mark lewis wrote in a message to Wayne Chirnside:

 RJT>> But that's _not_ what the speedometer said,  when I came to rest.  It
 RJT>> was *WAY* up there,  and thta's why I say that what the car thinks was
 RJT>> going on is nonsense,  and may or may not have any bearing on the
 RJT>> reality of the situation...

 WC> Somewhat similar situation. Entering Gulf BLVD in Madeira Beach 
 WC> from a side street with a light rain my Cadillac fishtailed badly 
 WC> though I was travelling but 5 - 10 MPH. Appears there must have 
 WC> been oil on the road.

 WC> Speedometer ran WAY up on the scale there as well indicating 
 WC> something like 55 - 60 about a second before the car got traction 
 WC> and indicated something like 6 MPH. Never hit the brake as that's 
 WC> the wrong thing to do in that situation.

 ml> sounds like both of you experianced wheelspin when the drive wheels
 ml> lost traction... the speedometer cable was connected to something
 ml> that was also attached to the drive wheels and thus the speedometer
 ml> measured and displayed the speed that the drive tires were spinning
 ml> during the loss of traction... it all likely happened so fast, that
 ml> you didn't even had any real time to remove your foot from the gas
 ml> pedal...

Yeah,  well,  since the car did lose one front wheel in that incident,  I
wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the rear wheels was up in the air...

Probably had some effect on my attempts at braking,  too.

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