So I recently got my zed and obviously it is a lot more powerful than my MR2. I'm wondering if people could give me some driving tips in relation to controlling a car with this much power, especially in the wet. I'm going to do some driving courses eventually but until then it would be good to get some advice from people here in the mean time. Cheers.
lol 175rwk ? even if you have 300rwk just use your brain and in the wet dont take it over 3000rpm its simple realy drive it normal, when you decide to push it or do power skids thats whe you have a risk of crashing.
Smart advice, you're the last person I would've turned to for advice on "CONTROLLING" a high powered car. ^_^
Thing is, I barely took it over 3000rpm the other day and it still went sideways when I was driving in a straight line! My tire treads are fine...
It's all to do with your left foot. Just learn to control/moderate it, don't do stupid stuff and keep an eye out for other idiots doing stuipd stuff... Even under 3000RPM can lead to wheelspin in the right conditions. Feather the throttle when accelerating and don't accelerate or brake with any amount of force when turning. Do it before and after the corner.
Relatively heavy car means it has more momentum at low speed compared to the MR2, so it wont change directions as easily, I also find the stiffer body suspension setup tends to push the car more laterally through a corner where a commodore will tend to flop over on its outside wheels with down force, for me the car inspires confidence but on slick roads its easy to break traction and get into trouble at relatively low speeds, what I'm leading to is tuning out of sides streets and gassing it could have you facing the wrong way and hitting stuff and a similar scenario on round abouts. All at relatively low speeds doing what seems reasonable whith sudden and undesired results. Take your time to get to know her, other wise it could be a very short relationship, plenty have been caught out.
advice for the inexpereinced.... first things first, forget about pretty much everything you know from driving the mr2, the zed and the mr2 are about as different as cars can get from a handling point of view! dont dileberately try and "test" the car on public roads, your just asking for a accident or to hget it confiscated a few obvious ones start gently, dont floor it everywhere and expect to get it right first time every time, and dont push to hard in areas where there is no run off or heavy curbing or trees or anything you can hit, if you are going to loose it, its better if you have a little room to try and recover control of the car turbo zeds tend to oversteer, rather than understeer in most situations, so you are more liekly to leave the road sideways or backwards if you overdo it its powerfull rwd car so its going to be extremely easy to get the tail out or sliding, both voluntarily and involuntary! when the tail does cme out, dont jump straight on the brakes, just gently ease off the throttle until the car regrips the road. opposite lock should only be applied in small amounts while sliding, dont throw the wheel from side to side you are just promoting instability and a spin in the opposite direction. practice with your brakes, learn how hard you can brake before the abs activates, and get used to how far, in metres it takes you to stop from a certain speed, both wet and dry. same goes for the steering, learn how many turns of the wheel it is to get from lock to lock, and the steerings centre point, so that you can be aware of which way your wheels are pointing by feel and not having to secong geuss yourself i could go on and on, but above all take it easy and let common sense prevail 100% of the time, experience comes with practice, and there is unfortunately no way to shortcut that! edit, this was typed quickly and has heaps of typos....sorry spelling police!
Ease on the accelerator in the wet and dont take corners too sharply. With that said I would suggest finding somewhere secluded and safe, preferably a skid pan or something similar to learn the characteristics of your car in the wet. You dont want the first time you feel the ass step out on you to be in traffic at 110kmph. Zeds will auto-correct alot of the time, just make sure when you counter steer you dont go too far otherwise that's how you end up spinning out. If you feel the back end go out on you, just get off the throttle right away and let the car settle before trying to steer it back into line. 99% of it is really just getting the "feel" and learning your car with experience. Having someone show you in person would help, but at the end of the day it's up to you and only you! Besides that, just belt the snot out of it and have fun...and dont crash.
What he said... this is very true too "zeds tend to oversteer, rather than understeer in most situations, so you are more liekly to leave the road sideways or backwards if you overdo it". If you arent confident with the car yet, might be a good idea to use the mr2 when it rains, just till you get the hang of the zed.
Take it easy and DONT power out mid corner. ! Your not racing. and no drift heroics. Loosing traction is a lot more controllable when your going in a straight line, even if the back does step out. If you ever feel the need to 'test your limits' or 'learn something new' or anything like that your taking it too far. Goto a circuit or motokarma?.
BEWARE THE HICAS ...IF its a TT, be AWARE of hicas and how it feels. if you're inclinded to automatically counter steer when the back end steps out, you may find your ninja instincts will cause you to fight the HICAS thinking its a skid. When driver and hicas fight, the winner is the nearest tree.
In the rain you drive like you had one egg under each foot and one in each hand. Try not to break them.
I would recommend you do some driver dynamics days. they advertise regularly on SAU in the vic events section. start with one of their beginners courses and then you can do the fun stuff like advanced car control, the skidpan courses, track days and then drift days. you will find that you learn alot when you make mistakes.. nobody will judge you and the instructors are there to help you. also SAU do DECA events 4 times a year, costs around $75 plus $50 for a yearly AASA licence and you can go up and thrash the crap out of your car on the massive skidpan with no risk of hitting anything (besides cones).
Rule #1. Wet or dry, make sure the steering wheel is straight before the boost comes on. Boosting when cornering, even coming out of a corner is a great way to end up backwards in the gutter - till you get used to it.
ditto on the driving courses. everyone can give u as much info or advice u want most likely aint gonna do jak to ur driving handling. get some courses with driver dynamics as mentioned, best thing ud prob ever do for urself and ur car. other than that i advise u get better tyres. if ur loosing traction with that little power in a straight line even though ur tread is full, they are shit. personally ive got toyo proxies at the back 275wide and grips surprisingly very well in the wet that i can almost wot it... also my rear camber is set to -0.5 ... so get some decent tyres, and get ur camber sorted etc. dont accelerate much while turning. finish all ur braking before u enter the corner. driving a zed on a wet rd is like driving a car on ice esp in the cornersssss so be carefull.
Totally agree! Learnt this one early... probably a month into owning my zed. My tyres were a factor and were replaced promptly after. It was wet and I was trying to turn right, had a little gap in the traffic and I didn't even push the accelerator that hard however my back end just lost it and I spun out a couple of times in the middle of the road. Luckily it was a wide quieter road in the city and I didn't hit anything or anyone but it did teach me a valuable lesson. I agree with Stef's egg comment especially when taking off from a complete stop in the wet. It is so easy for the zed to lose traction in the wet with its weight and RWD. I also find that in very wet situations if you are in the lane closest to the median strip the zed can feel like it loses it if going through deepish puddles. Always drive defensively also. Don't assume that every other driver around you on the road is using their common sense. Especially big SUV's - they have the habit of changing lanes without notice when you are right next to them! I've saved myself and my zed from many could be accidents.:zlove:
