I've been waiting for it to rain so I can do powerslides. My 8 is the first RWD car I've owned and I've always wanted to do that. I know theres not enough torque to do that in the dry but I actually had a lot of trouble in the rain even. I would go into corners hard and floor it and the thing just gripped and kept on gripping! Does the traction control turn off completely?

 

Try a lower gear........and be carefull! It would suck to damage your car doing that.

 

Be safe!! Please don't try this on busy roads. Find an empty parking lot and enjoy. You should probably get more used to driving the car before attempting powerslides.....ah well, you remind me of myself!!

Start your car and depress the DSC/TCS button for 7+ seconds. This will turn off traction control 100%.

- Irish

 

See the handling on the RX-8 is too good for the rear tires to loose traction . When you floor it on a turn try to be over 7000rpm

 

not if you turn of DSC/TSC...the wheels will come under you and soon you'll be a drifting king (although it wont be pretty) don't drive without DSC/TSC normally unless you have vast experience with RWD cars, last thing we need is a pic of your car wrapped around a tree cause you let the clutch out with no gas on a turn

 

are you kidding me? i went through a set of tires doing it when it was dry out...you can totally do it when its dry if you know wht your doing..be carefull

 

Warning!!!!! when tires cold on dry weather tires spin easily.

 

If my 100hp Celica could do powerslides and burnouts, the '8 certainly has enough torque. Completely disable the DSC/TCS system and have fun... but stick with parking lots until you have some idea how to handle a RWD tail-happy car. I personally can't wait for snow to get here to have some real fun :D

 

You don't need to have power to drift the car.

Oh power slide.. I am sorry - it can for sure - 2nd gear floor it from 50kmh - no problem.

 

You have to hold the DSC button for 7 seconds huh? Didnt know that! Well that kinda explains it then! Damn the rain just stopped so I can't try it now! Actually I'm pretty careful about it and I don't do it on busy roads. I've tried it in 2nd gear usually but the revs probably were under 5K, but I didn't want to gun it in 1st. G8Rboy, you can't do powerslides in a FWD car. You just end up understeering off the road. Its also a lot easier to spin the front tires then back tires cuz of weight transfer. I do that in my civic si all the time =) . BTW I was driving really fast on an onramp doing about 60mph when I realized the road was wet from the stupid sprinklers ( I should sue the city), and my 8 slid through it but never got out of shape.. I didn't even do much with the steering so I guess the DSC really works! At first I thought, man I'm good..then I realized that was really easy and remembered my DSC system..heehee.

 

You must be a youngster Monkey... I had a Celica GT before Toyota turned them into FWD like every other rice burner POS. I don't drive FWD cars... they're crap!

 

Naww... im an old monkey, just immature heehee. Sorry I forgot they use to be RWD, its been awhile since they made them.

 

1) You can't "power"slide in a FWD car, but you can slide/drift, whatever the heck you want to call it. Just lift the throttle at the right moment, and your rear snakes loose rather easily. The 6's are well known for this fact, especially the 6i's.

Here's an excellent example of a FWD car swinging out the rear.
http://www.uncontrived.com/images/ma...bach_drift.wmv

2) Try going to a local autocross run by a club (not an SCCA one). Many of the club run autocrosses are very laid back, give you alot of runs (6+) and are relatively inexpensive (25-30 dollars).

Autocrossing will give you a "legal" area in which to play with your power on oversteer. Not only that, you'll learn how to drive better, and possibly learn that "drifting" is usually the "wrong way" to go through a turn the fastest.

And you won't endanger anyone on the road who happens to come swinging around the corner at the same time your sliding like a madman.

 

Exactly, I have tried clutch kiking on wet and dry and it works beutyfull.

Just dont over do it remember your driveshaft is carbon fiber and although very good exesive revs when clutch kiking and repetitive drifting will shorten the life of your drive shaft, limited slip diff., suspension, breaks, clutch and obiously tires.

Have fun, the closest thing I can compare to drifting an 8 is Olimpic ice skating. All of the power grace elegance and fun you can have without a hangover the next day

 

Yeah... In the North Alabama area (us) there is the Twickingham Auto Club. We just celebrated the 50th anniversay of the club with a TSD rally and an autocross... Even with 60+ cars for the anniversary at the autocross we managed to get in 7 runs per driver. TAC has at least 1 autocross a month, and each one is a blast, cause everyone is there to have fun. Try to find a club in your area and go to one of their autox's.

One thing I have heard that may help you "drift" if a FWD is if you put cafeteria trays under your back wheels and pull the ebrake.... Floor it , turn the wheel and voila... Instant Drift :D

 

dood. if ur not sliding even in the rain its cuz ur not driving it right. wut u wanna do is go into a turn at (if ur in rain and a beginner start at around 30-40 mph) in 3rd gear go into the turn. clutch in and gear to 2nd before the turn. keep in mind to be off the gas throughout ur slide. once ur at the turn turn hard and just clutch out no gas. get off all pedals. ur back should whip out and at ur speed in the rain u'll prolly want to countersteer or ur car will spinout. once uve gone thru the corner and want to straighten out again completely let go of the wheel when the car gets straight grab hold again (this part is more of feel than actually when the car is straight) as u do this feather the gas until u get traction then drive it out. i suggest practicing in rain cuz dry u need more speed plus we dont have an ebrake to keep it sideways fer long.

 

Damn j0 and your RWD!!!!! 60+ cars and 7 runs each is fantastic! I think we had about 40-50 at the local MSCW one (I got 10 runs cause I cheated with re-runs ).

 

 

I wasnt trying to drift the car, that requires a lot of speed going into the corner and I wasnt sure how much grip my 8 has in the rain. I was trying to powerslide it out of the turn which is different from drifting. You can drift any kind of car, but you can only powerslide a RWD car under power. Thats what I wasn't able to do...probably cuz the traction control wasnt completely disabled. Someone mentioned you need to press the DSC button for 7 seconds to completely disable it.

 

So you havent been able to do it yet?

Remember that the faster you go the more agresive you have to be on the power slide to be able to break the rear wheels free. Also giving more potential to a posible accident.

Try downshifting just before the curb, reving it to 6000 or 7000 just before the apex and letting go of the clutch. I would recomend starting on a 30 mph 2nd gear corner and working your way up. when you break those rear tires of the ground it slides like it's floating on top of the pavement and you might loose control.

 

yup it's actually about 10 seconds, there's an empty parking lot near my house, I have an auto and I just , slam the gas and start cutting the wheel and when I feel my my control start giving way I let go of the gas turn the away and slam the gas and I did a 180 degree slide. Dry as a bone outside too..

 

He should be able to slide without holding it. I never hold the button down anymore. I really feel like it does nothing. I experience no difference between press and hold when I am slide happy.

Do any of you have any specific anecdotes of a time when you felt the difference in just pushing, and holding the button in?

 

Wow, EVERYTIME, if I don't hold it down, I can feel the tires struggling and keeping the tires from sliding.

 

YES! We left the DSC on the first time we took it on an autox course, and you can DEFINATELY feel it try to keep the bodyroll down and prevent too much slide/drift/whatever. We thought we were hitting cones, but it was just the dsc kicking in. I does work and you can feel the difference.


EDIT: oh wait... you said difference between pressing and holding... DOH...

 

I also forgot to disable it on one of my autocross runs... it was horrible. The first time I went to toss the tail out through a chicane I felt that 'clunk' of DSC clamping one of the brakes... and I knew my run was shot. I tried to make the best of it, but was still several seconds slower than the rest of my runs. My best run of that day was a *****-to-the-wall drift through the entire course, with the tires spinning the whole time (and DSC obviously disabled). I was just having fun with my last run, and didn't expect it to be my best.