We only drive our RX7 for fun. Its not a daily driver. Almost always on sunny days. We avoid rain and it goes away in the winter.

Yesterday I went out for a quick spin. The road was still wet from the rain.
I found the handling kinda unstable! She sorta yaws from side to side.. The back end seems to “drop off” (?)
I couldn’t get a feel of what was wrong.

Does anyone have any ideas? Have others had this problem? Thanks

 

You mean like slideways?

 

Man handles like crap in the rain, that makes it more fun. but it would be nice with better wet road handling

 

Tires

 

usualy happens with low profile tires. or 225's or smaller

 

And high revs.

 

If you drove in the rain more, you would get better...

 

ya .. we are on low profile tires ... revs dont matter... even our mechanic who drives an rx7 fulltime commented on it. Not really "slideways".. kinda "wobbly". It maybe the tires...
thanks for the input.

 

is it turbo

 

86 na

 

its rain dammit...water means slide...enjoy it:-D haha

 

revs matter! Why wouldnt they? ANd low pros dont make a huge difference, its all about tread, pattern, depth, And hell yea i drive it in the rain, getting loose at 70 on the interstate rules.

-chris

 

on the interstate? no good

 

You might enjoy this-When I purchsed my '88TII new, I could drive on interstates, in rain, with the Gatorbacks, no problems. I then bought my '89TII with what I tought were the same tires. They looked the same, but in the rain, I couldn't go over 45 or it would lift. I called Goodyear-The tire manufacturer designs the tire, but the car manufacturer determines the tread. In '89 there were 3 different 205-55x16 tread design Gatorbacks. One each for Mazda, Chrysler, Mitsubishi. Goodyear knew of the problem and brought 4 new tires in and put them on my car (2,000 miles) no charge. Had no problem in rain after that. Tires/tread design makes a huge difference in handling.

 

Try 3rd gear 5000rpm in rain, on highway, with some Kuhmos. Very slideways. Scary but fun

 

Where are you getting the jitters?

If I corner in 2nd gear and punch it in the wet sometimes the car gets into a drift, and sometimes it gets the axle hops, da dat daaaattt da da. Then it gets going again. That's just rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive will just understeer, and usually do it smoothly. You may be used to fwd, that's why.

For sure revs matter, if your lugging it, the wheels won't break loose. Just like when you drive in snow sometimes you have to start in 2nd to get traction.

If you're getting the tugs in a straight line, you're most likely hydroplaning (was there a lot of standing water when you experienced this???). Hydroplaning will happen with a wider tire (acts like a snowshoe), or a tire with not much tread to channel the water away. It's scary as Hell.

 

Thanks for the thoughts.. I bet its the tires... for the record, we're not talking fun driving here.
This is straight line, slower speed dangerous stuff. Hydroplaning isnt WRC and even Michael changes tires when it starts to rain. As I said.. we usually drive this car on great sunny days.
Thanks again for the input!

 

You got it!

 

You should always enjoy your rex, no matter what, consider yourself lucky to have the most popular cars from Japan

 

defenetly the tires i experience the same thing in my N/A in the rain and my tires almost have no tread left

 

Between the tread pattern of the tires and the light car, there is a lot of potential for hydroplaning in standing water. My rear tires are completely bald (I am replacing them this week), and I can't get much over 50 mph on the interstate in big downpours. The worst is damn near getting sucked underneath semis as they pass me at 70-that's when t gets scary.

 

Rain just changes the friction coefficient of the road surface; everything else stays the same.&nbsp Some of the best advice for racing in the rain is that there is no "rain line", you just slow down a lot more.&nbsp What also happens is that if your driving skills are not up to par, slippery surfaces easily bring out the worst in your driving.&nbsp If you insist it's the car, try and get an alignment...


-Ted

 

the relationship between static and sliding friction is also changed though... and the faster you go the lower the co-efficient gets. so it's not simply a change in the surface to one with a lower co-efficient, it's a change to a surface of a more complex nature... as far as I can see.

Charlie

 

This still doesn't change physics and how you take a corner.&nbsp About the only deviation is to get the tires out of the smooth groove where most of the traffic travels (assuming street) and get some grip from the less used road surfaces out of the middle.&nbsp On the race track, where pavement is usually uniform, this doesn't matter much.


-Ted

 

Ted,

Wow, I'm kinda surprised you said that.. As you know, a race track has a racing line, and that line is typically coated with rubber, and is usually polished very smooth. offline, where all the marbles and dirt is, typically offers more traction, relatively, than the dry line. Furthermore, where I would normally be willing to ride up and over FIA curbing, in the rain the paint on
this curbing makes them instant spin machines..

PaulC