Sup guys,

There are enough threads about people loosing control their Z when they make a turn and what not and the back end comes loose and their Zs ends up doing a few 180s. I had a recent mishap similar to the description above. How are you supposed to control the Z when you loose control? To be more specific, suppose your back end comes loose when you are turning (right) into a road. So if my back end fish-tails towards the left so my car begins to do a slow clockwise motion, do I turn my steering wheel towards the direction of the spin (turn clockwise) or turn the opposite way? I could probably research this easily online but I rather get some first hand knowledge with Z owners. I attempted to do some smiliar moves in an empty parking lot to see how well I could control my Z, but it was just very hard to do. Could be the combination of how much brake/gas/direction of steering roation I was doing. No, I am not trying to do drifting. No, I am not trying to do burnouts. Just trying to be a safe drive and react quickly with the right moves without causing injury to myself or others.

 

What you gonna do when s*** hits the fan....are you gonna stand and fight like a man?

 

That should have been covered when you first got your drivers licence...

You have to turn the steering wheel in the direction the rear end is going. In your exemple, the car is turning right too much, so you have to steer left to compensate.

Next you need to learn to "listen" to your car and get a feel for what the rear tires are doing and how much grip you have available. This starts with a good driving position (ie: Sit straight with your butt IN the seat).

The rear end will come out when it looses traction. That can happen because you've applied too much thottle (your spinning the wheel) or you've cut too much throttle (basically locking the wheels). The corrective action in these cases will be to either cut back on throttle (first case) or give some thottle (second case). If you didn't interpret correctly what caused the fishtail and apply to wrong thottle input, you'll make matters worst...

Build your skills slowly. Take some high performance driving classes.

 

if you are making a hard right turn and the a$$ end swings out to the left, you would turn the wheel to the left or counter-clockwise. You want to steer into the turn. Its called countersteering and it will prevent you from doing the 180.
SZ

 

You aren't supposed to. How can you be in control if you're not in control? The question is contradictory. The trick is not loosing control in the first place. Just because you're sliding or fishtailing doesn't mean you've lost control. Generally when you lose control.... game = over.

 

Just be careful when you loose control of your Z because you could loose your Z or loose yourself for good. Just don't loose it and you should be okay.

 

Kolia pretty much answered it. Take an HPDE... they'll teach what to do and you'll get to practice it, so when it happens on the road, it becomes reflex...

Best investment you can make in your car... and yourself.

 

Sematics...

If rockinbboy losses control but nobody's there to see it, will the chicken still cross the road ?

 

My guess is that after he loses control... since nobody else is around to see it ... the chicken won't sense any more threats and then cross the road.

 

Unless of course you are stupid enough to do it on wet pavement(like me)... then your F---d!

 

its called countersteering, lol watch the drift bible anyone else seen it>?

 

Counter Steer and ease off on the gas a little bit and not hit the brakes, hitting the brakes will only make it worse...

Although your best bet is not to dirve like a moron and lose control of the car in the first place.... Most people who lose control of there Z is because they disabled there TCS/VDC and pretend there Mario Andretti...

 

Most important thing is to not freak out. Also practice in a safe area losing control. I regularly when I'm coming out of my place gun it so the back end swings left as long as theres no traffic. It just takes practice. Better to learn in a pking lot than in the rain. And like everyone says learn the car and once you get comfortable you can be more aggresive. It took me about 3 months before I would try anything like that. Now unless its raining I drive with tcs off and push the car to its limits but only in ways I know how its going to react. The Z "loses control" quite predictably a lot more than my old tiburon did.

 

I'd strongly suggest that you find a performance driving school with qualified instructors to show you how to get into such situations, and then show you how to get out of them. Trust me, its saved my sorry a** more times then I care to recount.

 

"Although your best bet is not to dirve like a moron and lose control of the car in the first place.... '

Bingo!!

 

Well, thanks for the advise guys. I been driving FWD all my life and only RWD for the last 7 months and thats only on a weekend basis too since the Z is my Weekend car. I've handled slippery situations with my FWD camry without anyproblems, but with the Z its totally another story.


Already done! Reason I posted was I fishtailed my Z yesterday and ened up hitting a guard rail yesterday. I ALWAYS leave TCS ON btw.

God..I better put a flame suit on before I post this link:
https://my350z.com/forum/mid-atlantic/222017-anyone-know-good-body-shops-here-no-56k-z-s-first-battle-scar-and.html

Edit: I tried doing some "fishtails" or hard turns in an empty parking lot last night, but it was hard to get the Z to go the way I wanted or predict exactly where it was going to go next.

I am too scared to track my car. I mean, my incident was fairly minor based on the damage, but I got really lucky. I did an AutoX not too long ago hoping to gain some insight on my Z in limits and I did my first spin out there too on dry payment which was an interesting experience, but again not enough experience with pushing my car to know how to keep things under control as best as I can when $hit hits the fan <sigh>. I am going out for a drive.

 

Damn, and I was hoping we got to you before the ownage.

 

I still fail to see how people can't handle this car. Its not some 500hp beast. It is a reletively powerful car with good handling. It is probably one of the easiest rwd cars to drive in terms of controlling it imo

 

this happened to me in the rain making a left hand turn onto the freeway uphill.... i spun 270º and i did counter steer and went up the bankment. the car was okay, i as okay, just need a new front bumper. it was a fun experience but i shouldnt of been pushing myself going the speed i was going. i was still learning the limits of the car. luckily i was able to get out and no other cars were around.

 

Some people should not drive a Z










Just kidding man