I have just been reading the slippery in the wet thread and just wondered what I was doing 'wrong'. I don't thrash the car, and I do have an NA, but I would have thought it was at least 'possible' for me to get the back end out.

 

Is it only a TT that can drift? I would have thought my manual NA would have had enough power to get the back end out if I wanted. How do you actually do it? Boot it at a wet roundabout? I ask partly because I'd like to be able to, and also to control it if it did happen. Surely my NA is not so weedy it is impossible. Do the tyres make a big difference. Sometimes I think that the people who say how powerful their car is because it slides at every opportunity just have shite tyres on.

find a nice big empty carpark in the wet and give it a go. then nothing to hit if/when you loose it. When these cars go they can really go. First thing i did when i bought my one was to find out how it reacts when the back is out. Was expecting a 90 degree slide and did a 360! Get used to the way it goes in a safe area before trying it on the road, once you have mastered it its great fun and quite controleable. Please excuse my rubbish spelling.

I don't know what some people mean when they say the ZX is dangerous in the wet and snow. When it snowed earlier this year I took the Z for a spin and, not being big headed, I had some awesome sideways action going round bends and turnings. At no point did I feel out of control or I could lose it. I think the Z is a very well balanced machine that copes with drifting brilliantly. I used to own an XR4i and that was very bad in the wet also a Manta GTE, much better but still not as good as the Z. I agree that you should find an empty car park though, give me a call if you do cos it's wicked fun. Long live the Sideways Action, or so my girlfriend always says!!!!

you should have no problem gettin the back end out i also own an n/a swb and im constantly gettin it sideways. but i also started on a nice big empty car par cause when it goes for the first time it really caught me off guard. but its a piece of piss in the dry as well, dont no about tyres i had avons before and it went easy but just had bridgestones put on and have to give a bit more revs. watch tho cause its a exspensive addiction when you learn cause you never stop i got 2000 miles out my last set of tyres he he!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trick if you want to induce sideways action is simple really. The principle is to get too much wheel rotation, forcing the tyres to lose traction. This can happen when the road is slippy, but you can easily induce it yourself by getting the revs up then slipping the clutch with a bit of lock on. If you let a bit of clutch out then you may set off with perfect traction, but keep easing the clutch, (keeping the revs up into turbo boost territory on a tt -say 3500rpm min, not sure in an NA, but 4500 should be plenty!), and the end will go out - even in the dry.

 

If you've never done this before, then the advice about private airstrips and car parks is good - you can donut a 300 all day long if you can afford the tyres!

 

And I agree, they do handle quite predictably and are easily balanced with the throttle, if youknow what you're doing.

 

I managed nearly 100yrds sidewards up a motorway slip road, doing around 85mph! - great fun. :D

Mate definatly practice on a big open car park with no obsticles.

 

The Z is pretty controllable, but can catch you off guard, check out the vid clip on my recent post where i go to scare J holding the camera, and it slides + back wheel lifts!!!! thats partly cause of the mega stiff suspension set up i've got tho, but still, if you aint expecting that sort of thing then it can catch you out big time!!! thing is, always respect the power when going sideways, and never ever get over confident with it.

 

Good fun tho :D

steve - where's this clip??

Just what I was going to ask. When I had foolishly taken the car out in the snow I discovered how flippin dangerous it was. The back end just had no grip whatsoever. It just slid all over the road. People were looking at me like I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't. Will not take it out in the snow ever again. But I would like to be able to do a controlled slip- know how to control the back end round a corner. Like in that Jap Performance article- saying using the throttle to steer. Don't think I'm quite brave enough.

Trust me once you get used to it you won't want to take corners properly anymore!

 

The natural reaction when it starts to go out is to lift off the throttle - this is where most people say cars are 'dangerous' or 'poor handling' in the wet, as the car over compensates and waggles down (or off!) the road. Equally as ignorant is putting on too much juice when it slips. This just pushes the end out further and unless you have enough space and a bit of traction then you just spin around in a 180 or worse.

 

The trick is to balance the throttle with a bit of reverse lock. Get it right and you can travel for miles sidewards.

 

And it's true, Few people have got this off quite as well as Tiff Needel. Years of practice is all it takes!

under general, the one that says my mental sounding z..

thats the only real thing i miss about not having a z anymore no more sideways doughnut antics but i sure as shit dont miss anything else

what are you driving now then tooley?

gone back to the blue oval m8 its a lot cheaper and i can now drive over bumps without tearing the front off and best of all i dont have to put juice in every day

who bought your Z? anybody from here?

a guy from cardiff brought it i did tell him about the site but as yet i dont think ive seen him on here

ah thats too bad, i liked your old Z

Nigel's about covered it but there are several other ways to start a drift... but most of them you either get right or wrong and it's harder to recover if you cock them up! (And some of them I don't plan to try, for instance, using shift lock!)

 

That said, you probably already know the arse will come out if you brake too hard whilst steering - so when it does you steer the other way and give it some throttle (but not ALL the throttle as Nige says). Works lovely in the daily driver (erm, not the one I'm selling, of COURSE :D )

 

Wouldn't try that one in the Z in the wet though!

 

In fact if you're in any kind of oversteer / putative spin touching the brake is usually the worst thing you can do - if you must panic and stamp on a pedal, stamp on the accelerator!

 

Can someone recommend a half-decent DVD with all this on?

 

Here's a short vid with them all on - commentary in Japanese but you get the idea...

 

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~zevans/jap%20drift.ram

Tooley me old pal a blue oval can be a fiesta diesel or a GT500 Mustang

can u be a bit more specific? we wont laugh if its a KA convertable :D:D

Paul

Tooley me old pal a blue oval can be a fiesta diesel or a GT500 Mustang

can u be a bit more specific? we wont laugh if its a KA convertable :D:D

Paul

 

Speek for yourself m8, i'd be pi$$ing myself laughing. :rofl: :mac1:

st200 m8......not a 300 maybe but so much less worrying and with a full alpine f1 status build going in im happy for now.....i have to say though im a lot happier buying things for this one 19'' wheels with tyres for £1100 was a bonus and i can now go to the cruises and not have to worry about losing a set of rears cant help but feel though that they missed out by making them front wheel drive