The one where PJM meets Dr Oversteer and Mr Sideways
I was twenty three years old and let loose with a MkII Golf GTi 16 valve with more than three times the horsepower of my previous car.

For those of you cosseted by two generations of hatchbacks with all the fun engineered out of them, the old Golfs were a seriously entertaining driving experience. You could alter the car's line through corners by judicious use of the throttle pedal and 139 horsepower went a long way in a car that weighed less than a metric ton.

Take it from me that in practice it's a hell of a lot more fun than I made it sound.

For the most part, I drove it sensibly and responsibly, neither wanting to get points on my pristine license or to be a nuisance to everyone else. However, one wet afternoon I was approaching a roundabout and the devil got the better of me. I gave it a tiny bootful more than I should have as I turned, which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem as it had plenty of grip in reserve...

...until I lifted off the throttle suddenly.

The back end obediently stepped out of line and I gave the steering wheel a tug to catch the ensuing slide.

The textbook method is to apply a little power, turn into the direction of the slide and everything should sort itself out with minimal drama.

The textbook explicitly does not recommend shouting "Fuck!" and putting your foot on the brake.

*parp* "Ohfuckitimgonnacatch..." *parp* "itimgonnacatchit..."

Still the Golf continued to oversteer

"fuckfuck.." *parp* "...fuckimnotgoingtocatchit..."

By now I was gently pirouetting sideways and came to a graceful halt as the nose of the car scraped a crash barrier. I looked up facing the wrong way round a roundabout and sheepishly put the car into reverse and straightened up, noting the many expressions of disgust from fellow road users.

From that day on, cars have been treated with the utmost respect.

Total cost of this lesson? £810.75 for repairs to the bumper and wing, plus a new pair of pants.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 13 Feb 2009, 10:24, 5 replies)

yep..
The old Golf GTI's are awesome little cars, if not a tad scary sometimes. Unlucky though.. ha
(addikt, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 10:27, closed)

Lovely cars to drive :D
I love the way they body roll into sharp turns!

My mate has a mk1 rag top with a 1.8T engine transplant (the engine that's in the TT, Audi A3, mk4 Golfs etc), insane power to weight ratio.

No power steering makes entering roundabouts at 40mph good fun!

See also: Pug 205 1.9GTi, which is almost impossible to get round corners at any speed unless you have at least two passengers in the back to keep the rear wheels sticking to the floor :D

I'll save my story of how to barrel roll a Fiesta RS Turbo over a hedge and halfway across a field for its own QOTW answer when I've got time to write it up...
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 10:29, closed)

"Take note of that Darling, I'd like to use it in conversation"
"Dr oversteer and Mr sideways" - classic!
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 10:53, closed)

Now
that's good!!!
( SpankyHanky, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 11:09, closed)

Arf.
I lost it on a roundabout once. Nice big roundabout down in Fratton. Span the car around and ended up heading backwards towards the roundabout at a fairly low rate of speed. "Great" I thought, "I'll let the car ride up on to the grass and I'll be out of traffic and able to make a sheepish but safe recovery". I completely failed to account for the fact that several years ago, some government worker had put a mark on a piece of paper and now there was a lamp-post in my path of travel.

Still, got the day off work and fixed the car myself (badly). My boss said I should report the impact to the lamp post to the council but I never did.

Two weeks later, I was backing up in the road near my house, there was a car in the way that wasn't normally there so I backed around it, straight into another lamp post, causing nearly symmetrical damage to the rear end.

Mk II Ford Escorts. What a laugh.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Fri 13 Feb 2009, 21:52, closed)