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Luke

Winter GT86 fun

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Good morning fellow 86 owners, I trust your all enjoying the picturesque wintery England at the moment. I'm loving the slippery surfaces to enjoy the handling of this amazing chassis. So I thought I'd share a picture I took when I got to work this morning. In case your wondering those are my new 11's left on the tarmac ahead 😊

20190131_073428.jpg

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Well, I'm enjoying the fact that I can get up and down my lane this year on my all-seasons tyres.  It's really not much fun when you can't get up an icy hill and you're blocking others because it's a single track road!

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I got stuck on an incline you could barely see it was so gentle, meanwhile FWD cars were overtaking me in droves. Time to invest in winter tyres I think. <_<

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Very possibly those cars overtaking were nothing to do with of what drivetrain layout they were, but simply because they had right tire choice for weather and/or more weight per narrower tire width, thus some extra traction on snow/ice due that too. (our cars are relatively lighter, yet tire width is a bit on wide side vs eg. some 1.5tonn golf on 205 tires).

I know that with proper tire choice i can drive even safer and better then some AWD SUVs on summer tires.

FWD cars just simplify a bit cases when you are spinning tires, as there is less to work with steering wheel if with wheel spin car isn't tracking straight. Traction still gets lost on FWD, but people can be lazyier and keep pedal floored in straights. AWD helps more, by halving torque per each wheel thus halving chance to loose traction .. but even so, RWD with right tires > AWD with improper ones. Even more so, that when braking and turning layout type can be ignored, and it's more about vehicle mass/inertia and what tire type and size.

BTW, for extra traction on RWD car one can use hint of more smoother and gentler driving inputs, so that mass transfer manages to happen in time, adding grip/traction. For example - if you just floor it on snow/ice, car will accelerate very slowly with tires uselessly spinning. If one gradually/slowly increases throttle, some of car mass will transfer to rear, increasing rear driving wheels traction, allowing for even more engine torque transfer to road/accelerating car w/o spinning. When one drifts, often easing on go-pedal and restoring wheel traction will give counterintuitive extra push/surge ahead that can be felt.

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Pretty sure they were on summer tyres, given they were wheel spinning a fair amount. Just had better loading on their driven wheels. I got overtaken by an MX5 at one point as well, though he may well have been on winters.

As for the gentle inputs etc. my issue was I couldn't even get moving. Once I was rolling I was able to keep the car going for the most part, and I could move off on the flat, but uphill I couldn't get enough traction to overcome gravity. Gentle throttle would just give me a slower wheelspin. Even rocking the car forwards and back didn't really help.

I did see a BMW SUV slide sideways with all four wheels locked until they hit the kerb, so AWD wasn't that much of an advantage. :D

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One extra hint: sometimes reducing air pressure in tires may help. For example, from stock 2.4 to 1.8-1.5. It will increase a lot contact patch, also more sideflex with underinflated tires will get more heat into tires.

Of course, it's more temporary hack/bandaid to be tried in emergencies (that will also increase tire wear and probability of tire debeading from wheel, reduce ground clearance (bad in deep snow), and increase "snow-planing" over snow-slush), and by no means replacement for right tire choice for weather.

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I'm repeating myself, but for gentler inputs in the snow, if you have ECUTeK ROM switch to mode 4 (get-you-home low octane mode).  It reduces throttle response and is perfect for the job.

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2 minutes ago, MartinT said:

I'm repeating myself, but for gentler inputs in the snow, if you have ECUTeK ROM switch to mode 4 (get-you-home low octane mode).  It reduces throttle response and is perfect for the job.

I did think of that, but then couldn't remember how to switch maps. :wacko:

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Pull the cruise control lever towards you until the tacho goes into mode display.  Jig it up and down to set the mode, then towards you again to set it.

Make sure cruise control is off before trying it.

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People may have different maps bound, even if tuned via ecutek. I guess you referred tunes of some specific but unspecified tuning shop that mostly provides their tune set in somewhat standardized fashion for all clients.

Our throttle is drive-by-wire, and stock tune throttle mapping is rather jumpy with unproportionally steep opening to initial pedal travel and little of it in last half/third of pedal travel. Recall reading comments, that it was done to fake impression of more powerful/of bigger displacement engine. Has drawbacks of robbing some fine control at slight/partial throttle, but throttle mapping can be changed by most tuners on request. Recall reading for example on how to change throttle mapping in OFT tunes.

Meanwhile regarding winter driving .. while due stock throttle mapping might be harder to use for very fine control of partial throttle, it's still not impossible feat. Just takes more effort/care for that. Also it's just one of driver input types that should be more gentle in winter to maximize grip out of unfit tires. Same can be said about clutchwork, revmatching, braking and steering. Haotic too fast inputs of those can easily brake traction too.

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Extra weight hack may add traction in some scenarios .. but it also will increase car mass and inertia .. so that extra traction will be countered by extra side-Gs in turns and extra mass to stop when braking or extra mass to accelerate. May help more on our cars due relatively too wide tires for it's light weight on loose road surfaces. But in end it's win-loose..  So why? Just fit right tires for purpose in first place instead of resorting to hacks, if in need of reasonable traction to rely upon.

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On 1/31/2019 at 10:26 AM, MartinT said:

Well, I'm enjoying the fact that I can get up and down my lane this year on my all-seasons tyres.  It's really not much fun when you can't get up an icy hill and you're blocking others because it's a single track road!

Which all-weathers do you have?  Sounds like they make an appreciable difference versus summers (Primacy?)

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Not in stock setup imho. At least max steering angle lock to lock by a lot decreases max drift angle. Yes, one can slide, but one will have to be way more careful with throttle and countersteering to not reach that small limit one can still countersteer to, so more work/attention required and less flashy. It was much easier in bmw, which even stock had more wider steering angle (probably due not having as wide engine as our boxer ones, thus more clearance for front suspension and wheels).

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