Hi All,

I am new to RX8 and new to Rear-Wheel Driven cars.

I need some advice on handling this ride.

Been driving Front-Driven cars all my life.

It got a bit scary when I try to do cornering like what I usually did.

I have not done anything to the suspension and currently still on stock rims.

Any advice for a newbie like me will be appreciated.

Thanks and hope to meet you guys soon.

I only drives my 8 on weekends.

 

Keep the DSC on...

Traction is about contact patches. Contact patches are the part of the tire that is on the ground. You will have more traction with wider tires, or when there is MORE WEIGHT over a normal sized tire. Tires need traction to steer and accelerate. Accelleration goes both ways, faster and slower. A tire that is doing both things, needs the weight of the car over it. Thankfully, the RX8 is a pretty much perferct 50-50 weight distribution. This allows you to control your contact patches well. If you are trying to break and turn, the weight has to be over the front wheels, as they are the tires that point your car. Luckily, the act of breaking will inherently shift the weight towards the front. Coming out of a corner, the rear tires will try and break loose, if you have not properly loaded them with weight. You do this by getting off the breaks, balancing the car, and blipping, or easing into the throttle before really stepping on it. Countersteer if you do break loose. What I mean by that is that you will steer in the direction that the rear of your car is headed. If you live where it snows, put weight in the trunk(sandbags or similar) to add to your weight advantage, just be conscious of this when trying to break and steer concurrently.

A FWD car is much easier to drive. The main breaking, steering and accellerating wheels are all the same. The rear wheels are mostly riding along. Coincidentally, FWD cars have and engine and transaxle directly above these wheels, making them usually 60/40 or better Front biased. They get to be point and shoot, steer where you want to go, that's it. This does however cause significant understeer. UNdersteer is when the front tires are trying to do too much, loose traction and the arc of your cuyrve is wider then the steering angle you have input. The RX8 does not really have this feeling. It has a slight tendancy to oversteer, which is the fishtail feeling you hear of, where your car is turning faster then you tell it to. The weight balance of the car makes this quite possible, and enjoyable I might add once you are comfortable. The DSC is a pretty good nanny that will keep you in control, slightly after a bit of breakaway. Once you have some experience, you can have a VERY comfortable feel with the limit, and the RX8 is as manageable around the limit(with DSC off)as nearly any car I have driven. Traction is a mere lift of the right foot away.

Anyone else have anything to add?

 

obviously you'll have some anxiety doing it the first time .. when the car responds differently than a fwd would

just keep trying .. see what happens and as time goes on raise the bar

the car is one of the easier rwd's to drive
is very predictable and any rear wheel slip ups are easily correctable

ohh yeah .. traction switched to off in warm temps for sure .. it sucks to have it cut into your driving .. in cold temps id say under 50F .. whats that maybe 10C .. you may as well have it on .. cause the stock tires will get loose in every turn if you dont control your speed

btw the dsc button has two modes if you dont know

- traction on/off, which you can switch back and forth
- stability off, which you switch off by holding the thing down for 8 secs or so .. driving-wise no diff .. but it cuts off abs so you may or may not like it

for practical purposes i always turn traction off and dont bother with the other setting

so with that said .. you need to adjust your merging/pulling off the side strategy a bit to include the sideways travel your car will be doing

with a fwd the wheels spin and just go wherever they're pointed .. with a rwd you have to point into the turn as in cutting the turn .. what happens though, when you rears slip, the rear starts coming around and to correct you naturally counter-steer out of the turn and now the car just goes sideways out of the turn at the same time gaining speed

so if you havent started into the turn now your on the other side's curb .. or better yet bouncing off the car in the right lane .. hehe .. its fun .. i have this annoying left turn out of a side street on my way back home from work .. so basically i wait for a gap in the left lane .. launch into oncoming traffic and slide into the guys in the right lane .. some did break before .. one actually flashed their lights .. ohh well, like i said it's fun .. they need to get a better ride and live it up

enjoy

 

If you can find a big, empty parking lot, I would go there and practice taking turns at higher and higher speeds.

Does it snow where you are? If so, make sure your 8 has winter tires. And again, head to the empty parking lot on a snowy day and practice starting from a standstill, stopping, and turning. After about 30 minutes, you'll have a much better feel for it. (Personally, I don't like putting extra weight in the trunk, though many do. It only helps you get moving from a stop, but I believe that if you really get a feel for the car—not hard to do—the extra weight is unnecessary, and makes the car a little unbalanced, weight-wise. Just my opinion.)

 

Great Advice! Thanks alot!

 

Right Buddy! Cheers!

 

No, it does not snow here in Singapore.

I have loaded my boot with golf clubs and car wash items, hopefully that will create some weight balancing.

Thanks!

 

That won't be enough weight to really make a difference and you need to get used to it anyway. For now.......leave DCS and TCS on all the time! Wait until you get the feel and have had more experience before turning that off. I gues I never realized how many young people out there may yhave never driven a rear wheel drive car before. Uh..............I guess that means I'm older than dirt!

 

+1

People can give advice all day long and wont do ***** till you get out and do it.

 

My only RWD car was way back. It's taking some time for me to get used to RWD but I'm loving it. First winter with the 8 and RWD coming up. Good luck, Turbo.

 

why would you put weight in the back of a near 50/50 weight balanced car? If you want better traction get better tires. Messing with weight distribution will effect the way the car handles/reacts in a poor manner. The added grip with weight would be marginal at best, and not warrant doing so with the trade off for poor handling if you lose the back end.

 

yes, i agree with champion, the only time you would want the weight in the back is in the winter. even though the car is posi so it gets good traction, unlike mustangs where the right rear wheel just sits there and spins.

 

Oh no, I am not young as well.....

 

Thanks dude!

 

Just take some WD-40 and spray it on the rear tires.

You'll learn real fast!

 

Donute + Drifting using WD-40?