This is starting to turn into a habit!
Got a ZX 1.9i 8v. Was on way to look at a Rover 220GSi when I got a call from the bloke so we diverted off to have a look and I really liked it, so brought it. Bucket loads spent on it (head gasket and clutch both done already), and now only has 77k on the clock for £600. Should do me as a runabout quite nicely.
I'd forgotten how silly FWD is - wheelspintastic!!!
did you buy the rover too :) that's sillytastic on the wheelspin front :)
Nah just the ZX. It was only a n/a so not as sillytastic as it could have been!
With 130bhp ? Is it running unrated remoulds or something ?
My previous 200bhp car and my current 210bhp car, cope just fine with their FWD. You need a *bunch* more than 130bhp to light up the tyres in anything other than first gear !
No you don't.
See the pedal on the right - it goes all the way down to the carpet.
Yea but you don't 'accidently' light up the tyres in a 130bhp car. Only if you're shit or bored :)
So you're saying if you drive along at 20mph in 2nd gear, and slap the throttle into the carpet, then the front wheels will light up ? If they do, then something is *very* wrong, even in the wet.
Neither of my 405s would do that, I've got to have *lots* of lock on to activate the traction control in the 406 in 2nd gear, and the TI would just about hold traction in that scenario in the wet.
FWD is more than capable of handling 130bhp, unless you've got some serious driver/traction problems !
...or you havent driven a FWD granny car for a while and you're used to cars that can acutally put their power down, no matter what gear you're in! You and Nom wouldnt understand.
Cant say I've tried that, but they may well do. There's nothing wrong with it as such, the engine drives the wrong wheels thats all.
Sounds like either its crap or you dont drive it hard enough. All the vaguely sporty FWD stuff I've owned would spin the wheels in a hard change up to 2nd in the wet. Hell, my sisters 1.0l Polo used to, but I did used to cain that to an inch of its life. An annoying warning buzzer would normally come on after I'd driven it :)
Its perfectly capable of handling it and so am I, but it doesnt work if you try and drive it like a mid engine RWD car. But of course, you wouldnt know this.
Ah, the old 'I have rear drive so i'm a driving god' argument. Convincing.
Oooh, get her! ;-)
Of course, you're right. The 75 has given me a taster for it with that lump of cogs under the boot.
Nope, I dont think I'm a driving God. It's simple physics.
When our MR2 is fixed I'll quite happy give you a demostration. I'll do a
5krpm takeoff in the ZX, and then I'll do the same in the MR2 and we'll see what happens.
Ah, the old 'FWD granny car' defence. Original. (c:
Douglas
Unfortunately, neither are true :-/
Ah ha. And therein lies your problem.
It's perfectly possible to light up the tyres on a RWD car too, if you do silly things with the clutch. If you light up the tyres going up to second gear, then you've applied the throttle before you've released the clutch. Either release the clutch first, or do both at the same time just like you learnt to do on your driving lessons.
As I said, stay out of first gear (so you won't ever be doing a hard change upto 2nd in the wet) and you won't suffer any wheelspintastic problems :)
Clutch control. See above.
Well obviously not. Why on earth would you try and drive it like a mid engine RWD car, when it's a front engine FWD car :)
See above.
But all my ~200bhp cars could put *all* their power down, wet or dry, in every gear except first.
Are you revving to 4k and then dumping the clutch or something silly ?
You're not wrong !
Why would you *ever* try to do that in a FWD car ?
:-o
But we know what will happen - the ZX will do the mother of all burnouts.
All you're proving here, is that you don't know how to drive a FWD car ! But we both know that you do. So I'm a bit confused.
Yeah, whatever Nom. You keep driving like they taught you in your lessons, I'll drive the way I like.
No I was just trying to break it.
As I said before, you dont understand.
Once again you seem to be proving you cant actually read. I've spent 10 months driving an MR2, before that it was a Volvo with the gearbox at the back, before that it was a diesel FWD car. I got back into a vaguely powerful FWD petrol warm hatch and I spun the wheels a few times, and I'm moaning about the lack of traction inherent to FWD. Its quite simple.
It is indeed... you wanna Torsen diff, you do. ;-)
I hear they're 100% Japanese, too!
Yeah, but try it with some hard changes and I bet they cant. Its perfectly possible to drive with 200bhp through the front without spinning the wheels, but try driving the car proper hard and it wont like it (did you see TG the other night with the Astra). Try driving a mid engined car proper hard and it laps it up. Thats the bonus of RWD, the weights getting transferred to where the power is going so you can abuse the car more and it still retains composure. Of course, a mid-engined RWD car is even better because more weight is being forced down on the rear wheels and giving even more grip. And then there's rear engine setups, but lets not even go there.
OK, lets say I'm in a hurry and I rev the car to the redline, and change gear, the revs fall to 4krpm and theres no messing about, the clutch gets dumped and foot goes hard on the floor, the MR2 would not spin its wheels, the ZX would spin in 2nd and potentially 3rd depedning on other factors. Its as simple as that. Being the hooligan that I am I find it quite amusing seeing how long the tyres will keep spinning for (although after a day thats now worn off), but thats not the way to drive a FWD car, and generally I wouldnt, but after being in a car with so much grip I cant help it :)
Lets hope that helps then.
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