The Driving ‘Ologies Part 4 – Spinning Out Of Control

On new years eve I decided to go and spend the evening with some friends. We were just going to eat, watch t.v., play games, watch the secret, relax and have a good time. So I was on my way there driving down my usual route which I kind of know like the back of my hand and I came up to a roundabout. It wasn’t raining but it had been and the roads were wet but it wasn’t too cold so there was no ice on the roads.

Now there is one thing that something most of you probably don’t know about me but I have kind of sporty looking car with a 3000 watt sound system which fills up my entire boot (as I love listening to loud music), it as fat alloy wheels and my car is lowered. Anyway, even though it’s not a fast car I do sometimes drive fast and I tend to take corners fast as it handles so well.

So as I was saying, I came up to this roundabout, and as there were no cars around, I decided to put my foot down a little, approach the roundabout with the “racing line” and then step on it. As I did this, the back end of my car decided to swing out even though I know I wasn’t pushing my car to it’s limits…it was a totally unexpected spin! Something which has never happened to me in this car before.

Luckily, when I used to have a company car a few years back, I sometimes used to take it to a gravel car park and practice doing some spins. I know, I know, naughty me! 😆

So, I had some experience of how to handle a car in a spin, as my car started to spin and loose control, something else also popped into my head which was something I heard on some Tony Robbins tapes and it was about when he wanted to be a racing driver. When he was taught how to drive he was taught that one of the most important aspect of racing which is knowing how to bring a car out of a spin. The simple rule, wherever your eyes go, your car will go, so if you focus on the concrete wall surrounding the race track, you will hit that, or if you focus on another car, you will hit that.

So there I was, my car was about to do a 360 when that thought popped into my head. I noticed that just before that point I was actually heading towards some cars waiting to join the roundabout, but then my focus shifted to a clear part of the road and as soon as I did my car started heading in that direction. I’d learned that also to bring a car out of spin that you also opposite lock your steering to the direction your spinning and then as you start to bring your car back to center your turn your steering in the direction of the spin.

So I managed to get my car in complete control again, went around the roundabout with all these people staring at me and then I went on my merry way with a smile on my face and grateful to still be alive! 😛

The moral of the story? Well your life will spin out of control when you least expect it, in fact it will spin just as things are going really well, you never know when it will happen or where or what type of spin it will be, you may spin on ice, water, or even just a normal dry road, another car may hit you and you may spin, the only thing you can do it learn some ways to bring yourself out of that spin. You can only truly learn through experience but there is no harm in knowing.