Subaru AWD wet weather thread..share the love
 

Ok it doesnt rain all that much in Perth and ice and snow are NO. How about sharing some appreciation subaru awd performance in the wet.

Thomas St today car pulls out from side street into my path...awd drive acceleration saves the day and my arse.

Anyone else?

i think i have really shit tyres. i cant so anything in the wet otherwise she spins. round about at 30 is dangerous let alone swerving lol

Mine does not include wet weather so to speak

But I drove back from Newman a few years back now and fell asleep at the wheel about 10km's out of Kumarina. I woke up to a marker post trying to get through my front windscreen, I swerved quite violently at 100km/h the front end came onto the road, the back end was still in gravel. I bounced down the Gt Northern Hwy for about 600m fighting with the car but came to a stop with quite a bit of damage to the car. It was still drivable and I drove it all the way home to Mandurah.

To this day I still say if I wasn't in an AWD vehicle I would have been dead for sure. The front wheels giving drive in the direction I was trying to go was the only thing helping me with the back end doing SFA in the dirt.

AWD FTW

*says the guy who now owns a FWD car* :rolleyes:

I thought Subaru and rainy days are to be officially known as understeer festivals ?

:)

My car is parked up nice and dry in the Convention Centre....AWD is having a rest at the moment :)

[QUOTE=teejay]I thought Subaru and rainy days are to be officially known as understeer festivals ?

:)[/QUOTE]


That or $10,000 damage when trying to be a hero in the wet and smashing into kerbs and trees and shit.

EDIT: of course this happened on a closed private road and of course I went to the AHG driving centre and got driver training afterwards.

[QUOTE=teejay]I thought Subaru and rainy days are to be officially known as understeer festivals ?

:)[/QUOTE]

depends on whose driving it really :D

in weather like this the rex gets driven alot more often than normal. the g/f also prefers to drive the rex when it's raining as she feels safer driving it

the VK on the other hand doesn't come out in this weather,
rwd + heavy foot = "accidental" oversteer

Wash n Wax over the wkend.
So no AWD action in the wet.

[QUOTE=DAN682]Mine does not include wet weather so to speak

But I drove back from Newman a few years back now and fell asleep at the wheel about 10km's out of Kumarina. I woke up to a marker post trying to get through my front windscreen, I swerved quite violently at 100km/h the front end came onto the road, the back end was still in gravel. I bounced down the Gt Northern Hwy for about 600m fighting with the car but came to a stop with quite a bit of damage to the car. It was still drivable and I drove it all the way home to Mandurah.

To this day I still say if I wasn't in an AWD vehicle I would have been dead for sure. The front wheels giving drive in the direction I was trying to go was the only thing helping me with the back end doing SFA in the dirt.

AWD FTW

*says the guy who now owns a FWD car* :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

I am so with you on the outback driving Dan. Hit an emu driving a lifted toyota hilux twin cab near Leinster, swerved down the middle of the road for 200 mtrs I recon then it pitched itself down the side of of road and rolled half dozen times.

Well the Geoquealers in the Foz dont like the wet one bit!

With lowered suspension and strut braces......it just likes to loose the rear a little more than what it should not being the right foot at hand either :D .!!

Should be better with 18's and new tyres. If I ever go back out to work :mad:

My car is piss poor in the wet, never slides or spins the wheels. I would have to fully launch on a wet hill to get them spinning. Safe though, havent noticed any understeer either.

My old silvia on the other hand felt like driving one of those driver training cars that has the trolley wheels jacked up so you spin if one of your passengers sneeze.

These yoki S Drives I have on now a really good in the wet. Before I had some missmatched crappy tyres and felt scared in the wet but now I feel safe as houses in the wet.

Hmm lets see...

2-way Cusco rear LSD - Check!
420Nm torque - Check!
Nice big sweeping corner - Check!
Rain and nice slippy roads - Check!
Me over applying the throttle and sliding around that corner as many times as I can - Triple Check!

God I love this weather :D

[QUOTE=Kato]Hmm lets see...

2-way Cusco rear LSD - Check!
420Nm torque - Check!
Nice big sweeping corner - Check!
Rain and nice slippy roads - Check!
Me over applying the throttle and sliding around that corner as many times as I can - Triple Check!

God I love this weather :D[/QUOTE]

I just knew that some how? ;)

+1 for teh diff of skids!

Well.. not that im in the wrx anymore..
But the GTi-R today was very very tailhappy.. bulk fun switching lanes at wierd angles :P

[QUOTE=slappy]My car is piss poor in the wet, never slides or spins the wheels. I would have to fully launch on a wet hill to get them spinning. Safe though, havent noticed any understeer either.

My old silvia on the other hand felt like driving one of those driver training cars that has the trolley wheels jacked up so you spin if one of your passengers sneeze.[/QUOTE]

My Bugeye was the same till I put the link and exhaust on it.

[QUOTE=teejay]I thought Subaru and rainy days are to be officially known as understeer festivals ?

:)[/QUOTE]

pfft depends how you drive it mate :)

yeah thats true kinda if u suddenly turn quickly for more than 1 revolution u might lock up sometimes like me lol

yeah wet weather lots of fun soon as hit boost ass end starts kicking side to side

Rain + AWD = Best

Love seeing how hard i can push the speed limits. 70kmh speedlimit around roundabouts is always fun!

Rain is the only thing that makes speed limits fun. :D

Power sliding out of corners is fun and all in the wet. But try not to do anything stupid people.

AWD just means your going faster when you do go off.

+1 for AHG dual skid pans in wet weather, big lesson learn't, wet weather an pinhead driving will result in empty wallet....

Oh yeah, when suby lets go wet or dry inertia might be a problem, careful lads...
Sorry I'm getting old :eusa_naug

Big drifts in the wet are fun but just be careful. It is easy to loose where exactly the front wheels are pointing if you get all 4 wheels spinning. When it hooks up you will take off wherever they are pointing. If thats not where you expect it can get messy in a hurry.

[QUOTE=ryandarcy]yeah wet weather lots of fun soon as hit boost ass end starts kicking side to side[/QUOTE]

i got the same in my forry with the currently unconnected dccd ra box, 65/35 is great fun in the wet esp with the fat heavy arse of the foz, reminds me of my old vk5L 4spd , when the power comes on the back gets taily :D it straightens up the instant you get of the gas though which is nice, i should be getting the controller sorted soon so will be able to dial some bias in manually & go round corners fast in the wet again :)

Mmmmm dodging dead kangaroos at 165km/h. Any other car without decent suspension, cactus.

Rain is bulk fun just cuts loose soon as it hits boost in first and second fun fun fun :)

bit of a clutch kick in 2nd around corners hahahahahahaha

I can't wait for the reply to come before the end of the week from someone: "Well, i was skidding in the wet and it let go too much and..."

It'll happen.

Enjoy wet weather driving, definitely feel the huge advantage of rwd cars. You're pretty much guaranteed to whoop any V8 from a standing start very easily.

Getting sideways round corners in the wet can be fun, but gotta be pretty damn careful these days. Last thing you want is an off.

Has anyone else noticed if you really light the tyres up your ABS light flashes on for a while?

Not much but rain , ice and snow (at the right time of year) over here in the uk.
Plenty of time for playing with the dccd and getting used to the lsd's :D
Its cost me a set of wheels so far but, im getting the hang of it now :rolleyes:

I found the wrx pretty dodgy to drive in the wet. First it will understeer, then rapid oversteer as it comes on boost..Its tricky to manage because the torque can double in 1000rpms..To keep it in better control, would have to keep revs above about 4500 all the time so the power delivery and response is more linear...

dont know about the sti with DCCD, havent pushed it that much...

Personally, I think a high torque engine, with a wide, lowish torque band, in an awd would be the go. An AWD with about 500Nm from 1800 to 4500rpms would be great..

ah memories...the rex is gone but in the wet any other (non-WRX) car was absolute toast. My tyres were pretty good (Continentals) and even with 180 kwatw it was almost impossible to break traction in a straight line and it still could be hammered, cornered brilliantly, ultimately letting go into a fantastic awd power drift. Now I have a HSV 6L Clubsport which is shit in the wet and can't put half its power down onto the road. Driving it in the wet is pointless. Wish I could have both cars in the garage :icon_sad:

i got pulled over 2 thursday nights ago in the wet. Got given a stern warning and told to change my tyres ASAP. Guess I was lucky not to get a sticker, or hoon lawed.

I enjoy wet weather driving, i just don't enjoy the other morons who think they have to do 20km below the limit once it starts raining!

[QUOTE=dtrally]Has anyone else noticed if you really light the tyres up your ABS light flashes on for a while?[/QUOTE]

Whats this ABS thing you speak of?

Pete - your description is just about perfect. I found tight stuff would induce instant understeer, and then snap into oversteer as it came onto boost. What was alot more worrying was the lift off snap oversteer in the wet, very scary.

Funnily in the wet I prefer the less grippy tyres, because it gives me a little fear. The fear means I keep my driving sane and leave room for error. Nothing like running grippy tyres, thinking the thing will stick to the road forever and a day, because when it lets go your going to be fairly moving.

[QUOTE=American Dave]I am so with you on the outback driving Dan. Hit an emu driving a lifted toyota hilux twin cab near Leinster, swerved down the middle of the road for 200 mtrs I recon then it pitched itself down the side of of road and rolled half dozen times.[/QUOTE]
must of been coming back from the agnew eh dave ha ha

[QUOTE=feral]must of been coming back from the agnew eh dave ha ha[/QUOTE]
close Mt Keith

[QUOTE=joey89]bit of a clutch kick in 2nd around corners hahahahahahaha[/QUOTE]

:eusa_clap

As Alan already mentioned, take the car onto the skid pan in the rain and find out what 'really' happens in the wet. I'd say that a few kids who are posting in here have not actually experienced what they are typing about (and no, that doesn't mean everyone). Not that I actually give a toss, but I can tell you from personal experience, back when I was wee tott, that confidence in AWD in wet weather saw me end up going backwards/sideways into a double poled street sign causing about $9k damage (it doesn't take much damage to add up the $'s).

Damn, I must be getting old/grumpy - well, atleast the avatar suits now :)

Al

^^ He's right.. You will learn a lot.

The last trackday i went to was in Collie, and it was wet the whole time. I spun off 3 times! It was worth it (although i did shit my pants on each occassion).