This wasn't in my car, but it was in
a car. My friend had come up to visit, and wanted to take me and another friend shooting up in the mountains. I told him of a road that was nice and twisty, narrow, unpatrolled, and happened to be on the way. I said I'd show it to him if he let me drive it. (My other friend was unaware that we were going to do this, so she was just kind of along for the ride).
We get to this road, and I start driving it hard; harder than I've ever done it before (stupid thing #1, seeing as how it was a car I'd only driven about 20 miles). Everything was going just fine. We approached a crest, which I knew had a 20-mph blind switchback on the other side of it. I said to myself "accelerate to the top of the crest and brake HARD; it'll be fun." So, I proceeded to take the crest at about 60 mph, and then mashed the brake pedal. Only problem is that the pedal went all the way to the floor. The car had ABS, but nothing happened. The car was slowing, but not anywhere near quick enough to take the corners safely. "All right," I say to myself, "I'll use the whole road to apex the corner". Just as soon as I dove into the left lane to take the left-hander at about 40 mph, an SUV came around the right-hander. At that point, I had two options: nail the SUV head-on, or throw the car in the ditch on the other side of the road. I knew there was no way I was going to risk all of our lives by hitting the SUV, so I flicked the car back into the right lane, which caused the back end of the car to step out. I still don't remember what I did to save it (I was just reacting), but my friend told me it involved a downshift and some very tricky throttle-control and steering. Whatever. I drove the rest of that road at the speed limit. I was kicking myself for days about stupidly risking our lives (especially my friend in the back; at no point did she consent to our dangerous little side-trip).
Also, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the brakes quit right at that spot, but nowhere else. At first, I thought it was because the brakes were worn out, but I did a little test later on that road in my own car, which i knew had brakes in good condition. When I came to the same spot (going a bit slower), I hit the brakes, and the pedal went way past where I was expecting it to, though the pads still gripped, and the car slowed down nicely. Curious, I pulled off the road a little ways past that, and walked back up the hill. It turns out that the little downhill approach into that switchback is not a constant slope, as it looks like from the car. It actually falls off a fair amount as you approach the corner, which explains everything. Let this be a lesson: KNOW YOUR TRACK!!
I'm never, EVER taking that truck onto snow.
