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What is your car like in the wet ?


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#1 tsn007

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:04 PM

hi Guys

I am interested to to find out what your Torana is like when driving it in the rain

 

thanks



#2 _mello92_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:11 PM

On our dirty, oily, crumbling roads up here, its extremely tail happy. Does aquaplane like any car, but surprisingly doesn't pull too bad.

 

Definitely need to sort out an intermittent wiper function too.



#3 _LS1 Taxi_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:23 PM

Ginger

#4 XUI-86

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:28 PM

Last time I drove mine in the rain, the front screen fogged up that bad i couldn't see and it leaked like a sieve!



#5 REDA9X

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:34 PM

I have only ever driven it in the rain twice. The day I bought the car from QLD it started to rain and it has Nankang tyres on the original rims. Lets just say they were useless in the wet and I had to drive very very carefully.

That however was nothing. When I fitted the Mawers to the car the only 285/40/15 tyres I could get were Pirelli P-Zeros from the States. These tyres hadn't been in production for about 15 years and while they were unused, they were old and rock hard. The first time I drove the car it spun the wheels in the dry without touching the accelerator. Then came the 2005 nationals at the first AMC Masters, and yes, it poured. We got to do laps and the car had brand new tyres on the front. I had to drive very carefully around the Eastern Creek circuit. I found the in car video the other day and the car was constantly spinning and sliding without even trying. The Nankangs are 25 years old now and they have fallen appart from age, so I'd hate to drive it in the dry let alone the wet. I haven't driven it in over 4 years anyway.



#6 GTR469

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:45 PM

Don't be scared of water Tony, just get it out and drive it



#7 Uncle Chop Chop

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:48 PM

When it rains you get wetter inside the car than out.



#8 _judgelj_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 08:50 PM

Scary...



#9 Rockoz

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:16 PM

Had trouble with my LC in the wet years ago. There were 2 different reasons at different times.

First was aquaplaning.

Very scary.

Too many times.

Was very lucky to survive that.

Turned out to be a bent diff housing.

Got it fixed then it was brilliant.

Then came huge cam and traction was a problem in the wet and dry.

But in between I found it great.

No bad behaviour at all.

Tyres were the key. Good tyres werent always expensive, and expensive tyres werent always good.

Same tyres all round was important, with maybe 10mm narrower on the front, but in the same tyre series.



#10 _hutch_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:33 PM

lets just say I should avoid roundabouts,make that sideways abouts

#11 _judgelj_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:35 PM

I remember driving back from syd when i got mine. Starting pissing down rain on the hume. Very scary.

Had an auto and nowhere near the power it makes now, could barely keep traction



#12 a9x868

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:40 PM

mines fine
but the wipers are definately period correct

#13 _threeblindmice_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:47 PM

Non LSD for wet is far better , have one Torana for the dry weather and one for the wet .

#14 eyepeeler

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:49 PM

Why so long since the last drive?? Don't you miss it?

I have only ever driven it in the rain twice. The day I bought the car from QLD it started to rain and it has Nankang tyres on the original rims. Lets just say they were useless in the wet and I had to drive very very carefully.
That however was nothing. When I fitted the Mawers to the car the only 285/40/15 tyres I could get were Pirelli P-Zeros from the States. These tyres hadn't been in production for about 15 years and while they were unused, they were old and rock hard. The first time I drove the car it spun the wheels in the dry without touching the accelerator. Then came the 2005 nationals at the first AMC Masters, and yes, it poured. We got to do laps and the car had brand new tyres on the front. I had to drive very carefully around the Eastern Creek circuit. I found the in car video the other day and the car was constantly spinning and sliding without even trying. The Nankangs are 25 years old now and they have fallen appart from age, so I'd hate to drive it in the dry let alone the wet. I haven't driven it in over 4 years anyway.

 

I'm hearing you there Dave, wipers are very ordinary at best.

 

mines finebut the wipers are definately period correct


Driven mine in the wet a few times, the yellow one and brown one. Both go well, yellow gets a bit tail happy fairly easily though.

#15 _judgelj_

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:49 PM

I dunno bruce the single spinner in the LC gave me hell whilst it lasted.



#16 Ice

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:56 PM

Pretty quick 6 manual 4 speed 3.55 LSD not for the faint hearted

#17 SmacT

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:56 PM

My LX SLR rep with a non baffled drop tank was a death trap in the rain. The fuel would slosh you sideways. My LJ two door was too, just not enough weight on the arse. I ended up carrying two bags of cement around in the LJ to try an tame it as it was my daily.

It didn't work.

#18 Ice

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:56 PM

But fun

#19 micklx

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 10:58 PM

Back in 1985 I had a LH with a hot 253 and 4 speed as my daily driver. With the YT heads, big cam and 600 Holley it was good for 7000 rpm and with 14" wheels and a 2.78 diff it would sit on almost 160 at 4000 rpm. I lived in the country where there were no cops and I did a lot of driving at those speeds and although the wet weather slowed me up a bit, it was a great handling car and with a single spinner diff it was always very predictable to drive. Being Victoria it rained a lot and I never crashed it....

At the ripe old age of 20 I'd never driven a car with intermittent wipers and it was considered normal for the demister to be not great.

 

Fast forward to 2014, my daily driver is a WK Statesman, about the same age as the Torana was in 1985, it's got IRS, ABS, LSD, adjustable intermittent wipers that put a Torana's wipers to shame and an LS1 under the bonnet that uses less fuel and has more power than my old hot 253. In the rain it feels very sure footed and safe. It's hard to spin the wheels or get it sideways (hard - not impossible) compared to my recently on the road LX which only has to smell rain in the air and its spinning a wheel or going sideways. And don't get me started on the leaks....

 

But which car is the most fun to drive?



#20 rexy

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Posted 06 November 2014 - 11:08 PM

I loved driving the old lx four door in the rain. Grip was good and the power very controllable with a manual box and LSD. Was very easy to feel when the limits of grip were coming. The drag radials were grippy enough to see off the modern stuff in the wet.

#21 mitchg

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 12:10 AM

Adds 300hp and I become a sick drift king round corners and round-a-bouts

#22 N/A-PWR

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 12:16 AM

Hi Tony,

 

great thread, where we can get to the best tyres available somehow.

 

 

Had some Oldskool 215/60/13 TA pattern Retreads on Bridgestone Radial casings that stuck to the wet roads in the 80's,

 

where the tyre pattern look like this in all widths :-

 

mqV0TKAnobh7ouJ7EMfSROg.jpg

http://www.gmh-toran...er/#entry746674

 

 

The Maxis tyres of today look like that pattern in this link:-

 

18708.jpg

http://www.performan.../productID/8676

 

except the water cannot flow right through to the out side in my opinion.

 

 

Anyhow, just thought this may help get the tyre debate going.



#23 Potta

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 02:37 AM

If all goes well I'll be able to tell you how the Maxxis's go in the dry at least pretty soon.

#24 unclefestal34s

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 05:55 AM

I've been caught out a few times in the rain in my yellow heavily modified L34,..

 

can be a lot fun but also very dangerous with a Detroit locker diff,..

 

nangkang tyres are totally useless so I find myself generally taking off in second gear and straight to fourth gear..

 

and depending how heavy the rain is I like to have the driver side window open to avoid fogging up..

 

but as a safety rule I won't drive in the rain unless I get caught in it...



#25 76lxhatch

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Posted 07 November 2014 - 06:14 AM

Some interesting comments here, I would hate to own a car I was scared to drive in the wet...

 

It doesn't make any difference to me whether its raining or not. Have spent a lot of time making the car handle as well as it can, it works pretty well these days.






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