Skittish on bumps
 

I've had my 8 for a week and a half. It had travelled 21000kms when I bought it, all on the original tires. These are now in the twilight of their lives.

But I am noticing how crappy the road are, because the car is skittish on bumps. It tends to bump steer a lot. Particularly under brakes - it hops about a bit at traffic lights where trucks have grooved the roads a little.

How have you guys found low profile tires act in the final days or do I have a suspension 'issue' to be looked at? I tracks well and does not pull either side under brakes on a flat track. It might just need an alignment, huh?...

Harpo

PS Would it be simpler if GMH simply renamed their car 'Stolen Commadore' and avoid media confusuion...

Yes, it's normal for your car to have four wheels. No, you probably don't need an alignment.

A tip: perhaps stop driving over bumps and ruts and drive around them?

Unfortunatly when you build a road over Bay of Biscay soils, (reactive clay that swells and shrinks with the seasons.) the only way to drive around the bumps is to drive on the footpath. Now, there's an idea...

get thicker profiled tyres
like monster truck ones!!! omg ud be only rx8 like that - unique!!!

It's normal, it's to do the the friction between the tarmac and your tyres. The car doesn't take corrugations well due to the stock suspension setup being firm-ish (it is a gt car after all), therefore if you have lots of bumps and corrugations on the road, you will find the handling of almost any sports car sketchy ...

... perhaps you should've bought a Citroen C6 ... they have extremely good suspension for the type of surfaces you're talking about.

With heavy duty offroad suspension ;)

I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride, no matter where it takes me (as long as it's not into the path of on coming traffic...)

I couldnt quite be sure but I think you have OEM tyres and rims. There should be no real difference in how they handle like this between full and End of Life tread depth. I would suggest getting an alignment done. Particularly check castor and toe settings.

what about the tyre pressures

32 - at the moment.

bit low.........

when was the car last checked for alignment? isnt it generally every 6months should get check ?? If its only 21000km, maybe hasnt had 1 done since still original tyres

I've only had it a weekand a half, so I'm not sure about the wheel alignment. I will get it checked over the weekend and we'll at least eliminate that as a problem.

An alignment is a good idea and so is bumping up your pressures to at least 34-5psi.

However, the car does tramline a little under brakes, especially where trucks have left grooves in the road. You get used to it and learn to manage it okay. Price you pay for being sharp in the bends...

I did two things to fix the problem.

1) Bumped the pressures to 34psi. I'll try that for a while then 35 and see the difference.

2) Look for a new route to work.

Both seem to have fixed the problem.

LOL good work harpo