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Aquaplaning

nathanau
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nathanau Collaborator

nathanau

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Heya all,

Seeing as most of Australia has now become rain drenched, driving on wet roads is almost a daily event. Ive noticed in recent months my R34 loves to aquaplane at the slightest (smallest) build up of water on the road.

Last night on the freeway at 110 or a lil less the car constantly tried going sideways again in the rain (mostly higher freeway speeds it always happens but it can happen at just 60ks too)..... finally its made me ask the question;

Does anyone have any advice on how to reduce aquaplaning in a car, mebbie specific to Skylines or is it an R34 thing? Or aquaplaning in general. I used to try to 're steer' (if that makes sense) when the car takes off in the front end, but that makes it worse i find, now i dont touch the steering wheel as the car aquaplanes and i find it grabs traction again and self corrects but its a bit freaky..... There has to be a better way to reduce the effects of aquaplaning.... surely ? How do racing cars do it? I recently saw a porsche that crashed on the news after it aquaplaned killing the two people inside. I know ive come close to all loss of control too. Any Advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Edited by nathanau
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(OO)SKYLINE(OO) Grand Master

(OO)SKYLINE(OO)

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Heya check tyres for what ? besides the obvious poor tread ( mine r in excellent condition)

What type of tyres you got?

Will help if you got a set of tyres that have good wet weather rating...

Hard and Soft tyres (as in rubber type) can make a difference too.

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blind_elk Grand Master

blind_elk

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run tyre pressures UP 10 + lbs more then than normal

That's going a bit overboard. 2-3 psi would be more than enough.

Make sure you have enough tread on the tyres will obviously help - aids in dispersing the water from under the tyre.

Can't recall ever having a problem with aquaplaning (R32), running both Bridgestone Potenza and various Falken tyres. The crap Maxxiss on my Falcon are another thing all together.

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mad082 Grand Master

mad082

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tyre compound plays as big a part as tread depth, and tread pattern plays a big part too, especially if you have directional tyres and have rotated them yourself and put them on the wrong side. size also plays a big part. if you have wide tyres then they will aquaplane more than skinnier tyres.

and +1 for altering tyre pressure.

having said all of that, i've had some pretty shitty, almost bald tyres on cars before and never had any issues with aquaplaning. had a few moments where it's been close in absolutely pissing down rain though. maybe it has something to do with driving style as well.

oh and you don't use tyre shine by any chance do you? if you do, do you put any on the tread of the tyre? cause that's a big no no.

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Galois Veteran

Galois

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Posted

Damn, everything I wanted to say was mentioned lol.

But I have to reinforce, if you're not in complete control of the car, slow it down. It's just not worth it if things go wrong. Bad tyres, poor tread, low pressures, all make a pretty big difference. But there's nothing more important than driving to the conditions.

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