[MR2] An MR2 referance

[Jeff Richter]

On 4/3/2010 9:11 AM, Wayne Arndt wrote:
> I have a '91 Turbo T and (knock on wood) have only spun it around once and
> that was my fault testing my new Yokohamas and the oversteer I always hear
> about on this list. I tend to push hard in the corners too. The one time was
> when I was the only one on the road and there were no cars on either roads.
> The road I was on was the straight through part of a T, I made a 90' turn
> from onto the ending road; I entered the corner at 45mph, 3rd gear and
> accelerating in the middle of the power curve with constant turbo boost at
> about 80%. Car ended up about 1/4 turn too far, just let off the gas&  was
> able to immediately get it back under control and into my own lane. Actually
> I think if the road I turned onto didn't have tire grooves I may have made
> it, plus the yokos tramlined&  pulled much more than my Kumhos do. Maybe I
> should try it again!?
>    


Mostly completely unrelated, but I feel I must share:

Worst spin I ever had - non-MR2.

December, 1985.  I'm moving from Anchorage Alaska (back) to Wisconsin, 
with everything I own, and my cat, in my 1985 Plymouth Colt E hatchback 
(Sweet ride!).  Late afternoon Monday 12/16, somewhere in the Yukon on 
the Alaska Highway.  It's late dusk, there's about an inch of fresh snow 
on the road, very light traffic [meaning one vehicle about every 20-30 
minutes] and snowbanks about 1-3 feet high on either side of the road.  
Coming around a right-hand, nicely banked bend in the road, the rear end 
snaps around on me and I do a 270-degree spin, coming to a stop in the 
middle of the road.  Somehow managed to avoid hitting the snowbank on 
either side of the road.  The tire-tracks of the spin are visible in the 
snow on the road.  Being young and foolish, rather than making the right 
turn and continuing on my way, I turn BACK to the left so my headlights 
can illuminate the track so I can see how close I came to piling off the 
road.   Suitably impressed with myself, I then turn left again 
attempting to face back in the direction I was going - and promptly slid 
the front of the car off the road into the snowbank, just deep enough 
that I could not get myself out.  "Rocking it" just noses me further off 
the road.

I'm now a little nervous.

My brother (Anchorage PD) had given me a couple flares before I left, 
just in case. I also had a cheapish set of these "roller chain" 
thingies, kind of a flat cable wire set of snow chains.  I spent about 
10-15 minutes trying to dig enough snow away from the tires (with a 
plastic file tray, the closet thing I had to a shovel)  to put the 
chains on, but no luck.  So I resigned myself to sitting on the side of 
the road waiting for engine noises before lighting the first of the 
flares.  I don't recall how long it took, but somebody eventually came 
along, I torched the flare, they pulled up and helped me pull the car 
onto the road, and I completed the rest of the trip mostly without incident.

It actually was a pretty great trip - At the time the Alaska Highway 
still had a couple hundred miles of unpaved sections, and the road was 
much better frozen over in December than it had been in June when I 
drove up.  I got lucky on the weather and other than the first night 
crossing the Canadian border when it was some ridiculous number of 
degrees below zero, I pretty much had shirtsleeve weather the rest of 
the drive down to Montana, where it started snowing.  At least I 
remember calling my folks from an outdoor phonebooth around Banff or 
Calgary without a coat on.

There is one slight embellishment in the above -  I probably was out of 
the Yukon and into British Columbia by Monday evening - but it sounds 
more remote to say "The Yukon".  I know the exact date because I left 
Anchorage on Sunday morning and drove out via Fairbanks because I wanted 
to drive the Alaska Highway end-to-end.  This had to have been the 
second day of the trip because I know I was pretty far north - I crossed 
the border late Sunday, and I was probably off the highway entirely by 
Wednesday - I made it to Eau Claire Wisconsin by Friday night, because I 
had friends who were graduating on Saturday.