2007 G-35 Coupe and Toyo Tires and Serious Rain Driving

[Jacko3]

For the past 2 days, God has been weeping on my neighborhood, I mean its been raining. i tried hard not to drive the G yesterday but somehow I found reason to drive it in the rain by lying to myself that the car needs gas at 11 pm at night. Can you beleive this?

Anywho, This afternoon, the rain is still pouring and I then decide to take my car to my secret track to see how the car and the Toyo Proxes T1R with 15,000 miles will handle in the twisties. First, I start the drive with VDC OFF and I must say that it was dangerous and scary and I could barely hold up to 60% of my normal driving with the same tires on dry ground on the secret track. Wtaer puddles on twisties in a car at high speeds (60 - 70 miles per hour), is a disaster waiting to happen as a result of hydroplaning.

Then, I go for another lap, but this time, I put the VDC ON. With a 15,000 mile Toyo proxes T1R tires, my speed improves by approximately 20% and with greate confidence. The same water puddles that gave me issues with the VDC OFF immediately disappeared. All the small and short-lived hydroplanning that occured at speeds of up to 80 miles hour did so as a result of larger water puddles as the rain continued.

After two laps, I decided to put the car on a straight way on a seperate road, and gun it with the VDC ON. On initial take off, the wheels would spin, but when they got traction, it got going. I reached really high speeds, and then suddenly I went over a very large water puddle. OMG, for the first time i was floating for real, as the front of the car whipped me right and then left in an extreme and hard way---loss of steering control, and once the tires felt ground again, the car corrected itself and continued going forward. I learnt a valuable lesson from this---AVOID EXCESSIVE STEERING INPUT OR BRAKING ONCE THE CAR'S FRONT IS LOOSE AND STARTS WHIPPING LEFT AND RIGHT IN THE RAIN, EVEN WHEN THE VDC IS ON.

So, what have I learnt from this? When in the rain please turn your VDC to ON. Get better tires like the Toyo proxes T1R, instead of the Bridgestone RE0050As, which the car came with. The Bridgestones could not come close to performing the way the Toyos' did at 15,000 miles of use. I couldn't even go beyond 50 - 60 miles per hour on a wet road and on a straight way with VDC ON on the Bridestones at 15,000 miles or more.

I love the G-35 Coupe, and if you know what you are doing, it can keep you safe. Thanks Nissan.

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