Suzuki Samurai was Re: [geeks] SPARC proprietary (waaaay

[Mike F]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 19:10:49 +0000 (GMT)
Kris Kirby <kris at catonic.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Oct 2003, Kevin wrote:
> > Amen! my rear tyres are 11" and i drive like a little
> > old lady when it rains but i see soccer moms passing me
> > in a Navigator doing 90+ in the rain while on the
> > phone.
> 
> My 4500-pound Caprice taught me this the hard way -- I came to realize
> the with the power (260HP, same motor as the Camaro of the time) it
> would break the rear-end loose in a heartbeat if friction was in *any*
> way compromised. Rear-ends do as they are wont to; they try to race
> around can catch the front wheels.
> 
> It's unnerving to be doing 20 MPH or more under the speed limit and
> see some joker in an SAV[0] fly by me in the driving rain. I just
> expect for the vehicle to go sideways and flip.

Well, that goes the other way, too - some cars are much _better_ suited
to rain than others. My wife and I's Hondas both have skinny tires
compared to other cars in their classes, and they don't even seem to
notice when it's raining. Front-wheel drive helps a lot, too - if the car loses traction, it keeps going straight in the direction it was going. For these reasons, I'm actually usually one of the faster drivers on the road when it's wet, because it just doesn't impact my car's performance as much as, say, a rear-wheel drive, fat-tired vehicle.
Regardless, when conditions are bad I tend to stay much farther away
from other drivers, lest they "go sideways and flip" :)