100%

After doing the 1st Lotus Day it is quite obvious when the S is going to break traction and you can feel it coming. Obviously if you hoon into a corner at stupid speeds in a 240bhp RWD car with no driving aids is going to lose control, but how much control you lose is down to how quickly you drive outside yours and the cars 'envelope'.

I can imagine that nailing it off a roundabout going through different cambers at high VTEC is going to cause the LSD a few issues, especially if its wet. Its no wonder that the car lets go in these instances. Sorry, its not the LSD, its the diesel, or S02's, or low tread, blah blah

 

Me nervous of 240ps on rear wheels after 30 years being pulled around... I think so, but I don't need a warning label on the car......

To paraphrase that welsh kid ... "cars don't kill people, drivers do..."

Perhaps drivers should have a label...

 

WARNING: YOU must be a competent driver to own this vehicle!



Same applies to all cars.

I'm with gad on this one. wtf

 

I think it is only obvious when you 'listen' to what the tyres are telling you through the steering wheel. And sometimes the car only whispers and that can catch you out. But it has nothing to do with low tread tyres (you know the tread is low so drive according to the grip they actually give in real time), rain, camber change (drive according to the road condition) or any other excuse. If you crash out it is because you were going too fast for the conditions. In previous cars that was the only reason for the odd crash I had.

:deepbreathasidismounthobbyhorse:

 

and it was only after putting mine through a hedge and then getting some tuition off Don and and Andy that I realised how important it is and how much information you can read if you pay attention to what the steering wheel is communicating to you. I'm much more comfrotable in the dry in the fast group at various meets simply because I no longer start to clutch the steering wheel as the speed increases.

Oh, and I pay far more attention to road surfaces now too - damn pothole (diesel spill, brand new tyres, etc etc )

 

this is all great

But borrow the car to your other half ,who knows jack shit about the car, at your peril.

I made the mistake of letting her drive it all last week.

9.am wed morining I get a phone call..

"I don't like your car I want mine back, it's too dangerous"

why I ask?

Because I ended up sideways on the bend just after I had gone through the traffic lights in [place]. I don't know what happened.





Now I drive the car 90% I think I'll get that figure up to 99.9% or so

 

When i bought mine second hand it was winter time and the previous owner gave me a little bit of advice to just take it easy at first, especailly in the wet and wet roundabouts especially.

Turned out to be good advice. It is my first RWD car so started off fairly gingerly in it. Over a period of about 6 months, gradually pushed it harder little by little and am always learning something new about the car.

I know there is still a fair bit for me to learn and the car certainly has a lot more ability than me. Unless you are a very gifted driver I think it is only prudent to respect such a car !!!!!

 

So to summarise its powerful cars that should be sold with warning - that if you are an inexperienced driver the car can be dangerous if not given the due care and attention required????

To be told to drive carefully on wet roundabouts with a RWD car should be something taught in driving lessons IMO.

 

The S2000 falls in a price range where those who have only ever had experience of FWD cars find this as their first RWD.
People of my age (35) and younger never learned on RWD cars, the car industry stopped making them as a rule just before we started driving (I seem to tbe the only one of my peers at 17 who had driven anything rwd, but we had a big field and a RWD Mk II Escort to play in since we were 7).
So after a few years moving up the car 'ladder' we get to the stage where we can buy and insure an S2000 and it's the first experience many of us have had of RWD. And it has 240bhp. And no driver aids. And we have hed no experience of low-powered RWD to break us in gently.

Maybe the car should come with a warning - This is a Rear Wheel Drive Car, If You Don't Understand Why We're Telling You This, Please Seek Training.

 

Sure is true Jamie. It os often called lift off oversteer as well as snap over steer. Lifting off momentarily improves the grip on the slower tyre (left front on left hand bend etc) causing the car to increase the steering in to the corner.

There is a mpeg out there of an american in an S where he lifted mid corner and ended up oversteering down a mountain

As has been said already - smooth, gentle and balanced!

Jamie you are very close to North Weald - get yourself on a 1st Lotus course. www.1stlotus.co.uk Andy will show you how to get it right

Moggy is that not the desired affect