I'm going to an event in Mineral Wells this Sunday, I just checked out the weather and its supposed to rain. According to the website they race rain or shine but does anyone have any advice or exp with how to drive and deal with the rain? This will be my second event and I'm running the 615's with about half thread left. It should be a blast.

 

have fun sliding around. i do! you'll have to just change a little bit like you're driving on the street in the rain. a little slower, smoother inputs, a little sooner than you usually would. with the miata i have, though, it's gas gas gas and oversteer and slide it. quite fun!

 

You'll definitely have a blast, just try to keep it on course. Expect to brake lighter and earlier, or risk spinning or sliding if braking too late. If your car understeers in the dry expect it to understeer alot more when in the wet, and likewise for OS. Rough driver inputs will be exaggerated also so think slower and smooth movements with your hands and feet. You may find that with many cars running, there will be a rain line developing, keep your tires in those darker grooves regardless of 'proper' line. Tire pressures can be bumped down a couple pounds from what you would normally run to give you a bit more at limit feel.

edit: don't forget the umbrella, and becareful of slippery pedals!


Modified by bsclywilly at 12:10 PM 5/21/2008

 

The driving part is fun, if you run two different tires like me (daily driver ones, and fat grippy ones) then run the dailys.

The part that sucks about rainy autocrosses is working in the muck.

 

i did a rainy event not too long ago, my first one.

as stated above you will be force to learn to imput less and be smoother. break earlier, turn earlier.

The 615's at least for me did great in the rain. they are a decent wet tire. As far as pressure i kept it at nearly street pressure and it was perfect for my set up.

driving in the rain defnetly teaches you alot. funny thing is as it dried up in the afternoon my times got better by no more than 2secs. be smooth, slow down to go faster!

 

rain is cake, try autoxing on a 1/4" ice covered parking lot. Philly region did that last year for their winter seires, it was sooo kick ***

 

Rain isn't that bad, You just have to be more attentive/careful to what the car is doing, and keep the tires from spinning.

 

left foot break, if your good at smooth inputs, you can have the rear rotate to corner exit.

 

Rain is a great equalizer AND amplifies BAD driving habits. If you are a harsh braker, or like to get crazy on the gas pedal when you are out on a wet course the rain will amplify these bad driving habits tenfold.

In the wet you have to be smoother (like people have said) with your brake pedals, steering inputs, and really pay attention to what your car is telling you.

I personally love driving in the rain as I am pretty confident with my car and setup. When you brake in the rain you have to feel if the tires are gripping or slipping (through the pedals, your steering wheel, and what you hear from the outside). And you have to modulate your brake pedal in order to get the most stopping power out of your tires. You want to be on the edge of slip/grip. If you feel the tires slipping you must release some brake pressure, if you feel the tires gripping you add more brake pressure. Of course all this is happening in about 2-5 seconds as you approach a corner.

Same applies to accelerating out of a corner. You have to modulate the gas pedal so you are not spinning your tires out of a corner and at the same time if you are gripping accelerating more.

When you approach a corner and you are starting your turn-in, you have to figure out if your car will turn at that given speed. If you start to understeer you have to unwind the wheel (turn more straight) so that the tires will REGRIP, if you have enough grip you can turn the steering wheel more into the corner.

This is why I over emphasize to people that tthey should always pratice in the rain, it will make you a better/adaptive driver in the dry.

As for setup I have personally seen both. Softer suspension & tires are faster. And I've seen people run their dry setup in the rain posting amazing times. I prefer to go a little softer (than my dry setup) with shocks, and 1-3 psi softer in my tires.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by civexspeedy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">rain is cake, try autoxing on a 1/4" ice covered parking lot. Philly region did that last year for their winter seires, it was sooo kick *** </TD></TR></TABLE>

Try autocrossing with the NEPA region when they had 4' high snow banks the one year Literally the snow was above my door frame! LOL.

 

I always have a RAIN SUIT packed in my solo box for just such an occasion. TRUST ME...if you want to stay dry...this is your safest bet.



As for the driving part...these fellas above have all pointed out the facts, (not the guys in the body condoms)...the ones posting good driving stuff.

I actually managed to sqeeze out the FTD at my first rain event of my first season of autocross. The 4x4 cheater Suby/EVO guys were pissed.

 

haha at the rain suit. i'm so excited though. I have my camera mount and everything else ready. Hopefully my car will be out of the shop my saturday though. I'll make sure and post up pics and vids though.

 

one last thing...

altough you should do this rain or shine when autoxing for the safety of others and yourself in the rain this should be even more excersise.

DO NOT try to be johnny stunt man if your car looses control and try to save it in order to keep going. if you begin to spin or anything that you feel is out of your control

stop the car!

chances are you already screwed up your run anyways by loosing control so there's no reason to try to be a badass and save it.

be safe and have fun!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gabebauman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I actually managed to sqeeze out the FTD at my first rain event of my first season of autocross. The 4x4 cheater Suby/EVO guys were pissed. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Aye Remember when the Falken Azenis RT-215s came out back in the day? I was FTD on those tires in 2002 during our event that soaked everyone to the bone.

But yeah good advice is to also bring another set of socks, shoes/sneakers and pants/shirt. Depending on your drive home especially more than an hour in wet clothes just plain sucks! And set yourself up for pneunomia too. I always keep a dry set of clothes in a water proof bag in my Rubbermaid gear of stuff I carry to events. Once the event is done and I'm about to head home I change into dry clothes. Much much nicer!

 

good luck!

some pics from DMVR event last year...

 

claybar/wax your windshield

 

Thats the problem I have in the rain, heavily tinted windows.

Of course, my first event it poured. I just ran with the windows down, rain and all, even with a leather interior.

 

I've rainx'ed it a few times but claybaring it? I've never heard of that before but its sounds like a good idea though.

 

Pretends there's an egg between your shoes and the pedals. Smooooooth on and off. Same with the steering inputs, slow your hands down.

 

This Sunday will possibly my first event in the rain as well. Good luck to you on Sunday and let me know how you do. Im super excited and the advice here helped give me some confidence.