ianb

Well, just had my first scary moment there. Accelerating away from a roundabout onto a dual carriageway I decided to give it some gas. The road was wet so I waited until I had fully left the roundabout and the car was travelling in a straight line before I pulled the trigger. In 3rd gear I pulled away from about 30 mph and all was fine until I hit 70mph at which point the back end stepped out. I eased off and after about 3 or 4 wiggles the car settled back down again and I could put visions of going into the crash barrier at 70 out of my head. I know people haved talked about the handling in the wet before but I was surprised by this behaviour. If I remember right, 70 in 3rd is about where the VTEC really cuts in so I guess this was the cause of my little adventure. I have only got 1800 miles on my tyres so the problem was not due to worn tyres. No more VTEC'ing on wet roads for me for a while.

dwrights

Just keep your foot down to stop that weight transfer, you will be fine.

Tonky

Mucho respecto in the wetto always requiredo.

If you're entirely happy that you were in a straight line with no turn 'dialled in' on the wheel, I would put this down to the wet, and SO2's rather than the car itself. Perhaps a case of vtec induced aquaplaning!!

I always slow right down in wet conditions. I just don't think those SO2's shift enough water!

Glad you're O.K. and you're a wiser bunny!

AnDy_PaNdY

Smooth and steady in the wet.......always

Tifosi Red

This is uncanny! I was going to start a thread myself this morning - I think it is the cold weather but I have had three "interesting" moments in the last 24 hours...

Last night I had the back end step out pretty good coming round a left hand junction in 2nd at about 3k rpm but with WOT.... road was only damp - no standing water. Tyre presures fine.

Also last night accelerating away from mini-roundabout in 1st (to red-line) rear lost traction about 7.5k rpm and again at shift to second - no lateral movement though

This morning, back end stepped out in 2nd at VTEC whilst accelerating away from a motorway roundabout (probably put the fear of god into the Clio 16V behind me

I think that my less than subtle right foot over this period (probably due to the fact that I am starting to get blase about the car's power after 5 weeks of respect) coupled with a cold damp road is the cause. Solution - TR stops driving like a plonker on cold wet roads!

Tonky

Red:

Pampers moments that I think you really need to have early on in this car to avoid a disaster you can't recover from. I probably bore everyone to death with my take it easy in the wet advice, but in my experience the road only has to be damp to start causing probs. with the SO2's. The sudden drop in temperature of late will also cause the tyres to take longer to warm up, and when they're cold they just aint grippy.

Just be careful folks.

UKjasonm

Ive also had this when gunning it with a 944, on the gear change the back lost a bit of traction. In a FWD car you would just get controllable wheelspin but with the RWD it feels more like a sideways slide, in this instance its best to ease back on the throttle a little (but not a complete lift off!!!, this could cause the snap) to help regain the traction progressively.

This is worse when changing down at high revs on wet roads, unless you heel toe (rev match) its very easy to put a lot of braking force on the rear tyres from the engine, which chirps the rear tyres. On my last track day at Oulton I had to learn heel toeing quickly as the track was quite wet and at the end of the straight your braking from about 130mph down to about 50mph, if you dont rev match the back squirms all over the place as it looses traction. In the dry you would get away with it due to the increased traction.

The moral of the story as you say, give it the respect that it deserves and dont be too aggresive. With the right respect the car can be even more fun in the wet than when dry.

Going back to the track day it was hilarious watching 4.5 and 5L TVRS trying to go round a wet track, far too much torque!!!! I left them for dead as they just couldnt get the power down out of the bends, 300lb/ft at 2500 revs is not healty on a tight wet chicane.

stevenleith

This talk of tyres reminded me:

I had a look at some Michelin Pilot Sport (same size as standard S02s) tyres at the weekend - when i put them next to a pair of S02's in the garage, the S02's looked puny!! There is a very big tread on these Michelins and they looked very nice!
The respective fronts also had an "inner-outer" pattern (can't think what the technical term is?!) so aid grip in the turn.

Anyone had any experience with these?

Tonky

Steven:

I seem to remember Le Car had Pilots fitted, but he hasn't posted in a while. I've thought about those and F1's. The only thing that perturbs me is the SO2's were developed specifically for the S2000. I'd love a safer tyre for wet/winter use but I wouldn't want to compromise the drop top warm weather handling one jot. I'm quite happy to drive like an old fart in the wet, but when the Sun shines............

I'd happily think about alternative tyres. If anyone has any feedback... I'm listening!

awinskill

I'm sure I've said this before; the S02-PP's are generally accepted to have the best wet handling. I've got PP's on and would be reluctant to change back