Ok, so yesterday I was hitting gas to pass a yellow light and it leads to a turn. about a 75 degree ish turn going at like 60 mph. my rear end feels like it slips for fraction of second and then it catches and slips. (traction control was on). it feels like traction control was working, but i didn't see the light blinking.

the side note is that i've lost control of my car one time and went over a curb (lead to bent rims which were repaired).

So i'm trying to see if the car's reaction to the turn is normal or if i should replace my wheels. I don't want to be taking a turn and then slip out.

 

I usually gradually increase throttle as I straighten out the steering wheel.

after the apex, you could hit it pretty hard and not lose control, that is if the corner isn't 90 degrees.

 

If your tires are worn, replace them (your 'wheels' have nothing to do with it unless you are trying to say you think they were improperly repaired?). If you don't know how the car 'should' feel in a turn, I highly suggest some autocrossing, HPDE events, driving/race schools like Skip Barber. Public roads are no place to test the high-speed turn grip limits of your car.

(VSA is not a magic wand, if you carry too much speed into a corner for the system to cope with you will still crash)

 

Sounds like you were on the limit of what the rear tires could handle. They slipped for a second, then caught.

I would suggest slowing down on the street until more experience is gained from local autocrosses or driving schools. Learning a car's behavior when pushed to limit is the key to enjoying a car as fine as the S2000.

Oversteer is a lot of fun, but can be dangerous to yourself and others if you don't know how to properly react.

 

I wasn't purposely pushing my car "to the limit", i just didn't want to wait at the light, so i had to speed up some to get pass the light. I'm just wondering if this sounds odd.

The tires have about 8000 miles on them. i dont' see the wearing out lines on them yet, but was wondering since i might have lost control once, the sliding could have put extra stress on the tires?

 

It doesn't matter if it was on purpose or not, the tires were still pushed past their limit . I would just consider taking it a bit easier when driving aggressively until some more experience is racked up. Knowing how to properly handle the car in an unexpected slide or situation could save you a lot of money in the long run. Until that experience is gained, it may be best to avoid such situations all together and just taking it a bit easier on the street.

Do not take this as criticism, just advice from one car enthusiast to another.

I wouldn't worry about the wear and tire on street tires. I had a set of sticky street tires (Falken Azenis) and I did about 8 months worth of autocross runs, several autocross schools, and driving back and forth to events. Many spins were done during that time.

A little bit of oversteer is not going to cause any issues with the life of your tires.



Happy motoring.

 

[QUOTE=s2kwei,May 2 2007, 06:53 AM]I wasn't purposely pushing my car "to the limit", i just didn't want to wait at the light, so i had to speed up some to get pass the light.