I was on my way home from the Disney House of Blues when I broke the rear tires free... sideways! There was a right turn then the freeway onramp was a short sweeping left turn to a short sweeping right turn (poor design IMO). So I step on it after the right turn and start to turn left. Well, the left was sharper than I expected and my rear wheels started to slide. On instinct, I turned into the skid. I oversteered and ended up swinging the back end of the car around the other way. So I turned back the other way and the car straightened out and I took off. I had so much adrenaline pumping through me after that. My girlfriend was hanging on for dear life and I was just relieved I didn't crash into the minivan in front of me. :o This incident makes me want to take my car to an open lot on a rainy day and practice swinging the ass end around and correcting the skid. I did a good job this time, although I wish I could have corrected the first skid without going into a skid the other way.

Needless to say, the sway bars have given the car the ability to handle better than the tires can withstand. If I had different tires, I would have been in good shape and I wouldn't have slid out. I can't wait till the stock rubber wears out so I can get me some Proxes .

 

Thats pretty cool but you're really lucky you didnt get hurt or something

 

he's still a puss


if you want to see powerslides come take a ride w/ me and the ebrake

 

Yeah. I know. I'm happy that I didn't get hurt and that I didn't crash into anything (cars, walls, curbs, etc.) I was lucky and won't drive like that again (after this Sunday's meet ) until I get better tires.


Has anyone else ever tossed the ass of their CL or CL-S around?

 

You are what you eat!

I'm down.

 

not my CL-S, but i have been on many mfg ride and drives, i've done complete 360's with a lexus gs400, es300's and a bmw 535i
(usually entered slalom a little too hot) - can't wait for the benz one coming up

 

Tossed and caught on a section of dirt and melting ice up in the Padres Nat. Forest -- no fishtail, just rear came out, countersteer and catch...

 

did VSA do anything?

 

Yup, just happened to me for the first time on Friday in Baltimore, with 4 people in the car (that's probably why). Took a turn while racing for position, rear slid out. Caught it right away and took it easy from there on...the girls were a bit freaked out by it, but my buddy wanted me to try it again...he didn't think that was possible in a FWD auto.

 

NOP!!!

 

I'm not sure. I was paying attention to the road so I didn't see any flashing orange triangles.

 

It happend to me, It was my fault!

I had a stock tires on left rear, with 3 18" Nittos 555. I was doing some 45-50 on 25 ramp.

The ramp will go up and turn right and then widen a bit then sharpen too fast, at the end of the turn, I lost the rear end very fast and tried to steer to opposite direction with no braking at all...

I ended hitting the right side curb, head on... I was bit lucky the only damages were a bent rim, bulged tire and bent front towing hook and some scrtachs on the plastic splash guards.

It was freaking experience, my passanger thought that this is the END!...

I dont know if VSA helped.. but it was a very bad idea to speed on mixed tires and rims...

Losing the tail of the CLS on anything other than flat wide open test pad is not advised!

 

Same here...wondered if it flashed right after then though. I'm pretty sure I would've caught that thing flashing if it did.

 

I think this situation doesn't call for VSA because your front wheels were solid on the ground at all times. VSA can't deliver power to the rears to help them gain traction, so I would think VSA didn't help.
Follow?

 

I use to have a 93 Sonoma w/ V6 manual and a 95 Honda passport V6 automatic. When ever it would rain I do slide the back ends out just to have fun. I only loss control 2 or 3 times but I always made sure no one was near me or behind me. God, I miss rear wheel drive.

 

I did a full 360 in an autocross in Ft Myers, FL. It was TOTALLY cool! Coming out of a box curve, they had a quick right-left S curve. On my way back left, the tires (stock at the time. ) broke free and I spun! I caught it on the back side and ended up right where I was pointed before!

VSA was, of course, off.

 

Hey when was that autocross? I am from Naples, which is about 30 min from Ft. Myers and I have never heard of them doing an autocross.

 

I THOUGHT the VSA was supposed to apply the BRAKES in a situation like that?

 

I broke the rear end loose today on an entrance ramp....it freaked out the people I almost slid into....oops. I will cool it from now on. I am used to my Supercoupe....

 

Way back in highschool I had a 1991 convertible 325. I tried everything to get that thing to spin out with no luck. Then one day racing to lunch I came around a corner at full throttle, hit a pothole cause a little fishtail, resulting in overcorrection, leading to a full 180. All this with about 30 other cars racing behind me dodging my car the best they could. I still haven't decided if I felt cool for spinning the car out or like an idiot for losing control. Anyhow, those were my young rebelious days when speed limits and auto insurance meant nothing to me.

 

I think VSA only kicks in when it senses a loss of traction. What 'traction' means in this case is a spinning wheel (either of the fronts). I'm not %100 sure on this so maybe someone can clarify.

 

Try going into a "hairpin" turn rated for 25 MPH at 45 MPH and make sure there is a ton of dirt and rocks on the road. I tried this stunt with the VSA on and light DID NOT COME ON. However, the VSA actually activated backed off the throttle so hard, that it was like hitting the brakes (It didn't use the brakes -- there is a control to shut the air off to the engine if need be.) Every time I hit one of these hairpins up in Malibu with a bunch of sandstone rocks and debris, I would get a little spin on the outside wheel, then the big power shut down. It felt like someone cut the throttle from full open to 1/8 open!!!

 

I thought VSA is supposed to help in oversteer situation just like this, by braking one of the front wheels (the outside one for oversteer I would think...)

I have never gotten VSA to activate apart from acting as a traction control. I would really want to see how it works in real life situations. May be I should go to an empty parking lot on a rainy day and try it out. That is, if we get a rainy day here any time soon...

Has anyone else experienced the effect of VSA?

 

It does come on in wet roads (especially when the road is "mostly" dry but someone turned on the sprinklers for 24 hours). I've noticed that I get a couple of blinks if I drive real hard into some "mixed" dry/wet turns. I can't feel any sliding, but the light does pop on -- and I'm cranking hard!

As far as the "rock" and "sand" on the wheel, I think it figures a major "plow" event is coming and just cuts the juice (who knows???)

When I had to catch my tail with dirt and water/snow under my outside wheels, I would have not appreciated having the inner brake come on -- I was giving it full throttle to keep the line. I just gave a quick countersteer to "catch" the rear, and nobody was the wiser.

 

When I first test drove the CL-S last year, the sales guy had me pull into a parking lot to show me how the VSA works. We purposefully made it break out around the turn. He has talked to engineers at Acura so he knows how it functions. Basically, if the car starts to lose traction while cornering, it pulses the brakes to the rear inside wheel, which will help to slow the car down without losing more traction. For example, if I was making a left turn too hard, it would apply braking to the left rear wheel.

Needless to say, after the way we hammered on that car, I sure as hell wasn't going to buy any CL-S that had been test driven before... We were smoking the tires hard...

 

It may do that in the parking lot -- however, it sure does a lot of strange stuff depending on speed, yaw, individual wheel slipage.

You have to "be there" to experience the feeling of having the power cut-off to BOTH front wheels, when one of the front wheels is slipping on some sandy rocks and rocks!

 

Gulf Coast Autocrossers. www.gulfcoastautocrossers.com