I'm terrified after driving my fc in the rain for the first time. I was taking a turn at slow speed and spun out almost hitting another car! How do I keep my car stable 100%? Also my rear end kicked out... and I had no idea how to correct it. Please give me some tips!

 

Get good tires. Goto a parking lot and practice in the rain or wet..

-Justin

 

i do that alot, what u can do is like he said, get better tires or if your like me and broke, learn how to tell if its slipping and turn the wheel to compensate till u catch, also i shift into second when i turn, most people do it in 3rd from what i hear, but second gear and very carful clutch gas combo will keep you gripped. just keep trying, and dont stop driving in the rain, if you get scared you'll never learn and just never drive in the rain.

 

Wait till it rains again, then go to an empty parking lot and learn how to initiate a slide and correct it. After a while it will become an instinct to countersteer.

 

huh? 3rd gear = less torque, should be easier to handle in the rain.

Torch : Define "slow" please. The rear shouldn't be stepping out in the wet unless you have some seriously bald tires, an alignment problem (rear toe-out) or are going too fast.

 

soft shifting and slow driving, im talking granny style until you can afford some new tires. i know what its like, i have a 83 supra with LSD, even with great tires that thing is death

 

After the rear-end kicks out how do I control it? Do I let off the gas? Keep on throttle? Brake?

 

Cheap option: SLOW down

Expensive option: get better tires



-Ted

 

Easily.... I mean easily... and slowly.. let off the gas... and turn into the slide, (point the wheel where you want to go), quickly but smooth. The key is NO JERKY OR ERRATIC MOVEMENTS. It has a certain flow to it. After some practice in a parking lot to learn your car. After some time, it will become second nature.

 

Tires!


if your rear end slides out so easily imagine what your front end will do and that is not something you can practice...

 

I've never had this prob, even in heavy rain. The lack of power steering helps out for me though. Without power steering you can feel the traction of the road better in bad conditions.

 

Learn how to drive? Seriously, correcting for oversteer should be instinct. Your spin could have been caused by multiple things (improper downshift, poor tires, speed to fast for conditions) but if you can't correct for it, then IMHO you are an unsafe driver.

Call a local driving school and book some time with an instructor. Most also have skid, wet and ice courses on the weekend where you can learn to recover from oversteer in a controlled and safe mannor.

 

Get good tires and remember not to take sharp turns quickly in a RWD car in wet conditions.




If you're still having issues; replace the driver.

 

First off make sure the car is in good working order. Allignment, tires etc.

This is the best advice.

Many insurance companies will give discounts to drivers who have taken collision avoidance and car control courses. That means that the innitial outlay of cash for the course will be made up in the savings from your insurance. Think of it as an investment. As was said, car control should come as second nature - and this will help you to no end. Borrow the money if you have to.

EDIT:

Here's an example: Skip Barber

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or some people should just stick to FWD cars like Neons and Civics, and that RWD cars with perfect balance are out of their abilities.

 

From Torch's description, it sounds to me like he has a mechanical and/or tire problem. Maybe your rear suspension is damaged or worn out? As was asked before, how slow is slow? Were you taking the corner at the pace that normal traffic would?

As for how to handle such a situation, yanking off the gas isn't a good idea. Doing that transfers the weight off the rear of the car to the front of the car. That means that your rear tires have even less grip.

 

hahaha, that used to happen to me all the time when i had bald rear tires, but i liked it

 

did you like the sliding part or the almost hitting cars part?

I drove is some serious rain today when I went to see if mazda would give me my FC back... there was about a 1/2in of water on the road that could not run off since it was raining so hard... maybe trade the FC in for a semi... they dont have problems in rain and such.

 

Hell I bought a set of Kumho's and ever since ive been trying to get mine to slide and it just sticks to everything.

 

it took a bit of force for me to break my car loose (GXL w/ LSD) b i managed to break it loose real good, send it up the curb, and a tree ate my mirror < i learned quick dont **** around in the rain. Even with my shitty tires i still get decent traction.

 

My tires are shitty, yet I've had no problems, and I'm a rookie driver, both RWD and shifting. I do a lot of driving on rutted back roads, and my bald tires love to hydroplane, on curves, or anywhere else. The first thing you've got to do is learn what you are doing, let the car talk to you, listen to what it's doing. If you are good enough, you can hear the way the tires are contacting the ground, and can feel the slightest slip. I'm not great, but I'm getting there. Ideally, you should be able to get a sense of the car, all the way around. Since I'm not great, I take it granny style, I practically use a walker sometimes.

 

Torch,
Your question was "How do i correct the car once the rear end kicks out?".
You learn to countersteer and correct the car so it is no longer sliding around the turn. Like they said, go out to an empty parking lot and just play around for a bit and learn how to handle the car.

 

how are you having such problems in the rain??? god forbid you ever try driving in snow with a RWD car. Seriously go grab some one who knows what he is doing and have them show you next time it rains in a parking lot. It will be fun and you'll learn how not to hit other people.

sliding the back end in the rain/snow with bald tires is a hell of a lot of fun, just don't do it with other car/trees/curbs around.

 

I also recommend (aside from getting new tires of course), go to http://www.scca.org and find a local autocross (Solo II) chapter. Go autocrossing. It normally only costs 25 bucks or so per day, and you learn a LOT about controlling your car in a safe manner, while not really having the potential to damage your car or anyone else.

That and its a helluva fun way to spend a sunday and meet awesome people.

 

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned "first rain".
Absolutely the most dangerous time is when it hasn't rained for a while, allowing soot and oil to build up on the roads and then it rains, bringing all the stuff to the surface. I learned the hard way and spun my 7 bad, with decent tires taking a ramp a bit too fast. I couldn't believe it since I thought I was a pretty good driver. But when I got out of the car the road was so slick I could barely stand on it in tennis shoes.
You should have seen it! I ran back up the ramp to try to warn oncoming cars of the danger and car after car spun out, hit the guard rails, flying off the side of the ramp, in the general direction of my 7 but thankfully not into it.
Happened a second time, first rain again, but this time I steered out of it. AGAIN, when I got out, I actually slipped and fell.
Beware the first rain!