M4 driver thought he was at Mustang Week

I wouldn't have thought you could induce the snap oversteer shown here accelerating in a straight line in an M4 if you tried. WTF?!

 

 

Here is the guy's explanation:

 

Hey guys, It was my car that was involved. I have no problem saying that because no laws were broken. In fact, you'll notice in the video that the car was going very slowly in front of the crowd. This was intentional because we've all watched too many YouTube videos of this sort of thing happening and wanted to make sure that nobody would get hurt should anything unexpected happen. Once the car was past the crowd the accelerator was pushed when the rear snapped violently. The car was going ~30mph at that time. The car has been driven for 4700 miles and has been driven with DSC off many times including in the rain and never has the car snapped so violently just from accelerating. I chalk it up to several factors including cold temps (low 40s), cold tires and incorrect psi (more on that later) and of course driver error. More judicious use of the throttle should have been exercised. MDM mode was not used because MDM is too quick to intervene and cuts power prematurely (or maybe not).

Usually when the rear breaks looks it does so progressively and steering correction will suffice. However, you can see in the video that the front tires are turned to the right because opposite lock was put on the steering trying to prevent the car from doing a complete 180 however there wasn't enough real estate to counter how violently it snapped. I'm not sure why some are saying that no steering input was made because it was - one could argue it should have been sooner but again usually a little wiggle just takes small steering input not a full-on immediate opposite lock as was needed in such a big snap.

I've driven many high hp rwd cars including vipers, ferraris and corvettes and I've graduated from formula racing schools and have years of training in advanced car control and plenty of track time. I would caution anyone thinking that it can't happen to them (count me as previously one of those) that anyone can make a mistake. I'm thankful that nobody was injured from such a mistake. Surprisingly, the car seems to be driving just fine with the only damage being the right plastic guard underneath the bumper which can be seen in the video.

I mentioned earlier that I had incorrect PSI - let me explain. My PSI was low, so I inflated it a bit with a pump with an analog tire guage which of course is very imprecise compared to a digital gauge. I noticed that my right tire pressure was 1.5psi off of my left when viewing the PSI from the BMW onboard digital gauge (you can only do this while driving). However, as my car had been pulling to the right from day 1 of delivery (there's a big thread of many complaining about that on these forums). Miraculously, the car drifted to the right to a lesser extent with the right tire PSI being slightly higher than the left and so I was playing around with the idea of keeping it that way for a short time- however I knew that I needed to put the PSI equally across both tires but I just failed to do that before going to the meet.

Anyways, I know I'll be ridiculed and called an idiot (and rightfully so) but I think many of you also know that I didn't do anything intentionally out of the ordinary or unsafe. I'm not sure I was even trying to show off as acceleration happened when the car was past the crowd and it's not like I did a powerslide or burnout or anything of that sort occurred.

I also think the M4 is a fine car and I have no complaints about the amount of power or torque or tire width or grip or anything. In fact, the whole reason I got the M4 is because it's not AWD and I like the rear moving around a bit. Mistakes happen and I've learned a lesson - and from now on will keep DSC on when driving around because there's too much at stake to make a mistake while driving - no matter how good or bad of a driver you are. Thanks for hearing me out.

 

 

I have to say, looks like the M4 took that hit like a champ.

I don't see how that is even possible.

I have to say, looks like the M4 took that hit like a champ.

 

Yeah I'm surprised it didn't suffer some serious damage given how much air he got going over the curb, lol.

Yeah I'm surprised it didn't suffer some serious damage given how much air he got going over the curb, lol.

 

Next owner gonna get a surprise

That is what we call in the business "driving like a grandma" takes care

That is what we call in the business "driving like a grandma" takes care

 

 

Damn I think it was "old lady" , too early in the day for me

That is what we call in the business "driving like a grandma" takes care

 

Lol, I had forgotten about the Shadowman.

If those rims made it through without bends, dents or cracks I would be seriously impressed. Tires didn't let go but in the slow mo it looked like they took quite a beating. I've had sidewall bubbles from potholes that weren't nearly that bad.

Because M Class