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ADVICE! going from FWD to RWD


MiKyHuT

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Hi, so its kinda become aparent that im quite young and inexperienced to be getting a Zed.

 

On saturday im trading my fezza ST for a Z.

 

obviously the power diff is huge and its a RWD.

 

Any DO'S & DONTS on driving tips etc???

 

advice that i can use to keep my new baby out of a ditch. I will be taking it very carefully at first of course, but any thing that you think will help when i decide to let her breathe? that would be much apreciated.

 

and o yeah, i will be resisting the huge urge to try and drift the thing for quite some time, so dont worry about that haha

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what age are you mate? I went from a 1.4 foucus to the zed when i was 21, so first things is dont just plant your foot down lol as you will get the biggest shock of your life. Also when coming out of corners be a bit more gentle with the acceleration as she will kick out if you boot it. Most of all just remember your not in your old car and you dont kno the zeds capabilities, so dont go racing any silly wee corsas :lol:

 

Other than that, just have FUN. Take it easy till you know her and then when you do LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL :thumbs::yahoo:

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Hi, so its kinda become aparent that im quite young and inexperienced to be getting a Zed.

 

On saturday im trading my fezza ST for a Z.

 

obviously the power diff is huge and its a RWD.

 

Any DO'S & DONTS on driving tips etc???

 

advice that i can use to keep my new baby out of a ditch. I will be taking it very carefully at first of course, but any thing that you think will help when i decide to let her breathe? that would be much apreciated.

 

and o yeah, i will be resisting the huge urge to try and drift the thing for quite some time, so dont worry about that haha

 

 

If it has Bridestone Potenza RE040 on then ditch them. They are crap in the wet.

 

Leave th ESP mine never comes on since changing the 'stones anyway.

 

don't show off. starting a sentence with 'watch this....' with your mates ALWAYS ends in disaster!

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hah.

 

so far ive got.

 

1.leave ESP on

2. get to know the car before opening her up

3. dont show off to the scally wee corsas as tempting it may be

4.Never ever say... "watch this"

5.Change bridgestone tyres immediatly because there crap in the wet and you live in scotland which is always wet.

 

 

I think i could make a good wee list out of all your advice.

 

 

im 20 mate, got the fiesta ST 2L when i was 17. and people thought i'd crash that within a week but i was sensible......for a while anyway :yahoo:

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Hello and welcome to the world of Z!

 

I am still getting to know my Z as i havent had it that long. Only advice i can give you is take your time. No point being a hero and crashing in the first week!

 

You will probably end up driving slow so everyone can see its you and yes, the Z is your new car!

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Hello and welcome to the world of Z!

 

I am still getting to know my Z as i havent had it that long. Only advice i can give you is take your time. No point being a hero and crashing in the first week!

 

You will probably end up driving slow so everyone can see its you and yes, the Z is your new car!

 

 

haha, crash ma Zed on the first day and i'll be a legend. No, thats not the word im looking for...ah i know what i meant to say, tos*er. thats more like it.

 

Thats true, im going to be drivin 10Mph with the windows down, sunglasses on and a smile on ma face =) untill tha old asbo of mine comes back to haunt me and they tow my Zed!! thatl be just my luck!

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how you handle the throttle is a big part, smooth throttle control plays a big part,

 

if your worried about corners and spinninng out just use a higher gear, means you have less tourque to put down, so if its a corner where you might drop it in to 3rd or second, then stay in 4th. the engine won't have a smuch punch because you can't build the revs quick enough.

 

if your power sliding round a corner and not by choice don't lift off, the sudden loss of powermeans you lose control completely. feather the throttle and use opposite lock to control the direction. (this does somewhat depend on entry speed.) and to be honest if your doing that and it wasn't by choice its because you've used the fatal words watch this, and you've been a numpty and gone in too quickly.

 

i suggest you go find a nice empty car park or private road, and go and test it out, see how the car handles but in a location where you can't injure your self/the car or anyone else.

 

there are also airfield days, i'm going on one to brush up on my skills its costing me about £47 and i get to hoon around in relative open and safe space, but also cover things like highspeed bends and sprint courses. you'll also get some profeesional driver help.

 

and drive within your limits.

 

the zed is a great car, if you drive it sedatly its a sedate car, if you drive like you stole it its an insane car. both can be fun.

 

just watch the speedo, the Zed si very deceptive it feels sometimes like your not going that fast, but you'll look down and its pushing 100, and not the 65 you thought you were doing.

 

have fun, be safe :lol:;)

 

also the bridgestones are good tyres, especially in the dry, very hard to beat. but in wet conditions they don't warm up very easily and so have very little grip. the one advantage is with bridgestones that when they do slid out they are verry progressive. some mid range tyres have great wet grip, but when they go they snap and its almost instantaniuos. ;)

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As Rich said, its all about being smooth. Be smooth on and off the throttle, brake and steering inputs. No jerky inputs and the car will act nice and smoothly in return and wont snap at you. The suggestion of keeping the revs low is excellent. The Zed has a wide power band and even at low revs you have more then enough power. Drive it like its a new car for a bit, ie under 3.5k revs and get used to it. When you are happy with that try upping the revs and see how it behaves. Remember to be smooth and it should just grip and grip. Be snappy with it and it will bite you in the arse. :thumbs:

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find a big empty car park. start goin round in circles. tighten the radius as you get more and more comfy. Thsi exercise will give you a slight idea of how fast you can corner at different steering angles. you can then try booting the throttle to find out how it reacts to sudden inputs.

 

on the road: smoothness is the key...the more experienced you become you can really get some cornering speeds in!!!

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thats the advantage with the Zed is that it sticks to the tarmac like Sh1t to a bears arse. as long as your smooth. because of the fact that you'll have so much torque if you boot it it still has enough power even at speed to over spin the wheels.

 

you can accelerate out of corners but unlike aFWD where you can get away with booting it at the Apex of a bend i'd wait till your almost straight with a RWD before hitting the loud pedal and giving it some beans. it will reduce the pendulum effect you'll get if you were to boot it at the apex, and should reduce the cars decision to get the arse to over take you.

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I moved from a 1.6 Golf to a 350z very recently at 20/21 years old and going from 110bhp FWD to ~300bhp RWD zed. It SHIFTS, you just have to avoid pushing it coming out of corners till you are happy with the correct gear/throttle control as otherwise you will have an arse in mouth situation :lol::drive1

 

I must admit, the transition for me was smooth, no hairy moments yet and only triggered traction control a few times through choice to see how far I can push it on an empty road.

 

Enjoy it mate!

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If you drive smoothly there shouldnt be anything to be scared of going from FWD to the RWD Zed, its very well composed. If you want to scare the crap out of yourself go try an S2000 in the wet! Compared to the Zed its very very twitchy! :scare:

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Be smooth on and off the throttle, brake and steering inputs. No jerky inputs and the car will act nice and smoothly in return and wont snap at you. The suggestion of keeping the revs low is excellent.

Nicely said Chris and + 1 on the braking. If you're too aggressive you could end up with excessive understeer or oversteer depending on the situation, not desirable until you know how to rein the Zed back in. Bearing in mind too the suspension setup in a stock 350 is generally quite firm, so that maybe quite different to what you're used to. The main thing is respect the car and the power.

 

Also wouldn't hurt to have it serviced or checked over as it's an unknown entity and check and make sure everything is up to par. Fluids, pads, rotors, gearbox, tyres, suspension, alignment, engine etc, etc, etc.

 

Good luck, drive smooth, take care and you'll have lots of enjoyable motoring. :)

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