Let's break the ice: RALLY

[LjasonL]

hey, no handbrake for awds! youll screw up the diffs. the subaru wrc car has a neat center diff which disengages when the handbrake is pulled, making it an fwd so it doesnt hurt it, i want that setup!

[Chris]

But if you push in the clutch, then it will dissengage the wheels from the engine, and shouldn't hurt your driveline that much.

[LjasonL]

it will disengage the wheels from the engine, but the wheels will still be connected to each other through the 3 different limited slips, and stopping 2 of them while the other 2 are still turning is not a good idea. same reason u cant tow an awd vehicle with 2 wheels on the ground like a conventional car, u have to use a flatbed. it goes all over it in the subaru manual.

[Chris]

OK, I see. I remember car mags saying it does awesome handbrake turns, so there must be some give.

[LjasonL]

maybe they were talking bout the rally car? im afraid to try em for myself, afraid ill slide it around then try to keep driving and hear all this grinding noises and stuff.

[Chris]

Teh y were talking about the road car. I will find out an answer once in for all by Jan. 18, 2002.

[LjasonL]

what happens jan 18? well if u can do it lemme know cuz i wanna go sliding!

[shrubchild]

I've got a dune buggy with a 100hp VW engine and am a co-owner of a huge property up my red bluff/redding, CA. I love to take the dune buggy off road and do rally style driving. I can drift fairly well with a decent amount of space and i would love to take my car rallying if i could find a good road.


Anyone know of any good roads up north of san francisco?
-Shrub

[Chris]

Jan 18 was time for them to get back to me, but I forgot to send the question (I sent another one, so my mind said I was dune with Subaru, but I wasn't). So I'll send the question off now

[NSX]

wicked!

in gt3, i'm trying to drift without the handbrake, and only with the brake by keeping the revs up while sliding after braking

[jaxle]

i live in west michigan and i have no idea where to find places to practice rally n such, any suggestions?

[Pennzoil GT-R]

if u wanna drift well, then there is a great way to intitiate it, and to hold it if you are good enough. You're car will need to have adjustable brakes and be rwd, but apart from that horsepower is no problem. Put all the brakes on the front wheels, and when going into a corner, brake and accelerate at the same time. racing drivers use it to bring the rear round when the car understeers.

[Grendel]

I like taking my Z off road, but it scares the hell outta me...

The first time I went off road in it, it was myself and 3 other friends all stuffed in, we were flying down this back road that was cut into a hill... one side went up, the other side dropped off and went down to a valley...I let my friend who is used to fwd drive, and he scared the hell outta himself... When I took over, I got too brave and oversteered around a corner and ran into a pile of dirt... we were lucky we didnt go off the edge

The most recent time, there was a semi crawling up this long ass hill before my house, and there is a dirt road that has an opening at the bottom of the hill, and another about halfway up the hill... I figured I could fly down that road and use it as a shortcut... it wasnt a great idea as I had a hell of a time keeping the rear end straight going down that road :P

Off roading is fun... especially in a Z :P I wanna rebuild the motor from my moms old '83 toyota tercel 4wd hatchback and beef up the suspension a bit, and have my own rally beater

-Grendel

[swamack]

How do you drift in an automatic. Brake Gas Brake Gas. I've got her sideways a little, but never been able to keep it long. I either spinout or it straightens out.

[unconvinced]

Yeah, nothing's more useless than a FWD car with a gimp (automatic) transmission.

The technique goes like this: as you're headed towards the corner, keep going past the apex to the used car lot, and trade the thing in for a manual-transmission MR2 or Miata. If neither is around, then a 240SX, RX-7 or BMW should do.

No, really. You'd probably be looking at using the handbrake a lot, perhaps even against some partial power (if you've got FWD). You'll be drifting, but you'll be going really slowly as you do. If it's really slippery, you probably won't wear your parking brake too much, unless you're really aggressive with it and you're doing this stuff long enough to heat up the parts.

Otherwise, reverse-donuts are pretty much your last recourse. Enjoy.