Ever get caught in heavy rain in your 7 and wonder if you're going to make it home in one piece? Sometimes I feel like I have a motorcycle with a roof...

 

I think that is going to be with any high hp rwd car. If you're not careful, it'll slip out from under you. I had an 05 GTO with LT headers, cam, exhaust, etc and even with 275's in the rear, just a slight blip of the gas would swing my rear end out.

 

Pull over and wait.

 

Wider tires make the situation worse. In the rain the hydroplane (sp) easier.

 

What tires are you running? My old BFG KD's were lethal in the rain, but the Yoko AD08s I run on my track wheels (255F 265R) were just fine in a heavy rainfall at 80 mph. Likewise the Dunlop Star Specs work very well in the rain, as long as you don't do anything stupid

 

I've driven my car in the rain plenty of times without any problems what so ever and i have 285's on the back and am around 375-400whp. Once I finally can get on the dyno and actually get to do some tuning and turn up the boost I can't imagine I'll have any more problem. It's easy to keep my foot out of it when I know I could potentially loose everything that I've worked for.

 

I dunno I've driven in some pretty adverse conditions.

Horsepower doesn't mean squat if you're just cruising along. If the road even has dew on it I can't get into boost without it stepping out on me.

Just yesterday I was tooting around in on /off rain showers. Now, if your wipers don't work thats another story

 

I think it's just because you're running no BOV. I'm running a BOV and mine is fine in the rain.



Hehe, totally kidding. My worst experience was driving my car home 450KM in a rogue snowstorm with 225's on the back with stock wheels, fresh after a rebuild. Over 7 hours of white knuckles, Yikes!

 

I'm running some Sumitomos which are low on tread. That's certainly not helping the situation. But I don't expect a new set of tires to help too much. Any blip of the throttle, as HardHitter was pointing out, makes the *** end come out. 1st and 2nd gear are the worst obviously. The highway isn't too bad. Where I get nervous are on ramps or any kind of merging into traffic. You still have to accelerate some to get into traffic but you need to keep the car under control at the same time.

That's pretty much what I did last night, hence my motorcycle comment. I was on my way to a friend's place and I knew one of those big summer thunderstorms was on the way. I got there just in time before the rain really picked up.

 

Any vehicle low on tread is a death trap.. Especially RWD. How do i know? Spent a month in the hospital 7 years ago and 1 totaled FD. Hydro plane insane!

 

I try to keep my FD out of the rain PERIOD. I don't like cleaning my Work wheels, I don't like re-washing my car every time, & I really don't like sliding around....

When in doubt, drive the daily!!

 

Stay out of boost and you wont have to worry about it. It's not like these singles are spooling faster than the stock twins.

 

my FD is still on the stock twins so cant imagine how it is for you single turbo guys!
Its interesting though, most people think a high powered, turbo RWD car would be great fun in the rain.
Obviously those people have never driven such a car!
i used to *think* it would be great fun, that was untill i got my FD and drove it in the wet.
It changed my thinking pretty darn quickly!

 

I rode my R6 in the rain the last 3 days in a row... I don't pull over. I always feel some jackass will slide and wipe me out. I feel better off moving with the traffic even on a bike...

 

RWD in the rain is fun, when you do not care a bout the car or the consequences. When I was younger and had 5L mustangs I drove them all year round here in Canada. I even delivered news papers and pizza in it. Man that was good times!!

Of course I had lots of accidents too but I was young and very stupid. Now I am older and too damn broke to drive like that.

 

Although driving normally is safe, driving hard in the wet can sometimes be a different story.

The problem most RXs with big singles have in the wet is lack of miderange torque from running low boost lulling you into a false sense of security.
Honda S2000s do similar, but N/A, a sudden torque kick way higher than you'd expect.

On mine at 12psi its pretty torqueless in the midrange so in the wet it grips fine on full boost, then at about 7500, once you think all is well, it suddenly lights up the wheels when you least expect it and tries to kill you.

At 22psi its got much more midrange so if its going to light up the wheels it will as soon as you hit full boost, so much more expected and therefore safer as im ready to correct it.

I've had the same on a FD drag car, but in the dry and it suddenly deciding to wheelspin as it hit 9500, that was properly worrying.

 

you need tires! the r888's are good even in snow flurries, and ive heard good things about the star specs too.

 

Not sure what the big deal is about driving in the rain...get some decent rain tires and don't mash the gas...lol

 

Yeah, I have to admit that I am guitly of rain driving with no thread and wrecking my RX6 single turbo .

My FD did not come with stock wheels. I purchased some stock wheels to use for race tires, but they had some old tires on them. I figured I would get my money's worth and drove on them. I had no problems till one rainy night I foolishly went out in the FD instead of the Civic or even the Miata.

Some ill-placed courage (and perhaps a couple of beers) later, I was attempting to accelerate on a downhill on-ramp onto a eight lane highway. I did that with success but then immediatley passed Cadillac XLR probably trying to show off. No sooner had I passed it, my tail came around on me and spun me across all of the lanes and slammed my driver's side against the underneath of a overpass.

The XLR driver pulled over to help me as I was just sitting there only slightly bruised and cut but in shock.

That was years ago and I am now older and hopefully wiser. I respect the rain and ice.

 

keep it under boost or drive AWD on rain

 

yeah no boost in rain and your A OK. not like the car is some sort of Torque monster with no boost.

 

Sometimes I'm scared the rain will hit my exhaust housing and cause it to crack. That might just be me though

 

Rain? Bah! Try getting cought in the snow...

 

True that. I once took my car out early in the spring, it was a nice warm day. Was at a friends house until late in the night. When I came out there was a thin film of snow and it was still snowing lightly. I took the 401 which is a 3 lane freeway thinking it would be cleaner, I was wrong. I got stuck on an extremely slight uphill part of the highway in the center lane. I had to make a 20 meter tire path with my feet to get it going again >.<.

Also, last year my tires were nearly bald. There was this day that rained pretty bad. I went over a puddle on the highway and it wasn't fun at all. Luckily the car stayed straight enough until it passed over it. All you can really do is keep your foot on the gas and the wheel straight and wait it out when your tires are like that. If you let off, the car is just gonna spin.

I now have some new tires which are just awesome in the rain. Hankook V12 Evo. I can actually boost with these tires in the rain and not worry about how the car is going to react. I bought them specifically for the rain since they had good reviews so I can use them as my backup tire when it rains at the track. I like it when it rains at the track but not with my Hoosiers on lol.

thewird

 

Wow! sounds like some of you never graduated from the school of first gen rx7(rx2/3's). If you can handle an old school rx you would not have any problems driving in a turbo/ high power whatever.

(just being facetious, PLEASE dont quote me)