Driving fast / irrisponsable aside how more carefull do you need to be ?
Been driving 10 years but this is my first time driving in bad conditions in a back wheel drive.
So iv done a bit of a test when the streets have been quiet to kick it out test and get a feel for a slide. But iv been supprised a few times at about 40/50 mph on a back road but the cars contol skills have kicked in for me.
This has made trust the car but also made it a tad unpredicable.
So overall question wet road 50/60ish mph can you rely on car or is skill required in the forms opinion ?
Driving appropriately according to the road conditions is the only answer, if you lose the car then you arenât, this also assumes a well maintained car with appropriate tyres.
Wet road⌠The usual rule of thumb is to reduce your speed to help prevent slides and accidents.
Every car and driver is different, so only you will know how your car performs and the skill you require to drive it safely.
Thanks for the advice guys was only asking as i also have a vw polo that i can drive without really thinking to much and in the mazda i feel as if i need to concentrate alot more at very low speeds. Wasnt sure if i was being paranoid. But fully aware to be careful in especially in bad conditions.
Itâs easy to lose a light rear wheel drive car on a greasy roundabout if youâre not paying attention, knowing how to react (opposite lock, drive out of it) is useful. If you can get access to skid pan training or private ground to practice so much the better.
Iâm sure weâve all had the odd hairy moment when starting out
I spun off a couple of years ago on a dual carriageway roundabout doing 25mph (picked up on the dash cam) - had been raining heavily, but there was a deisel trail that didnât show up due to the rain it was just like hitting black ice.
Did my best to control it but when it goes away form you on a surface where there is little - no grip thereâs not a great deal you can do about it!
There is a skill set needed for driving on the limit of grip. Developing this takes knowledge, time, experience and concentration. Mistakes can be dangerous and expensive. The good news is that the MX-5 is quite predictable and well balanced. Just take it easy, be smooth with throttle, brakes and steering and learn were your limits and the carâs limits are.
There will be âhelpfulâ people that say âjust send it!â. If you take their advice and drive the car over its grip limit and over your ability to manage that, youâll lose control and at 50/60mph thereâs a good chance youâll go straight to the scene of the accident, which might not be pretty.
Funnily enough, pretty much all my 40 -odd cars over a 50 driving period to date have been rear drive, some with good locking diff chassis, but not stuff like Cortinas & Avengers and Marinas.
Iâve only ever had to âendureâ 3 FWD cars, and I did not like any of them but they were old school stuff like 1qst Gen Hyundai Pony, 4 door Nova, and a Mitsibushi.
Never felt entirely in controlâŚbut I do appreciate todayâs stuff is light years on. My sonâs Fiesty for one is excellentâŚif a bit understeery but itâs a basic one not an ST.
Mind you, at an early late teen age I had the good luck to have a Norwegian chap next door who took me out in the proper snows we used to get for âfunâ and show me how it was done.
And that was in Dadâs VW bug. And before anyone laughs, let me say it is very very good in snow and ice if you know how to set it up bend to bend.
I prefer RWD. For me personally they are actually safer.
Itâs all about what you were trained in and went on to experience as well as natural skills.
My first ever car was a Beetle, back in the 70âs we had some major falls of snow in Derbyshire, it never failed to get me to work. A bag of sand in the boot (front) and a shovel, which was needed at time and off we went.
Much to my bad judgement I bought a Skoda later in the 70âs (needs must) the only satisfying memory of that was getting me to work where others failed in winter conditions, much like the Beetle rear engined, a Skoda Estelle.
I am in two minds whether to reply, but the safety aspect has ruled my mind.
âHow careful do you need to be?â.
Not really sure why you are even asking that sort of question.
Practice on a private road or land NOT on the public road at all.
If you are driving to âTryâ and loose it, then technically you ARE driving dangerously.
Too many people try what you want to do and end up damaging the car, property injuring themselves or others.
You have no idea what âmayâ come around a corner, animal, cyclist, pedestrian or whatever else.
I may sound like a grumpy old man, (think we have all earned that right) but do have many years of driving experience and clearing up roads after silly people and reporting to loved ones that the family member is in hospital or has died as a result.
Please donât do it.
There is NO pre determined safe speed at all under any road conditions or circumstances.
You canât âguessâ how deep the water might be at some point, camber of the road, friction, tyres etc etc, (a few on here have experience of that).
True story, the winter of 1981 on the Autobahn going back to base. Doing around 50mph on the inside lane and all the Germans speeding past etc etc. In an instant, I was into the central barrier and doing 360âs and eventually got it under control.
Black ice and someone very nice was watching over me that night.
Go on a skid pan course, that will help.
Go on an Advanced driving course, that will certainly help.
Your skill set will improve as time goes by.
None of us are perfect by the way.
On a lighter note, enjoy your MX!
Got to work in the Skoda one day 2 hours late. Had to dig the car out at home, snow drifting up the side of the house, car buried up to the side windows. Eventually got to work 20 miles away and had to dig out an entry to the premises, at around 11 am we opened for business. We closed at 3pm so I could get back home safely, arrived home at 6pm, never forget that day, it was carnage on the roads but the little Skoda got through.
There are many stories of people jumping in a RWD car for the first time and spinning it at the first roundabout they encounter.
I put it down to the âpoint it and floor itâ nature of FWD cars. As you come off a roundabout in a RWD car your driving wheels are a further carâs length back. If you apply the throttle at the same point as a FWD you are still travelling in a curve. If the power you apply is more than that required to maintain speed then you are gambling on the tyres keeping you on the straight and narrow.
If youâve grown up on RWD then itâs second nature to feed your car through the corner at a constant speed and only accelerate in a straight line.
Just my theory and Iâm sticking to it. The difficult bit is jumping from one car to another for those without too much experience. The only time Iâm glad to be FWD is in the snow.
Just to clear up my question.
Im not trying to drift or drive on the edge of grip.
Was just trying to get a feel for the differences between a front and back wheel car. I have a front wheel drive car that i can drive comfortably in the wet. But with the back wheel if feel as if it could easy spin.
So typically speeking should you drive a back wheel drive slower than front wheel.
Im by no why a boy racer. Just wondering if you need to ajust your drive style alot more.
Thanks for the reply.
Basically, you are opening a can of wormsâŚ
Not all rear wheel drive cars will feel the same either.
As an example, my MX5 NC (3 years old) came with Bridgestoneâs which were truly awful in the wet.
I changed them pronto to Maxxis Premitra HP5 (and plenty of other good tyres too) and no issues in the wet or dry.
Likewise, a front wheel drive car perhaps will be similar.
Also with rear wheel drive you have more chance of âOversteerâ depending how much you use the loud pedal and what electronic aids are on it, (they help but not to be relied upon).
The Audi TT when first out proved that!
A front wheel drive car âCanâ understeer more certainly if too fast into a bend, (not counting weight etc etc).
BUT, with modern electronic aids a lot of all that has been controlled.
Understeer by nature is safer and âgenerallyâ easier to to control than Oversteer certainly at speed.
So, yes you do need to adjust your driving style to suit what ever vehicle you are driving.
Experience and feel assists greatly.
As said, a good skid pan course will teach all you need to know about speed, oversteer and understeer.
Iâll leave others to give opinions.
All the best.
Itâs simple really: look at the conditions, then choose the right car and the right tyres.
I like both FWD and RWD but for different reasons.
eg. An old fashioned Mini. FWD.
Going up an icy hill it will most likely sail past most RWD cars sliding backwards towards you; SWMBO wondered why everyone else (in 1970s almost all RWD) was having so much trouble in her first winter of driving to work in her woody traveller.
Another occasion another much better Mini; we were four up and my navigator told me we were about to go over the crest of a hill, but it it turned out to be a hairpin back up the mountain! I dropped it into second while flooring it and hauled the wheel round. The car followed the road like it was on rails. Not much chat in the car for a couple of minutes.
But Mini brakes? Non-existent; lock all four wheels in a trice, but no hint of slowing down.
eg. An old fashioned Morris Minor. RWD.
Utterly powerless and no brakes to mention, however in second gear it was superb for power-drifting right angle bends, and this meant I didnât need to lose precious momentum. But my Mother did wonder why the rear tyres had such a short life.
eg. An NC MX5 with DSC (useful!)
One damp, dark night on four brand new Dunlop Maxx with only about 300 miles of M4 that day to remove the slippery release compound.
A Tailgater, an old fashioned Porsche, had been drinking my spray for at least twenty minutes with ample opportunity to go past on M4 and dual carriageways through Slough etc, but no, he just sat there less than three metres away.
Final sharp right turn under the A40 and I floored it up the slip road to join as usual, simply because itâs fun with new tyres infinitely more grippy than the old Bakelite Potenzas.
Curious, why did the NC have a slight shimmy?
Did the DSC light flicker?
Are the new tyres OK?
Then I looked in the mirror and the Porsche was fishtailing across both lanes of the slip road and shrinking away in the mirror. I didnât see him again. I didnât care; poetic justice if he wrecked it.
Five minutes later at home I looked at the tyres, and the stink of diesel from under the car was almost overwhelming.
If it was not for the Dynamic Stability Control I think the NC would have lost it as well, regardless of what tyres it was wearing. If I had not floored it, maybe the DSC would not have been needed.
Previously with the old and dire Potenzas the DSC light flicked on almost instantly if I touched any pedal with the right foot; I might have been dead if still wearing them!
I did a full 360 going round a mini roundabout due to Diesel spill, it had spilled on the side of the road upto the island but i didnât see it. Worst bit was trying to remove the road tar that had built up on the side of my car, it set like concrete and took hours to remove.
Toyota Corolla FWD too⌠Glad I didnât take my Suzuki Bandit 1200 in that day.
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