Very wet M25 this evening...

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E55K

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Joined
Nov 30, 2013
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W211 E55 AMG
Occasional bits of standing water in places around the north of the M25 this evening. Light traffic. I thought I was doing a reasonable speed of 60mph, but still managed to aquaplane for a short distance... cue reduction of speed... (my tyres have 6mm+ tread)

However, there were plenty of muppets doing 85 / 90mph in lashing rain & some standing water. Scary scary stuff. How they didn't do themselves & others serious harm is beyond me

:crazy:
 
I wrote off my last car aquaplaning on M40, also had 6mm all round. It was my first accident in 19 years and I stupidly always thought aquaplaning was for smooth European roads not rough British ones. We get bad surface roads with no benefit.
 
Sorry to hear that aquaplane write-off :(

Wondering if the narrower tyres on standard vehicles could mean they get away without aquaplaning at those speeds? Still lunacy though.

Oh, I'm running Winter Tyres too, which I would have thought would shift more water.
 
The narrower the tyre the faster one can go in wet and snowy conditions before riding on top of the snow/water.
 
I was running 285/35/19 on rears. What can you do? Wheels and tyres just get bigger by the day. I now drive slow and careful in rain despite looks of astonishment from drivers passing by.
 
Wheels and tyres just get bigger by the day. I now drive slow and careful in rain despite looks of astonishment from drivers passing by.

Myself also, rain scares the sh*t out of me. Aquaplaning being the main reason.
 
Was out in it myself last night. Utterly horrible. Once off the motorway was even worse with the road regularly flooded. Managed to hit a massive pot hole submerged in the middle of the road and blew out the rear tyre. Cue changing wheel in the dark and pouring rain. It's the season to be jolly :)
 
...Oh, I'm running Winter Tyres too, which I would have thought would shift more water.

Yes, Winter tyres will have better resistance to aquaplanning, but on less-cold days Winter tyres are around 10% behind Summer tyres, including wet braking and cornering.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Summer-VS-Winter-tyres-Warm-weather-performance.htm

As you correctly pointed out - it's lunacy - there is no safe way of driving fast when it's wet, Winter or Summer tyres.
 
If all you peasants kept out of the fast lane so I can leave my cruise control set to 90mph that would be most appreciated ;-)
 
RWDpetrol said:
I now drive slow and careful in rain despite looks of astonishment from drivers passing by.
I find that it's very instructive to practice an emergency stop from high speed on a wet road. It shows just how little grip there often is in comparison to dry conditions.

I think we have a real problem in that a huge swathe of drivers are totally ignorant of the effect of road conditions on their ability to control a vehicle, and so they plough on regardless. Your M40 shunt was a valuable, if expensive, way of learning that doing so is inadvisable.

BTW, if you want really scary, try aquaplaning on a motorcycle!
 
I was on the M25 last night & by far the biggest hazard were the idiots driving at 50-60 mph in lanes other than the NS one.

I don't have an issue with people driving at that speed, just wish they'd do it in the left hand lane, not lanes 3 & 4.
 
I was running 285/35/19 on rears. What can you do? Wheels and tyres just get bigger by the day. I now drive slow and careful in rain despite looks of astonishment from drivers passing by.

It's hard to imagine that, once you get a few mm's of water, tyres that wide can't be doing much more than floating over the surface.
 
RWDpetrol said:
Yes, M5. It was a write off. I didn't buy a car for 18 months after but just got into a c63 estate now. I find it even more slippery.

I had that with my C63 and it was the Yokohamas it came with. Changed them for Conti 5Ps and it was much better though obviously can't break the laws of physics:). Lot of power to the rear wheels is always going to be tricky in the wet:)
 
What Car? specifically tested for aquaplaning and found that with the exception of Goodyear winter tyres were slightly worse than summer ones of the same brand (same size tyres, mounted on the same car).
 
I was on the M25 last night & by far the biggest hazard were the idiots driving at 50-60 mph in lanes other than the NS one.

I don't have an issue with people driving at that speed, just wish they'd do it in the left hand lane, not lanes 3 & 4.

Was last night not meant to be really bad weather??
 

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