"Rear wheel drive is great but it has it disadvantages in our Canadian climate. You cannot accelerate on slipper/icy/snowy roads or you will fish tail. FWD is far superior for poor road conditions because it always pulls and will straighten out your car."

Actually, with FWD you have less steering control since your front tires have to share the limited traction between steering and pulling the car.

I don't really see FWD as really safer than RWD.

 

you might not see it but you have obviously never drove front wheel drive on ice. pulling on ice or snow is so much better. fish tailing the rear end on rwd is easy to do in poor conditions.

this is silly to even argue.

 

I stand correct regarding the steering issue!

I just very recently drove my sister's Protege5 in the rain and it's so funny how easy it is to make the car oversteer and drift while driving at like 50 klicks! And she has Dunlop SP Sport 4000s on her car.

Take a look at this article about the issue of FWD and RWD:

http://www.corollaperformance.com/TechInfo/RWD.html

I honestly have never had a problem with the sedan, as long as you drive sensibly with the VDC on and a decent set of Good Year Eagle RS-As or even better if you put on snows!

 

Wow if you can drift a FWD car easily you must have some serious racing skills because thats hard to do.

Having driven FWD for many years and never having fishtailed out of a corner, and then getting the G35 my first RWD car, I found out very quickly what oversteer was. In the first week I made a left turn too quickly - the rear slid out and then VDC/SLIP came on and saved me. Scared me so much I had second thoughts about RWD.

I tried this last winter - I stomped on the accelerator on snow/ice while keeping the steering wheel straight, and in a FWD car the wheels spun but the car stayed straight, but in a RWD car the wheels spun and the car fishtailed.

 

"I found out very quickly what oversteer was. In the first week I made a left turn too quickly - the rear slid out and then VDC/SLIP came on and saved me."

hmm, i usually turn turn off the vdc for this, it is a lot more fun! i admit, the first time was a bit scary, but once you get the hang of looking out you side windows, it's all good

jeremy

2003 G35 Coupe 6MT

 

I find it ironic that I can actually thank my parents now for having owned only, large clunker 'beasts' while I was growing up. First a 1975 Mercury Marquis (Uncle Buck anyone? He had a 2-door, we had a FOUR door). Then a 1978 Chevy Impala (old police car) and finally a 1984 Pontiac Bonneville.

All P.O.S.'s, but ALL rear-wheel drive. Ahhh, how I do miss making donuts with them behind the Dominion on late snowy nights. I will definitely NOT be doing that with my G this year.

Al

2004 G35 Coupe 6MT - Silverstone // 8-wire Grounding Gear // Clear corners // debadged-Skyline on back // 32% tint around

 

Greeting my G35c brothers, I was away in London England, and did not have a chance to check out my post. I was quite surprised at how many individuals responded to my query etc. See the thing is the roads were not wet, snowwy, icy, its was plain dry etc..and while Im already driving at a fair speed this fish tailing occurred, it just did not seem right. I would not think that such a vehicle would fish tail so eaily when already driving and the road conditions or normal.

 

I felt exactly the same way - the roads were dry too and was cursing at how easily the car fish tails. However, I came to realize it was me driving too hard and all those years being used to a low torque FWD car. I came to respect our cars with RWD and with so much torque that I don't stomp on the accelerator while making a turn...

 

Ok, so the roads were not wet. You confused us by saying that they were in your first post....[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img].

The only other way you'll start to fish tail is by overpowering the rear wheels -- if it was at speed then you'd prolly have to power shift to break the wheels loose. Perhaps the rpms where still high when you shifted and you didn't notice.

Hope your trip to London was a good one.

C.

<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=black>Silverstone Coupe</font color=black>

 

I too have had this happen on perfectly dry roads. I wasn't going at break neck speeds either, but what I WAS doing was going into a turn, usually a right hander and trying to power through it sharply. (and before everyone starts harping in on me!) I realize that is the case with all this power, but is there anything to lessen that? Wider tires? Stickier tires? (but I always thought these Pilots were the bomb!) Lowering springs? Anything?

But you all have to agree that it is a *wee-bit" off putting to have such a quality vehicle that does this... you wouldn't see a Porsche doing this would you now?

Al

 

Yes lowering, wider tires, and larger, stiffer sways would help.

Don't forget that nothing will help road imperfections, or debris on the road tho. You occasionally run into gravel, sand, dampness, leaves, ice and the like.
Those are the times the VDC does a great job of saving our butts.
C.

<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=black>Silverstone Coupe</font color=black>

 

Consumer Reports mentioned this too, that when pushed to the limits the rear could slide out unexpectedly despite the VDC. They didn't mention this problem w/ other RWD cars, making me wonder why the G35.

 

So It's November. I was told that the Pilot Sports go hard in cold weather. Advice was to install snows below 4 degrees and not wait for snow.
I have to admit that I don't brake going into corners like I do with other cars but I also don't mash my way in, drift the tail and complain about the car being dangerous. Sorry for the flame but what I see is you driving dangerously because the car is faster that it feels. Good thing they built in can't drive right VDC control to save your life!

Pardon Me
Gary

 

Garygrun,
Yes with the extra hp and torque, it does take some getting used to and could leed to problems if extra care isn't taken.

What you've heard about the Pilots is correct........They are definitely summer rubber that need warmth to work properly. Once it's below 5-10 degree C, they stiffen a lot and don't work well at all.
Now is a good time to get the winter tires on before the snow and while the temps are dipping.

Colin

<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=red>GSM</font color=red>
<font color=black>Silverstone Coupe</font color=black>

 

Concur w/ Gary on this one. "Unexpectedly"?
Hmm, I have 280hp under my butt, I've just mashed the pedal to the floor, and curiously, the car wants to alter its alignment with the road.
I can promise you that a much younger me on more than one occasion, after stepping out of my old 70 hp Accord hatch, and into a 225 hp 5.0L Mustang (very close in power to weight w/ the G, and having 300ft.lb of torque), on more than one occasion found myself steering thru the side window, and a few times, thru the rear, and yet a few more times, thru all windows but the one at the front, until it was all over, when I looked over at my buddies, and with a sh*t-eating grin, knew that somehow I had gotten away with something very fortunate once again, thanks most likely to a team of guardian angels, since one was clearly not enough to carry me thru into adulthood. VDC wasn't even a dream at the time.
Suggest you warm up the tires before trying anything silly, and with the temps the way they are now, maybe wait till you have a lot of space.
The things under our right feet are rheostats, not binary.
The car is very safe. Take it somewhere with some space and see how the VDC responds to different situations. A long fast sweeper with an increasing radius thru 2nd, 3rd and even 4th, for example, can induce a real awareness-altering drift. I discovered shortly after I got the car (feb 03) that getting into a fight with the VDC by overcorrecting makes for a rather eye-opening, yet "all's well that ends well" experience. Instead, overcome the urge to make big corrections, and instead know that if you point the car where you want it to go, it will seek to get there, tail tucked in, after some selective braking by the computer.
Tuning wise, btw, I lowered the tire pressure to 33 in back, 34 in front. It may seem like a small change, but you'll feel the difference, back end is better behaved, and having exhausted one pair of rear tires, I can report that wear was perfect. The fronts have also been inspected at every 6K interval and are also nominal (actually better than many G and Z posters wrt feathering- I have none).

Cheers,
Derek



DB