IGETAROUND
Active member
I gotta agree with Mike - I reckon there must've been something else going on here for BOTH tires to 'break traction' at exactly the same time & suddenly move laterally about a foot, AND do so without an Nanny reaction &/or intervention either! :shocked:
Yeah, there's a possibility that it could've been due to sand or some other reason causing a particularly 'less grippy' section of road surface that was wide enough & angled just right to catch both front wheels at the same time..... but then you run into the questions of 'how come BOTH front wheels reacted identically & at the same time?' & 'why didn't the rear react similarly as it passed over the same patch of road surface?' & 'why didn't the Nanny react at all, when she does so readily for all sorts of other less critical incidents?' :dontknow: .
I've done a lot of skid pan & dry track testing/playing with various tires fitted to Spyders, and I've never encountered or been able to create exactly what you've described Al, BUT, I have encountered something that sounds very similar - so I wonder if your '... break in traction & front moving laterally about a foot ... ' could've been due to a very short momentary lift of both front wheels due to a road surface irregularity?? THAT I have encountered, and if it's short/quick enough, the front wheels don't shift very far laterally at all and the Nanny may not detect &/or react to it because the wheels continue spinning at a 'close enough' speed for that moment, & it's so quick there's not enough yaw to register either!? :dontknow: That said, the feeling you get from that occuring during cornering is more of a 'sudden lurch of the whole Spyder off track & across to one side' rather than the 'Oh come ON, turn you *******, turn!' feeling that you generally get from understeer! :sour: . You don't necessarily even feel the 'lift & bump' from the front wheels leaving the ground & then touching down again that you do generally feel if this happens when you're riding straight - the 'lurch sideways' effect seems to mask the 'lift & bump' very well - and in my experience, it's often only detectable by reviewing the video! :shocked: . It really doesn't take much in the way of a road surface irregularity either - given the right conditions & tire pressures etc, it can be caused by something as small & otherwise undetectable as the very fine seam between two runs of the surface laying machinery; not any thing you can SEE, but once you know it happened & exactly where it happened, you can (sometimes) go back & find the surface irregularity if you have a long enough straight edge & an otherwise smooth surface - and sometimes not! .
Just a thought?! :thumbup:
Interesting thought Peter, and you may just be spot on on that guess.
However, this is on a frequently traveled stretch of road that I drive when I'm feeling a need for high speed twisties and the need to work out some aggressions. I've not noticed previously any dip, bump, or irregularities. That being said your idea of minor imperfections is plausible. Whatever caused it it certainly got my attention!! Thank you all for your input and ideas. That's what makes this a outstanding place to post ideas and thoughts.
Al in Kazoo
