Yesterday I hit some DEEP standing water on the A120 at 80 leptons...

I was in my gf's A3 quattro (with her) which has EBD. The car lifted up, rotated left about 20 degrees. I corrected right and it began to spin right. Then left, then right, then left and a 180 clockwise to finish facing the wrong way! I can't remember at what point I braked hard but it was not immediate as I was afraid of spinning. Amazing how quickly the subconscious thinks and reacts at times like this. Fortunately other traffic had slowed down as they saw what happened and no one ploughed into us. It was only then that I noticed that the THREE cars at the side of the road were not just stopped - all three had crashed and had accident damage. Scared the shite out of me.

Now I love my coupe but I can't help feeling the nose-heavy old girl would have been either in the fields or the central barrier. If my HID bulb had not blown this weekend we would have been in that car as we were going to be home after dark... Just glad I noticed the water and had both hands firmly on the wheel. That's the end of those trousers.

I dont know. I've twice this winter gone through water deep enough to create a sort of inch thick bow wave over the entire windscreen and the only thing to have happened is the Alarm system malfunctioned.

Both were hit at motorway speeds, and there was no loss of control at all. What are the A3's tyres like? I'm on 9 month old Toyo Proxies all round and havent had any problems.

I would say its more dodgy tracking, bald tyres, odd tyres or underlying oil - esp if 4 cars went off at the same point.

Hitting a puddle at 80 should not aquaplane you unless something else is wrong!

Hitting deep water at 80 WILL cause an aquaplane, but it shouldn't cause a spin - I've aquaplaned at much higher speeds without drama (including all four wheels on one occasion)

However, if you were already cornering (even slightly) AND all four wheels lost contact with terra firma, then a spin would be initiated long before your tyres bit the tarmac again. When aquaplaning, the best thing you can do is absolutely nothing - wait until there's SOME grip and then try and save it.

Also, if you're going to spin, the best thing you can do (assuming you WANT to carry on in a straight line) is brake hard enough to lock up all four wheels - that way, no matter which way the car is facing, it will continue in its original direction. As soon as the wheels are allowed to rotate, the car will try to change direction, which often means the hedge or the other side of the road

I dont think a Coupe would have been worse, a Fiesta might have though! A long wheel base and rear wheel drive is what you need in those kind of situations

Good thing you pair are okay.. sorry to hear about your trousers! My old xr2i used to aquaplane on a single rain drop which made driving very lively!

Something similar happened to me in a charade about 20 years ago. Except it was frost and ice put us in a spin (I was front seat passenger)

Hit soft gravel verge going backwards, that spun us again across the road onto another soft gravel verge at around 60mph before the spin started. Then hit a drop off into a hawthorn hedge that fell away into a field. Car ended up flipping nose to tail. Two rear passengers exited via the rear window and drivers side rear door window. Roof on passenger side completey crushed. Luckily I had stuck my head between my legs and grabbed the bottom of the seat as the car started flipping otherwise I'd be dead. Roof was pinning me to the seat. Drivers side roof was fine, but apparently those old Charades had a strengthening bar along the drivers side roof but a branch had stopped inches from my mates chest through the windscreen. My 3 mates ran up the road in shock until they realised I wasn't with them, then ran back down, released my seatbelt and pulled me free from the crushed side of the car, which was on its roof with about 20 yards of flattened hedge in front of it.

Unbeleivably apart from a few cuts and bruises we were all fine, even the two without seat belts in the back who had been thrown out the rear windows on the final flip.

It might have been the EBD/Stability control etc that actually caused the car to spin. If it detected some of the wheels were spinning at different speeds to the others then it would apply the brake on that wheel, which could cause you to spin around.

Just a theory mind you. I reckon in a coupe you would have kep straight as long as you kept off the brakes and didn't steer too hard.

Hmmm... maybe. The standing water was perhaps 6 inches deep which at that speed is a hell of a shock. I think it was flowing diagonally across the road which is why one side of the car hit first (the left) and caused us to start turning. The water was only a few feet wide so the aquaplane didn't last long and the wheels were back in contact with the road pretty quickly. The car would definitely have spun right around at speed had I not steered the other way - it;s just impossible to countersteer the right amount to avoid a seesawing thing starting - unless you;re a better driver than me I guess.

Nigel, I understand the logic of locking the wheels to allow the car's momentum to allow it to proceed in a straight line regardless of the wheel direction but wouldn't ordinary ABS prevent the locking and thus do you more harm than good??

Maybe the coupe would have been ok - I'm just not convinced. That Audi is so easy to steer and handles so well that catching slides. etc is always instinctive and easy. I think the coupes back end would have swung around sooner.

Could it not just have been a case that when it aqua planed someone turned the steering wheel rather than holding it straight, and so when it gripped again you spun?

No.

See I'm failing to see how you could have corrected any directional spin whilst the car was 'lifted up' and aqua planing

As I said, the aquaplaning was momentary - the water was about 10 feet wide I reckon.

where abouts on the a120 was it ?

Heading west about 5 miles from Stanstead and the M11 junction.

You should have wrote off the audi, it would have been a mercy killing
and you are a "drama queen"

Only one way to find out. Take the coop out and re-enact the whole thing again.

Good call, I will watch from the sidelines with your girlfriend. And if anything bad happens I will be there to comfort her.

and make sure she buys the Noble M400 cos I still want to be taken for a spin

If you were in a coupe, you could've just floored it - front wheel drive would have pulled you through it in a straight line .

Joking obviously, although the principle of it is sound, you'd never think to do it in a split second.

Most likely outcome in the coupe is that the bumper/splitter would have been ripped off and the wheelarch liners exiting the arches at great speed...

Flooring it whilst rotated left by around 20 degrees = death.

I assume this is humour. Then again, perhaps you are a .

She won't be buying anything - save perhaps a 370Z possibly. The beast car will be mine - except it won't be a Noble, sorry