Anyone have any data/test results for how these cars performed in the rain when new?

I appreciate the fact that driving a car without antilock brakes and traction control takes some more skill, but I was just curious. Seems like wet roads are a quick ticket to wrapping a thirdgen around a light pole.

I understand I have over 200 more hp than when my car came out. . . .but I also have better/more rubber underneath it.

This is all just a random conversation because I rarely drive in the rain (except in the instances like last night where a cloud literally just hung out over the 5-6 blocks I was traveling in).

 

As far as I can recall from about 300,000 miles of driving mine as a work truck in all possible conditions, these cars were about the same in that area as any others of the day.

"More rubber" usually translates to "worse in the rain". Reason being, the wider the tire, the harder it is for the car's weight to force all the water on the road out of the way so the rubber can touch the pavement, leading to much poorer wet traction. Then of course there's the matter of the tires themselves; most "performance" tires just make the situation worse, because the best way to improve the hydroplane situation, is to widen the grooves in the tread, which reduces the amount of rubber on the road in dry conditions and therefore reduces "performance" in general. There's an inevitable tradeoff between skid-pad #s and wet traction, just a basic law of physics, not much you can do about it.

So yeah, driving a car w/o all that stuff is kinda .... just like we all drove cars for the century before all that stuff appeared.... more or less. I wouldn't say it "takes more skill", given that EVERYBODY that ever drove a car before 1990 or so, including your grandma and other (most likely) non driving enthusiasts, got along just fine for all those years. Even me. Rather, it takes a slight bit more attention to detail than newer cars; like, you have to look up from Facebook and texting once in awhile and notice that it's raining out and kinda back off on the gas a bit and slow down a little before going around curves and leave an extra couple of inches between yourself and the car in front, and THINK, and horrible stuff like that. But that's about it. Granted some teenage girls and the like can't manage it (Facebook is just too compelling I guess), but you can probably handle it just fine.

 

Mmk, I figured that'd pretty much be the answer. Yeah, I guess I was thinking more about that long long long lost art. . . .of common sense

Didn't know that about tires though, thanks for the info!

 

I drove my first 3rd gen, a 92 Camaro, for 240,000 miles in all weather including the rain and snow. I always bought soft rubber tires for good grip and if I needed extra traction, added weight to the rear end. Even with 235 tires I never got stuck or ended up in the ditch or on a tree. Driving for your conditions is an art. Here in the midwest, you expect everything. Rain, snow, and my ever favorite ICE, that can appear at any time.

My Camaro was my only car for 7 years. I drove it every day. One of the many reasons I fell in love with 3rd Gen's.

I once watched the Super Bowl in my home town in NE Iowa. After the game, I hopped into my car, (three days after my brother in law backed into the passenger door and rear quarter with his 1 ton duelly) and drove 300 miles through a blizzard. I started at 10pm and expected my normal 5+ hour drive. The news weatherman said it would be a dusting! It started snowing when I left. Within 2 hours I was driving on snow packed roads, and six inches of new snow had fallen around me. I was the only one on the road and following a plow truck. Then he did a U turn and I drove the next 60 miles over virgin blowing snows. The only way to determine where the road was, was by taking the average distance between signs and posts on each side of the road. This was not a straight flat road either. It was Interstate but I was by myself out there, no exits with shelter, and it was before I had a cell phone. Keeping a constant speed of 35mph and 60lb of sand in the rear, I drove (some times plowed) through it. When I finally drove out of it and stopped at a gas station, I found out they closed the road behind me!

My point is you can drive almost any vehicle in bad weather, its the driver that makes the difference.

 

Zackly!!!

People didn't just stay home when it rained up until 1990.

They just used more common sense and attention to what they were doing, FOCUSED on the task at hand, and adjusted their behavior to the conditions at hand. (or suffered the consequences, which it only takes a time or 2 before even the densest moron gets the message)

 

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I've spun out in the rain a few times in my Camaro so it's now pretty much a sunny day driver only.

 

If you have good tires, add 25 - 30Lbs in the trunk when it rains. Helps a lot on slick surfaces. I've got a couple of heavy metal pieces I have around just for weight. I no longer drive my 3rd Gen in bad weather so its for my truck now.

 

Yeah, I'm lucky enough to have two vehicles so if my Z gets driven in bad weather it's because I got stuck out in it unexpectantly.

Spent too much time killing rust on the car to take many chances of letting it come back lol.

 

I think the thing to consider is that with all of the new technology people have forgotten how to drive in less than ideal weather conditions. It used to be that when it rained, people would slow down a little, and they would be more cautious. Now they just expect the car to compensate for them, instead of them compensating for the conditions.

New technology in new cars has created bad drivers.. New cars have things like Sensatrack, traction control, active (typically magnetic) ride control, and anti-lock brakes all to make you think you are a better driver than you really are.

John

 

This. So much.

My brother is 10 years younger than me and is about to get his license. He will have NEVER driven a vehicle w/out traction control. Crazy to think about.

 

I won't even comment on what I think of Traction control and anti-lock brakes.

 

I always depends on the driver. You can end up in a ditch in any vehicle if your driving ridiculous. I have fish tailed in the rain in my 4x4 truck. Good tires and good driving you should be ok.

 

I know personally, after driving an AWD 2005 Buick Rainier V8 in the winter, the newer vehicles are so much more predictable than they were 30 years ago. I could take that Rainier, and just floor it in the snow, it would drift a little, but it did not even have Traction Control. It was so predictable... If I did that in a 3rd gen I would be doing donuts, and it would be out of control...

 

The electronics on the new cars is out of control right now. I taught my son to drive in a 6 speed manual car that we had just bought. I had him stop on a hill to teach him how to keep the car from rolling back. Then we turned the car around and I had him back up the hill from a stop. I was so impressed with his ability to move that car forward or backward on his first attempt without the car rolling. I was elated.

I went home and was looking over the owners manual and came across a feature called "hill assist" that senses when the brake is applied and the car isn't level. It keeps the brake applied for a second after you take your foot off the brake and move for the clutch. I can't believe all of the things they do these days to take the driving ability away form the driver, so I disabled that feature!!!! My son learned quickly how to keep the car from rolling.

They also have the new blind spot warning on many cars. I tell my family taht if you can't see clear enough to change lanes, then don't change lanes. Don't rely on some stupid electronic component to tell you it's safe. It won't be long and we'll all just be passengers in a self driving vehicle.

 

Yeah, hill assist, rev matching, . . .new manuals are only manuals in the sense that you have a 3rd pedal, it's sad really.

 

I experience that with my 2007 Tahoe, it has the back-up camera, I will admit that backing into a parking spot and making sure you do not bump the car behind you is so much easier... But go to another car without it and it is like having to relearn and unlearn what I have learned... Also I love the huge mirrors on the Tahoe...

 

I can agree with that. In my experience backing up a new Chevrolet Malibu, or Camaro, without the rear-camera is akin to backing up an old-school panel truck or box van. That rear window? pretty much useless, might as well not be there.

 

A while back, a friend asked me why I own such old cars. He pointed out all the extras cars have now. Many mentioned above. I said I really don't want a car I need a manual to turn on the AC, Heat or defrost. That I like the simplicity of their use.

Recently I talked to a mechanic who works at a local dealership. He said the electronics in cars now will fail before many of the cars would mechanically die. That the day of "Totaling A Car" for electronics failures is here. The cost of replacing the computers being more than the value of cars more than a few years old!

 

It's rains a lot in florida, I just drive my T/A slower, and keep a safe distance to the car in front of me, I usually pump the brake once before applying it to a stop. I'm more worried about the vehicles behind me, if people are watching or not, I've found so many people driving new cars up my a## in my rear view a lot lol.

 

I can believe that. Look at the wires on our cars, or older cars, then look at the wires on a 4th gen or a new car. The new cars are so much smaller. I think our wires are about 16 or 18 gauge, but the new cars are 20 -22 gauge. I am surprised the wires on the new cars do not break more often. Not only that the bundle of wires that comes out of the fuse box is freakish on the new cars.

 

I don't know where I read it, but I could of sworn that auto manufacturers were going to be using fiber optic wire to reduce the amount of traditional wires in cars by now.

 

Quote:

I don't know where I read it, but I could of sworn that auto manufacturers were going to be using fiber optic wire to reduce the amount of traditional wires in cars by now.

I believe they already are in Tesla and some other supercars.

Capacitors generally last only 10-15 years and computers are full of them. I've heard a couple of friends moan about the bath they took because of electronics in their Asian cars. An owner of a Toyota I know replaced his dash console at the tune of $1500. That was for a used unit. New they were over 2 grand.

 

Many of the new cars are already using a network type of system. The Radio, climate control, instruments are already running on them in some respect.

 

In the late 60s and 70s some cars had fiberoptic turn signal indicators, cool stuff to see out on the top of the fenders.

 

Correct. All systems are related to each other via network. This has reduced the amount of wiring because a very thin twisted network cable can move a lot of data in a short time. None of the driver selectable switches carry any current, they merely send a request through the network to the appropriate module. Network has also reduced the number of components on a car. For example, same sensor is used for PCM input for ambient air temperature, and also for climate control to display outside temperature on your dash. It seems crazy, but there are some efficiencies in the new systems.

 

Yea now hackers can log into our new cars and really make things dangerous like they did not that long ago.

 

Very true, though they have to be in close proximity.
I agree that efficiency has gone up with the use of networks though.

I like to think of my Z as my equivalent to Will Smith's "gas powered bike" in iRobot lol.

 

Over the last year or so I've noticed something I find kind of amusing. This happens especially when I drive my Silverado. When I change lanes in front of certain cars, they brake very quickly if it is within a car length or so of me. This is just normal lane changes in traffic. Even if we were speed matched they would brake the minute I changed lanes. I got curious and I noticed these were the cars that offer collision avoidance assist. That would be one of the first things I would shut off!

 

No true, some cars, you just need a computer. There was a hacker that was able to connect to a Chrysler product over the internet, he could pick any car he wanted... Somehow Chrysler was using the Sprint network and they were able to use that to get into the car and virtually take it over. One of the benefits of the GM "Onstar" is they are using a satellite, rather than the internet and cell phone towers.