Avoided A Near Major Accident - Need Differential?

[Treachery]

Yesterday i was in an near-major accident on the freeway. There was a fender on the road (fast lane) which i swerved around to avoid hitting it. When turning back into the lane is was on, I lost control of my '93 GT and fish tailed 180 degrees across 4 lanes of freeway and ended up hitting the curb on the other side of the freeway (slow lane).

Miraculously, no one was hit though i did come within inches of hitting a Mercedes 500sl.

Except for the brake lines, nothing underneath broke but only was bent. I was able to drive my Mustang home.

If my Mustang had an aftermarket differential such as an Auburn, among others, would i have still lost control or at least had a better chance to recover?

 

[HISSIN50]

I'm not sure I see how the diff had much effect - you were probably not on the gas once you started the evasive maneuver.

 

[Bad92GT]

yea, i agree with hissin.. my 92 was kinda shakey like that.. it would roll itself around all it wanted.. i'd look into sway bars, spring.. whatever i could to stiffen the sucker up

 

[Treachery]

Yeah... You're probably right. I'm thinking back on what had happened.

Well... not to use this as an excuse... I never liked the feel of the steering wheel. It's MUCH too light especially at faster speeds. I may have over compensated when turning back into the lane causing me to spin.

I've always wanted to do away with the power steering and put in a Flamming River setup. Can this be done while keeping the air conditioning? Some sort of pulley is needed in place of the power steering pulley, i figure.

I'll most likely do this when i get the car back.

 

[Sicarius428]

Doubt it would have made a difference. These things are really @ss light so its kind of the nature of the beast. Possibly IRS(if not for just the weight itself) and/or a battery in the back may help prevent such a thing slightly. Good tires and suspension goes a long way....
Kevin

 

[HISSIN50]

I'd note that it is almost intuitive to oversteer - no matter what you're steering set-up is (you have so much adrenalin going through you that most folks overcorrect even if they were steering a barge with door knob).
It's a learned technique to not oversteer (I use shuffle steering when needing to fight these natural tendencies). Driving with one hand on the wheel and another grabbing gears makes it that much worse.

Kevin has some good ideas - these cars plow and (mine atleast) oversteers. That's a nasty combo. I've had the pleasure of driving a car with 51/49 weight distribution and when it whipped around (no driver input given - it was left to spin), it went straight down the icy road.