Moving off at speed...

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Joined
28 Jan 2005
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1,698
Location
Southport
Hi all,

You all know the score, two of you at the lights, the lights hit green, and the best man/woman wins. Now I have a 1.8 Focus and I have had a few of these "encounters" ;) but I always seem to wheel spin a hell of a lot. Now is this down to user error or not. This is also the same at junctions if you go when you really shouldn’t and you wheel spin so don’t really go anywhere quickly. :mad:

Now is there any techniques I can use to reduce this or am I going to have to live with it?

Thanks
 
[TW]Fox said:
Wheelspin = too many revs :)

Or not enough clutch control.

If you think you need the high revs, work on your clutch control to feed the power in, but in most cases you should probably back off a little until it's rolling then hit it.
 
It can also be tyre related, my civic scrabbles all over the place with the crappy goodyears I've got at the moment if it's slightly damp or traction is slightly poor...

I want my bridgestones back!
 
Agreed with Dolph. The Goodyear I have are crap. Rather have my ContiSports back, though they don't last as long.
 
The trick at the lights is surprise. Dont rev the car at all otherwise you're gonna give the game away, and your 'opposition' is going to react accordingly.

And when you're in only in a 1.8 focus which as far as I know doesn't have any LSD, you're in trouble. :p

Anyhow, my method is keep the car at around 1000rpm and hold the car with the handbrake. Then its just a case of just balancing the power against traction.

Another thing I often do is hold back a bit. In front of all the red lights around Kent they've laid an area of high grip tarmac. Instead of getting the car as far forward as possible, I hold a couple of meters back on this high grip tarmac. Every little helps getting off the line in wet weather. :p
 
Dolph said:
It can also be tyre related, my civic scrabbles all over the place with the crappy goodyears I've got at the moment if it's slightly damp or traction is slightly poor...

I want my bridgestones back!

Could be the person I got the car from has cheap tyres on the front :o so really need to change them, which could help!
 
Bug One said:
And when you're in only in a 1.8 focus which as far as I know doesn't have any LSD, you're in trouble. :p
Not really. You must be doing something very wrong to break traction a lot in a 1.8 Focus :)
 
how does wheel spinning put up insurance premiums? It might lower the cost of tyres cos you'll need to buy more but that's about it!
 
i'm by no means a boy racer but i still like to embarrass them when they try to beat my car off the line at the lights and nip infront of me! but then i pay through the nose for my insurance cos i do 30k a year just commuting!
 
Bug One said:
And when you're in only in a 1.8 focus which as far as I know doesn't have any LSD, you're in trouble. :p

I see this "LSD" thing everywhere and have tried google a little but what the hell does it stand for?

Forgive me if its really simple!
 
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