Slidy slidy!!

[Mike]

City centre wolvo, 5.30pm, nice big roundabout, 3 lanes of traffic, nothing on my left lane, police car just behind me in the right lane and its raining.

Not exactly a prime time to spin your Nova 180 degree's and go from the middle lane to the lane on my right, come to a complete stop about a match sticks width from a concerete wall and a mahooosive C shaped kerb stone, and be bumper to bumper with a police that was behind me :tard:

My gosh did PC Whateveryournamewas give me a good round of applause!

Yes, at 25mph, i managed to do all the above :confused: fook me did i have brown pants watching a wall/kerb come towards me in super slow motion! An then come to a stop & look forward to see a bemused police officer staring right at me with his Volvo's front end pratically touching my numberplate! He got out, came over and his first words were "you lucky b@stard!" lol he also clocked me doing a massive 24.8mph in a 30 on the approach to said island lol

As i felt the rear start to go, just as i started to turn into it, too late, a nice piroute motion later, i was parked perfectly next to a roudabout with a subway around 40ft below, would have been a nice drop that :S basically, it looked like id yanked the emergency brake handle in an attempt to beat Russ Swift!

My Nova's rear end, is, TBH dangerously too light! The rear tyres are new, along with the ARB, the shocks an springs are super hard though. Do Nova's have rear brake compensators? If so, where?? Anyone suggest anything weight wise before this damn car of mine gets a little out of hand!

[coombsey]

you can borrow my mother in law

[Adam]

Yeah they have bias valves, fitted into the master cylinder outlets.
Brakes wouldn't have caused it in your situation tho?
Lack of weight over the rear has caused the rear end to just loose grip?

A lot of people forget that removing a shed load of weight from the rear, takes weight off the tyres, reducing grip and making the rear end very twitchy.

Good to hear you didn't cause any damage

[Philsutton]

A lot of people forget that removing a shed load of weight from the rear, takes weight off the tyres, reducing grip and making the rear end very twitchy.

people that stupid deserve to crash lol

[Adam]

Lol

[Lee]

Lots of this will be happening at llandow if its very wet. Especially mine, as my wet tyres are one step up from 'Road Champ Remoulds'.

This happened to me in a renault expert mini van when it was empty, at 25mph, in the dry lol

I take it mr policeman was fine about it?

[coochiSR]

Glad to here your ok though! Scary s**t i bet!

[Mike]

Glad to here your ok though! Scary s**t i bet!

In a word..........yes! If i was in a rally car TBH i would have just braced for impact an not give a monkeys, but in my road car, that i built myself! Totally different kettle of fish!


I take it mr policeman was fine about it?

Pretty much, he knew i wasnt speeding though, he did say he was in the process of running a PNG vehicle check thing! At first he though id ripped the handbrake up :S (as you do with a police car behind you :tard: ) he just checked me an the car were ok, stopped the traffic and let me do the most illegal U-turn ever lol

[Dan]

you cant blame it on the nova being too light lol lol , mine is about as light as it can get on the rear give or take and never had any issues. Its a poor mans excuse to cover a silly driving error

Tbh this is where people dont do things properly, even stripping a car creates alot more work than expected and the sole reason i went to coilovers so i could set the car up alot better to try and sort out the weight shift and balance abit better.

And yes the pic below does show the rim protecter on the front stretched as i buckled the sidewall under load during the llandow monsson last year :thumb:

http://www2.novaload.net/files/dan/llandow/wet.jpg

[Mike]

Ive had stripped out Nova's for 3 years now, and done signifcantly higher speeds around the same island with the same conditions in them, and made it no problem (not that im proud of this, and by significant im mean about 35, which is a lot more then 25 when its raining)! However this Nova, no, its not the first time its tried to kill me........

EDIT: As you said yourself...

"sole reason i went to coilovers so i could set the car up alot better to try and sort out the weight shift and balance abit better."

You see Dan, Ive not done any of that, in this car or my previos ones, yet my other Nova's have never done this :S

[Dan]

you cant really compare this nova to your others unless you have exactly the same suspension and tyres etc on it also ?

It sounds more like one of those 'sh*t happens moments tbh' Maybe abit of diesel on the road or anything. I used to use a route for work everyday for 2 years, then one random saturday i barrel rolled a standard cav 6 times roof to roof. All above board and legal just conditions and something not quite right with the car caused it.

Maybe you could even have a sticky brake lol, but i still stand by original comment, if the jobs done half ****d then at some point you may suffer for it, most times not but it does happen.

[Mike]

you cant really compare this nova to your others unless you have exactly the same suspension and tyres etc on it also ?

Identical BAR a rear ARB, i reshelled my old one into this shell.

Same tyres, same wheels, same suspension, same upper strut brace. Only difference is the rear ARB.

TBH, its wolvo ring road, so gets mega abused by HGV's, Vans, non insured vehicels, car thiefs, bag heads, red diesel users, you get the idea....

[Mazz]

Lucky escape dude, but it sounds like there might have a been a little oil/diesel whatever on the road...

[Dar]

Glad to hear your ok. Maybe worth checking your tyre pressures and run lower pressures on the rear. I think hot pressures on mine are around 30/24

[craig green]

Glad there no harm done Mike.

I managed to roll an Astra GTE on a bend near me at not fast speeds, theres something to be said for paying full attention when driving quick, yet being over relaxed at very low speeds, meaning reaction times are slow.

[Mike]

If there had of been impact, it would easily have been mega write off Nova. Straight into the syll/rear axle/front passenger side wheel & hub assembly!

What occured to me this morning though, there were several other cars behind this police car when i pulled away from traffic lights prior to making my spectacular entrance to said island, however only the police car an myself actually made it anywhere near this island?

[dannyb]

How full was the tank? It might sound silly but was it a bit of a tank slapper? I've had this happen to me at 20mph on ice when the back was stripped out on standard suspension and temporary 195 60 14 ditch seekers :s

[burgo]

i had the back end step out on me in the nova whilst braking round a bend. thats because i need to turn down the back brake bias tho. more than likely abit of diesel on the round about for you tho. having said that have you had full wheel alignment done?? might show up a bent stub axle or something that could affect the handling

[Mike]

4 wheel laser aligment was done in September last year, an all was fine. Fuel tank was around qaurter full at the time tho

[Nova .12]

Glad your ok dude!! :thumb:

[ANDYRACER]

Stripped out novas are awesome fun to control imo, my back end has a lovely habit of doing what it wants in the wet lol

[puss puss]

Stripped out novas are awesome fun to control imo, my back end has a lovely habit of doing what it wants in the wet lol


and thats why my nova isnt stripped out :thumb:

[Jack]

my back end has a lovely habit of doing what it wants in the wet lol
Hello sailor! lol

[ANDYRACER]

Hello sailor! lol

Luv u, u southern hunk. :D