Rhawb

DSC never goes off in the rain. Ever. Really, it just plan never goes off on public roads.

I had my 8 get all kinds of sideways with the DSC ON while it was raining once (and I was going in a straight line)! It started to slide with the banking of the road, and luckily I knew not to mess around too much. I just barely eased off the gas, gave it just a few degrees of countersteer, and I was able to keep it mostly out of the adjacent lane. That was pretty scary. Definitely not something you want happening with the DSC off.

User24

iTrader: (1)

I don't know how to drive with DSC so I just keep it off. I had one slippery road incident on those Dunlop tires, and a wavy road indicator lit off on the panel display, and it did nothing for me whatever it was.

Also I can remember taking turns of 90 or more, and the vehicle suddenly jerking back in the wrong direction heading for the curb / streetlights. Whatever it was rx8 wanted to do, it wasn't helping me any.

You want predictability, disable all that rx8 stupid features. When it rains, just scale back.

blackenedwings

Haha, quoteable for sure.

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

IF:

you are in a mutually monogamous relationship

AND:

she is on the pill

then yes that logic works.

AmKorp

wtf?

mr80

i'm not sure about that. i've driven in the snow (not in the rx8, but in another RWD car) quite a bit, and have had the back end of my car let go numerous times.

In an RWD car, when the rear starts lets go, you do not want to get off the gas (at least, not completely). You steer into the skid (aka countersteering) and stay on the gas. If you get off the gas, or worse, brake, you will unweight the back end even more, and the car wants to spin even more.

Having said that, the most important thing to do when you lose rear wheel grip is countersteering. If your car is spinning to the right (i.e. you want to go straight but the rear wheels have stepped out to the left and as a result, the car is pointing to the right of where you want to go), you steer into the skid, so you steer left.


I see two things the OP did as a result of panicking:

1. slamming on the brakes
2. steering to the right (i.e. not countersteering)

ofc, it's easy for us to monday-morning-quarterback here, and i'm sure we are all (myself included) guilty of panicking in a driving situation at some time or the other.

moral of the story: 1. DSC is your friend. 2. Everybody should learn at least the basics of skid control

johnny2343

dsc is your friend, to that i say ha , i reccomend learning to drive better

jeffe19007

Good thing the 8 has no torque! In the muscle car days you would have this figured out by now. Counter steering and no braking. I have some wet weathers stories I could tell. But I never hit a pole or wound up off road. Though I had a few friends that would never ride with me again.

In the olden days traction and brakes were always lacking, and not dependable for getting your *** out of trouble.

But yes, I am glad you are ok. Sorry for the 8 though.

YaXMaNGTO

I had the opportunity of getting my 8 completely sideways, and I mean 90 degrees pointed to the left sliding down the road. I slowly corrected it to avoid to it snapping back, modulating the throttle lightly to keep me from drifting into a ditch on the right side or going into oncoming traffic. I managed to get to back to perfectly straight with a tiny oversteer, and headed down the road like nothing happened.

The RX8 is a handling machine. It's fundamentally one of the easiest cars on the planet to catch. It was designed to do it.

If you KNOW you can't competently drive your RX8 out of this type of situation, you need to learn how to do it. It could save your life and somebody elses, not to mention your car.

ken-x8

And along with that you don't want to overcorrect. Countersteering is intuitive. When the rear breaks to the left, the car is rotating to the right and your instinct is to turn the wheel to the left. But until you get some practice, you're likely to overcorrect.

Definitely have to be easy on the gas. Take your foot off and it's like you put the rear brakes on. DSC is there to help manage brake and throttle when you're on (or slightly over) the edge.

Ken

Rhawb

Also, you have to be careful to not over countersteer, or you can induce a snap oversteer in the other direction. Basically, look where you want to go, and steer in that direction. No pedals unless you know what you're doing.

(Er, yeah, what Ken said.)

05rex8

iTrader: (7)

umm...ok. If you let off the gas, the tires will stop spinning thus allowing traction again. countersteering is key as well like you said, but like the above posts too much can be deadly as well. maybe my method doesn't work in the snow or rain as well....but if you are doing that stuff in those elements not in a closed parking lot or something, than you are asking for trouble. And again, I was mostly noting the braking part was not a good thing to do. Trust me, I've driven enough rwd cars to know this stuff.

mmats69

glad you are ok. hard way to learn a lesson

HeavyMetal699

Pro Tip:

If you let go of the steering wheel while sliding, 90% of the time the steering wheel will go back to center and the car will go the way its pointed.

DOMINION

Just cus you dont know how to drive dont mean we dont. Screw DCS out!

05rex8

iTrader: (7)

I'm going to have to try this....

HeavyMetal699

I will say that in my autocross experience of bad driving that man handling the steering wheel once you have completely lost control will be a recipe for disaster.

Seriously all you got to do is lift on the throttle, let go of the steering wheel, and right when the steering will goes back in place retake control.

The only time this trick did not work for me was when I spun the car REALLY bad and the asphalt almost kissed the rim. Yes the tires were properly inflated. If you spin so hard the sidewall collapses on a properly inflated tires no amount of steering is going to fix it. Luckily I was autocrossing in a controlled environment. The only thing that happened is that the corner workers scatter like a bunch of **** roaches when the kitchen light is turned on.

raphy3

I can guarantee that with the OEM potenzas if I let off the gas on an icy road my back will start swinging out. It's 100% predictable. If it's black ice it's even worse.

The first time it happened I was letting off the gas because I thought "ok, it's icy, don't use the brakes or you're screwed, as always." So I let me foot off the gas abruptly to use engine braking. Well, sure enough I started swinging sideways and as soon as I put my foot back on the throttle, it righted itself (I very mildly countersteered and pointed straight ahead). Then I very slowly let my foot off the gas, doing this adiabatically negated any slipping sideways because the car lost enough speed before it had time to swing out. What I learned then was: On ice letting your foot abruptly off the gas is like putting the brakes on your back wheels only.

I had DCS on (always), and I don't know whether it kicked in to help or not. I didn't see any light up on the dash, that's for sure.

HeavyMetal699

THANK GOD I LIVE IN TEXAS!

Seriously if white stuff hit the road I'd limp it back home and take off work until the white stuff went away.

If you are 18 years or older you have 100% accountability of where you choose to live.

hyperlitenerd

Until this season F1 had traction control, so I don't know why we think we are driving gods that don't need it.

05rex8

iTrader: (7)

I agree, that's why I wasn't refering to doing it that way on ice, or snow.

scremn8

there are alot of cars on the street, that don't
come with dsc. the driver learns to drive the car
and not depend on a computer to save there hide..
a basic 8 has no dsc.

05rex8

iTrader: (7)

^yup, when I had a couple mustangs some years ago, none of those had any sort of traction control. You are on your own with that kind of torque. It did help me learn how to drive and now I can have more fun by getting the 8 sideways.

raphy3

lol, and yet you still chose to live in Texas....

sosonic

Traction control has saved my life at least TWICE. Both on rainy days.

If you are doing 0-60 or 1/4 mile runs than you can turn it off, since you are going in a straight line and as an attempt to improve times.

For normal traffic driving situation, racing through traffic, or rainy days than you should keep it ON.