evosky

So I was driving to work this morning and of course it was wet, as the whole east corridor is right now. There is a particular almost 90 degree bend on a two lane backroad that is marked to take slow, but usually most cars can take it at 35 to 40 mph.

So of course, forgetting that the road is still wet, I pull around the corner at about 35 and have my foot hovering over the gas to power through the exit.

Then I feel my tires give out and begin to slide out from under me. I am running the Pirelli PZero Neros, so this is not unusual in these conditions. So I'm thinking to myself, OH *CENSORED*, because I was drifting into some big rocks.

I actually get the tires pointed in the right direction and just power through the corner. There was a beeping, and a light came on (I'm guessing it was the traction light) . The car slid nicely for about 2 seconds and then I finally got everything under control and went on my merry way.

Yeah, so the lesson here is: The PZero Nero tires suck in wet grip. Ok, and be a smart driver.

TuningIsLife

Yea the beeping is fun, especially when it gets frantic. Its like Beep Beep Beep BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep.

I need to do something for my backend cause I had the same problem this morning, took an on ramp to quick back end just slid up the ramp.

Mosh_xB

My Proxes4's don't slide unless I turn the traction controll off.

SkeeTownBox

Isn't that beeping awesome? It's like, "Um.. I don't need any more FRICKEN CONFUSION RIGHT NOW... i KNOW i'm sliding out of control... don't need beeping too!"

--Dennis

vintage42

Try a rear sway bar. They eliminate oversteer - the backend trying to swing out and come around. I got the softest one, the TRD, and it made the steering neutral in a hard corner. But now the car can outcorner its stock tires, which howl and try to roll under.

TuningIsLife

Yea I was thinking a Progress one and a set of DF120s.

evosky

isn't the tail end swinging out called understeer ? or did i learn the concepts backwards ? because most stock cars are set up to understeer (except for sports cars) as understeering is safer in accident situations.

yeah, looking into the TRD sway bar but can't really go with springs cuz i need the clearance for cargo and people carrying and northeast road conditions

hotbox05

tail end swinging out is oversteer. ommon in most rwd vehicles , and can be had with addition of beefy rear sways.

most cars are neutral with slight understeer. I personally like a slide and a bit of wheel correction than a whole bunch of hoping that the car will turn enough.

oversteer for the win!!!

salteen

I scare my fiance with the beeping all the time when it's wet out and we're cruising around lol

evosky

cool cool, thanks for clearing that up.

heh, just be careful with the sliding around man. we don't want anyone getting hurt ~

jsigone

losing control of the car isn't drifting, drifting is a controlled slide by a RWD/AWD car. FWD cars don't oversteer, they understeer ALOT. What you experienced was the rear end losing it's grip before the fronts, causing the oversteer felling. It's hard for FWD to control oversteer because all you have to work with is weight transfer. If your weight transfer was too great and the fronts couldn't correct it, you will spin out. My friend and I spun his 2000 Si hitting a S turn with black ice. Not a good feeling, he paniced and mashed the brakes after the first counter steer, leaving the weight shift very very heavy and spun out, didn't help that he stalled the car in this, luckly we spun off the road into a ditch killing a bush or two. Landed between large boulders and the other side of the road was pur rock. We were very lucky that night.

If you were in Socal, I'd take you for a spin in my S13 through some of the canyons

evosky

haha i know what drifting is, just saying that it felt like doing a little drift/power-slide on the wet asphalt. plus, i've been in the situation before, so it wasn't totally out of control. the worst thing you can do in the situation is apply the brakes because you need to find traction, so you go for the gas and hopefully the tires will catch and you'll go in the right direction.

haha, i would love to go in a silvia. never been in a really nicely set up one before.