[Nocturne]

The other day I was driving my Z to Willow Springs for some drifting fun in the rain. I don’t usually drive my Z in the rain, and I wanted to get a feel for it.

I’m driving down the freeway in very light rain, not enough to even run the wipers. Cruising along at about 55-60 MPH in a 65 MPH freeway, with people passing me all the time.

All the sudden the car starts hydroplaning, and gently spinning to the right. I'm in the center of three lanes, check my mirrors and nobody behind me for about 30 car lengths. The car just keeps spinning.

I turn into the spin, let off the gas, and patiently wait for some traction - which never comes. The car spins all the way around 180, I'm looking at the cars behind me and I'm just in utter disbelief. The Z spins another 90 and then goes off the freeway into the center divider. (Just open muddy dirt - no wall)

The car hits the mud, jerks and spins fast another 180 to a dead halt facing the freeway. Not once did I get an ounce of traction, and it felt like it took forever. My tires are less then one month old, and they still hydroplaned at low speeds in light rain.

Not a single car that watches me spin off the freeway stops to check that I'm OK.

Needless to say I never made it to Willow. The Z doesn't have a mark on her, other then a bunch of mud. Still it scared the hell out of me. I don’t think I have ever felt so helpless, like there was nothing I could do but watch and prey.

Anyone else had a slow spin like this in there Z?

Does anyone know why when you spin out the car doesn't want to restart? I had to run the ignition for like 60 seconds before it would start again, but it runs fine now...

 

[FULL MOON]

What tires are you running? I have Kumho MX tires on my 03, and I have been pleased so far on dry pavement.I plan on driving to the fest,and was wondering if I should put stock tires back on since they are new with only 300 miles on them.Kumho don't look like good wet weather tires..Also I know here in Fl that if it has not rained in awhile and we get a quick rain,but not very hard the oil on the roads is very bad and will take a while to wash off....Glad you did not damage your car.. o:

 

[IT L GO]

The Goodyear F1 Supercar tires are great on dry but very poor in the wet. Was active handling on or off? :cheers:

.

 

[MSiska]

The Kumho's are a much better rain tire than stock. Still, with as light a rear as the Z06 has, you still need to be careful. :yeadog:

 

[smithsc]

I drove down to Austin for Thanksgiving in the Z. Hit sporadic rain until Dallas and then heavier. The rear end was all over the place. Still got the stock F1's on with 12,000 miles.

Looking to go to the Nitto RII's next. (and avoid the rain)

Steve

 

[COUTO1981]

My rear end doesnt scare me being all ovet the place, I do it on purpose all the time anyway, its the front end and Hydroplanning. Its not so much the F1s that have poor wet traction, its the 295 width that makes them lift on top water easily, but with Active Handling on, that should of never happen! The Vettes Active Handling and Traction Control is the best I've seen on any car, I had a mustang and the Traction Control would only come on after a while of spinning, and even then if I wanted to I could just keep feeding it fuel and the Traction Control would quit trying, now if the Z06 had that kinda of Traction Control and especially that poor of Active Handling then we could almost never drive it in the rain,

Now if you had the Active handling off then I would understand, and the traction control does nothing for hydropplaning, because useually all four are above water, theres nothing it could tell by, but the active handling would come on because {I BELIEVE} it senses reallity of the cars angle, not just by the tire rotation movement!? :drunken:

 

[IMOChildress3]

Not a single car that watches me spin off the freeway stops to check that I'm OK.

:cen: POS So. Californians. :flaming:

Glad to hear you are OK.

My experience with the F1 SC's are similar to smithsc's.

 

[405HP_Z06]

I did a two day HPDE at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas on the stock F1 Supercars. It rained hard the whole weekend, so much rain that the main straight was a small river. I had no complaints at all with the F1 SC's. It was actually doing very well compared to other cars. I ran with the TC/AH on the whole time.

There was a C5 at the event that had the Nitto RII's and couldn't get ANY traction in the rain. Confirmation for ME that I didn't want the Nitto's since my car is a daily driver...rain or shine.

I'm looking at the Michelin PS2's as my next tires.

 

[Ronald Olson]

F1 Super Tires

This sunday was coming bach home it started to rain & snow it was 32% out side And did it get bad ???? Cars all over in the deiches . I had to go 280 miles :jawdrop: I was thinking was driving the new C 6 Z06 With all that power. :thumb: it was a littie Fun :bs: It all was gust to see a Woman ?? :crazy: Minnsota gets bad . Its a good place to test a Z06 out :NoNo:

 

[PerforminNorman]

My 02 was horrible on the highway in rain. It tried to swap ends a few times on me. I had the Supercar F1s on it.

 

[SMFCPACFP]

I have 34,000 miles with the F1 supercar tires. These tires are great on the dry and damp.

They aren't good in standing water, really they are pretty scary. I just slow down to 50 mph and take it easy.

 

[Penforhire]

My worn out F1SC's feel like they hydroplane at 15 MPH! Even when never I never felt like they were good wet tires.

 

[Nocturne]

My tires were 295/30/18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cups in the front and 305/35/18 Nitto 555 RII's in the rear. I had TC/AH both on, the normal default for the car. The tires should have been reasonable warm after 1 hour of street driving, but not at track temps. They are a very soft compound tire.

Now I would expect the rears to hydroplane, and that wouldn't be a problem. The fronts were the problem. When the fronts planed it was all over.

I guess the surprise for me was how long it stayed hydroplaned. Down here in So. Cal. they don't make roads to handle drainage like other states. The roads are not angled much and you frequently hit puddles of standing water while driving.

Normally you get just short little hydroplanes, and then as the car slows down you get traction. That didn't happen this time. The car hydroplaned and started a slow spin. I expected as the car would slow I would eventually get traction, but it never did.

I guess with a radial asymetric tread pattern, when the tires are more then 45 degrees off rotation - they probably won't tread water from a side angle.

I'm glad everything turned out ok, 10 min before and I would have hit a dividing wall or other cars. It definately was a shake-up.

Does anyone know the car wouldn't start after the spin out? I have spun a number of different cars on the track and they all do the same thing. Not sure why it happens.

 

[RC45]

If it was light fresh rain, I am going with the "slick road surface" theory.

The same thing around these parts after a long dry spell. First rain lifts the oil and creates a great big ribbon of Slip 'n Slide.. only this one is made of concrete and steel

 

[ZO6 AL-X]

No Problem Here

Nocturne:

I am still riding on the original F1s that my car came with new. Yep, they have 24,000 miles on them! The front ones aren't bad, but, I'm riding on the wear bars on the rear tires. Some people would refer to them as "bald".

Anyhow, I was on the freeway the other day when it was pouring rain; I was headed to Encino so I was on the 405. I was sure that I would have a hard time controlling the car. Well, I was able to drive fine the entire time; AND I was driving the car at very near the speed limit the entire time!

Again, this was NOT light rain. It was coming down pretty hard. I just make sure not to slam on my brakes and not to take turns too fast.

You know the Sepulveda Pass, don't you? Another time, I was driving from Sherman Oaks to Westwood on the Pass right after it had rained and I had no problem with that either. I wasn't doing anything crazy, I was driving at the speed limit - or maybe just a mile or two above the speed limit .

Once, going through the Pass, I was pushing it a little in the turns (in light rain - near Mulholland) and the car would slide outside my lane and my AH would correct the car and "put" me back in my lane. This scared me the first time but, I thought it was fun and did it over and over again. :thumb:

My car is very close to stock, so I know my car doesn't compare to yours. Are you sure you weren't playing with all that power you have on that thing?

Be careful out there. When it rains, she's a doozie (sp?).

Alex

 

[Nocturne]

Alex: I don't think it was a power related hydroplane. I get those all the time. p:

Normally with my car the rear tires spin in the rain everytime I take off, regardless of how carefully I feather the clutch. First gear is really bad, so in the rain I take off from stops in second as slow as I can. Between the extra torque of the 427 and my lightweight clutch, spinning the rear tires is kind of normal.

Basically the rears just spin a little until the car gets enough forward motion to handle the torqe. The nice thing is A/H kicks in and the car doesn't move sideways much, it just spins and stays straight until the rears hookup. I don't really think about it, I'm just used to it.

When the rears loose traction it is never a problem for me, personally I think it is kind of fun. I have done the exact same drive on the Sepulveda Pass as it wasn't any problem. Actually the whole reason I was going to Willow was to practice some drifting, but I wasn't planing on loosing the front tires.

On that particular day I drove from Manhatten Beach to Rosemond (Willow Springs) in the rain for about 1 hour and never had a problem, until the spin. It had been raining harder, but I never had any hydroplaning that lasted more then 2-3 seconds.

I suppose it could have be an extra slick surface I hit, but it has been raining for days already.

I think I need to get my suspension tweaked a bit. Since I added the new wider front tires the steering is a bit hyper. The car wants to follow every groove in the road and she doesn't like to drive straight very much.

I suppose I could always downtune the engine... :lol: j/k

 

[BQuicksilver]

I've been amazed at the wet performancew with my Kumho MX's. I'm at the wear bars now and they still have not hydroplaned in lots of wet weather driving. They are only weak in cold weather, as they really get hard and don't hook under 40degF. Oh yeah, they stink in snow...but duh.

 

[ZO6 AL-X]

Alex: I don't think it was a power related hydroplane. I get those all the time. p:

Normally with my car the rear tires spin in the rain everytime I take off, regardless of how carefully I feather the clutch. First gear is really bad, so in the rain I take off from stops in second as slow as I can. Between the extra torque of the 427 and my lightweight clutch, spinning the rear tires is kind of normal.

Basically the rears just spin a little until the car gets enough forward motion to handle the torqe. The nice thing is A/H kicks in and the car doesn't move sideways much, it just spins and stays straight until the rears hookup. I don't really think about it, I'm just used to it.

When the rears loose traction it is never a problem for me, personally I think it is kind of fun. I have done the exact same drive on the Sepulveda Pass as it wasn't any problem. Actually the whole reason I was going to Willow was to practice some drifting, but I wasn't planing on loosing the front tires.

On that particular day I drove from Manhatten Beach to Rosemond (Willow Springs) in the rain for about 1 hour and never had a problem, until the spin. It had been raining harder, but I never had any hydroplaning that lasted more then 2-3 seconds.

I suppose it could have be an extra slick surface I hit, but it has been raining for days already.

I think I need to get my suspension tweaked a bit. Since I added the new wider front tires the steering is a bit hyper. The car wants to follow every groove in the road and she doesn't like to drive straight very much.

I suppose I could always downtune the engine... :lol: j/k

You don't have to downtune the engine... we can just trade cars. :lol: :lol:

 

[COUTO1981]

Actually guys, I even got stuck in a snow storm , and went slow, calm, and with the Active Handling on, had no problems