of the sensation has stayed with me all these years..........

Phil

I did once in SWMBOs old micra. Doing about 70 on the M5, big patch of water covering first 2 lanes. Steering went really light and speedo shot up to about 90 fortunately it was on a straight bit of road, and that was with skinny tyres fitted to the micra.

Scary moment.

My fab recently aquaplaned whilst going uphill ! Under the lightest of braking on the approach to a local junction.

On this occasion, put it down to a very smooth, highly cambered road-surface, < 4mm of tread on alround on the tyres and the fact that since the dealer changed all the discs and pads in March, progressive, smooth braking is something of the past ! Press . . . nothing . . .suddenly clunk and full retardation. Really useful.

I got a feeling that before I go abroad again i'll have to change the tyres. What's the minimum tyre depth in France ?

Nick

I did a few weeks ago on the M4 and ended up bouncing off the crash barrier at 75 mph. It was 12.30 am and raining and I went over a deep puddle on one side of the car which threw me into the barrier. Did a fair bit of damage but could have been a lot worse.

I've had it happen recently, and it was only this sunday just gone.

I was heading up the A64 towards York, when i got caught in rather heavy rain.

I was travelling at something along the lines of 35-40mph, the car went pretty light on a few occasions.

I wasn't entirely sure what to do, i didn't want to make any drastic inputs to upset the handling any further.

There are three types of aquaplaning which are Dynamic, Viscous and Rubber Reversion.

The one that is most likely to happen in a car is Dynamic aquaplaning. This is when there is standing water on the surface of the road and the tyre is lifted off and completely supported. Basically, the ammount of water in front of the tyre is greater than the ammount of water the tread can direct away to give contact with the road surface. The best action is to slow down but only break, if you really must break at all, if you have A.B.S. which I guess most cars do now. The tyre must continue to rotate so the tread can do its job and get rid of the water and make contact with the road surface again. The closest I can get to describing what leads up to aquaplaning is that a bow wave forms in front of the tyre and once its big enough then the tread just can't get rid of the water fast enough.

Viscous aquaplaning is when the surface is damp and there is a thin film of fluid that can't be penetrated by the tyre. This type can occur at much lower speeds and associated with smooth surfaces.

Rubber Reversion is not very likely to happen and is associated with aircraft landing but if your interested then it occurs when the tyre skids a fair distance and the surface is wet. The heat generated between the tyre and the wet surface boils the water and reverts the rubber which forms a seal and delays water dispersal. The steam then prevents the tyre from contacting the surface.

Technical ain't it?

Edited 22 July, 200916 yr by andy-fisher

I got a feeling that before I go abroad again i'll have to change the tyres. What's the minimum tyre depth in France ?

I think its 3mm, but you can probably Google it...

Yep - in my MX5 and my previous Mitsubishi Colt - quite scary but knowing to keep everything exactly as it was so as not to unsettle the car helped.

I now have decent directional tyres with good wet grip and aquaplaning resistance on all three cars and haven't suffered a repeat occurence since.

A38, north of Derby 25yrs ago. Mini 1275GT doing 70 hit pool of wheel in dip in road. Mini instantly flipped round and hit the central reservation backwards. There were no barriers but luckily it did not cross into oncoming traffic or I would not be typing this. Loads of grass and mud everywhere. The wipers stopped due to the weight of muck on them. Tyre knocked off one rear wheel. No other damage. Changed wheel , cleared windscreen and drove home.