Recently bought a c4 corvette cause it seemed like an underrated performance car with a good bang for your buck value. Thing is I’m used to driving an economy car. What are some tips for a rwd and relative high power car? I’m coming from a hybrid econobox so yes it’s vastly different.
Sign up for an HPDE event and an autocross event. Request an instructor at both. All the other advice here will make more sense when you start to feel first hand the back of the car coming around. And you’ll learn to anticipate and control that rotation with your right foot. You’ll want to practice that on a track with wide open run off areas. Not on a public highway
IMO if you want to enjoy a high performance car, get some performance driving lessons. Your state license test on a 130 horsepower CVT Corolla ain’t cutting it
I owned a 91 c4 and honestly modern ecoboxes feel and most likely are more powerful than that corvette. I just love the styling of the c4s personally.
Be very gentle and smooth with your acceleration, and don’t accelerate even modestly until you have the car pointing straight. Also, don’t be afraid of the car. Just drive like a granny, and you’ll gradually get used to it.
I daily a hybrid, but have also driven everything from WW2 army trucks to mild supercars. The only car I ever felt was actively trying to kill me was a 1st generation Dodge Viper GTS on a rainy day. No traction control in that car meant it was a vehicle for drivers with better than average skill. Even then, I felt I could get used to it if I had more than an hour to drive the car.
So yeah, be careful, and you’ll be fine.
Don’t turn off the traction control if yours is new enough to have it (my 96 did but that’s the end of the line for c4s)
TC started in 92.
Keep your stability/traction on when driving in slippery conditions and you should be fine. My first car when I was 16 was a heavily modded 500hp muscle car, back in the early 80’s. I drove that year round in WI. I’ve owned nothing but high hp rwd performance cars ever since.
Just use good judgement and if you can, find a large deserted parking lot(after store hours) and practice car control in the rain or snow. It’s a safe way to find out how a car feels when it’s about to break traction and if it does, how to correct without over correcting. Just make sure the lot is s deserted and d there aren’t a lot of light poles.
I’ve seen folks trying to show off in lots and drift right into poles.
What heavily modded car in the early 80s were you driving that had 500hp? 500hp would blow the doors off nearly everything back then!
It was a built 360, 13.5-1 compression, big cam, ported heads, single plane intake, 3600rpm stall converter, built 727 trans w manual valve body, 4:56 rear diff 8 3/4 rear. It was in a lightweight 1972 Plymouth Duster. I had several friends with built big block chevelles, chargers, 442, challengers back then and it did well. I was going broke buying racing gas though. Two of my friends regularly drove their narrowed rear end, parachute/wheelie bar cars on the street. They both could do wheelies. lol
It’s basically like a fwd car, but instead of front wheels spinning, the rear ones do, really, go about it the same way you went about a fwd car, do some burnouts and stuff to see how the car reacts to input, just mess around with it somewhere safe, don’t go out and do this on a busy road or something
It’s basically like a fwd car, but instead of front wheels spinning, the rear ones do
Thank you for your words of wisdom, I will never look at RWD cars the same again.
Brb while I wrap a Dodge Viper around a telephone pole.
most of the worries you have will be solved by putting good tires on it. find your size and find the best available compound for your climate.
This what I need with my Yukon haha. I got it tuned on e85 but I never touch tcs or go crazy on turns. I’ve driven awd my entire time driving. I got the rwd version so 460wtq just blows my tires off completely from a stop or slow roll. So trippy feeling the back end sway when I’m smashing the gas. I imagine it’s only gonna get worse once I do the bolt ons. I noticed the tires that are on are completely trash. They don’t hold traction at all.
You’ll slow down when you have to buy the next set of tires.
real 😭😭😭😭
Make sure to slip on the clutch ( hope its a manual) as often as possible💪
So in other words, fry the shit out of the disk?
Nooooooo, u have to just slip clutch complete and floor accelerator😉
The car is mainly a gift for my dad who is on the older side…… so sadly it’s an auto :P. My dad likes to share the car hence my question on this subreddit
Beautiful present. Please do not abuse it, it would devastate him to see it crashed. Just be gentle with it and you won’t crash. If you want to “mess around” do it somewhere safe.
Thank you :) I worked hard to gift this to my dad took me a lot of saving up to do but it’s all worth for it for him . I definitely won’t trash it after all the work I went through for it :)
It’s going to be slower than you’re used to. Not in a straight line, but just overall
Lmfao
You just need new performance tires on it, and you are good to go.
I am running Continental Extreme Contacts Dws06+ on my 350z. I cannot get the backend to step out in the rain. Even driving like a hooligan.
Show up to a parking lot autocross event and see what your car can do. Yeah you won’t really get up to speed because it’s a tight course that usually caters to miatas and the like, but you will get to learn a lot about your car with pretty much all the stakes removed.
Do not apply excessive force on either the gas pedal or the brake if the car is not pointed in a straight line.
I’d recommend you take it easy for a while and learn the car. In inclement weather in a RWD performance car drive as safe as possible and I don’t just mean rain, even if it’s dry out if there are leaves or sand on the road you can easily spin out if you’re applying even a little bit of power while turning.
Can tiny leaves or sand really do that to rwd cars? I mean don’t get me worry, I understand it’s a concern for bike riders, but for cars that weigh more than a ton? That sounds weird.
It will. The worst is gravel/round pebbles on asphalt. They act like bearings, very easy to lose traction. Leaves are not bad if they are dry, but when wet the traction is seriosly compromised. Sand on asphalt is nit good either.
Gotcha, that’s good to know…thanks for the explanation