- Joined
- Feb 9, 2007
- Messages
- 688
- Location
- Tejas Hill Country
- Car(s)
- GT3 RS, Cayenne, Bugeye Sprite, Portofino M
An STI isn't going to teach you car control, the thing is practically idiot proof below 95% of the limit, and it takes a lot of crazy to get it to 95%.Is this an insane plan? Should I really take a baby step with a car such as a STI inbetween the two? Or should I go for it?
If you're disciplined enough to treat it as a leisurely Sunday drive, you should be fine.The important thing to note here is that I have no commute. I work from home and my only car will be my weekend car. Barely any mileage put on it -- just going to the grocery store and pleasure drives. I won't be forced to drive around the city in it if I don't want to. Hell I can just stick to side roads and such until I'm used to all that power if need be -- it's not like I have anywhere I need to go.
So am I nuts?
You know yourself though, so you're probably the best judge on how disciplined you'll be.
In the first years after getting a drivers license, you need focus on traffic awareness, and you shouldn't be distracted by dealing with a vehicle that is difficult to drive.
Off topic, but is that pic from this the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXS0Zo0A22s ?
Viper, are you going to hold on to the Corisca?
Even if you don't drive it, it'll lower your insurance if you just hold on to it and drive it sparingly.
I would say don't get a Viper just yet. You may be a very careful and safe driver, but just once in a while everyone has an urge to do something stupid and take a corner slightly faster than supposed to. In a normal car, that wouldn't result in much...in a Viper it may kill you.
But if you plan to own a Viper at some point, then stay away from that Corsica. FWD will not teach you car control. You will learn how to drive safely around other drivers and will learn how to predict certain situations, but not real car control. FWD can be very deceptive. I've been driving for five years, only FWD cars and I'm still a shit driver.
Whenever I try to do some spirited driving I always get over my head. It is always in the middle of the corner that you realize you are carrying too much speed. Everything is fine and dandy before that. All of a sudden you start to feel that heavy engine up front pulling you tangentially and the front wheels losing grip. At that point there is nothing you can do, except brake. FWD is a bitch.
So get something RWD with around 200hp till you learn how to control it, and then buy the Viper.
Don't know about Oregon, but in Iowa it's not that much more, especially if you have older vehicles the registration can be very low.Paying insurance, DMV registration, etc. for two cars can't possibly be cheaper than one car, can it?
In a FWD, understeery vehicle, the only "worse" braking is likely to cause is more understeer. If you're already unable to avoid crossing the double yellow or going off the road, braking will at least help scrub off some speed, reducing forces if you do hit something.Erm...
Braking could potentially make things even worse.
In a FWD, understeery vehicle, the only "worse" braking is likely to cause is more understeer. If you're already unable to avoid crossing the double yellow or going off the road, braking will at least help scrub off some speed, reducing forces if you do hit something.
This is why experience with car control is a good thing and needed before driving a car like a Viper. In the Camry I used to drive, if the car was understeering through a corner due to slightly hot entry, slight brake application would correct the excessive speed and get the car back in line. If it was understeering through a corner due to extremely hot entry, brake application (slight, extreme, whatever) would just help scrub some additional speed, and I'd enter the ditch with a bit less speed. In the Miata, on the other hand, brake application mid corner will cause reduced grip at the back, but this change is a smooth, gradual change if the inputs are smooth and gradual. It's possible to brake mid-corner in the Miata and handle the results if you know what you are doing. However, few people, even among those who track and autocross, can pull this off successfully regularly. In a Viper, braking (or even lifting off the throttle) mid-corner is even more challenging to control and restrain than it is in the Miata.
Please note, both the MINIs and the Mazda 3s I've driven, though FWD, would not qualify as "FWD, understeery" vehicles for this discussion. Both rotated well under throttle lift, and the MINI, especially, was very much like the Miata in its behavior. It was flat out easy to spin the MINI with a lift mid-corner.
That?s what I meant to say but was too lazy to type out.
_HighVoltage_ said "At that point there is nothing you can do, except brake.", which is not true.
Foot on the throttle, then quickly off to bring the ass round.