Beginning to think I don't know how to drive a mustang...

[JCFoster]

We take for granted that most everyone can halfway drive. Not so much.

Sponsored

 

[gismo4]

LOL oh we have several empty kmart parking lots around here. I have taken the assits off and had it in track mode and in sport and I sent it pedal to the floor, cut the wheel. all I did was a circle with some screeching... its killing me to do a donut... hell im trying like hell. Maybe I just need to go to a cars and coffee and leave from there? lol

IM guessing some of these cars we see must be super charged and or modded somehow and then they have the wrong tires on. I mean they so non nonchalantly just lose control like oops. IM over here trying like hell and I cant.

You can lose control in a 80hp civic. It's very easy to lose control in a mustang. You may just have the sense/ability to identify when your car is losing it and adjust. Some people have the mentality that a car can't lose control. Floor it and steer and you're good. Next time you go to a open lot free of people and obstacles, just floor it and turn sharply. Don't let off the gas. You'll spin out quickly or your senses will stop you from holding down the gas pedal. Also, floor it from a stop while turning right to imitate pulling into traffic and don't let off. You should definitely feel those tires break loose. Some people don't have the ability to know something's wrong. Especially if they're coming from a car that can't break loose at all.

 

[IrishStallion]

I have no problem laying 275 ps4 rubber in lower gears. It hooks better in the heat though. I run unplugged at the airbox all the time. No nannies for me.

 

[Jmtoast]

I can spin my Malibu (maybe 150hp) tires with traction control on when my tires wear. Never understood the fascination of a burnouts. Must be a kid thing. Which brings me to losing control. the goal is to have the stickiest tires you can because spinning ain't winning. Kids buy these inexpensive used mustangs and burn the tires off with constant burnouts then when they need to not lose control they lose control. That coupled with kids who never drive in snow or ice so they have no idea how to gain control of their car.

I lose traction in the rear all the time with 660hp to wheels but these newer stangs have advanced traction control so it corrects itself without any input from myself. If the car loses traction and cannot correct itself it completely cuts power, even with all the nannies off. There are times when I cannot complete a full burnout due to the nannies kicking back on despite them being completely disabled. Only way to defeat the nannies with a stock tune is to pull the plug.

 

[Norm Peterson]

So how do these people just loose control and not able to handle "all this power" under normal driving? Ive had 4 mustangs 2 gts and one cobra and never have I just lost control of the rear end. so either I just dont know how to drive it or I do LOL

Or maybe there has been something wrong with all my cars and they are under powered. lol I just cant understand how people loose control taking off from a stop light , I cant even when I try and they arent even trying.

I have a feeling that you've had the time to learn a lot about throttle modulation, and plenty of incentive to do so. Perhaps to the point where it's nearly impossible for you to make yourself use so much throttle that control is lost. Basically, you're not tempting fate out of concern that it'll get past the point where you're able to rein it back in. I'd bet that a datalog of throttle inputs wouldn't exactly match what you thought you were doing with it . . .

Chances are, you've been driving longer than many or most of those video'ed Darwin candidates have even been alive. Let alone driven a pedal car or even played with matchstick cars.

Oh now, I have driven Manuals for over 30 years.
<snip>
you have the 59 curves and hairpin turns in a single 3 mile stretch of road.

That said, there is some possibility that your current car's nannies are turning themselves back on.


Norm

 

[Ebm]

... or do I?

I bring this up cause like most of you I have seen the videos of the wipe outs, the cars and coffee stuff and loosing control. I see the threads and conversations of "all this power" and people cant handle it and learning to not let the back end go all over the place.

I dont have these issues. I give my car hell (19 gt premium , bolt ons, tune) i hit corners full throttle, take hairpin curves wide open, wide open from stop lights. actually most my passengers tell me to calm down a bit LOL. and I dont have back ends flying out, loosing control , crashing, crazy fear of the car and all its power. Hell I go to empty parking lots and long stretches of back woods no where roads and try to get some of this sliding and rear end loosing control action and cant even when I try. This car is stable as a rock. I actually want to have a little out of control fun and cant seem too.

So how do these people just loose control and not able to handle "all this power" under normal driving? Ive had 4 mustangs 2 gts and one cobra and never have I just lost control of the rear end. so either I just dont know how to drive it or I do LOL

Or maybe there has been something wrong with all my cars and they are under powered. lol I just cant understand how people loose control taking off from a stop light , I cant even when I try and they arent even trying.

A fellow North Carolinian eh? Take your car to Tail of the Dragon and try to keep your foot in it. I guarantee you won't. Tail of the Dragon has 318 curves in 11 miles. Might be the most technical stretch of road in the United States. No barriers to save you. I've seen car crashes, cars catching on fire, people going down ravines, you name it, someone has probably done it there. That stretch of road will make anyone a better driver given enough time.

Not to get off topic, but I saw this beauty(the car, doh!) doing some runs there as well. All this was a few years ago.

 

[Briebee72]

Thanks for all the responses, guess im too responsible I know my insurance company loves me I been giving them money for 30 plus years and haven't made a single claim .. well 1 for a cracked windshield. Pretty much anyone and everyone I have ever talked to at a show or in my life at some point says "well before I totaled that car" "it was totaled" or some form of that . I cant :( make that claim.

 

[Vlad Soare]

On dry tarmac and with all the nannies active it should be farily hard, if not impossible, to unsettle it even on purpose.
With the traction control off, or in the wet, it's a different story though.

right... that s what im saying. car goes like hell in straight line but when I try to get it to break traction ... nada.

Try driving round a 30 mph corner at 100 mph. Instant traction break, guaranteed.

I think behind every such crash there's either a TC/ESC turned off, or too much speed, or both.

 

[ice445]

I've driven FWD my whole life and I think the Mustang is very straight forward (even on shitty 235's) Helps the traction control system is excellent. The only time it let me down was when I used a bit too much throttle getting off the highway in the rain..but because I can feel what the car is doing, I quickly steered and throttled out of the impending spin. As far as getting the car to slide in the dry, I can do it with TC full on, up to a certain point of rotation before it stops you. Are you totally turning the system off? Gotta hold it for 10 seconds. Then its as loose in the back as you want. I've hustled the car on back mountain roads are a good pace, and the breakaway limit always felt obvious to me. The rear end does a great job holding on though, especially for how front heavy the car is.

I will say though that if you had given me this car in my early 20's, I certainly would have crashed it. At the "wise" age of 28 I've had a reasonable amount of experience on both autocross and difficult roads (The Dragon comes to mind, I spent a week out there a few years ago), to learn to listen to what the car chassis (and the tires) is telling me. If you don't have that understanding, it's so trivially easy to drive out of your control with T/C off or enough speed. I think a lot of it too is people driving outside their comfort zone to impress their friends or "keep up" with a group drive and show that they can hold the same pace as their friends.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Yup ^^^

I've driven FWD my whole life

I think a lot of it too is people driving outside their comfort zone to impress their friends or "keep up" with a group drive and show that they can hold the same pace as their friends.

I'd bet that the first is a contributing cause to more than a few of the driving 'fails'. People who never drove a car that could turn and bite suddenly jumping into a more powerful one that could . . .

And pretty much by definition, showing off = driving outside what your skill set can reliably support. Whether unwittingly or intentionally doesn't much matter.


Norm

 

[BimmerDriver]

I suspect that the OP is not turning off the traction control like he thinks he is.

Also, these kids coming out of a cars & coffee are driving a car that's been sitting for a few hours, and the tires are stone cold. It's no wonder they lose traction.

I'm a little conservative here, but I think that anyone that routinely drives on the street with their traction and stability systems turned off is being foolish. No way you can react better in an emergency situation than the computer can.

Flame suit on.

 

[17Magnetic5.0]

Yeah this car is very stable especially compared to previous generations. I think part of it has to do with how the 5.0 makes its power, in an automatic you have to use the paddle shifters to keep the car at higher rpms where it has more torque. The other part could be tires, I see a lot of people throw on cheap tires and rims in ridiculous sizes. Most of the time these tires are some cheap Chinese tire that lead to being unpredictable and not as safe as a a quality tire.

I will add though that even on a good tire in cold weather the car can be a bit unpredictable. Anything below 60 degrees and when the tires are still cold and it’ll definelty spin and slide. I know this because I’ve pulled out of a parking garage before on multiple occasions and just a light tap of the throttle on a right turn would usually send me sliding on pirelli tires. Luckily not a lot of throttle was applied and the car is good about bringing itself back in line as soon as the throttle is lifted. So like said in the above post cold tires will cause this coming out of an event.

 

[Sivi70980]

I have the same issue as @Briebee72 where my car doesn't break traction like others say theirs do. The tires just grip and we move. This thread makes me think of the random car you'll see in a tree. Add all these nannies to make the car idiot proof and we go and make a better idiot. That car on it's roof in a 25mph zone and videos of people flooring it to reverse into buildings and/or whatever else is unlucky enough to be in their way. Many people really should not have the privilege of driving motor vehicles.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

My car hits to so hard on the 1-2 shift, it would blow the rear end completely loose if the nannies didn't kick in (305s in the rear). In a parking lot, no TC? I could run the tires down the wheels with zero effort.

I mean, I don't actually drive like that, I'm just saying the car is easily capable of getting a driver into trouble without the proper control.

 

[michail71]

A fellow North Carolinian eh? Take your car to Tail of the Dragon and try to keep your foot in it. I guarantee you won't. Tail of the Dragon has 318 curves in 11 miles. Might be the most technical stretch of road in the United States. No barriers to save you. I've seen car crashes, cars catching on fire, people going down ravines, you name it, someone has probably done it there. That stretch of road will make anyone a better driver given enough time.

Not to get off topic, but I saw this beauty(the car, doh!) doing some runs there as well. All this was a few years ago.

I envy those of you up in those parts, the driving there is so much fun. Only time I've ever gotten dizzy driving was on Tail of the Dragon from Fontana Dam down to Georgia. I was up there to see the total eclipse back in 2017. Trying to maintain the speed limit on that road is even challenging.

I'm not sure a Mustang would be the most fun car for that road but still a blast.

Sponsored