the very first car i drove was a 1988 volvo 740 turbo station wagon. it was rear wheel drive, and i could get the rear end to slide out on me on dry pavement, not to mention the rain. my next vehicle was a 1989 for aerostar, again rear wheel drive but with the added bonus of being MANUAL TRANSMISSION. yes, a manual transmission minivan more times than i can count i had that thing going sideways down the road in the rain.

so it's not unique to the s2k, you just need to learn how to drive a rear wheel drive car if you have trouble with the rear sliding out from behind you.

plus, once you get practice you can do it for kicks

 

Good on you Josh - finally someone who isn't afraid of a little rain. Have a look at my comments under "Why do so many owners refrain from driving their S2K in the rain?

Here in Australia we have the good sense to build our two most popular family cars (Ford Falcon and Holden (GM) Commodore) only in rear wheel drive configuration. This means that the vast majority of drivers ONLY drive rear wheel drive and understand that they have to let their right foot up a little if they want to avoid a bit of slipping and sliding back there.

 

...........but there is a BIG difference between oversteer and snap-oversteer......!!


Pierre

 

Yep, I agree ... and there's a big difference between the causes of each !

 

Please explain. Isn't "snap" oversteer just really exaggerated oversteer caused by really exaggerated driver error? Seems that way to me. I've been a fan of swinging the rear end of my RWD cars for a long time and

I don't see ANY difference between the s2k and my other cars except that the OEM high-performance tires are slicker than most factory tires. I still delberately step the backend out on rainy days, and I don't drive this car like it's an integra, so I don't have any experience with the so-called "snap" oversteer.

If you review the tortured history of these allegations of "snap" oversteer, I think you will discover that this term was first applied to s2000's by either (a) magazine writers that had early prototypes of the car on the track, (b) autocross people that were running on racing tires or other non-OEM tires, or

 

Well I believe in the one issue of Road and Track where they compared 4 roadsters, and have Steve Millen drive them all, he claimed the S2000 had the snap-oversteer. I think I'd trust him not to have lots of error when it comes to driving.

 

I wouldn't. I don't trust any magazine drivers or writers. Steve Millen sells a signature line of stabilizer bars. Maybe he was laying the ground work for his foray into the s2000 market?

Probably not, but it's enough of a reason to discredit his objectivity, especially in light of my first-hand experience with this car.

 

There's allot going on here... First, snap oversteer is generally caused by the driver. If you get on the gas too aggressively exiting a corner, you will induce snap oversteer. If you use soft pressure on the gas, you'll be able to control the tail better.

That being said, I know why Steve Millen had the comments he did. When you try to push the car to it's absolute handling limits, you get some snap oversteer from time to time. Generally, this is also caused by getting on the gas a hair early.

The thing to remember is that driving the car at 10/10ths is a very challenging activity. Driving it at 8/10ths is fairly easy if you are soft with the gas. If you are harsh with the gas, you'll get snap oversteer even at 8/10ths.

Steve Millen only comments about driving at 10/10ths, while the majority (99%) of owners will never see more than 7 or 8/10ths.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sunchild:
[B] Please explain.

 

I agree with Cdelena. I also think people that own this car should also try karting or some other kind of Formula-type race car. These will polish your skills on being SMOOTH.

I will never get tired of repeating this word because on any car, smoothness is the key to faster laps and control.

On the S2K this word is even more important as the car is so well connected to the driver that mistakes by driver are awarded by either under or oversteer, the later being the more comon.

On the Steve Millen issue I don't know how someone can test various cars at their performance edge, in a short time, extract 10/10ths and make a valid comment on handling.

The fact that he is jumping from a TT to a Boxster to a S2K is just enough to make you wonder if he is actually saying that the S2K is the more nervous car of the group, not that has an oversteer problem.

[This message has been edited by Pepe (edited November 28, 2000).]