I agree 100%. I think that whatever car you are driving, if you don't do everything smoothly you are likely to unsettle it, it is just a lot easy to do it when it is wet.
I have stomped the pedal when the road was a bit wet and exactly the same thing happened... a big step out. I have learned to drive more smoothly and now everything happens a lot more controllably.

 

IF it was a right hand turn and you spun clockwise, thats called oversteer... and is typical in rear wheel drive cars, especially in the rain:

You needed to throttle steer, and for godsakes dont hit the brakes again... the wieght transfer will kill you... well maybe just spin you around, anyway the tires arent crap and you dont drive like crap -- that stuff happens b/c the rotaries make ALOT of power really quick in the high RPMs and they are extremely light... so the rear end is a little light... Ive broken the tires traction at WOT with no power shifting in 3rd...just under acceleration...

thats my 2

 

Ha Ha, first time I drove my TII on damp pavement after full open exh. +TID mod I put it in 3rd and nailed the throttle and where I expected lag I got plentiful boost and drifted down the on ramp about 15 deg. 4 wheel drift at 60+mph Very slowly centered the steering wheel while keeping on the gas; my fastest full drift so far, didn't like it when it happened...in retrospect it was fun:p

 

reading though some old discussions... this one irked me a bit. the guy was on an on ramp and spun ou tin the rain in second so not going too fast. EVERYONE urged him to countersteer and throttle into a controlled drift. Thats all well and good but you are forgetting something. In my opinion, it is a much better option to spin out and stop on the ramp then it is to drift out onto the highway, the back end over snaps and he spins counter clockwise facing into traffic moving at full highway speeds... drifting and controlling a spin is one thing, but think about what you are drifting into. I don't recommend full breaks either but I think in a situation where you are heading into high speed traffic without full control... it's best not to get there.

 

FC is touchy? ha. It's dang forgiving compare to many cars

 

I've spun my fiero a few times, then I figured out that the drivers side ball joint needed to be replaced.

Check out your rear suspension, there may be a problem.

or maybe you were just going crazy fast in 2nd.

either way, in a RWD car (well, fwd cars too), when the back end comes out, NAIL the throttle and countersteer.
it's the opposite of what you'll do by instinct, but it's what you gotta do unless you wanna spin out and die!
heheh
just make sure to check for traffic before merging.

 

Aye the saysing "when in doubt...gas it" has some truth to it. You have no control over a car that is locked up, best to get on the gas and steer where you wanna go. Just takes practice!! If there a local club racing group , sign up. You'll learn alot about your car and how to better handle it in those situations!

 

just like everyone said

NEVER hit the brakes.. screws everything up

all bout the throttle play man!

 

it may screw things up and you may spin and hit a curb on an onramp but it's still a better option in my opinion than trying to throttle steer through a drift onto a highway with traffic coming up behind you and at you...

 

I agree with AE_Blake on this one...

Drifting into a highway trying to merge is definitly not the right thing to do. Unless you are Colin Mcrae or Richard Burns fine... but to the average person this won't be an easy feat to do.

Even when you are drifiting the car is still "unstable" and you are trying to recover it/ control it. You may control it for the duration down the ramp, but then you need to straighten the thing out and get up to speed, which will not be an easy thing to do either.

 

Come on, we just got over a heated debate on racing sims...
There is no way GT1,2,3 is going to save your *** if you're driving too fast for conditions.&nbsp You need seat time in your vehicle.&nbsp Get some autocrossing experience under your belt - it's the cheapest form or driving control that you can do legally.

You think this guy needs some playtime on the PSX?
http://www.alltel.net/~sb32511/s2000crash.mpeg




-Ted

 

So you floored a RWD turbo car going around a corner in the wet and spun. Yeah, must be the tires. Or the car...

 

Definitely agree with Ted with that. Plus get with the group, GT3 is not the most realistic sim out there. Try other REAL sims like GPL, GP3 or N2002 or N4

 

Spend some time on Yu Suzuki's masterpiece of a driving sim F355 Passionne Rosetta. that game REALLY helped my drving.. now to just get my FD up to the power of an F355.

 

Yes, thank you for summing up.

 

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not raggin' on you. You just need to know it was your fault, not the car's. You just need to be so much more careful in the wet. The first (and last) time I spun out in the wet was in my first car, a 80hp RWD Corolla! Scared the **** outa me (and everyone trying to avoid me!), but it gave me some serious respect for wet roads. Just take it easy out there, next time someone might be coming the other way...

 

The only thing I have owned/driven which I felt was worse was a 1st Gen I almost lost one in the wet with NO power applied...

Cheers,
Dave

 

understeer can be worse

first time I drove my FWD mercury topaz in the rain and attempted to go around a 90deg corner at 20km/h or so and kept going straight, I wished I was in something RWD so I could gun it and kick the back end out instead of nailing the curb and cracking a hubcap (that was all, thankfully, little fords are as durable as rocks)

 

That works in the dry but in the wet you'll just turn that plough understeer into a four wheel sideways slide in the same direction. Same result.

 

yeah, you're probably right

oh well

rain is crappy!

 

All these replies seem to be good; but unless I missed something in skimming over this thread, I did not see anyone mention the rear-wheel assist feature... A mechanic friend of mine that works at a Mazda dealership told me of this feature right after I got my 87 TII... He told me that as long as I was "under-power" the rear wheels actually tilt with the turn... BUT if U take your foot off the gas, these same wheels SNAP upright, almost forcing U straight off the curve...
I'm not saying the others are wrong in claiming it was the weather, the driving, or other factors, I just think that this might have played into it also...
If U need to brake, use your left foot AND keep the right foot Steady on the gas