Lethal in the wet ???
Discussion
I had an incident a couple of weeks ago in which whilst accelerating in third gear, I lost traction on the back wheels, at about 4000 revs.
I,ve put the above down to my poor driving skills.
Last night, slightly damp, I changed up into 3rd gear, let go of the clutch & I'm showing 1500 revs, accelerate, to 3000 revs, when the rear end lets go again, back end goes out, off the revs & the car gets back in shape.
Again, no doubt my poor driving, not being used to such a powerfull car etc. etc.
Do they all do this ?
To obtain wheelspin in any other car I've driven, Its been down to lots of revs & letting go of the clutch quick.
This car seems to do it mid revs, when I've already got traction, one second im accelerating, the next I'm facing east, rapidly followed by west.
This has undermined my confidence somewhat & I'm going to book some driving tuition, just wondered if my car is doing the norm or is something wrong.
I,ve put the above down to my poor driving skills.
Last night, slightly damp, I changed up into 3rd gear, let go of the clutch & I'm showing 1500 revs, accelerate, to 3000 revs, when the rear end lets go again, back end goes out, off the revs & the car gets back in shape.
Again, no doubt my poor driving, not being used to such a powerfull car etc. etc.
Do they all do this ?
To obtain wheelspin in any other car I've driven, Its been down to lots of revs & letting go of the clutch quick.
This car seems to do it mid revs, when I've already got traction, one second im accelerating, the next I'm facing east, rapidly followed by west.
This has undermined my confidence somewhat & I'm going to book some driving tuition, just wondered if my car is doing the norm or is something wrong.
afternoon Russ, basically they all do this, its a power to weight thing!! I was very tail happy when I first got her, then scared myself a couple of times and have calmed down A LOT, I have a full Ride n Drive day booked on Monday so hopefully should have her dancing again next week!! Good luck, take it easy, be progressive and try and practise on open ground (B&Q Car park!!)
Do you know if your car has a hydratrak LSD fitted?
If so I can't really give any possible reasons except it might just have been a naturally slippy road surface made worse by being damp. All my experience has been with a Cerbera fitted with an LSD.
Edited to delete an errant "not"
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Wednesday 4th February 14:37
If so I can't really give any possible reasons except it might just have been a naturally slippy road surface made worse by being damp. All my experience has been with a Cerbera fitted with an LSD.
Edited to delete an errant "not"
>> Edited by FourWheelDrift on Wednesday 4th February 14:37
It has got the hydratrak fitted & in the dry I've felt it working, when the car fishtailed whilst accelerating, but I felt in control, & letting off the revs, staightened him up (It's definately not a "HER").
But in the wet, It seems to have no effect.
Don't get me wrong, I can build the revs up slowly & not have a problem, I could also use the miss's metro.
But the car letting go mid rev range (when I would least expect it) tends to make my heart stop.
But in the wet, It seems to have no effect.
Don't get me wrong, I can build the revs up slowly & not have a problem, I could also use the miss's metro.
But the car letting go mid rev range (when I would least expect it) tends to make my heart stop.
The Cerbera is pretty forgiving compared to Griffs and Chimaeras. I suspect the problem is driver control as you say. A common mistake is to floor the accelerator rather than feeding it in. In dry conditions you can get away with flooring it and not necessarily being in a straight line. In anything else, the grip is greatly reduced and flooring it is guarenteed to give trouble.
Might be worth getting some tuition to learn how to adapt to the conditions.
Might be worth getting some tuition to learn how to adapt to the conditions.
shpub said:
The Cerbera is pretty forgiving compared to Griffs and Chimaeras.
Absolutely: it depends on what you've been used to before the Cerb.
IMO Be very careful in Cerb when overtaking in the wet: the excitement of the situation, and the camber change often result in too much torque for the grip available, and you tend to have much less space to save the tailwag.
RUSSELLM said:
Will check the tyres & the 4000 revs mark is where I've hit problems, but I'll get the tuition booked.
The 4000 mark is where the engine comes on cam and all hell lets loose. Similar to a Turbo kick. That sudden increase is what causes the problem. It really is a question of practice to learn how to feed the power in so that the kick is smoothed out a bit so that it doesn't cause any problems.
>> Edited by Big Al. on Wednesday 4th February 15:01
RUSSELLM said:
I had an incident a couple of weeks ago in which whilst accelerating in third gear, I lost traction on the back wheels, at about 4000 revs.
I,ve put the above down to my poor driving skills.
Last night, slightly damp, I changed up into 3rd gear, let go of the clutch & I'm showing 1500 revs, accelerate, to 3000 revs, when the rear end lets go again, back end goes out, off the revs & the car gets back in shape.
Again, no doubt my poor driving, not being used to such a powerfull car etc. etc.
Do they all do this ?
To obtain wheelspin in any other car I've driven, Its been down to lots of revs & letting go of the clutch quick.
This car seems to do it mid revs, when I've already got traction, one second im accelerating, the next I'm facing east, rapidly followed by west.
This has undermined my confidence somewhat & I'm going to book some driving tuition, just wondered if my car is doing the norm or is something wrong.
Upto 3rd gear is usual on wet/moist roads, upto 2nd on dry. I had a wheel spin and sway in 4th gear on a moist road although mild road rage was involved too.
Unrelated to all this, did you notice how beautifully it balances itself again and moves on.
Hi julian, basically , yes.
Not neccesarily flooring it either,
The first time this happened my dad was keeping up with me in an old Jensen, he might have the same
power, but he was pushing two two a half tonnes along.
Basically, I'm saying that, if the road is not perfectly dry, the works transit van gets away quicker than my car.
And feels a lot safer doing it.
Not neccesarily flooring it either,
The first time this happened my dad was keeping up with me in an old Jensen, he might have the same
power, but he was pushing two two a half tonnes along.
Basically, I'm saying that, if the road is not perfectly dry, the works transit van gets away quicker than my car.
And feels a lot safer doing it.
[serious head on 
]
have you modded anything, got original springs, antiroll bars, uneven wear on tyres, cos all joking apart and before you spend money on your driving skills so you can out accelerate your transit, I would suggest an alignment.
Had a similar thing with the BMW after I replaced the rear swing arm and before I'd tracked the car.
Call me a psychic, but i very much doubt this is a driver skill issue.
If you live near brands hatch I can offer you the use of my lift to have a look for something broken/bent.
edited to say oops, just seen where you live.
>> Edited by Julian64 on Wednesday 4th February 15:25
] have you modded anything, got original springs, antiroll bars, uneven wear on tyres, cos all joking apart and before you spend money on your driving skills so you can out accelerate your transit, I would suggest an alignment.
Had a similar thing with the BMW after I replaced the rear swing arm and before I'd tracked the car.
Call me a psychic, but i very much doubt this is a driver skill issue.
If you live near brands hatch I can offer you the use of my lift to have a look for something broken/bent.
edited to say oops, just seen where you live.
>> Edited by Julian64 on Wednesday 4th February 15:25
As 5-10% of new TVR owners smash the car up in single vehicle accidents... it usually is a driver issue unfortunately.
Can be compounded by the car but even when they are setup perfectly, the wrong driver inputs can induce all sorts of tail wagging just as has been described. Put the car in the hands of someone more experienced and suddenly the car is transformed.
Can be compounded by the car but even when they are setup perfectly, the wrong driver inputs can induce all sorts of tail wagging just as has been described. Put the car in the hands of someone more experienced and suddenly the car is transformed.
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