boxster in the wet?
 

how does the boxster behave in the rain . i especially wonder at highway speeds. light front end equal hydroplaning? how about with oem tires and no traction control??
fred from nashville

I had to drive mine in extremely heavy rain on the way back from the Porsche Parade last year and it handled brilliantly. I felt extremely safe and the response and handling of the car was superb...far better than my traction controlled Mazda. Being a 99 is has no traction control either.
Chris

You're thinking about 911s??? Boxsters don't have light front end. It has the perfect front/rear weight balance of any car.

I just drove home in light-medium rain on the freeway at about 72MPH. I have 4 snow tires on and no traction control, the car handles great, and I did not feel any loss of traction at any time. The only time I get worried is on ice or 4"+ of snow.

I have no snow tires or no traction control. I used my Boxster in extremely hard rain (we get tons of rain in small amounts of time here) and she handled like a dream. If you are feeling insecure you can always put the spoiler up to keep more traction on the rear wheels.

It's actually kind of fun to drive the Box in the rain, you can do hard starts and get a small slide without getting into too much trouble :D.

I would be careful about raising the spoiler if you want more front end traction. i would assume it reduces lift in the back which would shift the car in that direction and off the front. Then again, I don't know how much downforce it actually adds at highway speeds. Would be interesting to find out...

Lower speeds but you get the idea -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlmcmA3EsnY

I drive the car in Florida in all types of weather conditions. This car sticks at low and high speeds in the rain and with gusty winds. No problems with hydroplaining.

I had a miata years ago and had a very different experience. The car would skip often when the roads were wet.

I feel much safer in my Boxster.

Eric

I did the Tail of the Dragon last year in the rain, with front tires pretty close to the wear lines. I did manage to get the traction control to kick in when I overcooked a couple of extreme curves, but other than that, handled like a dream.

Depends on your tires. Mine is alotta fun the rain, the ass pulls around and I let up on the throttle it to snap it back in. Corners kinda slide through. But I have pure summer tires and no traction control. I had to relearn how to drive a rear wheel drive car again.. too many years of front drive.

I'll second that with a big caveat that should be obvious, good tires are a very important part of the equation when it comes to traction and handling.

My car is a daily driver. It does great in the rain. My biggest concern is getting hit by a big ass truck with a moron driver..... Being in such a small car that is just a loosing battle. Other than that, it handles great!

SB

I think wet performance is more about tires than about cars or suspensions. The suspension will do it's thing as long as the tires have traction.

Tire choice: I think the Tire Rack addresses wet performance in their ratings. If you drive in water a lot, choose appropriate tires.

Safety note on Hydroplaning: Any tire, if the combination of speed and water depth are sufficient, will hydroplane. Use common sense. If it's really flooding cats and dogs, slow down.

Having said that, I drove my Boxster a couple of times on the track during and immediately after heavy southern thunderstorms with LOTS of rain. Tires were Sumi II's, well worn on the outside edges but good tread in the center: could not believe how fast I could go around corners without losing traction. But this experimentation was on a track, not out on the roads. When you do lose grip in the wet, you can lose it surprisingly quickly (said from experience) ;)

My other car/daily driver's tires are at 30K now, so I take it easy in the rain (like we had this morning). When I get a new set in a couple of thousand, I can push it harder on the fresh tires.

There's nothing inherently risky about driving a Box on wet roads, as long as your tires are right and you use common sense.
A wet skidpad is a really great testing device.
Have fun!

Like Limoncello said, wet performance is all about the tires. And you probably already know this but just to keep it in your brain, when you hydroplane, if you want to regain control, accelerate to keep the tires spinning - to regain traction. I once hydroplaned BIG TIME, and it was like having no steering wheel. I stayed off the brakes - until imminent danger/death was looming. I didn't know to work the throttle. Might have ended differently...

Boxster + Goodyear Eagle F1's + Rain = no problem at all.

p.s.
not that you shouldn't always do this, but in the rain you should always have both hands on the steering wheel. That extra half second of feedback could be the difference.

No offense, but spinning the rear tires is not going to help you regain traction. The only things that will stop hydroplaning is hitting an area without standing water, or slowing down.

You beat me to it, the Eagle F1 GS-D3's make a big difference in the rain. I've got them on my M3, Boxster, and my Fit.

no problem
 

I have had no problems driving my Boxster S in the rain on the highway with normal tires. Snow is another story . . .

You call that rain?
THAT is rain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PKUn3mTNno :cheers:

Slip and slide
 

Hey despite what everyone says I think my car slides a bit in the rain. I remember being on an uphill drive in the rain and wind and had to have both hands on the wheel and really go slow, feeling it trying to slide. The back does tend to go out a bit but I have PSM which corrects it. Even at low speeds it comes out a bit in the turns on wet roads, and with the PSM you still feel it. Although it isnt as bad as a 911 its still noticeable. Im thinking my tires maybe the problem. I have el cheapo sumitomo HTRZ summer tires on. I drove a 911 with Michellin tires on 19inch 997 GT3 wheels and with no PSM its really stable surprisingly. I try not to drive my car in the rain since I have a second car.

Maybe that's because you've stiffened up your car by installing front & rear strut braces as well you have 18"s which have less give.

I just bought a second hand boxster and what an amazing car! It grips like hell in the dry, but I've found that it breaks away in the wet - the back end slides out at speeds as low as 20mph through bends and roundabouts.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or do I just have really terrible tires? Running Clear HP 166 all round.

The only time I have lost control of my Boxster is in a blizzard, and of the two or three times it happened I was either driving to fast for the conditions, or shifting and the sudden change in RPM caused the rear wheels to slide out.

I would say 20MPH is too fast in a roundabout in heavy rain, and just about any car would have a problem at 20MPH in a roundabout in snow (I know the speed warning at the roundabout near me is 10MPH).
So while it could be your tires, I would experiment with different driving styles before I spent any money on new tires. :cheers:

I've never heard of Clear, but apparently these guys have:
http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Clear-Hp166-Cheap-Nasty-t257919.html

If that's any indication of their quality, new tires might be a good move.

Thats the thing, it had been raining lightly but had stopped and there wasn't any standing water, only a wet surface. Its a large enough roundabout too with 2 lanes and Ive never had this problem in any of my previous cars which were rear wheel drive.

Yes I saw that, which is why Im so concerned. I really don't want to smash up car because of cheap tires. I went to the local tire dealer and priced up some Pirelli's... €1,000 for a set :(

He also said they were cheap Chinese tires that shouldn't be put on a car such as a Porsche.

check out sumitomo III(not II). I have been pleasantly suprised and they are cheap. $700 USD installed. they have great write ups in all the car magazines. The grip in the wet is as good as my pilots. I have about 2500k miles on them and they seem like a winner.

That shouldn't be happening in light rain, or on a damp road. I agree with everyone else, it's most likely because the previous owner bough cheap tires. You can easily get a great set for around $700.

Michelin PS 1's with 50k on them (I KNOW I KNOW!!!)
i feel completely safe in the rain.
this is a very balanced car and handles as such in wet and dry.

get good tires. rain is a non-issue

Light rain is a bigger worry than a heavy one
 

Brings up the oils, sits at the surface, tires pick it up and you are on ball bearings. Plus there is extra oil shaken off cars onto the road surface at stops and roundabouts (circles in the US).

A mist or just-beginning light rain can be really a problem on corners or curves or even just stopping, especially on surfaces where there are painted markings.

I've has 3 different tire brands/tread-pattern tires on my Boxsters. All were excellent in the rain. On the other hand, being summer tires, they were all deadly in the cold (below about 4C at the road surface).

My 2000 S has 18" worn out Kumho Ecsta MX tires and performed very well in the rain during a recent 2000 mile trip with many miles in the rain. Highway cruising at 80+, it felt stable. Rear end broke loose during U-turns sometimes but that was expected. It felt as good in the rain as my GTI with PS1s.

Ok, here is my experience: Reasonable wear on a set of PS2's + Highway Speed + Heavy Rain = Hydroplanning.

Our cars have wide, mostly flat tire profiles. If there is heavy rain or lots of water on the road, slow down, or your high-speed car will become a high-speed boat with no rudder scooting around on a thin layer of water.

Ed

:cheers:

Hi, I've had two long trips in heavy rain on different sets of tires. Once from Fla to NY, straight, with the rain ranging from a drizzle to a get the "Arc ready" down pour. The car performed outstandingly. That was on Yokohama AVS sports. The other trip was just this past week. NY to Bangor on Michelins Pilot Sport's. Again, I felt the car performed well. I'm not sure if the group agrees, but the Boxster takes rain out of the driving equation. Of course, you should drive more carefully, or defensively, in the rain. Not everyone's driving a Boxster out there.


bob

I've got Goodyear F1 Asymmetrics and they are great dry or rain. I'm actually very surprised how much traction the Boxster has in the wet and snow (with winter tires of course).

I've never had any hydroplaning. I can get the back end to break loose on the wet, but it regains traction quickly - even when keeping the power on after it breaks loose. I don't think I could spin the car in the wet. I've driven the car in light rain, heavy rain, and drying conditions on the track. I've had the back end break loose in those conditions, but again, it was very easy to recover. In heavy rain I was passing Carrera 4s, and caught a Lancer Evo. My car is a 99 non-S, so it only has 200 hp.

Beatifull interior perfectlap, a new int. is in the cards for me and yours is the model.

I made some pretty dramatic mods on my car and some pretty lame moves the first day I drove it. I made a left from one six laner to another. At moderat speed I punched it , in second a bit half way through the 3 lane wide turn.

This is weird. The back end swung out and eventualy caught at 90 degrees sidesways, caught & snaped back as exspected. Then swings back past staight ahead as exspected...but did catch on corection, kept going a full 360 degrees...in the oposite direction.

Wierd

PK

I've found that my boxster is much less forgiving of bad tires. My old 944 had great traction when it had good tires and good tread left, but the traction was still decent with cheap half bald tires. I could still do 80 on the highway no problem assuming I had no intention of stopping in anything less than half a mile.


The boxster on the other hand is terrible with bald tires. You might say thats not surprising, but it's more than just sliding through corners or hydroplaning when braking. I did that a lot, and usually intentionally with the 944. Here when the tires are getting fairly (very) low on tread the back tires feel like they are fighting each other. The car is pushing side to side, which I assume is due to the speed/friction oscillating back and forth from tire to tire. It is a very unnatural feeling for a porsche.

Two weeks ago, right before I changed the tires, it was scary doing 45 mph on the road to work in the rain. Last night, with new slightly broken in tires, I was doing 70 and it felt rock solid. Obviously this is a pretty clear message I need to procastinate less about changing the tires, but it does make me concerned that there is something going wrong with the transmission/rear diff.


Anyone seen anything similar? My boxster is a 99 with an automatic and no TC/PSM.