Ventus V12's will scream before and at limit as well as past. RS4's talk quiet loud as well. I doubt you were driving at the limit of the tire.

Go to the track or even an auto X. don't be that guy on the street.

 

The issue with this car is more the fact that it DOESNT slide well. The AE86 and its modern predecessors slide very easily and can be controlled fairly easily as well. These cars dont really like to slide. They just spin. The car is all about maximum grip at the limit. However SO MUCH of it is reliant on driver skill. I'm nowhere near that now but i autocross once a month so its getting there.

 

I've never had any probs whatsoever using cruise control even in heavy(ish) rain. Then circa 2000(?) started hearing sensationalistic "stories" about the horrors of cruise control causing cars to go wildly out of control in the rain. Reeks of interwebz B.S. to me... That's not to say that I think it's a good idea to use cruise control if there's a lot of standing water, but in those conditions it should be obvious that you'll have to constantly modulate speed depending on whether you're driving through a small pond or not... But cruise control on the highway in the rain generally? Not a problem.

 

The problem with cc and rain is that on many cars the driven wheels are not the wheels that are used to measure vehicle speed.

When you hit a puddle, car immediately slows a bit due to the extra drag at the tires. So the car senses its slowing, and thinking its a sudden steep hill or something hits the accelerator. But driven tires are in a puddle, so just spin. Car doesn't speed up, so cc thinks whoa, steeper hill than I thought, hit the gas more and more! Things snowball and car spins out of control.

Modern cars with stability and traction control should arrest any such histrionics before it gets out of hand.

Cars with driven wheels also the wheels where speed is measured should not have as much of an issue. Car slows, cc asks for more speed, driven wheels hydroplane and spin, but the amoun to wheelspin is limited since as soon as wheelspin reaches rate that should match cc set speed, it limits power applied. Wheelspin never snowballs, it just spins up to set speed. Without stability and or traction control that's still enough to cause rotation in many situations, but is eminently more catchable if driver knows what to do.

 

I just finished this swap and did my first track day with it. I was really surprised at how much of a change it made in a few corners where previously the unevenness of the track caused the rear end to move around and hurt my confidence. The new setup was noticeably more settled. This is a MY00 with the SBG Ohlins kit (10k/10k) and stock front bar. I decided to try the AP2 rear bar but given how much the rear has been tamed, I may put the MY00 bar back on as it's stiffer.

As a point of reference, this was my regular track and the day was super crowded - I only got three clear laps all morning where I could run at the limit. I was also on a nearly new set of RS4s with full tread. Yet I still beat my personal best. I suspect it was primarily due to having more confidence to drive at the limit in the off camber higher speed corners.

It's not a fun project, although not difficult either. Just took longer than I had planned.

 

Prior to using wheelspeed sensors for antilock brakes, cars typically measured speed at the output shaft of the transmission. I.e., speed is/was measured for the driven wheels. Quick search says old air-cooled rear engine VWs measured off one of the front wheels, that's the only counterexample I could find.

I've driven a lot of cars in the rain with cruise control, I've never experienced anything like this and I've never heard a credible story of this actually happening. Perhaps it is an issue for some specific car or cars, but in general I think this is not a real problem

In any case, i never had any issues running cruise control in the rain on my daily-driven S2000 over the course of 10 years/200k miles.

 

All i know is my personal experience. My comments are not based on anything I have read anywhere else, interwebs or otherwise. My experience is quite real, trust me.

Like you I have always used CC in the rain without troubles. But, on this occasion my S nearly spun off the interstate. I was in CC going about 70mph. Moderate rain. Some standing water. Old worn rear tires. My perception of the situation was that my rear wheels suddenly lost traction but the CC kept the power to the wheels. I caught it in time and all was well. But, it scared the crap out of me. My conclusion is that it is unwise to use CC when road conditions are such that traction is compromised. I now believe that CC compromises my ability to react quickly to loss of traction.

Edit: I did a little search and came across these -

http://alerts.nationalsafetycommissi...ith-cruise.php
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wild-when-wet/
https://jalopnik.com/lets-debunk-the...-co-1836852765

I note that my S does not have traction control. Maybe that played a role in my experience?
Of course, I am now using "adaptive cruise control" in my new Mazda 3. That is a whole nother story. The system will apply brakes quite aggressively when a car pulls out in front of you on the interstate within the distance you have set in the system. Very strange feeling and unsettling to have brakes applied by the car without your foot on the pedal. Also, the car literally turns the wheel to pull you back into the lane is you leave the lane without signaling a turn. Its going t take me a while to adjust to this new stuff.

 

I just did this swap earlier this season.

the only thing that is different is the upper control arms. Everything else is the same...you don’t need AP2 knuckles as they are identical, or the lower control arm, everything else transfers over from your AP1.

The only other thing was the brake hard line bracket is slightly shifted rearwards on the AP2 subframe because of the thicker upper control arms by about 1cm. It’s not a big deal as you can bend the line slightly to get it in place on the ap2 sub.

 

It has been recommended for years NOT to use CC in the rain, snow or ice. I thought that was pretty standard knowledge as it was recommended back when I took drives ed in 1991 and I have heard it a billion times since.

Have their been a ton of accidents caused by it? Probably not. I have not heard of any. But I can see why this is considered a thing not to do and it makes logical sense. I use it on some cars I own in the rain but if in a situation where hydroplaning is likely I tend to turn it off.

But the story about is mostly due to driving with worn out tires in the rain You would have felt some loss of control either way and the CC may have made it worse momentarilly. I have gotten caught in heavy rain on worn out RE71Rs (near slick) and was one of the few times I decided to pull off the road and wait it out. Car was all over the road even at 45-50mph. CC would have been a bad idea in this situation as it likely could have caused the situation to be worse.

But all in all, if you are driving in very low traction conditions or when hydroplaning is possible it is not a great idea to have cruise set.

 

Yes, the bad old tires definitely played a major role in my experience described above. But, so did the CC. Also, so did the idiot behind the wheel.

BTW - I am curious to see how the new adaptive cruise control braking function impacts safety on slippery roads. Will traction control and ABS brakes protect us? I hope and assume someone thought this through before bringing adaptive cruise control to market.