About a month ago I was driving in a rain shower. The road was pretty wet but not flooded. I was driving about 45-50 mph when my back end started twitching, and acted like it was about to break loose. My tires are the original set and I have about 13k miles on them so I know I need to replace soon but they are not worn down to the markers yet. I wasn't VTECing or turning or anything else just driving. I had to slow way down to about 35 and cars were passing me left and right. Everytime I would speed up it would start to break loose again. Most drivers on this forum are good drivers, I believe. But, most drivers are not near as good as they believe they are. VSA will help them when reality bites them in the ASS. Turning it off is fine but believe me when it rains turn it back on. I don't care if you are a drift king the people in the lane next to you who make some abrupt maneuver you have to avoid will certainly screw your world up in a hurry.

 

You are driving on bad tires, simple as that. No T/C system is going to magically fix this issue.

By the way, get out of the middle lane and into the slow lane.

FWIW I drove a set of S2k rear tires 21k miles (the fronts went over 30), rain, snow ... etc. Never an issue. Know when to drive fast, when to apply power, how to brake, what distances to take ...

 

Partly because of the tread, but mainly becaue of the compound.

 

If your car is "twitching" or "about to break loose", it means your tires are not in contact with the pavement. In that case, I just don't see how VSA or anything else in the car can help. In order to control a car, the first requirement is that the tires be planted firmly on the pavement, slowing down would help but that is not a function the car can decide for you -- the driver has to do that. Some people just think there is a magic solution that can be built into the car to save them when they make bad decisions or judgements, but I think nothing can replace a driver with experience and skills.

Maybe someday Drive-By-Wire (DBW) in conjunction with traction control and brake assist can detect that the tires are not making contact and automatically slow the car down. But then it is like riding on a bus because someone else (or something else) is doing the driving.

 

What a stupid statement. Don't drive the S in the rain? What planet are you from? That's as dumb as the guys who burn through tires after 3000 miles and blame the car, or the tire company but not their over agressive driving habbits and launching the car at every light..

The S is perfectly fine for driving in in wet conditions unless you have bad tires, or the wrong tires that are only designed for dry conditions and I've never, ever had a problem with the factory S02's. I drive it in the winter too and guess what, when I do, I put the appropriate tires on it and it goes like any other rear wheel drive car. $hit, there's not enough torque in this car to break the rear end free accidentally without over-reving it.

How bout this: Don't drive the S unless you know how to drive.

 

^^

OMG...I'm about to have an aneurysm reading this thread. Thank god for the few sane souls in here, like Xviper.

Jesus H. Christ...if you have worn tires, VTEC on onramps (in the rain, no less) and/or drive faster than the conditions allow...please do not blame the car. The car is fine. The driver has malfunctioned. Repeat after me: "I am going to sell my S2000 now because I make the general S2000 driver populace look like dumbasses."

Glad we cleared this up, carry on!



p.s. I don't even know WHY I bother. Next month will bring a fresh load of "OMG, this car is so dangerous, it shouldn't be sold!" threads. <sigh>

 

You think?

 

Sorry to go off topic, but I recognized that road. That's Skyline drive! I try to get up there at least once a year. I love that road!

OK, back on topic. I'm glad no one was seriously injured. If I hadn't read your story before I saw the pictures, I would have thought the worse for the occupants of both vehicles.

 

Glad to hear you're okay. Any other considerations for replacing the S2000 besides the Audi?

There is an intersection close to my house where a bridge has a downgrade leading into an intersection. Almost every time it rains there is an accident there. I'm not sure what sort of pavement they used, but it is extremely slick when wet. Someone typically can't stop going down the bridge towards the intersection and rear ends the vehicle in front of them. Either that or they can't stop and slide into the intersection where the cross traffic t-bones them. Before I replaced some crappy tires on my Tacoma I had to accelerate very slowly to keep my tires from spinning going up hill crossing the bridge. I'm surprised they hadn't resurfaced it from all the accidents.

 

yup! a lot better on a bike though



ok back on topic