Hey guys! I'm quite new to the Corvette world, and I'm quite new to the forums.

I go on YouTube and search "corvette fails", or something of that nature to remind me not to be irresponsible and make a fool out myself out on the roads. I also take note on why half of the stuff occurs within the videos. There is something that still boggles me though, and it seems to happen with many Corvettes in those videos (not all, but many).

Why does the rear-end fishtail all of a sudden and the driver loses total control most of the time? They end up crashing into something and totaling a beautiful Corvette. Like I said, we got a 'vette and it's a 1997 C5. It's pretty much stock other than cosmetic mods.

I love my Corvette, but I need to remind myself not to be a fool on the streets. I take notes and try to be a better person behind the wheel, yet I question that one issue and I have no idea why it occurs. Someone have an idea? Am I missing simple details? Someone educate this youngin' here!

 

Don't turn off Traction Control and Active Handling

 

 

Even in base form these cars have enough power to step out on you if your not careful. There is no reason to be driving on the street without TC on, but to each their own. In the videos you can pretty much guarantee that they had TC off.

 

Do we know that Traction Control was in fact turned off in these videos. It came up on another thread that perhaps TC applying more brake on one side than the other during extreme acceleration may cause the rear to come around. I always wondered about it. I have driven other cars with a lot more power than a C5 without TC and never had a problem with losing control under acceleration.

 

Could be many reasons that the cars in the video you watched lost control and fishtailed - some sort of mechanical failure, excessive speed for the road conditions, bald or nearly bald tires, etc. The C5 has a lot of torque/hp and it's not hard to make the back end come around if you're not on top of your driving.

 

Interesting point, but TC should be activated on the side that is rotating faster in order to bring the car back under control. Last year I drove with TC on at the road coarse and it works as it should...actually very well. It was smart enough to know when the car was stepping out a little or a lot, and when it was a lot it grabbed and brought the car back in check. Not saying a failure of some sort can't occur, but just looking at how the cars behaved in the video even on launch seems like it wasn't on.

 

Well obviously those cars in the videos had defective Humans

 

Several things can cause a lot of these oversteering problems:

1) Crap tires.
-People REFUSE to spend more than $600 on a set of tires. A true, GOOD set of summer tires will do wonders for these cars. Putting cheapo tires on a car like the C5 is asking for problems. This goes for all-seasons and runflats specifically. Even the best all-season or run-flat falls short of a mid-tier summer tire. A proper set of tires for a C5/C6 is going to run you at LEAST a grand. I put RE-11s on my car and it cost $900 just for the tires. Throw in more for shipping and mount/balance.

2) Overconfidence / inexperience
-Lots of people feel like they can just point-and-shoot the car. The ego gets in the way and they flat-foot the car trying to show off. That, and they just don't start counter-steering quickly enough.

3) Power mods
-Everyone wants to go faster than the other guy. People will gladly fork over $6000 for headers/cam/heads/intake and pump the car up to 500+ HP. This radically changes how the car behaves and some people just can't handle it. Without supporting the rest (brakes, suspension, TIRES) of the car, it can make it unwieldy.

4) Poorly thought out suspension mods
-Many people will upgrade swaybars or shocks or springs with little to no regard for what it actually does. Putting T1 swaybars on a street car is going to cause problems because they're just too stiff. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading will get you in trouble.

 

In perfect conditions and if the system is working perfectly. These cars are 11 to 16 years old and the brakes may be worn and not in perfect condition. TC creates situations the driver isn't familiar with and he may make corrections that don't fit with the TC program. I know it will help sometimes but it might put someone in a place they can't recover from.
Think about during a hard launch and ABS comes on both sides. What if the brakes on one side are not as good as the other.

 

IMHO the jackasses that wreck their cars on YT fail to realize one thing. The accelerator pedal is an analog function, not a digital function. You can't just stomp the pedal and cross your fingers.

 

Then the other side will brake harder as it sees the back end start to step out.

 

However if someone goes out and just tries to hoon the crap out of the car and expects AH to save them, it could explain it.

 

True, but what was drivers reaction to all this ? You have two brains trying to correct the same problem. Sometimes they may be working against each other. I don't know. Just something to think about. Sometimes we put too much trust in technology.

 

If you have ever driven a car with T.C. you know that it will not let you spin the wheels. There for if you turn it off you will lose control of the car. On occasion on heavy acceleration from first to second the rear will try to break lose but the T.C. won't let them.

 

ABS, traction control and active handling are great innovations, but they cannot protect you from being stupid!

 

Crap tires!
It's so simple it goes right over peoples heads.

I changed the Runflats on my 2000 C5 [Traction control only. No stability control] and now my car no longer tries to kill me! Funny?

Also I think the transmission in the rear makes it harder for the rear to come back in line when you do loose traction.

With my C4. I just lifted off the throttle and the rear found it's way back in line.
With the C5 throttle lift [Especially in a corner] causes throttle lift over steer.

My new sticky tires put the weight of that rear mounted transmission to use.

 

I have TC and it will spin the tires on a wet road or loose gravel.

 

Glad you brought this up and I got to watch the YT videos on what not to do......I actually did gun it into a turn last weekend and felt the rear start to break loose....let off the gas and regained control....whew!

 

Check your stabilizer bar links, those can cause so much instability, check both rear and front