Lost control of my Legnum in the wet

[swift5_8]

This a make belief fiction story.

Ok I thought I tell this story as im not sure how normal is this.
Its been raining on and off for few minutes during the day and last pour was half decent so after getting a drink at a petrol station I had to turn right at a major intersection.
Now I keep in mind that I have owned lots of different sports cars form gtr to gtir – 180sx and so on.
And for the past few weeks I have been kicking the rear of my car out and have been trying to do a gay job of drifting in a awd.
So I though ill do the same came into the corner maybe at 50 changed into second powered on and the rear swings out all great after maybe 5 to 10 meters something weird happens like It lost power or something all 3 bars on AYC light up ( only thing I noticed lol) and it started to slide out heaps so now its too late so I figure ill go for a full 360 after about 300 degrees it was time to level out and slow the turn down but the breaks felt like they were completely off almost like when engine dies and you loose power steering and breaks. Lucky it rolled backwards on a small angle for a little while and stoped but the car was still running.
Now I am surprised how I could not feel the car at all after the point when it sliding out too far – if I would have done that in a 180 of gtir I could have and have pulled similar situation of without much problem and felt the car all the way.
It is very scary and I no longer have confidence in the car – I might simply suck at driving the VR4 and definitely going to go to the next skid pan day to try this again and again until I master it, but maybe just maybe there is some weird safety system that was doing something against me and if it is so - in your opinion – how do I switch it off and on.

Cheers

PS – I could not stop laughing after it – but im not going back to that petrol station for a while.

 

[matchtheclown]

The AYC changes the amount of power going to each side of the rear diff when it loses traction.

Maybe your AYC needs a service cause it's playing up... or maybe it just freaked out because it didn't know what to do when all 4 lost traction.

What year / model is your legnum because some of them have traction control which should kill power when you lose traction anyway.

The small drifts I have done in the wet in my '99 manual type-s seem to kick the back out a bit then just kind of level out and the whole car move sideways on all 4... I'm sure that's AYC working it's tits off though.

Just some things to think about I guess.

 

[steveP]

yeah maybe traction control. but wouldnt explain the brakes. imagine thrashing thru the hills, hanging it out around a corner and this happened. not cool.

 

[bradc]

Check that your tyres are all the same brand, model, and have the same amount of tread all around. When I got my VR-4 it had crap tyres on the rear and that made handling interesting to say the least.

If you have a prefacelift auto that would explain your loss of power as the ASC tried to kick in.

With AYC it tries to turn you in the direction of the wheel. So if you are oversteering a small amount of opposite lock is ok, but if you have too much on the car will catch eventually and swing you around the opposite way. Doesn't sound like what happened here, but something to consider. A skid pan day is a good idea.

 

[Guest]

basically, the vr4 has alot of electronic gadgets to prevent you doing stuff like this,
and the gtir does not, so it just goes with the flow so to speak...

you may want to drift, but the car doesnt want you to, so it will do what ever it can to stop you

 

[montgomery]

Mine has no problems going sideways in the wet and is really quite controllable.
maybe its a s1 thing?

 

[Sydo]

 

[Guest]

Yea if ACY is working it should just do one big slide and then goes in a straight line again from putting the boot in half way around a wet corner.
The VR4's can make a very poorly skilled driver pull off some sideways action and not loose it being AWD.
Sounds like something was not right with the car when you did it that time.

 

[Mortz]

I'm putting it down to tyres (unless you have new decent tyres). My Legnum came with terrible Korean Nexen tyres and I can definitely lose the rear much easier than I think I should be able to. In fact I'm looking forward to putting 18's on the car just so I can put some good tyres on and gain some confidence.
Sounds to me like crap/worn tyres and massive (read: total) loss of traction triggered ASC. I have only been able to get ASC working when I was sliding large distances with no grip at all. I am damn glad it does kick in tbh as 4 wheel drifts into kerbs are very possible when the car suddenly grips again, you aren't expecting it and don't know what to do. And tyres may also explain the braking, maybe they didn't grip when you applied the brakes due to an oily road or something.

 

[Guest]

The brakes on most cars are meant for stopping a car going forwards and only have a certain amount of effectiveness when going backwards over 20-25km/h. But that doesn't explain the losing control so easy tho.

 

[frozen]

lol its really hard to flick mine out at the moment... it used to be REALLY tail happy.. looking forward to trying and seeing what happens in the wet. I'll definately be going to the next skid pan day too.

 

[weeaazz]

i had a similar thing happen to me in the wet,didnt let me correct or brake,slowly slid to my demise.

the nose cut to fix it arrives this week

conclusion=i learnt my lesson,dont drift a legnum

 

[matchtheclown]

conclusion= don't drift unless you have more room next time?

Or

Get to skid pan day ASAP!

 

[weeaazz]

haha yer thats probly true,it was the same intersection i always used to do it at,but this time was just far wetter and far more bent,got to a stage where it decided not to comply,skid pan is definately on the agenda

 

[jaygore]

yea well i have hit a tree in mine, and i was just going around a slight bend at 80km's an hour and the bend is a suggested 60km'h and the car just slid into the tree, it did not grip at all... although full comp helps and it will be getting fixed... But i am with you as i have also lost confidence in my legnum, i could do this in my old celica no problems and it would grip like hell!!! But the legnum just slid into the tree, there was no grip what so ever...

 

[mookers]

yea well i have hit a tree in mine, and i was just going around a slight bend at 80km's an hour and the bend is a suggested 60km'h and the car just slid into the tree, it did not grip at all... although full comp helps and it will be getting fixed... But i am with you as i have also lost confidence in my legnum, i could do this in my old celica no problems and it would grip like hell!!! But the legnum just slid into the tree, there was no grip what so ever...

That sounds a lot like the tyres' fault, not the car's. What tyres have you got on it?

 

[jaygore]

not to sure i will have to check that out, it was terrible, oh well at least insurance will take care of it

 

[User Name]

how do you lose control in one.. i couldn't even do it on a hills run with china tyres and no brakes.

 

[Guest]

how do you lose control in one.. i couldn't even do it on a hills run with china tyres and no brakes.

Really? You need to push the limits more. When I took mine on the track, loads of run off and no trees to hit, I got it sideways a few times in the dry and every time the car comes back into control.
Even in the wet dending on speed but thats another story, 45 degree angle and it comes back straight

I think it mainly comes down to good quailty tyres for good grip.

And you need the right area to try this stuff out or you may damage your car.
(Eg: in the wet or dry even bit harder, come into a corner slightly faster maybe and turn maybe sharper than normal and floor it half way around, change down a gear if needed.) Don't try it at home though, track or skidpan day. Keep it safe.