slip sliding away

[Professor Zoom]

I got the strangest text from my brother yesterday so after trying to answer him I thought I would post the situation here and see if anyone has any thoughts.

It seems that Mikey's girl friend's friend (you still following?) has a '07 cabrio (that is the limit of my knowledge, since his girl friend could not tell me anything else) and is concerned that while driving in driving rain in San Francisco she was hydroplaning. My thought was- Huh? and could not come up with a polite way to say "driver error" I thought I would at least ask if anyone else has had problems like this since I have never had any problems with handling. I wish I had some more specifics as to the MINI but I couldn't even get if it had a scoop on the bonnet, let alone packages or wheel size.

[justaz]

I had a hydroplaning problem last year, and it was the tread on my tires, or lack of tread. Bought a new set of tires and my problem was solved. Find out how long she had her tires, and have someone check the amount of tread left. Mike was following me and saw me swaying all over the road, I turned around and went home. It also was in the ran this past fall.
Wanda (Taz)

[minidiver]

The car was really out of alignment also, that was what caused our whole problem.

[glmini]

I have not had any hydroplaning problems in the MINI, but when I have in other cars it was always because of lack of tread on the tires.

[minidiver]

Normally hydroplaning is a direct relationship to tire pressure against speed. The lower the pressure the lower the hydroplaning speed. I do not remember the exact formula. Of course this assumes that the tires are in good condition and the water isn't too deep to be driving in.

[90sm]

Acutally more a function of vehicle weight, speed, water depth, tread depth and tread design to some degree.

Go fast enough and hit a deep enough puddle in any car at any tire pressure and it will hydroplane.

Short answer for the SF MINI driver is either worn out tires, driving to fast for the conditions, or both.

Scott
90SM