Slip Slidin' Away

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del320

MB Enthusiast
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Mar 4, 2005
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Location
Near Melrose, Scottish Borders
Car
1996 E320 Coupe
O/H parked her Volvo last night on a very light dusting of snow. Parking brake on, left in gear and sitting on four newish Michelin Cross Climate tyres. The driveway has a slope of about 15 degrees.

Next morning, I found the front had slid down about four feet but the back had slewed round clockwise and down by over eight feet!

I had a devil of a job manoeuvring the car out with only a total of about eight feet of clearance front and rear!
20200213_211715_resized_1.jpg
:eek:
 
Lucky it didn't hit anything?
 
Wow a 15 degree driveway is pretty steep! That must test your manoeuvring skills regardless of the snow.
 
Lucky that it didn’t touch anything - or cause any damage!

Many years ago I parked on car park which was on hill. It was icy so I parked on the front row, because that was at the bottom of the hill and was barely on an incline relatively speaking. The front of the car was a couple of feet away from some concrete bollards separating the car park from a busy bus stop.

We were only away for 10 minutes, but when we returned to the car the front bumper was touching the bollards, and the bus stop was still busy. Nobody said anything to us so I’m guessing the car very slowly slid forward on the ice under it’s own weight without anyone noticing.
 
The photo's give me the shivvers all that white stuff and ice,us softies on the east coast do not see very much of that stuff,but your lucky escape with your car sliding down your driveway,reminded me of when I had a company Vectra,I had a call out and got back parked my car on the drive which had a slope,went in made a tea looked out of the kitchen window and saw my car in the middle of the road,I ran out handbrake on,so parked it on the side of the road,and read the post and got a letter from the Vauxhall dealer saying there was a recall for faulty hand brakes on my Vectra
 
Isn't this just the same effect that skaters enjoy. When pressure is put on ice a thin layer melts and reduces friction to near zero. So in the right conditions the drive way or road could be frozen until a car is parked on it which then starts to melt the surface layer under the tyres and away the car goes if it's on a slope. It could move very slowly and the surface re-freeze once the tyres have passed over.
 
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