Lets say you are traveling at a speed of 80, and there are no other variables like braking and acceleration, and you hit a giant puddle with the wheels COMPLETELY straight, why would the car suddenly jerk in one direction causing a spinout? Shouldn’t the car just continue in the direction of the wheels regardless of traction loss?
In: 4
Well, yes. The car will still mostly keep moving in the same direction. Cars, however, are not balanced. There might be more weight on the front or rear. This means the tires are not equally loaded. Even if the water and the road underneath are perfectly even (rare!), the front wheels might gain traction before the rear and that starts the front slowing down before the rear causing the spin. Or vice versa.
Unequally worn tires and road unevenness etc means the water is not equally distributed. So in any real life situation, the car is no longer in control of the driver but rather to external variations (roads are not made “flat” they slope slightly from the center towards the edge to promote water runoff.)
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