Pollymay

morrisman1, Mar 4, 3:29pm
Any tips for gravel driving in a FWD! I did some today and had a great time. I cannot afford to do rally as it is normally conducted but am keen to hear any tips from you regarding what driving styles are good for FWD on gravel.
mgmad, Mar 4, 3:37pm
Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself morrisman, gravel is great fun, although even more fun in RWD. In FWD, basically it's go in hard, turn the wheel and lift off and hope like hell. While not as controllable sideways as RWD, if you get your car setup well you can get the back end out predictably using this approach. Very important point, which isn't particularly intuitive - if it goes wrong, put your foot down to pull the front out. Can be a bit worrisome but it is much better than standing on the brakes with the tail out - you'll lock the rear up and find the ditch.
NZTools, Mar 4, 3:42pm
Yup. Steer it with your right foot. Is just like a jet boat. ie when in doubt, floor it.
pollymay, Mar 4, 3:47pm
All in the setup for your driving style. I run lots of rear toe and use the handbrake a lot. I get about as much oversteer as any rwd. Some people like to be a bit more subtle, others just biff it everywhere but with fwd it's easy to overdrive and lose time to wheelspin.

Good tyres are a must, big open cuts for the wet and something not so extreme for drier stuff works for me. I do a lot of gravel on black sand so it's really soft so tall blocky open cut tyres are the only way to go. Great when they are new with nice sharp edges to.

Also something someone told me. You are either on the brakes, on the throttle or on both but never indecisive. Basically if you are going to make a bad decision stick with it and commit hard.
clark20, Mar 4, 5:24pm
If you have adjustable shocks you want to wind up the rebound on the rear shocks, this will help the rear come out. I came 2nd in the national hillclimb champs in a FWD, just lost to a subbie with 4WD and he got all the grip at launch (uphill on gravel). Also 2nd overall in the National Speed championship with a Laser.(mid 90s)
pollymay, Mar 4, 6:46pm
That's the issue I have, I can carry the speed but I just can't put down the power like a 4wd. Side by side I'm lighter and on a dry course pushing hard have better corner speed but as soon as it get to the corner exit I'm just beating rocks while they accelerate :(

Hoping the shift to mid engine rwd will help that a lot when I finally piece it together
johnf_456, Mar 4, 7:35pm
Hows the prelude coming along!
morrisman1, Mar 4, 7:55pm
MGmad, if you havnt heard already. Lord Lucas was not happy this weekend, the MG went through periods of behaving to even non-start scenarios. Regardless it was driven very well and both drivers did very well. Im jealous of how quickly it can do the 180-270-360° turns around cones!
jmma, Mar 4, 7:58pm
How's the Camaro coming along!
johnf_456, Mar 4, 8:01pm
Its good actually, thanks for asking. Body is all complete now, just awaiting some parts from states.
mgmad, Mar 4, 8:27pm
Yeah I heard Morrisman, my brother was not best pleased, cost him a place or two, one of those bugger intermittent problems that are hard to track down (even though there is nothing Lucas left in that car.).

RWD is great for motorkhanaing on seal, hard to beat (unless your name is Brent Reddington, obviously). Dad wasn't overly happy with his motorkhana, messed up a test - but, as I know from my own experience last year, it's hard to win when you make mistakes.