Grand Sport Fish Tail
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 1,478
Likes: 38
From: Long Island NY
Grand Sport Fish Tail
Yesterday, I took my 17 GS to the local Friday night car show. On the way there while stopped at a light getting ready to make left turn I see a cop car and ambulance in the rear view mirror blaring away coming at me. Car in front of me with a canoe on roof decides to go and makes left turn, but thinks it best to stop in middle of intersection. I passed on his left and Vette now going fairly straight I wanted to make way for the emergency vehicles now behind us I lean into my GS. Well, it started to fishtail pretty good. I then decelerated and Vette straightened out, finally getting out of their way. Car was in touring mode, traction control on. Shouldn’t it not have spun out like that in me? I’ve had many rear wheel muscle cars never having that severe of a fishtail. Especially with all the wheel control on. Educate me. Thanks.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
Top 10 Most Expensive Corvettes Ever Sold on Bring A Trailer
Brett Foote
10 Things Every Corvette Owner Needs (2026 Edition)
Michael S. Palmer
8 Most "Only Corvette Owners Understand" Quirks and Problems
Pouria Savadkouei
10 Reasons the C6 Z06 is Still A Performance Benchmark After 20 Years
Joe Kucinski
How Much Horsepower Every Corvette Engine "LOST" in 1972
Joe Kucinski
Top 10 DOs and DON'Ts for Protecting Your Convertible Top!
Michael S. Palmer
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,441
Likes: 557
It sounds like traction control did its job and did save you. You can’t jump on the throttle of a car with 460 TQ with cold tires in **** conditions. Traction control can’t stop he laws of pyhicis. If you jump on the throttle that fast, you can set the car into an instant spin, especially if you have cold tires and and questionable street conditions. The TC likely stopped you from spinning out of control. What you felt was the TC applying right then left individual brakes to straighten out our spin. I highly suggest an HOD level school to learn some throttle control technique in a controlled environment. It’s not only fun, but makes driving your baby safer in the real world.
Last edited by rb185afm; May 13, 2018 at 12:37 AM.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 41,058
Likes: 9,822
From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
Most Corvettes over the past 35 years have been capable of doing that if the throttle is used to aggressively. Low speed, low rpm high torque engine and when the throttle is opened all of that torque hits the rear tires which are excellent handling tires but don't absorb the torque shock in the side wall so the tires lose their grip. Since the car has an LSD or eLSD both rear tires will spin which takes away lateral grip. Once spinning they will go in whatever direction gravity will pull them across a sloped surface.
Bill
Bill
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 4,483
Likes: 668
From: Kilmarnock Va
You need to remember that bad boy has 460 hp.Even with traction control on it can easily get away from you.You need to respect it.Cause it definitely won’t respect you.If you were in A Z06 instead it would have been much worse.
Racer
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 474
Likes: 33
My experience with Touring mode is it wants to hook/oversteer at lot easier than I think it should when you're on it and turning. This situation was obviously an evasive maneuver and many variables are at play, but I switch over to Sport whenever I'm going to lean on it.