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Originally Posted by stateofidleness

wow, i've just read through the whole thread and have learned a lot!

I have a question, I know a lot of the information posted pertains to manual boxes, but what about auto's?

Are the breaking/accelerating techniques any different?

I ask this because I have been forever scarred by my sister's first car.. an old Volvo 540 (thing was a tank).. but it would hydroplane ALL THE TIME!. there was one instance coming out of a mall exit where we 180'ed and were facing oncoming traffic.. i was scared to death...

now, to this day, whenever performing an "aggressive" turn or not slowing down ridiculously slow for a turn, i feel like im gonna fish tail out or hydroplane....

another thing that scares me is the breaking thing... other day I had a car slam on their brakes in front of me, so without anywhere to go I started applying mine. now ive always thought myself to be a decent breaker (no necks jarring, no uneven pressure applied), but once i feel that pedal vibrate (dut dut dut), I feel like im going to crash.. i panic... what is the best thing to do in that situation where you feel the car "skipping"?

a few notes. some of what you're discussing has to do with the driver; some of it could be the car. braking / accelerating techniques are similar with either auto or manual cars. the goal is to be smooth & not abruptly manipulate either pedal. give the chassis time to react.

in a car with ABS, you will always get your best stopping distances WITHOUT engaging the ABS. the instant the ABS pulses, you have lost a little stopping distance. the best way to learn to feel this moment, regardless of rain or shine, is to PRACTICE. when there is no traffic around, practice panic stops. pick a point ahead of you and 'guess' when you need to apply full braking to stop by that point. the car has much more traction than you think! in certain driving schools, they have a 'box' painted on the asphalt; the goal is to get the car in the box from a high rate of speed under threshold braking without engaging the ABS or over/undershooting the box. it takes time! factor in uphill / downill elevation changes and it gets even MORE tricky. again, the goal is practice. practice in the wet, practice in the dry!

now with regard to the car, there are a lot of factors that will make it unstable in wet weather. in no particular order, those things are: tire / tire tread pattern, tire pressure, wheel alignment. if your tires are balding or if the tread pattern is not very good, the car will hydroplane very easily. if your tire pressures are too LOW, the car will hydroplane very easily. FYI, a car travelling through water that is deeper than the tread grooves will hydroplane at 9 times the square root of the tire pressure. this means that if you're at 36psi, you will hydroplane in deep water at 54mph. drop your tire pressure to 25psi and you'll hydroplane at 40mph. alignment plays a tremendous role in wet weather handling. excessive toe in or toe out will cause you to 'drag' a tire in the wet; the tires will break loose simply because they're not pointed straight. excessive toe out is VERY scary in the rain. above all, notice that in addition to tire pressure, SPEED plays a role in hydroplaning. it is not possible to hydroplane if you are going SLOWER than the speed at which your car will plane out. finally, if your car feels unstable in the rain, IT IS. if you see other cars blowing by you like you're standing still and you cannot FATHOM how they're driving so fast in the rain because your car feels nervous, it's because your car IS nervous! generally this is indicative of a problem with tires, tire pressures, or alignment. check all three!

finally, throttle. obviously with a powerful rear wheel drive car in the rain, one needs to go easy on the throttle in tight corners. too much throttle will break the rear tires loose and the car could spin. what may NOT be obvious is what to do in a higher speed corner if the rear end starts to come loose. there are two types of situations where this can occur in the wet: deep water or just wet pavement. in either situation, if you feel the rear end start to come out, do NOT abruptly lift! if you are in deep water and the problem is hydroplaning, maintain throttle, gently steer the car straight, and gently dial out some throttle. this will let the car slow down below the hydroplane velocity threshold and the tires will settle back down onto the road. if the water is NOT deep and you've simply lost traction, we need to transfer some weight onto the rear tires. gently ADD a little throttle and gently countersteer a bit until grip is restored. then, slow down a bit!

hope this helps. if you can find one, i highly recommend looking for a skidpad in your area & trying wet / dry car control. you will learn a lot.